ALJAZEERA: "If you want to find out about this story of the year and years past, in all of its disgusting detail, you can't just trust major media. You have to read Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone, a music magazine,... (Continue reading)
And to the homeowners who feel ashamed… who have suffered the indignity of losing a home in silence… this wasn’t your fault. You didn’t break the bond market and send housing prices into a free fall. You didn’t... (Continue reading)
FIRST UP: A favorable ruling from Florida's Supreme Court in the Pino Case... I ask attorney Matt Weidner and Foreclosure Hamlet's Lisa Epstein to tell us what it means to homeowners. SECOND STORY: A blogger in Ohio teams up with... (Continue reading)
And, since it is the holidays, it's also time for my annual year-in-review-in-rhyme, read to the famous holiday poem, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. I started writing my 'Twas the Night year-in-review in 2007, or at least that's the year... (Continue reading)
I was a guest on the News Dissector radio show with Danny Schechter out of NYC. And I was joined by one of the Occupy Wall Street organizers and Capt. (Ret.) Ray Lewis. Check it out... given the... (Continue reading)
This letter was written today by attorney Thomas Cox of Portland Maine, and posted on several legal listservs. It was totally unexpected and more than moving. Tom is the lawyer whose work and depositions of GMAC's Jeffrey Stephan... (Continue reading)
No one helps those who don't help themselves. We need to be WE... and now. Because as long as the country believes that irresponsible borrowers are the problem, nothing will change for borrowers... not enough lawyers will join... (Continue reading)
Fannie and Freddie actually had a policy stating that they didn't want to receive the physical "notes?" This “policy” was created by Freddie and Fannie and clouds who actually has legal title to the property (i.e. mortgagee) and who... (Continue reading)
The FBI has issued a statement saying that the Bureau is, "working with German authorities to assess the incident in Frankfurt and any potential threat to facilities or people here." NYPD has increased security around the Deutsche Bank locations in... (Continue reading)
Here's something you can't do anywhere else... listen to author Michael Hudson not only talk with me about his book, but listen to how he applies his vast knowledge of the subject matter to what's going on today in our... (Continue reading)
So, I’m bringing all of this up because Mr. Edward DeMarco, who is just the "acting" director of the independent federal agency that placed both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship in the fall of 2008, has actually become... (Continue reading)
In this edition you'll find: 1. Robo-signing KILLS... 2. OCC proposes credit rating duties go to banks - A real conversation with a banker-friend of mine. 3. PMI Files Bankruptcy - Regulators step in and take over yet another mortgage... (Continue reading)
What you are about to read has not been smoothed out or otherwise homogenized, it’s just the news as it’s coming at me… and you. Go ahead… read it and then tell me everything’s just fine. ... (Continue reading)
Obviously, either Neal has the cognitive abilities of a fruit loop soaked in milk, or he’s just disturbed. What do you suppose he thinks “spread” to Europe and its banks? I mean, I don’t think loans can spread…... (Continue reading)
I wanted to have Matt on a podcast so both homeowners and other lawyers would have an opportunity to hear his views on the crisis today, and specifically what he's seeing in the Florida courts. And sure enough, Matt... (Continue reading)
So, whether you're a homeowner fighting to keep your home... or a lawyer who represents homeowners in foreclosure, here's an opportunity to hear what April has to say about where we've been, where we are today, and where she thinks... (Continue reading)
Why? Well, according to the Realtors, it’s credit scores and appraisals coming in too low. Well shave my head and call me Baldy… what do you know about that? I certainly do declare, how can such a... (Continue reading)
So... if you're wondering why I'm writing this right now, as education is raining down all around me? Well, it's because this is like being at the All-Star Game of the foreclosure crisis. It's just packed with high... (Continue reading)
MEMO TO BANK OF AMERICA… Why do you do these things to me? I was just sitting here minding my own business, perfectly content to write about Chase or Wells or anything else for that matter… but no, you... (Continue reading)
