~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just take a minute to think about this.
We expect our Congressmembers and governmental representatives to be on the take. Natch.
We barely grunt when a scummy pimp like Senator Richard Shelby is up to his corrupt cojones in real estate financed with Federal Loans, then acts to destroy legislation that might save the homes of millions of people, but might conceivably scratch the fenders on his limousine of rapacious accumulation.
But this time- its the goddam SUPREMEs that are the goddam BRIBEES.
So many of them are in bed with fleas, they can't walk the dog. And not the first time neither.
These people are supposed to be, are constitutionally required to be- unimpeachable.
That's the job description. These ain't the cops who take a twenny and forget the ticket.
JUDGES.
Supreme Court.
Yah know what I mean ?
Conflict of interest ?
Yeah, between what they own and what the law says.
Between what's good for their IRAs and what serves Justice.
Between what is right and what makes them a buck or two.
Victims of Apartheid get no Justice because the Judges' brokers called ?
What this does is pull back the covers on what really goes on in ALL the Courts, including the Supreme one.
Just remember this when you go to court or expect We (The Group formerly known as) The People, to be EQUAL UNDER THE LAW-
They ALL have untold huge personal vested interests in the capitalist wall street hedgefundfuckem war profiteering subprimesucking Leechopoly.
Diogenes my ass.
We need a goddam mile long roto rooter, and NO lube.
These people must be Impeached immediately.
But of course, that would require Democrats to get vertebrae implants, and we know whassup with that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Supreme Court Conflicts Stop Apartheid Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/washington/13scotus.html?_r=1&hp&oref
The New York Times
May 13, 2008
Justices’ Conflicts Halt Apartheid Appeal
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
WASHINGTON — Financial and personal conflicts of interest affecting four Supreme Court justices left the court without a quorum last week and unable to decide whether to hear an appeal brought by more than 50 companies that did business in apartheid-era South Africa.
As a result, the Supreme Court announced on Monday that a lower court’s judgment allowing the high-profile lawsuit against the companies to move forward was automatically affirmed.
A quorum of six of the nine justices is necessary for the court to conduct business. While the recusal of four justices is unusual, so was the case that provoked it, a consolidation of 10 lawsuits filed in the name of everyone who lived in South Africa from 1948 to 1994 and who was injured by the official system of racial separation. The dozens of corporate defendants represented a who’s who of American business.
The outcome calls attention to the occasionally uncomfortable consequences of the justices’ ownership of stock in individual companies. With solitary recusals being much more frequent, a 4-to-4 deadlock is a more common outcome than an inability to proceed with the case at all.
That happened on March 3, when nonparticipation by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. resulted in a 4-to-4 tie in a case on the permissibility of damage suits against the makers of federally approved pharmaceuticals. According to his most recent financial disclosure form, the chief justice owns stock in Pfizer Inc., the corporate parent of the defendant in that case, Warner-Lambert Company v. Kent, No. 06-1498.
It remains to be seen whether the absence of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. from the Exxon Valdez punitive damages case, argued on Feb. 27, will result in a tie vote. His ownership of Exxon Mobil stock led to his recusal from that case, Exxon Shipping Company v. Baker, No. 07-219. In a tie vote, the lower court’s decision is upheld but it has no effect as precedent in other cases.
Federal law makes it mandatory for judges to remove themselves from cases if they own even a single share of stock in a company that is a party in a case. Judges, unlike some executive branch officials, are not required to divest themselves of their stock holdings. Nonetheless, Congress acted in 2006 to deal with the recusal problem by making divestiture more appealing. It extended to the federal judiciary the relief from capital gains tax liability that it had already granted to executive branch officials who sell individual stocks and reinvest the proceeds in government securities or approved mutual funds.
Whether the apartheid case, which seeks $400 billion in damages from the corporate defendants, ever gets to trial remains highly uncertain, despite the Supreme Court’s inability to act on the companies’ request to dismiss it. The government of South Africa strongly opposes the litigation, and the Bush administration supported the companies’ appeal on the ground that the case “is causing present injury to important interests of the United States and the Republic of South Africa.”
