2010 worst for home sales in more than a decade

Home prices are dropping in the nation's largest cities and are expected to keep falling next year, as fewer people purchase homes and millions of foreclosures come on to the market.

The Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released Tuesday fell 1.3 percent in October from September.  All cities recorded monthly price declines. The last time that happened was in Feb. 2009.

Atlanta recorded the largest decline. Prices there fell 2.9 percent from a month earlier. Home prices in Washington dropped 0.2 percent in October, the second monthly decline after five straight increases.  Home prices in Dallas, Portland, Ore., Charlotte, N.C., Tampa, Fla. and Denver have fallen for four straight months.

The 20-city index has risen 4.4 percent from their April 2009 bottom. But it remains 29.6 percent below its July 2006 peak.

Foreclosures likely will remain high for the next two years.

IMPORTANT!!! Today's vote will define the Internet

Imagine if Comcast customers couldn't watch Netflix, but were limited only to Comcast's video-on-demand service. Imagine if a cable news network could get its website to load faster on your computer than your favourite local political blog. Imagine if big corporations with their own agenda could decide who wins or loses online. "The internet as we know it would cease to exist.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is today expected to formally approve controversial new rules on how internet users access content such as YouTube and Skype.

Dubbed by one US senator as "the most important free speech issue of our time", the rules drawn up by the country's media and telecoms regulator would effectively create two levels of internet access.

FCC members Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn last night said they would support the proposal laid out by chairman Julius Genachowski. The five-member FCC panel is expected to approve the proposal in Washington later today.

However, the new framework would allow mobile internet service providers to charge content companies for more efficient delivery to US homes. Wireless providers will also be allowed to block applications or services, providing that they are not competitors. Fixed-line and wireless provider Verizon, for example, would not be allowed to block access to Skype because it provides a rival voice service.

The new rules allow providers to charge customers more for using high-bandwidth services such as downloading or streaming videos on YouTube or online movie rental site Netflix.

Today's vote represents the first time the principle of net neutrality – where all internet content is treated equally – has been formally ratified in the US. It is the culmination of five years of heated discussion over the future of the internet.

Public interest groups and technology companies called the framework "fake net neutrality" and said the rules "create a vague and shifting landscape, open to interpretation", rather than enshrining principles of the open internet. Netflix, Skype and Amazon have also previously expressed reservations about the plans.

Who rules the web? Important

High Credit Card Rates & Fees * Thanks to the Supreme Court

Have you ever wondered why all your credit card bills seem to get mailed to South Dakota, Nevada or Delaware? Or how credit card companies can ignore your state's usury law, which limits the amount of interest that can be charged on a loan?

The answer lies in a couple of Supreme Court Rulings. A 1978 Supreme Court ruling, Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis vs. First of Omaha Service Corp. and the other Smiley vs. Citibank.

The first ruling let credit card issuers "export" nationally whatever interest rate was allowed in the state in which they were headquartered. To induce the companies to relocate, some states simply dropped their usury laws. Several large issuers bit on the deal, relocated and it became anything goes for credit card rates.

A couple of states deciding their economic development plan was going to be to attract the credit card export industry,deregulated their consumer credit marketplace and said, 'If you come plop your little headquarters in Delaware or South Dakota, you can export our interest rate cap -- look at us, we don't have any!' Other states said, 'They're getting banks to headquarter there; we should take our interest rate caps off as well to compete for credit card issuance.' It became a tool to deregulate credit card rates."

South Dakota was the first to offer what amounted to unlimited interest rates to lure card issuers into relocating their headquarters. A quick look at the membership of the state's Chamber of Commerce shows how big of an impact the offer made -- and continues to make -- on the state's employment base.

It's no coincidence that South Dakota is the home state for subprime card issuer First Premier Bank, which gained notoriety for offering a card with an interest rate of 79.9 percent.

In the other case mentioned, Smiley vs. Citibank, a California woman, Barbara Smiley, had filed a class action lawsuit against Citibank's South Dakota-based credit card division, claiming that the $15 late fee she was charged on her credit card bill violated California state law. Citibank responded that the late fee was, in effect, interest and was covered under the National Bank Act. The Supreme Court agreed; the result was an increase of late fees and other fees from $10 or $15 to the $39 fee that credit card customers may see today.

The pair of decisions caused terrific abuses in the credit card market, and probably stunted the growth of an honest credit card market for over 20 years. They also killed off State Usury Laws for Credit Card Rates, increased late fees and other fees and encouraged predatory lending. The result, were the kinds of tricks and traps based on legal gimmickry that led to the need for some protection for Consumers. That's why we now have the Credit CARD Act of 2009 and the Wall Street reform law that included a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Don't expect those Acts to protect us from being charged rediculously high rates though, to take it that far would come across as anti-capitalism, socialistic or even downright unamerican.