We need, as perhaps the late, great Steve Jobs might have said... to think differently, to fight differently. We need to scare them by making them realize that we are their source of power and just as we bestow... (Continue reading)
You know the stereotype… we all do… reckless and greedy people who bought homes they could never hope to afford by signing their names on nothing down, 80/20 “liar loans” with negative amortization and teaser rates of 1%. And... (Continue reading)
Two movies I really want to see, and I think you will want to see them as well. One is Bailout, and it looks funny and great. The other is Margin Call, and it look dramatic and really... (Continue reading)
Tom's going to share some things that are very disturbing... things he's discovered are going on behind closed doors in the mortgage banking industry... thinks you probably haven't heard about before... things we all need to know. Don't even... (Continue reading)
The bottom-line is that this does appear to be a chance for people who were treated unfairly as part of the foreclosure process (and Lord knows there are plenty who fall into that category) to get a shot at some... (Continue reading)
WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH INVESTORS? WHO ARE THEY? ARE THEY LOSING MONEY ON FORECLOSURES? What do the investors think about all these foreclosures? What's the relationship like between investors and servicers? Do investors want to modify loans? Do... (Continue reading)
Quoth the Craven, "Nevermore."... (Continue reading)
Max basically gives attorneys his thirty-year law practice in a box with easy to follow assembly instructions and ongoing support. And there's nothing theoretical about what Max teaches attorneys at his workshops and seminars. In fact, I've seen... (Continue reading)
I’m not sure what to say to that, now that I’ve read Zach’s article and been shown more of what went on behind closed doors at the Obama White House. That mistakes were made is abundantly clear, but even... (Continue reading)
State budgets have to be suffering from reduced income and sales taxes, don’t they? Higher unemployment obviously means fewer people working and those that are still working… are making less money, so it stands to reason that income tax... (Continue reading)
Even Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the independent Federal Housing Finance Agency says his fix will be more of a tune-up than an overhaul, with reduced “frictions” and “enhancements.”... (Continue reading)
Romney has also offered a 160-page economic program and it offers nothing in terms of specific solutions to the housing crisis and in fact barely mentions it. And at the recently held Republican candidate debate, held in Las Vegas... (Continue reading)
I think the nice folks at the New York Times have been spending too much time at Zabars? Because I’m pretty sure it’s not a confidence deficiency… I think it’s money we’re missing… as in income, and the lack... (Continue reading)
Homeowners who have been forced into litigation in an attempt to save their homes, whether choosing to represent themselves, or hire an attorney, are battling against the largest financial institutions in the world in a court system that’s anything but... (Continue reading)
I mean, here we had our “smart” president, and the first thing he does upon taking the reins of a nation in real economic peril, is throw together a spending bill whose numbers were pulled directly from the hindquarters of... (Continue reading)
Apparently, this past week, the sound of the economy’s ship going down must have awoken the majority of House Democrats from California who then just jumped all over the Obama Administration for “failing to deliver on promises to curb foreclosures.”... (Continue reading)
Klein seems to think that it’s important to understand how the administration got it so wrong… but I could care less. I think the salient point is that they knew they had gotten it wrong soon enough, and yet... (Continue reading)
Look people… don’t get bummed out about this study, because a few years from now the NBER is probably going to refer to today as having been a peak. ... (Continue reading)
Since then, we’ve been bubbled into financial ruin. We bought high and sold low, until our 401(k)s turned into 201(k)s, and then we doubled down on shares of Pets.com, never bothering to question how the company planned to deliver... (Continue reading)
Brancaccio asked about whether these Wall Street types recognized that bonuses are usually paid on profits, but that profits are "radically down," and Bethany replied that they don't. She said that there's a widespread belief that "it wasn't my fault,... (Continue reading)