The Supreme Court’s order in the case, American Isuzu Motors, Inc. v. Ntsebeza, No. 07-919, listed Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito along with Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer as having taken “no part in the consideration or decision of this petition.”
“Since a majority of the qualified justices are of the opinion that the case cannot be heard and determined at the next term of the court, the judgment is affirmed,” the order said.
The outcome has the same effect as a tie vote — it makes no law and does not set any precedent. As is usual, the court did not give reasons for the justices’ recusals. Exxon Mobil is a defendant, as is another company in which Justice Alito owns stock, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Justice Breyer owns stock in several of the companies. Chief Justice Roberts owns the stock of another defendant, Hewlett-Packard. Justice Kennedy’s reason for recusal does not appear to be stock, but rather a son’s employment with another defendant, Credit Suisse, a situation that has previously led the justice to disqualify himself.
The plaintiffs have invoked one of the oldest federal laws, the Alien Tort Statute, which was enacted as part of the Judiciary Act of 1789. It is a jurisdictional statute that does not by itself convey any substantive rights. Rather, it authorizes the federal courts to decide “any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.”
The Alien Tort Statute, sometimes called the Alien Tort Claims Act, lay dormant for most of two centuries until it was rediscovered as a way to seek redress in United States courts for human rights violations committed overseas.
The Supreme Court, while not foreclosing the use of the statute for that purpose, has been notably skeptical. A footnote in a 2004 Supreme Court decision on an unrelated Alien Tort Statute case referred specifically to the South African lawsuit, noting that there was “a strong argument that federal courts should give serious weight to the executive branch’s view of the case’s impact on foreign policy.”
In its ruling last October allowing the case to proceed, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, ordered the district court to consider defenses it had not previously addressed. These include whether the suit presents a “political question” that is beyond the institutional capacity of a federal court to resolve.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read more!!
Showing posts with label subprime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label subprime. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
DRANT #290: SCAMMMMM !!!!!! Dow Up 416; Biggest Gain Since '02
Sorry I have been unable to send DRANTS lately, but we are eyeball deep in actions here in DC this week and next-
BUT-
For anyone who has any doubts about what is being done to us here-
They are taking our money, and giving it to the banks.
The way we pay for this is called INFLATION, and DEVALUATION.
WE are paying for this
Here is a handy lexicon:
"the credit market" = The Banks
"financial institutions" = The Banks
"major investment banks" == well, you know
"seemingly solid financial institutions = The Banks
Now do you know what the Govt is using to back the giveaway ? as collateral for the bailout ?
You won't believe me, but- its the same garbage worthless crap paper that the banks and wall street sold to US and hapless idiots all over the world- its the same pyramid scheme- except this time, its our very own government buying the bogus bullshit pelf, and using OUR MONEY to buy it.
Plus, they are having the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Association
buy up all the mushy mortgages they can, and are raising the loan amounts on which they will make these publicly funded loans - to $750,000!!
In udder woids, they are funding million dollar home purchases, with our bucks.
Miilions of us are losing our homes, being evicted, having our houses repossessed, literaly having our lives FORECLOSED,
and who does the Gummint bail out ?
The BANKS.
With our bucks.
Now tell me again how stupid Bush is.
What idiots these guys are.
This is one of the greatest financial scams ever perpetrated on us and the world.
The banks and their employees in the government have been gorging themselves - insatiably stuffing their gigantic pot bellies and now, when the check arrives, they are handing it to us and our children.
If this is OK with you, and if its OK with your kids, and grandchildren, (I suggest you ask them, please)
then do nothing.
