Dateline; New Jersey 4/17/09 7 AM

General Growth files largest U.S. real estate bankruptcy

Ending months of speculation, General Growth, along with 158 of its 200-plus U.S. malls, filed Chapter 11 while it tries to refinance its debts.

But the ongoing global financial crisis made it impossible for General Growth to restructure outside of bankruptcy and could signal further troubles for other financial institutions who are General Growth creditors.

The collapse underscores the pressure on U.S. commercial real estate with few sources of available funding.

The company received approval on Thursday from federal bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper to use its cash collateral to operate its businesses during bankruptcy.

Chicago-based General Growth, which owns such valuable properties as South Street Seaport in New York, Fashion Show in Las Vegas and Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, listed total assets of $29.56 billion and total debts of $27.29 billion.

The collapse marks a sad chapter for a company that has been growing since 1954, when brothers Martin and Matthew Bucksbaum decided to expand their family's grocery business and build a shopping center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The company expanded steadily through both building and buying malls, the largest acquisition being the 2004 purchase of high-end mall owner Rouse Cos for $14.2 billion. That deal, financed entirely with debt, added 37 valuable U.S. malls to its portfolio, but also added enormously to its debt load.

"There are quite a few companies out there on the buyside who can now buy properties at a deep discount," said Anthony LoPinto, chief executive of real estate executive search firm Equinox Partners. "A lot of fortunes are going to be made out of the Bucksbaums' misfortune."

Since November, General Growth had been warning it might seek protection from its creditors due to its failure to refinance maturing mortgages. Earlier this month, the company had tried to restructure Rouse bonds, but failed to get the necessary support.

"When we did not achieve the necessary amount of agreement on the bond solicitation, at that point we recognized that it was conceivable that we would not get the time outside of bankruptcy that we had hoped for to work on a restructuring," General Growth President Thomas Nolan told Reuters.

The company's collapse is not expected to be an isolated event. About $814 billion of commercial mortgage debt is expected to mature over the next two years, according to real estate research firm Foresight Analytics. (The BIGGEST problem is still coming!!!)

"We will see a significant rise in delinquent and defaulted mortgages in commercial real estate above and beyond what we already experienced," said Sam Chandan, president and chief economist at Real Estate Economics.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the Federal Reserve was considering offering longer loans to investors in commercial mortgage-backed securities to help jump-start the market for commercial real estate debt.

SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS

General Growth said in a statement that it would keep exploring strategic alternatives during bankruptcy protection, from which it is seeking to emerge as quickly as possible through a reorganization that preserves its national business.

Its filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan makes it one of the largest nonfinancial companies to succumb to the global financial crisis and is the biggest bankruptcy of a U.S. real estate company, according to BankruptcyData.com.

General Growth had previously put several of its flagship properties, including all three of its Las Vegas malls, up for sale.

Analysts and other real estate experts have speculated that mall owners Simon Property Group Inc -- the largest U.S. mall owner -- and Australia's Westfield Group would be interested in buying some of General Growth's assets from bankruptcy.

"Their stock of malls in the U.S. is pretty good -- they are decent quality retail real estate. And I imagine the market reaction if there are any sales of their assets will be positive," said Bruce Nutman, UK head of retail capital markets at CB Richard Ellis.

General Growth said its properties would be open for business and operating as usual.

"Our core business remains sound and is performing well with stable cash flows," General Growth Chief Executive Adam Metz said in a statement. "While we have worked tirelessly in the past several months to address our maturing debts, the collapse of the credit markets has made it impossible for us to refinance maturing debt outside of Chapter 11."

The company's fortunes have not been helped by the slowdown in U.S. consumer spending. While retailers should not see an immediate negative impact from the filing, there could be long-term concerns about leases and property maintenance, sources told Reuters.

ACKMAN AND THE DIP

General Growth has received a debtor-in-possession financing commitment of about $375 million from Pershing Square Capital Management LP as agent.

Pershing Square, the hedge fund run by William Ackman, owns about 25 percent of General Growth shares and had been urging the company to file for bankruptcy.

Activist investor Ackman is joining General Growth's board -- an unusual step. DIP lenders typically do not get involved with managing a company during restructuring.

"We're going to be very actively working with the company to reorganize it," Ackman said in an interview with Reuters.

"This company is doing fine. Its problem is that it can't get mortgages, but nobody can get a mortgage now," he added.

At the end of 2008, about $15.17 billion of General Growth's debt consisted of mortgage loans that had been securitized into commercial mortgage-backed securities, according to research firm Trepp.

"This underscores that real estate companies are most vulnerable to refinancing risk rather than market risk," said Nomura's London-based property analyst Mike Prew.

General Growth shares were halted and eventually suspended by the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. In premarket trade, they had fallen some 43 percent to 60 cents. The shares hit a 52-week high of $44.23 in May 2008 and a lifetime high of more than $67 in early 2007.