I wonder what will happen in the next few years as more loans default and the condition of Spain’s banks deteriorates further. You don’t suppose that will mean fewer loans and tighter credit, which will reduce the demand for... (Continue reading)
BUT… the odds are that they won’t win their lawsuits, their legal arguments will not prevail and ultimately they will lose their homes to foreclosure. Many arrive in court having not made a mortgage payment in several years, and... (Continue reading)
Is it possible that I’m only dreaming all of this? Like, maybe I don’t really blog about the financial and foreclosure crises… maybe it’s all just part of a reoccurring, and incomprehensibly maddening dream? ... (Continue reading)
1. Obama Administration Leaps Into Action on the Foreclosure Crisis. 2. Nation's poverty rate climbs to 15.1%, highest in 18 years. 3. Obama Says Government to Help More People Refinance… Again. 4. Mortgage Defaults Skyrocket 33% Nationwide in... (Continue reading)
Watch it. Link to it. Post it. Support it. Everyone who contributes will be listed in the credits and we plan to take the film all the way to the Academy Awards. If "Inside Job"... (Continue reading)
I don’t know what to say except that I am so very sorry that I let them down. So deeply sorry… and I’ll never forget them… I’ll try never to let something like that happen again. ... (Continue reading)
I didn’t want to do this. I was perfectly content ignoring his idiotic drivel as I’ve been doing pretty successfully for over a year. Or, maybe it’s because he hasn’t said anything in over a year, I’m not... (Continue reading)
I’ll say one thing for Secretary Geithner: He’s great at distraction. He goes, “Lookie over here.” Then he points his finger towards China… and a pigeon flies out of his ass. You really have to watch this... (Continue reading)
Mark Zandi is not only misleading the American public, but he’s also misleading the American government, because he appears to have become the favorite economist of the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the Senate and House Budget and Finance... (Continue reading)
I remember a year or two back when Warren Buffett quipped that one solution was to “blow up a lot of houses -- a tactic similar to the destruction of autos that occurred with the â€cash-for-clunkers’ program.’” He was... (Continue reading)
And call me crazy, but I found the news oddly reassuring… you know… like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an ice cold glass of milk. ... (Continue reading)
Guess what… the federal government has ordered 16 of the largest mortgage servicers to reimburse homeowners who they foreclosed on IMPROPERLY. Well, isn’t that nice? What a lovely surprise. ... (Continue reading)
Boy, that sure is a relief, wouldn’t you say? Because, see… I had been under the impression that he had actually been trying to do something big and important and was putting his best foot forward, as it were.... (Continue reading)
If I have to introduce Alabama foreclosure defense attorney Nick Wooten to you, then you're not much of a foreclosure crisis news junkie, because Nick has made headlines for his lawsuits against the banksters on behalf of homeowners as much... (Continue reading)
1. FDIC is suing former IndyMac CEO for a lot of dough. 2. Obama admits failure on foreclosure crisis. 3. What was the tru cost of the bank bailouts?... (Continue reading)
Happy Independence Day! 1. Bank of America... The wrong house AGAIN? 2. Let's call it: Bernankeconomics. 3. Fifty Million for 7,000 Short Sales, Cash for Sunkers? 4. The OCC says fewer than 5,000 principal reductions in... (Continue reading)
And I’ll never be able to prove this, but I’m al most positive that I could have bankrupted Fannie Mae for a lot less than $1.5 trillion, and I don’t know anything about the mortgage business. In fact, I... (Continue reading)
I asked a friend of mine who is a fairly senior executive at a major bank, although not one of those mentioned here, and he said that he can’t imagine the banks losing them. He explains that the truck... (Continue reading)
In this issue: 1. Banker-Speak... A new language. 2. An Interesting List. 3. Lessons from History... How we handled foreclosures during the 1930s. 4. I wanted to like Bruce Marks of NACA... but I can't. 5.... (Continue reading)
No matter, at least you're understanding that today the people falling into foreclosure did nothing to cause their fate. It's now happening at every socio-economic level of our society, and you may be assured that it will spread and... (Continue reading)