They have relied on this for years, and they are depending on it now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stocks Surge After Fed Lends $200 Billion to Banks
The New York Times
March 11, 2008
Fed Plans to Lend $200 Billion to Banks
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Scrambling to ease the strain on the credit market, the Federal Reserve announced a $200 billion program on Tuesday that would allow financial institutions, including the nation’s major investment banks, to borrow ultra-safe Treasury money by using some of their riskiest investments as collateral. Wall Street responded with a rally, with the Dow Jones industrials surging more than 400 points.
This was the central bank’s second effort in a week to unfreeze the nation’s panicky credit markets, where investors have become too frightened to finance even conservative debt offerings, which in turn has caused a cash squeeze at seemingly solid financial institutions.
Stock markets soared after the announcement, fell back in midday trading and then regained momentum in the afternoon. At the close, the Dow industrials were at 12,156.81, a gain of 416.66, or 3.6 percent. It was the biggest one-day point gain for the Dow since July 2002. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 3.7 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 4 percent.
The Fed normally lends Treasury securities to banks for just a few hours. Under the new program, money will be lent for 28 days and the central bank will accept nongovernment mortgage-backed securities — the source of the current crisis in the credit markets — as collateral. The Fed will require that the assets, which are linked to soured home loans, have a premium credit rating.
The new program, dubbed the Term Securities Lending Facility, will effectively allow strapped financial institutions to hand over potentially damaged securities to the government in exchange for either cash or easily traded Treasury securities, some of the safest in the market.
“If these institutions are able to extend out more credit as a result of this, it may take more pressure of the housing market and mortgage quality,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
But Mr. Zandi said he was skeptical that the Fed’s actions would address the root of the current problems in the credit market.
“I don’t think it helps determine the appropriate price for these securities,” he said. “It doesn’t solve the underlying problem of mortgage delinquencies and defaults, which could at some time threaten the Triple-A securities.”
The Fed will lend the Treasuries through weekly auctions that begin March 27. The government will also accept mortgage-backed securities issued by government-sponsored companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Last week, the central bank said it would offer up to $100 billion through a new auction program that allows financial firms to take out loans at wholesale rates.
On Tuesday, the Fed also increased currency swap lines with the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank, to $30 billion and $6 billion. That is an increase of $10 billion for the European Central Bank and $2 billion for the Swiss bank.
Edmund L. Andrews contributed reporting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read more!!
BUT-
For anyone who has any doubts about what is being done to us here-
They are taking our money, and giving it to the banks.
The way we pay for this is called INFLATION, and DEVALUATION.
WE are paying for this
Here is a handy lexicon:
"the credit market" = The Banks
"financial institutions" = The Banks
"major investment banks" == well, you know
"seemingly solid financial institutions = The Banks
Now do you know what the Govt is using to back the giveaway ? as collateral for the bailout ?
You won't believe me, but- its the same garbage worthless crap paper that the banks and wall street sold to US and hapless idiots all over the world- its the same pyramid scheme- except this time, its our very own government buying the bogus bullshit pelf, and using OUR MONEY to buy it.
Plus, they are having the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Association
buy up all the mushy mortgages they can, and are raising the loan amounts on which they will make these publicly funded loans - to $750,000!!
In udder woids, they are funding million dollar home purchases, with our bucks.
Miilions of us are losing our homes, being evicted, having our houses repossessed, literaly having our lives FORECLOSED,
and who does the Gummint bail out ?
The BANKS.
With our bucks.
Now tell me again how stupid Bush is.
What idiots these guys are.
This is one of the greatest financial scams ever perpetrated on us and the world.
The banks and their employees in the government have been gorging themselves - insatiably stuffing their gigantic pot bellies and now, when the check arrives, they are handing it to us and our children.
If this is OK with you, and if its OK with your kids, and grandchildren, (I suggest you ask them, please)
then do nothing.
