Prime Minister John Key will meet film executives

The talks are scheduled for Wellington, New Zealand's capital, according to the spokeswoman, who declined to specify who would attend on behalf of the film producer. The prime minister wants to persuade Warner not to move the film out of the country over a labor dispute.

Unions and filmmakers have been at loggerheads since the New Zealand Actors' Equity union called on its members and others unions around the world to boycott the "The Hobbit." It accused producers of refusing to recognize its right to negotiate minimum standards for its members. This week the union appeared to back down, recommending talks on a new set of conditions for performers in the local screen industry—but that failed to ease Warner's concerns.

The company's New Line Cinema unit, which is making the film with Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., said earlier that it was actively considering locations outside New Zealand for the shoot.

New Zealand's alpine peaks, rain forests and wilderness provided the dramatic backdrop for director Peter Jackson's three "Lord of the Rings" films, which have been followed by other big-budget movies--including "The Last Samurai," "Prince Caspian" and Mr. Jackson's own "King Kong." The country's film industry generated 2.8 billion New Zealand dollars (US$2.1 billion) last year.

Mr. Jackson will also direct and produce "The Hobbit." The filling of a number of the leading roles was announced Friday. Martin Freeman, who starred in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and "Hot Fuzz," will play hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the central character. The story follows his epic journey across the fictional land of Middle Earth.

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is this good or bad for house prices

You know where this is going. If landlords take up the slack in housing demand from would-be first-time buyers, does this not mean house prices will be pushed upwards over the next few years? Well, it might, but here is one reason why we think this is unlikely.

According to LSL, the cost of renting has risen by 3.1 per cent over the last year, and across the country your average buy-to-let landlord can expect to make £15,592 a year per property, or 9.2 per cent. Not bad when official interest rates are just 0.5 per cent. So this begs the question, if the return on buy-to-let is so high when all around interest rates are so low, does this not suggest we are set to see a surge in demand from landlords?

One potential fly in the ointment is that around 10 per cent of rent remains unpaid. So many landlords fear bad debts.

Another more serious fly is that the LSL figures on returns include growth in capital. Well, as we all know, house prices saw a big jump last year, and of course buy-to-let landlords would have done well out of this. But relying on capital growth from property is dangerous. The days when belief alone is enough to create momentum for house prices must surely be over.

But if rent alone makes buy-to let investing profitable, will this not push house prices upwards?

The big problem with this argument lies with the myth that there is a shortage of accommodation in the UK.

According to data from the Survey of English Housing published in 2008, no less than 47 per cent of existing owner-occupier dwellings – that’s 6.8 million homes – are under-occupied, meaning just over half of owner-occupied homes have more than one spare bedroom. And yet, just 18 per cent of private rented properties are under-occupied. It seems the main explanation for this high number of surplus space in homes is that home owners see their property as an investment. So if their home is bigger than they need, well, they see this as good, because it means they can benefit from rising house prices.

It seems that if we do indeed see a rise in renting, the new generation of households will demand smaller homes and we may see a surge in the number of larger properties converted into flats. All of a sudden, we may find there are enough homes to go around after all.

Investment and Business News is a succinct, erudite and informative roundup of today’s top news stories on business and the economy.

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USA Bank stop preventing on foreclosures

BofA acknowledged that in some cases it, too, had employed so-called robo-signers who attested to the accuracy of foreclosure documents without reading them.

The bank said its review didn't find evidence of unwarranted foreclosures, so it planned to resume its takeovers of homes with properly signed affidavits in the 23 states requiring court approval.

But BofA said it would continue to conduct reviews to ensure proper foreclosure procedures were followed in the other 27 states that do not require court consent but do have rules that lenders must follow in seizing homes.

Until it is done, the bank said it would continue its moratorium in those states, but it did not indicate how long that process might take.

Reiterating that the bank had not rushed the foreclosure process, spokesman Dan Frahm said that nationwide about 195,000 BofA customers have missed more than two full years of payments.

He said the bank works "until the very last moment" to try to find ways to keep borrowers in their homes, but "the prolonged nature of the recession — and sustained high unemployment in particular — makes recovery for many borrowers unlikely."

Once its review is complete, Bank of America said it expects fewer than 30,000 foreclosure sales will have been delayed in California and the other states that don't rely on court approvals.

The Charlotte, N.C., bank said its initial assessment in the 27 remaining states was producing the same findings as in the court-order states — "the basis for our foreclosure decisions is accurate."

"Our decision to review our process and, later, to extend our review to all 50 states, has been an important step to give customers confidence they are being treated fairly," the bank said.

Chase also has said it expects to complete its review and fix flawed paperwork in the judicial foreclosure states in weeks, not months. The New York bank has expanded its review of foreclosure procedures to 41 states. It wasn't clear whether California was among them
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