I had the privilege of meeting Elizabeth Warren about a month ago when she was in San Diego and here are a few of the things she said to me... I wrote them down at the time so I'd have... (Continue reading)
What the heck is going on around here? We’re now passing around a story about a stupid PR stunt by a lawyer that ended up making Bank of America look REASONABLE? Oh my God, people… listen to me... (Continue reading)
You guys all now know that this thing had about as much to do with sub-prime borrowers as World War II. Unless you can point out a sub-prime borrower who was selling synthetic CDOs in Iceland, I think we're... (Continue reading)
Click the button below... and you'll hear a Mandelman Matters PODCAST... A PODCAST THAT MATTERS, if you will. From start to finish, it's unquestionably MAX GARDNER at his candid best. ... (Continue reading)
So, there you have it... a veritable cornucopia of bad news... and all of it from CNBC, a cable news channel that normally broadcasts nothing but bull... markets. Bull markets... that's what I meant. But, it's getting impossible... (Continue reading)
Falling Home Prices, the Next Financial Crisis is Near, Defaulters Aren't Deadbeats After All, the Economy with Gwen Ifill and MERS has No Clothes.... (Continue reading)
I'm not kidding about this... every morning I wake up, get my coffee, turn on some cable news show, look over at my wife and say: "Look at that, honey... BofA didn't blow up again today! Will wonders never... (Continue reading)
What’s changed is this country. It’s not at all the same as it’s been throughout my lifetime, in fact it’s very different in quite a few substantive ways… do you feel it too, or is it just me? ... (Continue reading)
And now we have Brother Patrick McHenry attacking in an outrageous fashion the one and only person in America who is trying to stand up for consumers and to protect us from the Banksters who singleâ€handedly brought about the biggest... (Continue reading)
In 2014, it will be seven years since the meltdown began in the summer of 2007, and something in the neighborhood of 15 million homes will have been lost to foreclosure. And there’s no reason to believe that foreclosures... (Continue reading)
Hagen went on to explain that he had lobbied “the individual that issued the strike everything amendment, which I would say would have to be Rep Nancy McClain, but I suppose it could also have something to do with Sen.... (Continue reading)
I know… you think not modifying those loans is punishing the homeowners for getting in over their heads… but in realty, it’s not punishing them… it’s punishing you… you are running about, commenting on blogs, advocating the kicking of your... (Continue reading)
Bank of America bought Countrywide for $4 billion and change. That sounds funny to me now. You’ve got to admit it. The idea that someone would PAY money for Countywide has to make you giggle at least... (Continue reading)
In this issue: 1. Treasury reports 84% of HAMP loan mods current after 12 months. 2. Surprise, Surprise... Falling Home Values. 3. State AGs Beg Servicers for Crumbs. 4. Iowa's AG, Miller Calls B.S. 5. Banks... (Continue reading)
So, the strategy now seems quite clear: Our government decided to address the financial crisis and economic meltdown by handing out hundreds of millions to the wives of Wall Street executives so they could invest in student loans and commercial... (Continue reading)
Now, the British and Dutch governments want their money back, but Iceland’s people are saying, well… no, not to put too fine a point on it. You might even say that the Icelanders are saying: “Hell no!” ... (Continue reading)
So, we the taxpayers have spent $160 Million DEFENDING them? Defending them? Gretchen… I think you must have a typo there, right? Shouldn’t the question be, how much are we spending to PROSECUTE them? I mean,... (Continue reading)
The first time GMAC foreclosed on the couple’s home was back in 2001. Totally current on their mortgage payments, it must have come as quite a shock. Once in foreclosure, GMAC wouldn’t accept their monthly payments, so... (Continue reading)
Secretary Geithner explained the program to reporters while waiting for his dessert soufflé to rise. Those in attendance said that he told the group that the program would help homeowners and get the economy back on track by removing... (Continue reading)
It’s a credit crisis, a global financial crisis, a foreclosure crisis, an economic catastrophe, the total destruction of the secondary mortgage market, the end of pension plan investing and Wall Street’s investment banks, and an ongoing example of why derivatives... (Continue reading)