They have relied on this for years, and they are depending on it now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stocks Surge After Fed Lends $200 Billion to Banks
The New York Times
March 11, 2008
Fed Plans to Lend $200 Billion to Banks
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Scrambling to ease the strain on the credit market, the Federal Reserve announced a $200 billion program on Tuesday that would allow financial institutions, including the nation’s major investment banks, to borrow ultra-safe Treasury money by using some of their riskiest investments as collateral. Wall Street responded with a rally, with the Dow Jones industrials surging more than 400 points.
This was the central bank’s second effort in a week to unfreeze the nation’s panicky credit markets, where investors have become too frightened to finance even conservative debt offerings, which in turn has caused a cash squeeze at seemingly solid financial institutions.
Stock markets soared after the announcement, fell back in midday trading and then regained momentum in the afternoon. At the close, the Dow industrials were at 12,156.81, a gain of 416.66, or 3.6 percent. It was the biggest one-day point gain for the Dow since July 2002. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 3.7 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 4 percent.
The Fed normally lends Treasury securities to banks for just a few hours. Under the new program, money will be lent for 28 days and the central bank will accept nongovernment mortgage-backed securities — the source of the current crisis in the credit markets — as collateral. The Fed will require that the assets, which are linked to soured home loans, have a premium credit rating.
The new program, dubbed the Term Securities Lending Facility, will effectively allow strapped financial institutions to hand over potentially damaged securities to the government in exchange for either cash or easily traded Treasury securities, some of the safest in the market.
“If these institutions are able to extend out more credit as a result of this, it may take more pressure of the housing market and mortgage quality,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
But Mr. Zandi said he was skeptical that the Fed’s actions would address the root of the current problems in the credit market.
“I don’t think it helps determine the appropriate price for these securities,” he said. “It doesn’t solve the underlying problem of mortgage delinquencies and defaults, which could at some time threaten the Triple-A securities.”
The Fed will lend the Treasuries through weekly auctions that begin March 27. The government will also accept mortgage-backed securities issued by government-sponsored companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Last week, the central bank said it would offer up to $100 billion through a new auction program that allows financial firms to take out loans at wholesale rates.
On Tuesday, the Fed also increased currency swap lines with the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank, to $30 billion and $6 billion. That is an increase of $10 billion for the European Central Bank and $2 billion for the Swiss bank.
Edmund L. Andrews contributed reporting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read more!!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
DRANT #289: THE NEW TERRORISM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
None of this is by mistake.
The people who run the banks and the hedge funds and the "Federal Reserve" and the government are not stupid.
This is by design. No "mistakes" here."Terrorism" worked beautifully for the last few years -- to create massive fear and its corollary-
submissive trading of rights for safety.
Now comes the bigger one - the "financial collapse."
The latest tool for inculcating desperation, panic and submission.
( see the the last 4-5 of these- 1913, and onward)
Nothing new here, except that repression and evisceration of rights and freedoms will explode in ways we can't even imagine.
The credit card bubble is yet to burst, and the corporate loan bubble is just beginning to be noticed.The dollar's fall is barely begun.
Just try to project what all of us will do to save our families, our homes, salvage our lives.
What we will trade and abandon for imagined refuge.
This is just beginning.
"...Similar, and in some cases worse, situations can be found in cities from California and Nevada to Michigan. The reverberations from this crisis have be
“They created the demand and in a market like ours that was completely unable to withstand the failures that arose. We did not have the increase in the real-estate markets that other areas of the country experienced. We have had a difficult economy over the past decade as we have moved from a manufacturing economy to a services economy. We have struggled here. They created an environment where there was no other outcome than the foreclosures. We saw it coming. How could Wall Street not see it coming?”
THE CRISIS is likely to get worse before it gets better. As home prices fall and lending standards tighten, more people are defaulting on their mortgages, potentially causing billions of dollars in additional losses. Some 1.6m mortgage holders defaulted on home loans last year, and at least that many are expected to default this year, according to Moody’s Economy.com, a financial website.
A December 2006 study by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), a Washington-based lobby group, predicted that sub-prime foreclosures would cost American households as much as $164 billion. The nationwide study predicted that 19.4% of such loans taken out between 2005 and 2006 would fail.