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Dateline: New Jersey 4/19/09 10:15 PM

Rich...is Back

From time to time as the mood strikes him or he feels America needs to snap to attention, Rich gives us he unedited thoughts. 

First the US Navy saves Captain Phillips by killing 3 pirates. Then there were at least 2 more attempts to hijack ships 300 miles off Somalia.

Some Nato force captures a new batch of pirates, tosses their guns in the sea, then sets them free??????

Am I missing something in this sad comedy?

Yet the world is reluctant to arm these ships in fear of violating some nation's feelings about an armed ship entering their port? The Maersk ship was carrying supplies to Kenya (Maobama's ancestral homeland) to feed the hungry, so apparently the greater good is not to kill pirates, rather than getting food to thousands of starving inhabitants of these rathole "nations".

Meanwhile Maobama is having an Oprah-like book club visit with Chavez who is just about pissing himself in the fact that the hack president smiled and shook hands with the tyrant, thereby giving Chavez credibility with his own people.

Will Fidel and Raul being coming to Miami soon for a little vacation and a salsa party? You couldnt write a better tragedy play than these cretins in DC are performing already. Oh, I forgot........Kho, Maobama's new lawyer is a buddy of the Castros, yeah taxpayer representation for the Castros paid for by US citizens.

Shove the ipod back in your ear, maybe it will all go away.

 Dateline: New Jersey 4/20/09 2:22 pm

Our Hero...No, Our ZERO

The REAL Story of the SOMALI Pirates Debacle

The rest of the storyfrom a  US Navy Special Ops guy ...  

Having spoken to some SEAL pals here in Virginia Beach yesterday and asking why this thing dragged out for 4 days, I got the following:

1.  BHO (Obama) wouldn't authorize the SEAL teams to the scene for 36 hours going against OSC (on scene commander) recommendation. 

2.  Once they arrived, BHO imposed restrictions on their ROE (Rules of Engagement) that they couldn't do anything unless the hostage's life was in "imminent" danger 

3.  The first time the hostage jumped, the SEALS had the raggies all sighted in, but could not fire due to ROE restriction. 

4.  When the Navy RIB (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat) came under fire as it approached with supplies, no fire was returned due to ROE restrictions.  As the raggies were shooting at the RIB, they were exposed and the SEALS had them all dialed in. 

5.  BHO specifically denied two rescue plans developed by the Bainbridge CPN and SEAL teams. 

6.  Bainbridge Captain and SEAL team Commander finally decide they had the OpArea (Operational Area) and OSC (On Scene Command) authority to solely determine risk to hostage.  4 hours later, 3 dead raggies. 

7.  BHO immediately claims credit for his "daring and decisive" behavior.  As usual with him, it's BS (Bullshit).

So per our last email thread, I'm downgrading Oohbaby's performace to D-.  Only reason it's not an F is that the hostage survived.

Read the following accurate account.

Philips’ first leap into the warm, dark water of the Indian Ocean hadn’t worked out as well. With the Bainbridge in range and a rescue by his country’s Navy possible, Philips threw himself off of his lifeboat prison, enabling Navy shooters onboard the destroyer a clear shot at his captors — and none was taken.

The guidance from National Command Authority — the president of the United States, Barack Obama — had been clear: a peaceful solution was the only acceptable outcome to this standoff unless the hostage’s life was in clear, extreme danger.

The next day, a small Navy boat approaching the floating raft was fired on by the Somali pirates — and again no fire was returned and no pirates killed. This was again due to the cautious stance assumed by Navy personnel thanks to the combination of a lack of clear guidance from Washington and a mandate from the commander in chief’s staff not to act until Obama, a man with no background of dealing with such issues and no track record of decisiveness, decided that any outcome other than a “peaceful solution” would be acceptable.

After taking fire from the Somali kidnappers again Saturday night, the on scene commander decided he’d had enough.

Keeping his authority to act in the case of a clear and present danger to the hostage’s life and having heard nothing from Washington since yet another request to mount a rescue operation had been denied the day before, the Navy officer — unnamed in all media reports to date — decided the AK47 one captor had leveled at Philips’ back was a threat to the hostage’s life and ordered the NSWC team to take their shots.

Three rounds downrange later, all three brigands became enemy KIA and Philips was safe.

There is upside, downside, and spinside to the series of events over the last week that culminated in yesterday’s dramatic rescue of an American hostage.

Almost immediately following word of the rescue, the Obama administration and its supporters claimed victory against pirates in the Indian Ocean and declared that the dramatic end to the standoff put paid to questions of the inexperienced president’s toughness and decisiveness.

Despite the Obama administration’s (and its sycophants’) attempt to spin yesterday’s success as a result of bold, decisive leadership by the inexperienced president, the reality is nothing of the sort. What should have been a standoff lasting only hours — as long as it took the USS Bainbridge and its team of NSWC operators to steam to the location — became an embarrassing four day and counting standoff between a ragtag handful of criminals with rifles and a U.S. Navy warship. 

