It's becoming clearer that the foreclosure mess is likely to require some sort of federal response. In a good scenario, agencies like Fannie and Freddie can simply take of this on their own. In a bad scenario, where investors are able to push the rotten mortgages back onto the banks that sold them, we could be looking at another insolvency crisis.
But there's opportunity here, too. The foreclosure mess is new, but the foreclosure crisis has been going on for years now, and homeowners still need help. That the banks were this lazy and shoddy and potentially fraudulent when the consequences would be on them is a good reminder of how many homeowners were sold mortgages that they not only didn't understand, but that were simply misrepresented to them.
If we have to help the banks get through this, then we also need to do more to help the homeowners get through this. A good start would be allowing courts to negotiate down principal balances to help underwater homeowners (that's the "cramdown" idea that the House passed and the Senate rejected some months ago), and another idea would be expanding right-to-rent, where foreclosed homeowners have the right to rent their home at fair market value. Either way, it's increasingly clear that if the banks need help to stay out of trouble, they're going to get it. But as the full dysfunction of the mortgage markets continues to reveal itself, it's time to do more for the distressed homeowners the market got into trouble.
Welcome to Wonkbook.
Top Stories
Federal regulators are beginning to address the foreclosure mess -- but mostly just by having banks conduct internal reviews, report Zachary Goldfarb, Dina ElBoghdady and Ariana Eunjung Cha: "While [the Federal Housing Finance Agency] does not oversee banks or most other financial firms directly, the regulator can still exert pressure by way of its authority over Fannie and Freddie, which now own or guarantee well over half the nation's home loans. If banks and other lenders do follow the policy prescriptions, the FHFA could threaten to impose financial penalties and other sanctions. The policy statement tells lenders to make sure that documents used as part of the foreclosure were properly reviewed and signed. If they weren't, lenders must work with local lawyers on a fix. This could include filing new paperwork."
The American people should get mortgage help in return for the bank bailouts, writes Tim Fernholz: "Fannie and Freddie own or insure most of the mortgages in the U.S., and the government could overlook the paperwork irregularities so that Fannie and Freddie can absorb the losses rather than send them back to the banks...People suffering from employment problems, those whose mortgages are underwater due to the drop in home prices, and the victims of fraud should have the opportunity for deep principle write downs and substantial loan modifications. Those have been hard to access because servicers devote few resources to working out sustainable loan agreements with borrowers. That could change if the government has the option of putting a serious package of bad loans back onto the banks - primarily Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citibank."
Sen. Mary Landrieu is refusing to release her hold on OMB nominee Jack Lew: http://bit.ly/aADayP
Congressional liberals want the Bush tax cuts for income over $250,000 to end in order to reduce income inequality, reports Lori Montgomery: "'I just really believe it's an argument we can win,' said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). 'If you look at our tax structure from World War II to 1980, we had a system where the wealthiest paid more, we kept reinvesting back into our country, and we had a strong middle class.' Since then, the rich have raked in a growing share of the nation's income even as their tax rates have fallen. 'It's just been this sucking sound up the ladder to the wealthiest Americans,' he said...Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, wants to go further in taxing the wealthy, by treating their dividends - a large chunk of earnings in top households - as regular income."
Insurers will be able to charge more from families with sick children if they ask for insurance outside open enrollment periods, reports Robert Pear: "In September, the administration said that insurers could establish open-enrollment periods — for example, one month a year — during which they would accept all children. Now, on Wednesday, the administration, answering a question raised by many insurers, said they could charge higher premiums to sick children outside the open-enrollment period, if state laws allowed such underwriting, as many do....The problem may be solved in 2014. If Democrats can beat back Republican efforts to dismantle the law, most Americans will be required to carry health insurance, starting in 2014, and insurers will be required to accept all applicants, regardless of pre-existing conditions."
Got tips, additions, or comments? E-mail me.
Jon Cohn offers a simple test to apply to stories touting big disruptions from the Affordable Care Act: "Here are three basic questions to ask every time you hear a story about changes the Affordable Care Act is unleashing: 1) Is something actually changing? 2) Is the change related to the Affordable Care Act? 3) Is the change really for the worse?" As he details, the stories we're hearing fail at least one of the tests more often than you'd think.
Live indie interlude: Beach House plays "Norway".
Still to come: Fannie and Freddie have begun investigating the foreclosure mess; the oil spill commission is split over the future of deepwater drilling; Obama calls for extending a tax break for students; and a man builds an airplane from scratch.
Economy/Foreclosures
Fannie and Freddie have started investigating the foreclosure mess, report Nick Timiraos and Carrick Mollenkamp: "Last Friday, Freddie told mortgage servicers to stop sending cases to the Law Offices of David J. Stern, of Plantation, Fla. Fannie followed suit on Monday. The law firm has been at the center of recent allegations by the Florida attorney general's office, which released a deposition of a former law-firm employee. In the deposition, the employee alleged the firm routinely forged notarized documents amid closed-door screaming matches that broke out because files weren't moved fast enough...Fannie and Freddie have hired separate firms to review the foreclosures handled by Stern's offices."