"...Rather than a stepping stone to standard loans, as their champions once promoted them, sub-prime loans have left borrowers mired in spiralling debts. The CRL report said: “In reality, many borrowers refinance from one sub-prime loan to another, losing equity each time to cover the cost of getting a new loan. When we analyse the likelihood of foreclosure for borrowers who repeatedly refinance, we find that the risk of losing the home climbs to 36%.”
Last month the CRL put out a new report “Sub-prime Spillover” that attempted to quantify the impact of the crisis on the larger community. According to the report, foreclosures on sub-prime home loans originated in 2005 and 2006 will devalue the properties of 40.6m neighbouring homes. Homeowners living near foreclosed properties will see their property values decrease $5,000 on average. The report estimates that the total decline in house values and tax base from nearby foreclosures will be $202 billion.
As the crisis gets worse, so will the clamour for action. So far there has been a cool reception to President George Bush’s latest action plan. Project Lifeline is backed by six big mortgage lenders and aims to slow the rising tide of foreclosures. Borrowers who are at least three months behind on mortgage payments can apply to the lender for a 30-day “pause” on foreclosure proceedings. If the delay is granted, then borrower and lender can work out a more affordable repayment scheme. Bankrupt homeowners or those who face foreclosure within the next month do not qualify."...And as home prices fall and lending standards tighten, borrowers further up the economic ladder are starting to feel the pinch. In middle-class Maple Heights, a Cleveland suburb just 15 minutes drive from Slavic Village, foreclosures are starting to take their toll.
“This is a white-collar, upper-middle-class neighbourhood,” said Lindsey Sacher of East Side Organizing Project, a Cleveland nonprofit group. “But people got sick and then they couldn’t afford their payments.”
Now with debts mounting and home values falling “people are just leaving this city. If you look at the areas of the country that are losing the most population, this region is number six. Numbers one to five are areas hit by hurricane Katrina,” said Sacher.
THE CRISIS IN FIGURES
© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
mailto:Jamilla@stop-losscongress.org
DAVID RUBINSON 415 441 7500
mailto:davidr@stop-losscongress.org
POB 411197
San Francisco CA 94141-1197
--------------------------------
Read more!!
None of this is by mistake.
The people who run the banks and the hedge funds and the "Federal Reserve" and the government are not stupid.
This is by design. No "mistakes" here."Terrorism" worked beautifully for the last few years -- to create massive fear and its corollary-
submissive trading of rights for safety.
Now comes the bigger one - the "financial collapse."
The latest tool for inculcating desperation, panic and submission.
( see the the last 4-5 of these- 1913, and onward)
Nothing new here, except that repression and evisceration of rights and freedoms will explode in ways we can't even imagine.
The credit card bubble is yet to burst, and the corporate loan bubble is just beginning to be noticed.The dollar's fall is barely begun.
Just try to project what all of us will do to save our families, our homes, salvage our lives.
What we will trade and abandon for imagined refuge.
This is just beginning.
Cleveland: ghost town created by America’s loan scandal
Below are excerpts -
PLEASE access the complete story at:
http://www.timesonline.co.u
Below are excerpts -
PLEASE access the complete story at:
http://www.timesonline.co.u
try_sectors/construction_and_property/article3422322.ece
The Sunday Times
February 24, 2008Special report
Dominic Rushe in Cleveland, Ohio
"...Slavic Village looks as if it has been hit by a hurricane. And this man-made disaster rivals hurricane Katrina when it comes to displacing families. The 2005 storm displaced some 35,000 people in the worst-hit districts of New Orleans. Since 2003 34,156 people have lost their homes to repossession in the Cleveland area, according to Case Western Reserve University, and the pace of those losses is accelerating. The new year is barely two months old and so far there have been 1,857 foreclosures in the Cleveland area.
