Oh joy! Foreclosures should be peaking next year! Well there’s something to look forward to, wouldn’t you say? Why will they be peaking next year, you may wonder? Well, I’m forecasting they based on the current... (Continue reading)
I'm not sure if this means anything or not, but about holiday retail activity in stores like Nordstrom... well, I live in Southern California... Orange County... the O.C. if that helps, and I took some photos of the Nordstom in... (Continue reading)
Can you hear me now? Is that doing it for you? The facts about California attorneys who offer to assist homeowners with loan modifications as presented in the New York Times story are just plain WRONG. ... (Continue reading)
Well, I’d have to say nicely done there, Bank of America, all around. I mean, you managed to take a woman from sending you $15,000 to take over the home out of probate after her husband died… her “haven”... (Continue reading)
But, that's how we seem to be handling things so far, with the bankers as our special class, essentially immune from real regulation, and apparently allowed to behave badly in the name of their recovery. To me it looks... (Continue reading)
So, when the opportunity came up to investigate the banks as a result of things like robo-signers fraudulently signing affidavits in order to foreclose on people’s homes, came to light, Terry Goddard was one of the state attorneys general to... (Continue reading)
“Laurie Goodman of Amherst Securities predicts that 1 in 5 mortgages could go into foreclosure without radical action.” Now just a minute here… you’re not saying that one out of five people with mortgages are “irresponsible sub-prime borrowers who never... (Continue reading)
If you miss you forecasts 11 months in a row, and by some significant margin, is it still considered forecasting, or does it become guessing? ... (Continue reading)
Obama has been pressuring FHFA to let Fannie Mae grant principal reduction... the President of the United States is pressuring them… Ohhh, is it like Guantanamo… or more like Canyon Ranch… pressure me some more, Barack… I like it when... (Continue reading)
I never do this, but ProPublica posted an article about real life foreclosures not fitting the conventional wisdom of what most people think they are... they're not a bunch of low income minorities who should never have been able to... (Continue reading)
The Republican’s version of the report is said to be a whopping 13 pages long, and is expected to place the blame for the crisis squarely on the shoulders of poor people who wanted to buy houses, and how some... (Continue reading)
ACCE says that now they plan to up the ante by " bringing together the collective power of the homeowners themselves in alliance with their supporters among labor unions, the religious community and community organizations." And in fact, among... (Continue reading)
More than half of our country doesn’t care about the foreclosure crisis because to them, it’s just bankers acting in their own best interests by foreclosing on homes that borrowers irresponsibly bought knowing they couldn’t afford them. It’s therefore... (Continue reading)
I realize that Obama was ready to allow the tax cuts to expire now, but he’s also okay with allowing another 4-5 million homes be lost to foreclosure next year, and the same number the year after that. And... (Continue reading)
For some strange reason I also had it in my mind that he was the one who wouldn’t tell us what the banks did with the TARP funds… like we had no right to know what the bankers did with... (Continue reading)
So… I have a question for my fellow Americans... and for elected representatives in Washington D.C. and state legislatures… and for that offensive, mindless twit Diana Olick on CNBC… Are we done irrationally punishing the so-called “irresponsible” people yet? ... (Continue reading)
Facing Change: Documenting America is a non-profit collective of dedicated photojournalists and writers coming together to explore America and to build a forum to chart its future. Mobilizing to document the critical issues facing America, FCDA teams will create a... (Continue reading)
This Securitization Workshop promises to be important, educational, and entertaining... it may be designed for lawyers, but I know lots of homeowners that would enjoy attending, and likely come away with actionable knowledge that could help save theirs and millions... (Continue reading)
The facts of the matter today as related to the foreclosure crisis and loan modifications, however, could not be considered positive, I’m afraid. Help does not appear to be on the way, or on the horizon. As inconceivable... (Continue reading)
