FBI Admits They Inflated Their Mortgage Crisis Crackdown Rates

 

Outgoing FBI Director Robert S. Mueller busted in another lie the agency was forced to own up to in the press 

The FBI admits they have inflated their mortgage crisis crackdown rates regarding clamping down on problems in the system. This is another blow to their credibility. Millions of Americans have lost their homes with many still in danger of foreclosure and involuntary property auction.

Give credit where credit is due, I know people who've been helped by the Obama Administration mortgage modification programs and have been able to stay in their homes, paying a fraction of what they were previously remitting in payments, with the extra debt added to the tail end of their extended mortgage. There are also property tax assistance initiatives by the administration designed to assist people who are delinquent on property taxes, which could also trigger a foreclosure after a 2-3 years of non-payment.

The main problem with the system right now is what some banks put people through who attempt to obtain a mortgage modification. People are often told the documents they submitted to the banks by mail were not received (but mark my words, had you sent them a check in the mail, they would have received and cashed it pronto).

I know one woman who was told that several times, even though she used U.S. Postal Service and Fedex in other instances, who all confirmed in writing the items were received. We know it's not the mail carriers as many people are telling this same story.

The government needs to start applying pressure on banks that engage in this practice. Because if the government set up a consumer complaint website and asked people to submit mailing receipts regarding mortgage modification packages banks state they did not receive, there would be a flood of evidence to the contrary.

STORY SOURCE

 Obama DOJ & FBI Lied on Mortgage Fraud Crackdown Before Election

5.6 Million U.S. Homeowners Are Behind On Their Mortgage Indicating More Help Is Needed To Rescue Taxpayers

 

Barack Obama

According to the latest housing numbers coming out of America, 5,600,000 Americans have fallen behind on their mortgages, skidding into foreclosure. This is sad and preventable. It is an indication the government is not doing enough to help homeowners, who are the taxpayers. Money designated by President Obama for exploratory initiatives, such as those in the solar and environmental sectors, which have failed, could be used to help homeowners.

Already billions have been lost on the aforementioned exploratory ventures, best suited for a time America is not in a financial crisis, as the Judiciary Report has maintained from before they failed. The rest of the money intended for said exploratory ventures need to be diverted to homeowners with troubled mortgages.

These delinquency numbers would not be so astronomically high, if bank and government modification and foreclosure prevention programs were working correctly. Something is wrong in the system and it needs to be fixed. At some banks, you can't even get modification and foreclosure prevention specialists on the phone. It's often an answering machine and they call you back at the strangest hours, when you are at work and unable to properly discuss your financial situation.

America will not be made better by people losing their homes, so banks can add the properties to their stockpile of homes that are not selling. The stagnation is not healthy for any economy, as the empty homes sit there devaluing and rotting away. More government intervention is need immediately.

STORY SOURCE

5.6 million mortgages in America are delinquent

Most Homeowners Are Not Using Modification Programs And It Is For A Reason

Barack Obama

A statistic released on the mortgage crisis revealed only a fraction of Americans, who are eligible for the modification programs, have taken part in it. The government is perplexed, why I don't know. A number of people I have spoken to that are trying to obtain modification loans told me the banks are making it as difficult as possible to do so.

One person I know, who paid tens of thousands down on her home of 10-years, told me she sent in the documents to the bank several times to obtain a modification, even using tracked mail, which shows the bank received the documents, yet each time they told her, "We did not receive it." So it's their word against Fedex and the U.S. Postal Service.

She finally obtained a modification by going to a service and paying a woman $800, who has a connection at the bank and she finally received the modification, after trying unsuccessfully for nearly a year. The fact of the matter is the banks are not cooperating with homeowners.

In another case, I filed bankruptcy for a neighbor, who sought my advice. I did so without charging. I was concerned that due to her preexisting health problems she would have a stroke, because of the stressful and unethical way creditors were coming after her. After filing Chapter 7 for her, I quickly submitted the necessary paperwork to the bank indicating she would keep her home of two decades and continue with the payments they kept inflating. I sent it registered mail with the U.S. Post Office.