The Sunday Times
February 24, 2008Special report
Dominic Rushe in Cleveland, Ohio
"...Slavic Village looks as if it has been hit by a hurricane. And this man-made disaster rivals hurricane Katrina when it comes to displacing families. The 2005 storm displaced some 35,000 people in the worst-hit districts of New Orleans. Since 2003 34,156 people have lost their homes to repossession in the Cleveland area, according to Case Western Reserve University, and the pace of those losses is accelerating. The new year is barely two months old and so far there have been 1,857 foreclosures in the Cleveland area.
Slavic Village has street after empty street of boarded-up houses, their roofs caving in, collapsed balconies hanging from the fronts of buildings. Some people seem to have just upped and left, leaving their belongings behind for the rats and vandals. Owners have put up signs offering their burnt-out homes for a $500 (£250) downpayment.Bins and rubbish litter the street. Signs warn trespassers the structures are uns
afe. People have spray-painted “No copper” or “No metal” on their doors to deter crooks who have stripped anything of value from these decaying shells. Even brick steps have been ripped off, leaving houses that look as if they are floating on a dark sea of garbage.
"Slavic Village is Ground Zero for a tragedy being repeated across America. The dramatic rise and fall of the sub-prime mortgage market has left borrowers across the country facing repossession. In 2002 there were 101 foreclosures in Cleveland. In 2005 the number was 2,000, last year it was almost 8,000. Across America the number of foreclosures rose 79% last year, according to Realtytrac, an American property analyst, as people, many of whom would never have received loans in the past, have failed to keep up their mortgage payments..."
"...Similar, and in some cases worse, situations can be found in cities from California and Nevada to Michigan. The reverberations from this crisis have be
en felt across the world, wiping billions off the value of banks’ investments and making them reluctant to lend money even to each other, a problem that drove Britain’s Northern Rock to the edge of collapse..."
Cleveland’s mayor Frank Jackson knows who to blame: Wall Street. The mayor’s office is suing some of the world’s biggest banks. including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland’s Greenwich Capital, claiming they acted like organised criminals financing the sale of products that they knew could do nothing but harm to Cleveland. Sub-prime mortgages have proved as bad as drugs in the destruction they have wrought on the community, he said.
“Follow the money,” said Jackson. “If you ask organised crime figures why they persist in doing what they are doing, knowing the damage they are doing and the risks they are taking if they are held accountable, do you know what they will say to you? The money was just too good. You ask these financiers on Wall Street why they persist in doing this when they know the risks they are running and the damage they are doing to their communities and shareholders, do you know what they will tell you? The money was just too good.”
“Follow the money,” said Jackson. “If you ask organised crime figures why they persist in doing what they are doing, knowing the damage they are doing and the risks they are taking if they are held accountable, do you know what they will say to you? The money was just too good. You ask these financiers on Wall Street why they persist in doing this when they know the risks they are running and the damage they are doing to their communities and shareholders, do you know what they will tell you? The money was just too good.”
“They created the demand and in a market like ours that was completely unable to withstand the failures that arose. We did not have the increase in the real-estate markets that other areas of the country experienced. We have had a difficult economy over the past decade as we have moved from a manufacturing economy to a services economy. We have struggled here. They created an environment where there was no other outcome than the foreclosures. We saw it coming. How could Wall Street not see it coming?”
Many others take the same view. “They knew,” said Robert Triozzi,” Cleveland’s director of law. “They knew.”
THE CRISIS is likely to get worse before it gets better. As home prices fall and lending standards tighten, more people are defaulting on their mortgages, potentially causing billions of dollars in additional losses. Some 1.6m mortgage holders defaulted on home loans last year, and at least that many are expected to default this year, according to Moody’s Economy.com, a financial website.
A December 2006 study by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), a Washington-based lobby group, predicted that sub-prime foreclosures would cost American households as much as $164 billion. The nationwide study predicted that 19.4% of such loans taken out between 2005 and 2006 would fail.