Dateline: New Jersey 4/23/09 7:03 AM

Letter to the President

April 23, 2009   

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Mr. Obama: 

I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally. 

You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of America. You are responsible to the citizens of the United States. You are not responsible to the peoples of any other country on earth. 

I personally resent that you go around the world apologizing for the United States telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do not care about their status in the world. Sir, what do you think the First World War and the Second World War were all about if not the consideration of the peoples of Europe? Are you brain dead? What do you think the Marshall Plan was all about? Do you not understand or know the history of the 20^th century? 

Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the United States does not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States? This country was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and the principles governing this country, at least until you came along, come directly from this heritage. Do you not understand this? 

Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to all Americans. Our President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the king of Saudi Arabia. You don’t show Great Britain, our best and one of our oldest allies, the respect they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia. How dare you, sir! How dare you! 

You can’t find the time to visit the graves of our greatest generation because you don’t want to offend the Germans but make time to visit a mosque in Turkey. You offended our dead and every veteran when you give the Germans more respect than the people who saved the German people from themselves. What’s the matter with you? 

I am convinced that you and the members of your administration have the historical and intellectual depth of a mud puddle and should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you. 

You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers and the American automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real thieves in this situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelic, the Fannie Mae bonuses, and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do you intend to do about them? Anything? I seriously doubt it.  

What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1 million in bonuses to their staff members – on top of the $2.5 million in automatic pay raises that lawmakers gave themselves? I understand the average House aide got a 17% bonus. I took a 5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my employer. You haven’t said anything about that. Who authorized that? I surely didn’t! 

Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period, that's $45 million more than the AIG bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51 million – not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven’t you expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have right now. 

I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens as brain-dead and not caring about what you idiots do. We are watching what you are doing and we are getting increasingly fed up with all of you. I also want you to know that I personally find just about everything you do and say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities.  

I promise you that I will work tirelessly to see that you do not get a chance to spend two terms destroying my beautiful country.  

Sincerely, 

Every real American

Dateline: New Jersey  4/24/09 3:27 PM

    Unbelievable!




RE: Obama Signs Presidential Determination Allowing Palestinians Loyal to
Hamas to Resettle in US

Here is yet another unilateral action taken by our new President, for which
we must rely upon the information of friends to discover.  I wonder how the
"Jewish" block of Democratic voters now feels about their choice for
President.

Try and tell the American people that Obama doesn't have ties to the Islamic
terrorist world.   Obama funds $20M tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas
Refugees to the USA

This is the news that didn't make the headlines...

By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of
$20.3 million in migration assistance to the Palestinian refugees and
conflict victims in Gaza. The "presidential determination" which allows
hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the
United States was signed on January 27 and appeared in the Federal Register
on February 4.

Few on Capitol Hill took note that the order provides a free ticket replete
with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their
overwhelming support of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the
parliamentary election of January 2006.

A review of Barack Obama's most recent actions since he was inaugurated:

1. His first call to any head of state as president was to Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.  

2. His first one-on-one interview with any news organization was with Al Arabia television.

3. He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.

4. He ordered all overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.  

5. He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and 9/11.

Now we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian
refuges to move to and live in the US at American taxpayer expense.


To verify for yourself:

http://www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488

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Dateline: New Jersey 4/27/09 7:25 AM

    Don' t criticize too loudly!

Sometimes I get e-mails. after I post something from Rich, by a certain few who claim he makes everyone look jaundiced.

The truth is he says a lot of what many people think privately but have just never had the guts to put in print,

So today's diatribe from Rich...

   And still you people will not insist on shutting that damn Mexican border. 

    You got MS 13 gangs filtering through Mexico, you have drugs coming through (some of which comes through cuba), you have criminals arriving to fill our prisons, you have little mexican pygmy women birthing hoards of little taco benders in our hospitals for free, then filling our schools.......at taxpayer expense.

   They were coming with TB, leprosy etc, now they are sending us their swine flu.  What is it that the liberal mind cannot absorb about the idea of sovereignty? Is their guilt so pervasive that we all must die to satisfy their insanity?

   Why do liberal white women in the 20 to 40 something range hate white men and continue their fixation on jungle fever?

   While we can understand the stupidity of the youth and their lack of comparison on issues in politics, economics and history, the mothers of America who have voted to destroy their own children's future must be exposed and steps taken to nullify the 19th amendment and modify Section 1 of the 26th amendment. (You will have to oook that one up folks)

    While the "shrunken head" in the white house bows to Muslims, yucks it up with dirt bags like Chavez, his dipshit DHS monkey insults veterans, religious types and gun owners, just because they can. 

    Soon your widescreen TV and computer will be removed as using too much energy, while you pay a carbon tax for exhaling......Nice job America.......you really gave this last election some deep thought.......for those of us who understood the meaning of a "madrassa education", a hippie crack head mother, the Rev. wright, Ayers and the community activist influences.....here's a big.......TOLD YOU SO MORONS.