Fast trading may have left big banks without proper mortgage documents, report Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jia Lynn Yang: "The foreclosure debacle has exposed one of Wall Street's little-known practices: For more than a decade, big lenders sold millions of mortgages around the globe at lightning speed without properly transferring the physical documents that prove who legally owned the loans. Now, some of the pension systems, hedge funds and other investors that took big losses on the loans are seeking to use this flaw to force banks to compensate them or even invalidate the mortgage trades themselves. Their collective actions, if successful, could blow a hole through the balance sheets of big banks and raise fundamental questions about the financial system, financial analysts and a lawmaker said."
Critics are pouncing on Obama's admission that "there's no such thing as shovel-ready projects": http://politi.co/9t9ola
Investors believe Fed action is imminent, reports David Hilzenrath: "Several corporate earnings reports might have contributed to the market's optimism, but analysts said that the minutes of a Federal Reserve policy meeting released Tuesday raised expectations that the Fed will buy a boatload of Treasury bonds. 'There's a growing acceptance that the Fed will likely be successful in driving asset prices, including the equity market, higher,' said Barry Knapp, an equity strategist at Barclays Capital. Said Joseph Battipaglia, a market strategist at the brokerage and investment bank Stifel Nicolaus: 'With a day to think about it, the conclusion is they're going to do something sooner than later' and 'it may well be substantial.'"
The auto and bank bailouts don't get the respect they deserve, writes David Ignatius: http://wapo.st/a4kexz
The IMF is partly to blame for currency disputes with China, writes Simon Johnson: "Its handling of the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998 severely antagonized leading middle-income emerging-market countries - and they still believe that the Fund does not have their interests at heart...As a result, emerging-market countries, aiming to ensure that they avoid needing financial support from the IMF in the foreseeable future, are increasingly following China’s lead and trying to ensure that they, too, run current-account surpluses. In practice, this means fervent efforts to prevent their currencies from appreciating in value."
Great moments in hobbyism interlude: A Kenyan man with no engineering knowledge makes an airplane from scratch.
Energy
Even a more competent White House couldn't have passed cap and trade, writes David Leonhardt: "The most obvious Republican suspects for a bipartisan bill -- Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, George LeMieux -- simply were not going to vote for it, as Mr. Lizza’s reporting makes clear. Republican leaders have done a very good job of keeping defections to a minimum over the last two years. Meanwhile, the Democrats faced much more internal opposition than on health reform. Evan Bayh, Kent Conrad, Byron Dorgan, Carte Goodwin, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Jay Rockefeller and Jim Webb all looked like questions marks or worse."
The recession, Senate opposition, and industry lobbying killed cap and trade, writes Daniel Weiss: http://bit.ly/d4Kdeo
Clean energy investment should supplement, not replace, a carbon price, writes David Roberts: "Climate policy is not a zero-sum game. These policies work in concert. The carbon price raises the unit cost of dirty energy while efficiency and public investment drive it down. Charging polluters for their climate pollution (and removing existing subsidies to dirty energy) can help raise the money to spend on investment. Regulation can create tangible short-term benefits for the public and help drive industry to the table to negotiate legislation. All the pieces work together and there's no reason they can't all be pushed simultaneously at every level of government."
The spill commission is split on deepwater drilling's future, reports Siobhan Hughes: "William Reilly, a co-chairman of the panel and head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George H.W. Bush, expressed cautious support for a conclusion that endorsed continued, if closely regulated, deep-water drilling. He previously had criticized the Obama administration's ban on new deep-water drilling, a ban lifted Tuesday...But commissioner Cherry Murray, the dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said, 'The hazards of ultra deep-water need to be spelled out a little bit more.'...'If you went to all electric cars, 70% of our oil usage would go away,' responded Ms. Murray."
Solar power jobs are set to grow 26% this year: http://bit.ly/dq26YU
Human activity far exceeds the earth's capability to support it, reports Felicity Barringer: "If business continues as usual, the report predicts, 'humanity will be using resources and land at the rate of two planets each year by 2030, and just over 2.8 planets each year by 2050.' The editorial team that produced the latest report writes that human demand on the planet’s ecosystems more than doubled between 1961 and 2007. Humankind is now consuming the planet’s resources at a rate that outstrips the natural replenishment of those resources by 50 percent."
Some see the EPA's ethanol decision as political pandering: http://politi.co/c8ZHq1
Advertising interlude: ING Direct experiments with human billboards.
