Hardball Mike a Las Vegas baseball prognosticator and player makes his picks for the Junior and Senior Circuits:

American League Predictions

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/08/detroit-wants-to-save-its_n_490680.html

Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields  and farmland that existed before the automobile.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/03/08/pm-abromowitz-commentary/

The Obama administration may start encouraging short sales -- when a bank takes less for a house than is left on the mortgage -- which may help stem foreclosures.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2010/02/26/obama-needs-to-focus-on-housing-not-health-reform.html

Today, median prices for single-family houses nationwide are down by slightly more than 30 percent from their early 2006 peak. Over the near term, excess inventories are expected to push prices down by a further 10 percent.

The sheer number of empty homes overhanging the residential real estate market—7 million—points to lower prices. No fewer than 7.7 million homes and condos are behind on their mortgage payments. Over 4 million are now delinquent and going through some form of foreclosure. Fannie Mae's 90-day delinquency rate is now roughly 5.5 percent, double what it was a year ago. That shadow inventory  sooner or later will hit the market. Furthermore, adjustable rate mortgages issued between 2004 and 2007—some $230 billion worth—are coming due, so the higher interest rates that are likely will mean more foreclosures. The average loan in foreclosure is 18.5 months overdue today, compared with 11 months a year ago.

http://www.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/real-estate/articles/2010/03/04/the-future-of-home-price-appreciation.html

After its historic decline brought the global economy to its knees, the U.S. housing market is gearing up for a long-awaited recovery. Real estate experts expect home prices to hit bottom in late 2010 or early 2011 before—finally!—heading north again. But what shape will the rebound take? Are we in for another boom? Or will we have to settle for sluggish growth? Here's the outlook for home price appreciation through 2020.

The trajectory of real estate values will vary a great deal from one market to the next. But home prices at the national level should appreciate at "pre-bubble" rates once the market re-establishes its equilibrium, says Kenneth Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California–Berkeley: "I'd say prices are back to [increasing] 1 or 2 percent more than the inflation rate over the next 10 years." Although that might seem like peanuts to those who watched prices skyrocket during the first half of the past decade, it's actually in line with long-term averages. When adjusted for inflation, American home prices increased by an average of about half a percentage point per year from 1890 through 2008, according to data compiled by Yale University Prof. Robert Shiller.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/192459-new-forecasting-gauge-predicts-economy-stock-market-will-decline

Economists have long sought an effective financial indicator that gives us an accurate forecast on where the economy is going. Results have been mixed. Examples here are plentiful. One is to look at the term structure of interest rates and gauge the spread between short and long term bond yields.

Another is to look at stock prices and yield spreads as in the Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators. Bloomberg also has its Financial Conditions Index and others have similar indices. Many prefer to look at the spread between riskier yields and safer yields to estimate where the economy is headed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100306/ap_en_mo/us_oscars

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/movies/05awards.html?th&emc=th

If you believe in the predictive power of the precursor awards, that seemingly never-ending parade of accolades from all sorts of official-sounding groups.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/05/oscar.predictions/