The bank pretended they did not get it, even telling me that over the phone, prompting me to read off the delivery confirmation number and the fact the U.S. Postal Service did deliver it to them. Within seconds the bank's representative said "Oh, here it is. I found it. Sometimes the computers don't show it." While I'm thinking, yea, if you say so. My friend has a lot of equity in the house and the bank wanted to take it and began walking along that treacherous path to do so.

In another case, another person I know sought a modification in an attempt to consolidate an inflated first and second mortgage and for over a year got nowhere with the bank. They kept pretending and giving her the run around. She then went to a service who said they would help her, but demanded she pay $2,000 per month for a year in order for them to do so. That's $24,000 that could have gone to paying down her mortgage and she was given no guarantees they would actually succeed, so she is still trying to fix the first mortgage, having disposed of the second one on her own.

According to CBS News, the government did not properly advertise many of its programs to help people, so the deadlines came and went to enroll and people did not get the help they needed. Many of these foreclosures would not have happened in the first place if the government had proper legislation in place preventing banks from significantly raising interest rates on balloon mortgages, which put many people out of their homes, as they simply could not afford to pay double the mortgage they once did.

Some foreclosures were due to people taking on homes they could not afford, which is regrettable, but many were due to interest rates mysteriously rising in what appears to be banks colluding with each other and it put many Americans out of their homes. The government should have used legislation to put a cap on how high interest rates could go, in relation to the principal of a mortgage and a person's income.

I know people whose mortgages went from $1,300 to $3,500 or $400 to $950 and if you are on a fixed income, like the average American, where are you supposed to find that extra money. Overnight some people's mortgages began to exceed their monthly income.

In short, the government is not doing a good enough job in making sure people get the help they need and many folks are being ripped off and left disappointed by so-called modification service companies. The government, on a basic human level, need to do better, as it is a terrible and traumatic thing to lose one's home.

If appealing to the government's conscience doesn't work, they should think about it this way, if you don't help the people that need it, they are simply going to vote you out, then you'll be jobless too. That goes for Congress as well. They are going to step in that ballot box, remember they lost their homes under your tenure and vote out the corresponding politicians they felt did nothing to correct the problems.

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Artificial Growth - Part 2

Artificial Growth

Mortgage Malignancy

U.S. President Barack Obama

The mortgage crisis in America has become worse than when the problem first exploded in 2008. Banks are forging ahead with what amounts to the repossession of America, with some foreclosures initiated under fraudulent circumstances. Stock prices and revenues have become more important than seeking the truth. Sadly, many people will be turned out of their homes, due to the mess the government let transpire.

A few years ago, many Americans were deceptively drawn in by the refinance craze, advertised day and night on television, radio, in the newspapers and on the internet. The deceitfully worded ads flooded airwaves and print, promising to improve Americans' financial problems, by giving mortgage holders a better interest rate. They even promised to put a little money in homeowners' pockets to pay off bills, such as credit card balances and car notes, whilst consolidating all debts under one home loans at a low price.

These claims turned out to be a pack of lies for millions of unsuspecting people, as interest rates shot up and mortgages ballooned, breaking their budgets, as their month payments reached an untenable dollar amount. Americans were expected to mysteriously find the money from somewhere, to meet the monthly mortgage extortion sum and when they couldn't, foreclosure proceedings were instituted.

U.S. Congress

Many attempting to save their homes have been met with terrible mortgage scams, such as signing over one's deed, allegedly on a temporary basis, to allow a third party with good credit and great income to obtain a low interest rate loan. Then, they would allegedly surrender the property back to the owner, for a small fee, with a new, lower mortgage payment. Only for homeowners to find out their properties were sold out from under them, when they "temporarily" turned over the deed to a third party.

Others sought lawyers and refinance firms, promising to fix their financial woes, for a monthly fee, only to place them in greater debt with no tangible results. Congress failed the American people in a terrible way, as some members of the legislature, were in bed with the banks, receiving favorable loans with rock bottom interest rates (very low payments), to secure their votes in the House and Senate.