Domestic Policy
Obama wants to make permanent a tax credit for college students, reports Lori Montgomery: "The credit provides as much as $2,500 a year per student to cover expenses ranging from tuition payments to other expenses, such as books and supplies. According to a new report by the Treasury Department, the credit has significantly expanded aid to the 12.5 million students who took advantage of it last year, raising their annual benefit to an average of $1,736 - a 75 percent increase over the Hope Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit, two earlier federal tuition-assistance programs. The tax credit is also more broadly available than those programs, which were limited to expenses incurred during the first two years of college instead of four."
The FCC is taking on cell phone "bill shock": http://wapo.st/aC9iAH
Medicare's actuary admits health care reform could cost some seniors, reports Jennifer Haberkorn: "Richard Foster, the actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, also tells Senate Republicans that the overhaul will result in 'less generous benefit packages' for Medicare Advantage plans next year. Foster is independent from the administration and non-partisan. Democrats have long contended that Medicare Advantage plans - private insurance alternatives to Medicare - overpay private insurers, increasing premiums for everyone, and needs to be reformulated."
Social Security benefits are staying constant: http://politi.co/dof4fe
Chile and Australia are handling their aging populations most responsibly, write Richard Jackson, Neil Howe, and Keisuke Nakashima: http://nyti.ms/9rzbgG
States should push market-based changes to health care reform, write Scott Gottlieb and Tom Miller: "ObamaCare intends health-care exchanges to be a regulatory dragnet to trap insurers into offering a single government-prescribed set of health benefits. State-designed exchanges could, and should, do the opposite. Any willing insurers already licensed to operate in a state should be able to offer plans. Their operating rules would focus on providing better information to consumers, rather than limiting the types of plans available. Exchanges should also enable easier allocation of private payments and public subsidies, simplify enrollment, and reduce transaction costs."
Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled and produced with help from Dylan Matthews, Mike Shepard, and Michelle Williams. Photo credit: J Pat Carter Photo
Private businesses "do not take an oath of office, nor do they stand for election. They may have conflicts of interests, are not directly responsible to the public, and are not subject to the same disclosure requirements as government actors," the report said.
Still, the report noted that giving Treasury discretion in the use of private companies meant that the TARP program could be carried out quickly. The Treasury deserves credit for its efforts to improve the contracting process, the report said.
benchcraft company scam
Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Mavens
Social media has created a new vocabulary for small business, a vocabulary that encompasses not only marketing but networking and collaborating as well.
Video: ABC <b>News</b> gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving <b>...</b>
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump Google's autonomous fleet has been.
<b>News</b> Corp. Could Buy Yahoo
It's possible Rupert Murdoch could buy Yahoo if AOL doesn't. His tech isn't cutting edge, but he does hate Google.
bench craft company reviews
It's becoming clearer that the foreclosure mess is likely to require some sort of federal response. In a good scenario, agencies like Fannie and Freddie can simply take of this on their own. In a bad scenario, where investors are able to push the rotten mortgages back onto the banks that sold them, we could be looking at another insolvency crisis.
But there's opportunity here, too. The foreclosure mess is new, but the foreclosure crisis has been going on for years now, and homeowners still need help. That the banks were this lazy and shoddy and potentially fraudulent when the consequences would be on them is a good reminder of how many homeowners were sold mortgages that they not only didn't understand, but that were simply misrepresented to them.
If we have to help the banks get through this, then we also need to do more to help the homeowners get through this. A good start would be allowing courts to negotiate down principal balances to help underwater homeowners (that's the "cramdown" idea that the House passed and the Senate rejected some months ago), and another idea would be expanding right-to-rent, where foreclosed homeowners have the right to rent their home at fair market value. Either way, it's increasingly clear that if the banks need help to stay out of trouble, they're going to get it. But as the full dysfunction of the mortgage markets continues to reveal itself, it's time to do more for the distressed homeowners the market got into trouble.
Welcome to Wonkbook.
Top Stories
Federal regulators are beginning to address the foreclosure mess -- but mostly just by having banks conduct internal reviews, report Zachary Goldfarb, Dina ElBoghdady and Ariana Eunjung Cha: "While [the Federal Housing Finance Agency] does not oversee banks or most other financial firms directly, the regulator can still exert pressure by way of its authority over Fannie and Freddie, which now own or guarantee well over half the nation's home loans. If banks and other lenders do follow the policy prescriptions, the FHFA could threaten to impose financial penalties and other sanctions. The policy statement tells lenders to make sure that documents used as part of the foreclosure were properly reviewed and signed. If they weren't, lenders must work with local lawyers on a fix. This could include filing new paperwork."
