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The
LJL Secured
High Yield Income Fund I, LLC
annualized return to investors as of 3/31/2009 was
9.18%
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Diversification
Fully Invested
Compound Interest |
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Quick
Links |

President's
Summary |

Investor News |

Interest Rates |

Real Estate |

Stock Market |

Economic
Indicators |

International |

Thought for
the Week |

Contact Us |
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How a Modern Depression Might Look -- If the U.S. Gets There |
Mortgage rates fall, set yet another record |
When home prices hit bottom - The end may be in sight - and getting a better sense of when it's coming can help you make the smartest buying and selling decisions. |
The Week Ahead: Rally Onward—or Roll Over? |
Signs of green shoots raise hopes |
Minsky's moment - A new appraisal of an economist’s theories challenges the blind faith in free markets. |
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President's Summary |
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Spring is in the air and it appears that the frozen financial markets are thawing. Leading economic indicators from stocks to manufacturing to spending and even in the housing market with number of houses sold and the rate of change in the lower tier price range all indicate that a bottom could be reached in the last quarter of 2009 or in the first quarter of 2010. General consensus (normally wrong), would suggest that the recovery would not be robust but at least the sentiment changed from focusing on a world ending depression. Investors who have weathered the storm on the sidelines or participated in what likely will amount to a Treasury bubble should start looking for ways to rebuild reduced financial holdings. The stock market which is the most likely investment arena remains volatile and it is more than likely that a test of the lows which invariably happens before the bulls totally return would challenge the mettle of the most battle hardened investor
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Investor News
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In the wake of the biggest financial shock since 1929, economists say the odds of a depression are less than 50-50 -- though still uncomfortably high. But even if a depression comes to pass, a 21st-century version would look very different from the one 80 years ago.
There is no consensus definition for "depression." Harvard University economist Robert Barro defines it as a decline in per-person economic output or consumption of more than 10%, and puts the odds of a depression at about 20%. Many economic historians say the line between recession and depression is crossed when unemployment rises above 10% and stays there for several years.
The current recession, though severe, is not at depression levels now. Unemployment in February was at 8.1%, not as bad as in the early 1980s -- the last time the idea of a depression was being kicked around seriously, when it remained over 10% for 10 months. In the Great Depression it reached 25%.
Today's government response is a far cry from the early 1930s, when the Fed raised interest rates, the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act crushed trade and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon's prescription for the economy was "liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate."
Even if the downturn isn't deep enough to be called a depression, the restructuring that it needs to go through means that even after the economy bottoms out, there could be a "lost" four or five years of sluggish growth, says Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson, 93.
For the entire article from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL clcik here:
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Interest Rates |
Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to the lowest level on record for the second consecutive week after the Federal Reserve launched a new effort to assist the staggering U.S. housing market.
Mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac said Thursday that average rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 4.78 percent this week, from 4.85 percent last week.
It was the lowest in the history of Freddie Mac’s survey, which dates back to 1971. Rates are down by more than a full percentage point from a year ago.
Low rates have sparked a surge in refinancing activity. The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday its weekly application index climbed 3 percent for the week ended March 27, on top of a 30 percent increase a week earlier. Nearly 80 percent of applications came from borrowers seeking to refinance.
Mortgage rates fell dramatically over the winter and have fallen further after the Federal Reserve said last month it would buy $1.2 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and $300 billion in long-term government debt, which traditionally influences rates on 30-year home loans.
Lenders, however, have tightened their standards dramatically over the past year, so the best rates are available to those with solid credit.
For the entire article from MSNBC click here:
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Real Estate |
Call it the Great Housing Paralysis of 2009. If you're hoping to buy your first home or invest in a second one, you're probably sidelined, unsure when to jump in. If you want to sell, you're thinking it may be better to wait. And even if you don't plan to either buy or sell anytime soon, watching one of your biggest assets tank is about as much fun as being chased by hornets. When will the pain stop?
Nationwide, home prices will bottom out at the end of this year, according to the forecasters at Moody's Economy.com. Median prices will probably fall another 10% on top of the 27% they've plummeted since their 2006 peak. That prediction assumes that President Obama's various recovery efforts - including billions to slow foreclosures and goose bank lending, plus a tax credit to most 2009 buyers who haven't owned in the past three years - will have some effect. If they don't, says Economy.com's Mark Zandi, the bottom could come as late as 2011.
And then? "The recovery will look more like a U than a V," predicts Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research. Translation: After home prices hit their lows, they'll probably stay there for a few years as the economy slowly struggles back to its feet. Prices aren't expected to reach their 2006 levels again for another decade.
For the entire article from CNNMoney click here:
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Stock Market |
Stocks finished their fourth up week with a gain of more than 3 percent, scoring their longest winning streak since October, 2007. The Dow, up 241 at 8017 in the past week, was up 21 percent in the past four weeks, its best move of that duration since May, 1933. It was also the Dow's first close above 8,000 in two months. The S&P 500 rose 26 points, or 3.3 percent for the week, to 842. The Nasdaq rose 76 points, or 5 percent to 1621.