Thus, the corrupt financial practices were waived through by unscrupulous members of Congress, some of whom seem like they've been in there forever and were there when the Declaration of Independence was signed. If you can remember when you used to ride to Congress on your horse, it's time for you to retire, as you are clearly apart of the problem, having failed to remedy the nation's problems.

U.S. Foreclosure Rates Skyrocket Again

President Obama

Once again, due to uncooperativeness from banks, the national U.S. foreclosure rate has skyrocketed, deteriorating to record levels not previously seen in America.

Some were encouraged by a slight rise in national home sales, but it is being fuelled by homes being sold at rock bottom prices ($10,000 to $50,000) drastically dropping neighborhood property values.

It would have been better had banks kept homeowners in their homes, which contained higher property values on state tax rolls, than rush them out via foreclosure, to sell the property at less than 50-90 percent of its value.

U.S. Foreclosure Filings Set Third Record-High in Five Months

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Foreclosure filings in the U.S. climbed to a record for the third time in five months in July as falling home prices and the recession left more homeowners unable to keep up payments or refinance.

A total of 360,149 properties received a default or auction notice or were seized last month, according to data seller RealtyTrac Inc. One in 355 households got a filing, the highest monthly rate in RealtyTrac records dating to January 2005, the Irvine, California-based company said in a statement.

“We’re in a deep hole,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Chicago-based Mesirow Financial Inc., said in an interview. “There is a whole new wave of foreclosures tied to the cyclical dynamics of the economy.”

Foreclosures increased as the U.S. recorded another 247,000 job losses in July and home prices fell, leaving an increasing number of mortgage holders owing more than their properties were worth. The median price of an existing single-family house dropped 15.6 percent to $174,100 in the second quarter, the most in records dating to 1979, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday. Almost one-quarter of U.S. mortgage holders are underwater, property data firm Zillow.com said Aug. 11...

Loan Modifications

About 235,000 troubled borrowers have begun modifying their property loans under the government’s Making Home Affordable Program, compared with a target population of 4 million, according to an Aug. 4 Treasury Department report. About 15 percent of eligible borrowers were offered loan modifications and 9 percent entered trial agreements.

Bank of America Corp. modified about 4 percent of its qualifying loans and Wells Fargo & Co. changed 6 percent, making them the two worst performers in the program among the biggest U.S. banks, Treasury said. Citigroup Inc. modified 15 percent of its eligible loans and JPMorgan Chase & Co. changed 20 percent.

“It has been more profitable to put a home in foreclosure than restructure the loan,” Swonk said. “The only thing that helps is forgiveness of principal, and there is little willingness to do that.”

http://www.bloomberg.com

Senators Dodd And Kent Conrad Cleared

Chris Dodd

U.S. Senators, Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad were cleared of impropriety in accepting discounted loans from, Enzio Mozilo, the deposed CEO of troublesome Countrywide.

Kent Conrad

Regardless of the complaint dismissal, the appearance of impropriety is there. The mere fact they accepted favors of a financial nature, from a corrupt banking CEO that helped to bring the worst mortgage crisis in history on America and by default, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Iceland, who invested in Wall Street, on which he trades, was highly inappropriate.

Senators Dodd, Conrad Cleared on Ethics Complaints

Friday, August 7, 2009; 6:17 PM - The Senate Ethics Committee on Friday dismissed complaints against Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) that they used their positions of power to obtain special deals on home loans from lender Countrywide Financial.

After a year-long investigation, the committee told Dodd and Conrad that it found "no substantial credible evidence" that they violated the Senate's ethics rules. The committee found that the senators' loans were processed through the special program, but that they didn't appear to profit financially from it.

But the committee also admonished the senators, saying they "should have exercised more vigilance in your dealings with Countrywide in order to avoid the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as Senator."

The allegations about Dodd and Conrad are part of a politically explosive controversy about whether high-profile politicians and businessmen received special deals on home loans from an exclusive Countrywide program created by former chief executive Angelo Mozilo.

