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Holiday Songs for a Foreclosure Crisis: ‘The 12 Months of Default’ and ‘Oh, CRE’
Just in time for your holiday listening pleasure, here are two songs making their way around the blogosphere to celebrate the season and mark another year of falling home prices and an expanding commercial real estate bust.
First, via Mortgage Insider, here’s “The Twelve Months of Default,” which More…
By Not Losing, Bank Lobbyists Won — With Help From Their Democratic Friends
Bloomberg takes a hard look at the lobbying fight over financial regulatory overhaul and concludes that despite last week’s passage of a financial regulatory overhaul package by the House, the banks won — simply by not losing as badly as they once thought they might. Their aggressive lobbying More…
Maybe Obama Should Scold the New Democrats, Rather than Bankers, Over Financial Reform
President Obama’s attempts to shame top bankers on Monday did little to make anyone think lending will suddenly flow freely and financial institutions will quit lobbying to undermine regulatory reform. And the fact that three of the nation’s top bankers literally phoned it in from New York because of early More…
The Wall Street Money Ties That Lead to Loopholes
Advocates for financial regulatory reform must be shaking their heads today after watching Rep. Melissa Bean’s (D-Ill.) efforts to weaken a comprehensive financial regulatory reform bill — which have been, all told, pretty effective. As we noted earlier, House lawmakers struck a deal late Thursday night More…
The Latest Loopholes in Financial Regulatory Reform
Today’s loophole alert regarding financial reform comes from The Wall Street Journal, which points out that USAA, an insurer that serves military families, quietly won an exemption from tougher provisions proposed as part of a massive regulatory overhaul bill. And that’s not to mention General Electric Co. and Pitney More…
White House Loan Modification Plan Falls Flat
It was last December when Julio Angulo ignored the bitter cold and sat on a rusted patio chair in the front yard of his foreclosed home in suburban Manassas, Va. He sighed, resting his hand on his knee. He stared despondently at the sky. His lender had foreclosed on his More…
The Fed Is (Finally) Talking About Toxic Titles
It looks like the problem of banks walking away from distressed properties is finally getting some serious attention. Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth Duke tackled the subject in a recent speech, Housing Wire reports. She detailed a disturbing trend TWI has been following since January 2008: More…
The Dangers Ahead for Obama’s Jobs Program
President Obama announced his $150 billion job creation initiative on Tuesday, which includes everything from new spending for highway and bridge construction, to small business tax cuts, to retrofitting millions of homes to make them more energy-efficient. It’s the sort of news that probably would have gotten More…
Don’t Make Too Much of That White House Job Summit — or the New Unemployment Numbers
Clusterstock hopes everyone assumes the Obama administration’s big jobs summit on Thursday was nothing more than a P.R. show. Otherwise, we’re all in trouble.
We were disturbed when we heard econ aide Christina Romer talk on CNBC about one of her “breakout sessions”
FHA to Tighten Lending Standards as Defaults Rise
On the heels of our report detailing short-sale flipping and other kinds of mortgage fraud that are on the rise, the Federal Housing Administration plans to announce it will tighten lending standards to try to stem rising defaults.
The Washington Post reports Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun More…