Investors last week poured money into the financials, which were best performers with a 6.4 percent gains, but they also bought consumer discretionary stocks, which gained 6.3 percent. Defensive issues were the worst performers,with health care down 1.6 percent and consumer staples down a slight 0.1 percent.
As the first quarter earnings season begins, a debate rages over whether stocks will be able to rally on or instead roll over on weak corporate profits and dismal economic news.
Traders have argued for several weeks now that the current rally, which started in early March, is a bear market rally and will soon fade. Instead, it has defied naysayers and brought in buyers looking for a turn in the U.S. economy later in the year.
For the entire article from CNBC click here:
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Economic Indicators |
Scattered signs of green shoots in the global economy are raising hopes that the recession could bottom out later this year, paving the way for economic recovery in 2010.
However, the signs remain tentative. Economists warn that recessions rarely proceed in straight lines and false dawns are common before recovery finally takes hold.
Friday’s news that the US economy lost 663,000 jobs in March is a reminder that the global economy remains in dire straits with considerable downward momentum.
However, it does appear that the rate of deterioration has slowed from the precipitous pace in late 2008, when the global economy looked to be diving off a cliff.
In the US, economists point to surprisingly solid retail sales, which suggest consumer spending grew by more than 1 per cent in the first quarter. US home sales look to be bottoming, although house prices remain in rapid decline at least on some measures.
In China, the official purchasing manager’s index moved back into positive territory in March, provoking lavish celebrations among officials under instructions to be optimistic.
A million German consumers have taken up the offer of a €2,500 incentive to trade in old cars for new, more fuel efficient vehicles, providing a strong, if short-lived, boost to output.
For the entire article from the FINANCIAL TIMES click here:
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International Corner |
STABLE economies sow the seeds of their own destruction. That sounds like Karl Marx but it is the basic insight of Hyman Minsky, an economist of the mid-20th century whose reputation is being revived. Minsky argued that the financial system played a big role in exaggerating the economic cycle, one that was understated by conventional theory.
Investors, banks, companies and consumers all tend to be guilty of the sin of extrapolation; they assume the future will be like the recent past. After several years of steadily growing output and low inflation, people develop a misguided confidence that such benign conditions will continue. They are thus happy to borrow, and lend, more. As they do, the riskiness of the system steadily increases.
Minsky divided the process into three phases. In the first, investors take on little enough debt that they have no trouble meeting their capital and interest payments. In the second, they stretch their finances so they can only afford the interest. In the third, or Ponzi, phase they take on debt levels that require rising prices to be safely financed; the homebuyers who took on 125% mortgages at the peak of the property boom were a classic example.
When markets reach this fantasy land, a small change in the fundamentals or in investor attitudes can be enough to cause the system to unravel. Once prices start to drop, borrowers start to default on their loans, or seek to sell their assets, causing prices to fall further.
Government action is inevitable. In conventional industries, the demise of companies leads to “creative destruction” with capital being reallocated to more productive areas. But in banking and finance, a crisis leads to “deflationary destruction” as capital is eliminated. Businesses, investors and consumers lose confidence; borrowers are unable to repay their lenders, who suffer as well.
But by stepping in to rescue markets when they wobble, central bankers create asymmetric risk. Hence Mr Barbera rejects the idea, popular in the era of Alan Greenspan, that central banks should do nothing to burst asset bubbles.
Instead, he suggests that central banks should build the level of corporate-bond spreads into their models. When spreads are low, risk appetites are high, as they were in 2005-06. That should lead central banks to tighten monetary policy. When spreads are high, they should ease. For the entire article from the ECONOMIST click here:
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Thought for the Week |
From Glen McCoy: 
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Contact Us |
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LJL Funding, LLC
the investment manager of the LJL Secured High Yield Income
Fund I, LLC, offers you (the investor) an opportunity to
invest in (a pool of) real estate secured trust deeds
through the LJL Secured High Yield Income Fund I, LLC.
The LJL Secured
High Yield Income Fund offers you a high-performance
investment, managed by seasoned professionals in a fund with
assets that are secured by real estate at loan-to value
ratios not exceeding 60% at the date of the loan (based upon
the lower of the appraised value or the 30-day sale value as
determined by a Broker Price Opinion).
The benefits of
investing in our fund include:
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Diversification - Your investment risk is spread
over multiple loans.
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Investment Performance - Anticipated high yields
(10% +, but past performance does not guarantee future
results)
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Fully
Invested - Your investment remains fully invested at
all times.
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Compound
Interest - You have the ability to reinvest some or all
of your monthly interest thus taking advantage of the
benefits of compounding the return.
Investor
Qualifications:
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Investors
have to be bona fide California residents or foreign
nationals living abroad.
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Investors
must have a net worth (excluding home and automobiles)
of at least $250,000 and an annual income of at least
$65,000 or a net worth of $500,000 excluding home and
automobiles)
If you are
interested in adding a high yield mortgage fund to your
portfolio, or if you are looking to turn your 401k or
pension funds into high yield investments, please contact us
today and we can help get you on your way to higher returns.
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Jim Chung
Senior Vice President
(West Coast)
(949) 351-8747 Mobile
JChung@LJLFunding.com |
LJL Funding,
LLC
8880 Rio San Diego Dr #500
San Diego, CA
92108
888-456-0246
www.LJLFunding.com |
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