rssBailout Inspector Blasts Treasury Efforts on Housing
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 8:45 am
- 27 Comments
Today, Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or SIGTARP — in layman’s terms, the government’s watchdog over the program to stabilize the banking sector and housing market — released a quarterly report on how things are going. TARP programs did well to stabilize the banking sector, Barofsky says, despite incidences of fraud and other complaints.
But not so for housing. Barofsky blasts the Obama administration’s efforts as expensive, inefficient and useless at stemming the foreclosure crisis, also arguing that Treasury failed to set meaningful goals for itself:
Unfortunately, HAMP continues to struggle to achieve its original stated objective, to help millions of homeowners avoid foreclosure “by reducing monthly payments to sustainable levels.” Despite a seemingly ever increasing array of HAMP-related initiatives designed to encourage participation in the program, the number of homeowners being helped through permanent modifications remains anemic, with fewer than 400,000 ongoing permanent modifications…and HAMP has not put an appreciable dent in foreclosure filings. Indeed, the number of trial and permanent modifications that have been cancelled substantially exceeds the number of homeowners helped through permanent modifications.
One continuing source of frustration is that Treasury has rejected calls to announce publicly any goals or performance benchmarks for HAMP or its related initiatives concerning how many homeowners it actually expects to help stay in their homes, despite repeated recommendations that it do so from SIGTARP, the Congressional Oversight Panel and the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”).
Instead, Treasury clings to its prior statements that it plans to offer trial modifications to three to four million homeowners, a measure that SIGTARP has previously shown to be essentially meaningless. Treasury’s refusal to provide meaningful goals for this important program is a fundamental failure of transparency and accountability that makes it far more difficult for the American people and their representatives in Congress to assess whether the program’s benefits are worth its very substantial cost.
The American people are essentially being asked to shoulder an additional $50 billion of national debt without being told, more than 16 months after the program’s announcement, how many people Treasury hopes to actually help stay in their homes as a result of these expenditures, how many people are intended to be helped through other subprograms, and how the program is performing against those expectations and goals. Without such clearly defined standards, positive comments regarding the progress or success of HAMP are simply not credible, and the growing public suspicion that the program is an outright failure will continue to spread.
The report, which I will review in more detail later today, comes as the Obama administration starts its effort to reform housing finance, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
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27 Comments
Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 8:50 am
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 9:13 am
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 10:06 am
[...] Bailout Inspector Blasts Treasury Efforts on HousingThe Washington IndependentBarofsky blasts the Obama administration's efforts as expensive, inefficient and useless at stemming the foreclosure crisis, also arguing that Treasury …Economy still on government life supportCNNMoneyTARP IG Slams Govt Housing Assistance Efforts,Results 'Anemic'IMarketnews.comFinancial system support up $700 billion in past year: watchdogReutersCenter for Media and Democracy -Bloomberg -National Review Online (blog)all 58 news articles » [...]
Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 10:15 am
[...] Bailout Inspector Blasts Treasury Efforts on HousingThe Washington IndependentBarofsky blasts the Obama administration's efforts as expensive, inefficient and useless at stemming the foreclosure crisis, also arguing that Treasury …Economy still on government life supportCNNMoneyTaxpayers Owed Big Bucks Under the Bailout, Little Help for Homeowners Facing …Center for Media and DemocracyFinancial system support up $700 billion in past year: watchdogReutersBloomberg -National Review Online (blog)all 43 news articles » [...]
Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 11:05 am
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 11:44 am
[...] signature effort to calm the financial markets — from banking to credit to housing. In it, he lambastes the Home Affordable Modification Program, designed to reduce financially distressed [...]
Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 12:03 pm
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 12:15 pm
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 12:27 pm
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 12:28 pm
[...] dent in foreclosure filings," …Economy still on government life supportCNNMoneyBailout Inspector Blasts Treasury Efforts on HousingThe Washington IndependentFinancial system support up $700 bln in past year: [...]
Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 1:01 pm
[...] to evaluate what taxpayers are getting for their money, in this case about $50 billion. (The Treasury says it wants to offer modifications to 3-4 million homeowners. Offers do not amount to successful modifications, [...]
Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 1:10 pm
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 2:14 pm
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 2:49 pm
[...] Bailout Inspector Blasts Treasury Efforts on HousingThe Washington IndependentBarofsky blasts the Obama administration's efforts as expensive, inefficient and useless at stemming the foreclosure crisis, also arguing that Treasury …Economy still on government life supportCNNMoneyTaxpayers Owed Big Bucks Under the Bailout, Little Help for Homeowners Facing …Center for Media and DemocracyFinancial system support up $700 billion in past year: watchdogReutersBloomberg -National Review Online (blog) -The Hill (blog)all 43 news articles » [...]
Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 5:28 pm
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 7:01 pm
[...] Bailout Inspector Blasts Treasury Efforts on Housing « The Washington Independent [...]
Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 7:04 pm
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 8:04 pm
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Pingback posted July 21, 2010 @ 8:25 pm
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Comment posted July 21, 2010 @ 11:32 pm
A question about that Washington Post article concerning housing finance reform – what are they talking about when they say this:
“Since 2008, the federal government has committed hundreds of billions of dollars, much of it nonrecoverable, to try to keep housing afloat and ensure that borrowers can get loans.”
Maybe I missed it, but what “hundreds of billions of dollars” are they talking about? Are they maybe counting all of the programs (TARP, TALF, etc.) that have gone to “stabilizing the financial system”? It wouldn't be reasonable to count all that money as going into the effort “to keep housing afloat and ensure that borrowers can get [mortgage] loans”. And surely, in the context of an article about housing finance reform, those are the loans that are implied, right? Because the very next sentence says:
“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants seized by the government in September 2008, and the Federal Housing Administration have been nearly the only sources of backing for new loans.”
They don't qualify “new loans” there to only mortgage loans, but of course those are the only loans that are backed by Fannie/Freddie/FHA. So, I would (by the same logic) infer that the only loans they are talking about with regard to “keep[ing] housing afloat” are mortgage loans; and the “hundreds of billions of dollars” are therefore *only* those dollars spent in programs specifically targeted to home loans.
So, anyone know what programs they might be talking about?
Pingback posted July 22, 2010 @ 11:20 am
[...] Bailout Inspector Blasts Treasury Efforts on Housing « The … [...]
Pingback posted July 23, 2010 @ 5:17 pm
[...] on the failure of HAMP Posted in Uncategorized by Mike on July 23, 2010 Via Annie Lowrey SIGTARP writes of the failure of HAMP. This is Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or [...]
Pingback posted July 23, 2010 @ 5:32 pm
[...] Annie Lowrey SIGTARP writes of the failure of HAMP. This is Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or [...]
Pingback posted July 23, 2010 @ 5:34 pm
[...] Annie Lowrey we have SIGTARP reporting on HAMP. This is Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or [...]
Pingback posted July 24, 2010 @ 4:09 am
[...] Bailout Inspector Blasts Treasury Efforts on Housing « The … [...]
Pingback posted July 25, 2010 @ 2:00 pm
[...] Annie Lowrey we have SIGTARP reporting on HAMP. This is Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or [...]
Pingback posted August 18, 2010 @ 10:33 am
[...] Bailout Inspector Blasts Treasury Efforts on Housing « The Washington Independent [...]
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