The ethics committee investigation found that participants in the Countrywide program "were often offered quicker, more efficient loan processing and some discounts."

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Banks Still Not Helping Homeowners

The Economic Numbers Confirm It

As I have stated for months, banks are not doing enough to help distressed homeowners and it is driving up the foreclosure rate in America to record highs.

Government data released yesterday, affirms what I have been writing for months regarding the aforementioned matter, as it has been revealed this week, via national figures, only 9% of eligible homeowners have been helped by the billions in bank bailouts, funded by U.S. taxpayer money, which is a disgrace.

Banks are holding on to the money, investing it in other endeavors and not helping the American people, whose homes are at stake. Hence the higher foreclosure rates.

Had the banks held up their end of the bargain, in accepting enormous sums of taxpayer money and actually used it for what the funds where earmarked for, the economy would have experienced a better quarter.

As I have also stated for months, the government cannot play nice with a lot of these banks, as they do not understand that sort of language and conduct, interpreting it as weakness.

We see the end result of that this week, as the numbers confirm, banks have been audaciously hording taxpayer money. It is the equivalent of one's car breaking down, sending an assistant to buy a container of gas, they return with the gas purchased with your money and state, "I'm only going to give you 9% of the gas in this full container, bought with your money. It really won't get you very far, but that's your problem."

Side Bar: If I were head of state anywhere in this world and had to deal with an unruly banking sector, when I called them together in the aforementioned meeting Obama convened a few months ago, I would have let them talk their butts off then simply stated, "Thank you for coming here today. Let's cut to the chase. If I don't see a massive drop in fraud, a sizeable reduction in unjustifiable bonuses and more legitimate consumer loan modifications of a fair and sustainable nature, I'm going to start locking your employees up and I cannot guarantee it won't reach your personal executive office."

Then, I would offer them some coffee, as business people like that after they've been given soul shaking news. It aids in calming their nerves and temporarily helps them not to think about the human lion that's about to figuratively maul them, if they run amok at the taxpayers' expense (grin).

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Published: August 4, 2009 - WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said on Tuesday that only a small number of homeowners — 235,247, or 9 percent of those eligible — had been helped by the latest government program created to modify home loans and prevent foreclosures.

A report released by Treasury officials identified lenders who had made slow progress in offering more affordable mortgages, naming Bank of America and Wells Fargo as among those failing to reach large numbers of eligible borrowers.

While 15 percent of eligible homeowners have been offered help through the mortgage modification program, the low rate of actual mortgage reductions has frustrated administration officials.

Michael S. Barr, the assistant secretary for financial institutions, said in a news conference that there were “significant variations” in performance and that some institutions had made “an infinitesimally small amount” of progress.

“I think it’s safe to say we’re disappointed in the performance of some of the servicers,” Mr. Barr said. “We expect them to do more.”

The release of data showing the progress of individual institutions is part of a Treasury effort to push banks to modify loans faster.

Under the $75 billion program, homeowners whose monthly mortgage payments are more than 31 percent of their gross income are eligible for modified loans, with interest rates as low as 2 percent.

Bank of America has modified only 4 percent of the eligible mortgages, and Wells Fargo has modified 6 percent.

Citimortgage, a unit of Citigroup, fared better at 15 percent, while JPMorgan Chase was among the most successful, modifying loans for 20 percent of eligible borrowers. All four institutions received federal bailout money...

http://www.nytimes.com

Stocks Slide on Worse-Than-Expected Jobs Report

On Wednesday the focus was on a report showing that the number of private-sector jobs fell by 371,000 in July, according to payroll company Automatic Data Processing and Macroeconomic Advisers. That was slightly worse than analysts were expecting and indicated that employers continue to slash jobs, though at a lower rate than earlier this year.

The data "suggest the unemployment rate continues to rocket and household cash flows continue to fall. Not a great outlook for spending, we'd say," said Ian Shepherdson, an economist for High Frequency Economics.

http://www.washingtonpost.com