The workers at the NUMMI plant were quite familiar with GMAC, because the mortgage lender was the only mortgage lender given access to the plant employees to sell them on refinancing their homes. "Put your cars, your credit cards... everything... (Continue reading)
But, I suppose as long as Geithner doesn’t make the mega-bank write down any losses in the future, everything will work out just fine and dandy. What, me worry? No chance of that. Besides, I don’t know... (Continue reading)
I realize that his speech the other night was intended to be more State-of-the-Union-like than a presentation of specific solutions, but I still came away feeling a bit like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis. America's banks are, in large part, insolvent.... (Continue reading)
It doesn't happen every day... far from it, perhaps... but, once in a great while you see something that really means something... something that you are unlikely to ever forget. Â This video is one of those types of things. ... (Continue reading)
Plus, if I was at all unsure of my position on this program, the clincher was finding out that the cost of both programs is being covered by a tax on large banks and hedge funds contained in the bill.... (Continue reading)
Apparently, data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that 18 banks, including those listed above of course, have been lying about their levels of debt that are used to fund their trading of securities at the... (Continue reading)
Roubini explains things I didn’t previously understand, such as the details of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s and Treasury Secretary Geithner’s response to the meltdown. Oh, I knew some of what those two had done, but not enough in terms... (Continue reading)
I’m also fearful that we’ve become a nation of people that doesn’t believe in our democracy anymore. A nation of people who will wait for things to happen to them, rather than trying to change what happens to them.... (Continue reading)
How about if we all write letters to our elected representatives demanding to know the answer to this question, because the answer has the very definite potential to save many billions in unnecessary taxpayer funded expenditures associated with the current... (Continue reading)
Warren then went on to say: “Six months ago, I really thought that we were on the brink of financial reform.” In response, Maher asked her what she was smoking back then. The audience laughed. I did... (Continue reading)
Yes folks, it’s true… the banking lobby strikes yet again. No limit on interest rates charged by credit cards. It’s funny too, because I could have sworn there was a cap of 390% voted in, but maybe I... (Continue reading)
I don’t know about you, but 1700 out of 650,000 makes me want to believe that the 1700 were mistakes that slipped through. It makes more sense to think that the HAMP program was designed to create foreclosures… and... (Continue reading)
According to FDIC, the program was established a year ago at the height of the financial crisis, and was intended to “help thaw the freeze in bank-to-bank lending,” and it’s obviously been very effective in that regard. Mark that... (Continue reading)
Elizabeth... damn it. That doesn't make any sense and you have to know that. First of all, I would argue that you don't have to ask in advance where your $700 billion will be going because IT's $700... (Continue reading)
They declined to participate. Am I the only one that feels like a 5 year-old just told me he or she wasn’t going to take a bath as requested? Oh really? Get in the damn tub now…... (Continue reading)
Apparently, they were not quite satisfied with the hundreds of millions they stole… I mean made, so they’ve launched a company that will buy distressed mortgages from banks and the government at a discount, modify the loans so that the... (Continue reading)
But, Goldman Sachs… you’re a liar. A phony. A manipulator of the rules. A company willing to mislead, misinform and malign. You cannot be trusted. And during times like these, to act in such a... (Continue reading)
Here we have a senior official who declined to speak on the record because: “the extent of the disclosures were still being debated?” Were they now? By the Obama administration? Now that’s transparency. Change I can Goddamn... (Continue reading)
President Barack Obama traveled to Mesa Arizona this week to tell the country about his Homeowner Affordability & Stability Plan to fix the housing market. I didn't watch his speech. I didn't listen to it on the radio. I didn't... (Continue reading)