At 49 years old, and having originally founded my firm back in 1989, it’s been some time since I’ve been asked for a resume, as one might imagine. So, it’s also about time to commemorate what’s gone on over... (Continue reading)
The Beige Book, as it’s commonly known, is a report published eight times each year. Each of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks, which are located throughout the country, “gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports... (Continue reading)
Here's the first year I wrote Twas the Night Before Christmas as a year-in-review online. You'll find 2008 & 2009 here on Mandelman Matters, as well. They're posted in the section "People Say I'm Funny." Reading them... (Continue reading)
I write this political year-in-review holiday poem every year. I love doing it, and I hope you'll enjoy reading it and will send it to others of like mind as well. Happy Holidays!... (Continue reading)
Seventy percent of the U.S. economy is driven by consumer spending, which has been driven by borrowing over the last ten years. Even if we wanted to do so, we can’t borrow our way back to prosperity this time... (Continue reading)
In fact, in California specifically, where there is already a state law governing advance fees, known as SB 94, lawyers will see very little change when the new FTC rule takes effect at the end of this calendar year. ... (Continue reading)
1. Help is NOT on the Way… 2. Go see the documentary “INSIDE JOB”… if it’s not already too late. 3. One and Done… I Agree… Obama Shouldn’t Run in 2012. 4. The Government is Launching Criminal Probes Into... (Continue reading)
Here's Foreclosure Mom's rap... nothing further need be said... watch it. And if you're going to try to get your loan modified, get a REST Report... I wouldn't even consider trying it without it. You can find out more... (Continue reading)
Pardon me, but we’ve got someone in this country in charge of something called a “FOOD INSECURITY REPORT?” And Dick Fuld got $500,000,000 for bankrupting Lehman Bros. Holy Mother of God. And that brings me to the... (Continue reading)
I want to go on record as saying that Bernanke’s QE2 has no chance of working, in the sense that it will do nothing positive in the long run, and won’t even do much in the short run to help... (Continue reading)
So, take a few minutes and write to your elected representative about this. No one else, unless you feel like it, just your person in Congress. Tell them this line of thought is unacceptable, that we want Elizabeth... (Continue reading)
Now, tell the truth… I’m not saying that this is what happened next, but what if I told you that the next thing that happened was that Khast bought a handgun and shot a banker in the head, would you... (Continue reading)
So, I have bad news... help is not on its way. No one is going to do anything to make this situation better. It's up to us and us alone. In my mind this is war, people,... (Continue reading)
Excuse me, DA Hurlbert? You’re not going to prosecute Martin Joel Erzinger for running down someone riding a bicycle and then fleeing the scene because it wouldn’t look good on the guy’s resume? Seriously, Mr. Hurlbert? Where... (Continue reading)
It’s worth considering, for example, that in the extreme crisis of the last two years, we might have dutifully followed a president if he would have just read us a bedtime story about a rabbit and a mule a couple... (Continue reading)
Join me now for the stories of three such Americans. May their stories remind you of the power we all posses to serve our country and help it grow and prosper, so that our government of the people, by... (Continue reading)
Want to know who Howie Hubler is? Did you read Michael Lewis' book, "The Big Short," because if you did, you might remember Lewis mentioning a bond trader at Morgan Stanley that lost the investment bank $9 BILLION... more... (Continue reading)
Just in case any children are reading this, and one never knows about such things, forgery and perjury are never found on the right path to follow when attempting to cover up, flagrant and immeasurable fraud and massive malfeasance, boys... (Continue reading)
There’s no point in sugarcoating this… getting a bank or mortgage servicer to agree to modify a mortgage is never a pleasant experience. In fact, it’s pretty much horrible, even when it’s good. You may finish the process... (Continue reading)
I hope anyone interested takes the time to read my response and that it clears things up, once and for all about Erin Baldwin, and her claims about Martin Andelman and Mandelman Matters being a scam. I hope everyone... (Continue reading)
You don’t think so? Then tell me what you think would happen if I walked into a courtroom and handed the judge a fraudulent set of documents requesting that he ignore procedures designed to protect property rights in this... (Continue reading)