"...Rather than a stepping stone to standard loans, as their champions once promoted them, sub-prime loans have left borrowers mired in spiralling debts. The CRL report said: “In reality, many borrowers refinance from one sub-prime loan to another, losing equity each time to cover the cost of getting a new loan. When we analyse the likelihood of foreclosure for borrowers who repeatedly refinance, we find that the risk of losing the home climbs to 36%.”
Last month the CRL put out a new report “Sub-prime Spillover” that attempted to quantify the impact of the crisis on the larger community. According to the report, foreclosures on sub-prime home loans originated in 2005 and 2006 will devalue the properties of 40.6m neighbouring homes. Homeowners living near foreclosed properties will see their property values decrease $5,000 on average. The report estimates that the total decline in house values and tax base from nearby foreclosures will be $202 billion.
As the crisis gets worse, so will the clamour for action. So far there has been a cool reception to President George Bush’s latest action plan. Project Lifeline is backed by six big mortgage lenders and aims to slow the rising tide of foreclosures. Borrowers who are at least three months behind on mortgage payments can apply to the lender for a 30-day “pause” on foreclosure proceedings. If the delay is granted, then borrower and lender can work out a more affordable repayment scheme. Bankrupt homeowners or those who face foreclosure within the next month do not qualify."...And as home prices fall and lending standards tighten, borrowers further up the economic ladder are starting to feel the pinch. In middle-class Maple Heights, a Cleveland suburb just 15 minutes drive from Slavic Village, foreclosures are starting to take their toll.
“This is a white-collar, upper-middle-class neighbourhood,” said Lindsey Sacher of East Side Organizing Project, a Cleveland nonprofit group. “But people got sick and then they couldn’t afford their payments.”
Now with debts mounting and home values falling “people are just leaving this city. If you look at the areas of the country that are losing the most population, this region is number six. Numbers one to five are areas hit by hurricane Katrina,” said Sacher.
THE CRISIS IN FIGURES
Number of families with a sub-prime mortgage: 7.2m
Proportion of sub-prime mortgages in default: 14.4%
Sub-prime loans outstanding: $1,300 billion
Sub-prime loans outstanding in 2003: $332 billion
Sub-prime loans outstanding: $1,300 billion
Sub-prime loans outstanding in 2003: $332 billion
Percentage increase from 2003: 292%
Proportion of loans approved without fully documented income: 43%-50%
Number of sub-prime mortgages that will have their interest rate reset this year: 1.8m
Typical rise in monthly payment (third year): 30%-50%
Proportion of loans approved without fully documented income: 43%-50%
Number of sub-prime mortgages that will have their interest rate reset this year: 1.8m
Typical rise in monthly payment (third year): 30%-50%
Sub-prime share of all new mortgages in 2006: 28%
Sub-prime share of all new mortgages in 2003: 8%
Number of homes not in foreclosure whose value will decline in 2008-9 as sub-prime foreclosures lower the prices of surrounding homes: 45m
Value of that decline: $233 billion
Sub-prime share of all new mortgages in 2003: 8%
Number of homes not in foreclosure whose value will decline in 2008-9 as sub-prime foreclosures lower the prices of surrounding homes: 45m
Value of that decline: $233 billion
© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.stop-losscongress.org/
http://www.youtube.com/stoplosscongress
find your Congressperson or Senator: http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/
CONTACT:
JAMILLA EL-SHAFEI 603 969 8426
http://www.youtube.com/stoplosscongress
find your Congressperson or Senator: http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/
CONTACT:
JAMILLA EL-SHAFEI 603 969 8426
mailto:Jamilla@stop-losscongress.org
DAVID RUBINSON 415 441 7500
mailto:davidr@stop-losscongress.org
POB 411197
San Francisco CA 94141-1197
--------------------------------
http://www.resistinmarch.com/
Break the War with Spring Break!
http://www.ourspringbreak.org
http://www.ourspringbreak.org
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