The American people should get mortgage help in return for the bank bailouts, writes Tim Fernholz: "Fannie and Freddie own or insure most of the mortgages in the U.S., and the government could overlook the paperwork irregularities so that Fannie and Freddie can absorb the losses rather than send them back to the banks...People suffering from employment problems, those whose mortgages are underwater due to the drop in home prices, and the victims of fraud should have the opportunity for deep principle write downs and substantial loan modifications. Those have been hard to access because servicers devote few resources to working out sustainable loan agreements with borrowers. That could change if the government has the option of putting a serious package of bad loans back onto the banks - primarily Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citibank."
Sen. Mary Landrieu is refusing to release her hold on OMB nominee Jack Lew: http://bit.ly/aADayP
Congressional liberals want the Bush tax cuts for income over $250,000 to end in order to reduce income inequality, reports Lori Montgomery: "'I just really believe it's an argument we can win,' said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). 'If you look at our tax structure from World War II to 1980, we had a system where the wealthiest paid more, we kept reinvesting back into our country, and we had a strong middle class.' Since then, the rich have raked in a growing share of the nation's income even as their tax rates have fallen. 'It's just been this sucking sound up the ladder to the wealthiest Americans,' he said...Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, wants to go further in taxing the wealthy, by treating their dividends - a large chunk of earnings in top households - as regular income."
Insurers will be able to charge more from families with sick children if they ask for insurance outside open enrollment periods, reports Robert Pear: "In September, the administration said that insurers could establish open-enrollment periods — for example, one month a year — during which they would accept all children. Now, on Wednesday, the administration, answering a question raised by many insurers, said they could charge higher premiums to sick children outside the open-enrollment period, if state laws allowed such underwriting, as many do....The problem may be solved in 2014. If Democrats can beat back Republican efforts to dismantle the law, most Americans will be required to carry health insurance, starting in 2014, and insurers will be required to accept all applicants, regardless of pre-existing conditions."
Got tips, additions, or comments? E-mail me.
Jon Cohn offers a simple test to apply to stories touting big disruptions from the Affordable Care Act: "Here are three basic questions to ask every time you hear a story about changes the Affordable Care Act is unleashing: 1) Is something actually changing? 2) Is the change related to the Affordable Care Act? 3) Is the change really for the worse?" As he details, the stories we're hearing fail at least one of the tests more often than you'd think.
Live indie interlude: Beach House plays "Norway".
Still to come: Fannie and Freddie have begun investigating the foreclosure mess; the oil spill commission is split over the future of deepwater drilling; Obama calls for extending a tax break for students; and a man builds an airplane from scratch.
Economy/Foreclosures
Fannie and Freddie have started investigating the foreclosure mess, report Nick Timiraos and Carrick Mollenkamp: "Last Friday, Freddie told mortgage servicers to stop sending cases to the Law Offices of David J. Stern, of Plantation, Fla. Fannie followed suit on Monday. The law firm has been at the center of recent allegations by the Florida attorney general's office, which released a deposition of a former law-firm employee. In the deposition, the employee alleged the firm routinely forged notarized documents amid closed-door screaming matches that broke out because files weren't moved fast enough...Fannie and Freddie have hired separate firms to review the foreclosures handled by Stern's offices."
Fast trading may have left big banks without proper mortgage documents, report Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jia Lynn Yang: "The foreclosure debacle has exposed one of Wall Street's little-known practices: For more than a decade, big lenders sold millions of mortgages around the globe at lightning speed without properly transferring the physical documents that prove who legally owned the loans. Now, some of the pension systems, hedge funds and other investors that took big losses on the loans are seeking to use this flaw to force banks to compensate them or even invalidate the mortgage trades themselves. Their collective actions, if successful, could blow a hole through the balance sheets of big banks and raise fundamental questions about the financial system, financial analysts and a lawmaker said."
Critics are pouncing on Obama's admission that "there's no such thing as shovel-ready projects": http://politi.co/9t9ola
Investors believe Fed action is imminent, reports David Hilzenrath: "Several corporate earnings reports might have contributed to the market's optimism, but analysts said that the minutes of a Federal Reserve policy meeting released Tuesday raised expectations that the Fed will buy a boatload of Treasury bonds. 'There's a growing acceptance that the Fed will likely be successful in driving asset prices, including the equity market, higher,' said Barry Knapp, an equity strategist at Barclays Capital. Said Joseph Battipaglia, a market strategist at the brokerage and investment bank Stifel Nicolaus: 'With a day to think about it, the conclusion is they're going to do something sooner than later' and 'it may well be substantial.'"
The auto and bank bailouts don't get the respect they deserve, writes David Ignatius: http://wapo.st/a4kexz
The IMF is partly to blame for currency disputes with China, writes Simon Johnson: "Its handling of the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998 severely antagonized leading middle-income emerging-market countries - and they still believe that the Fund does not have their interests at heart...As a result, emerging-market countries, aiming to ensure that they avoid needing financial support from the IMF in the foreseeable future, are increasingly following China’s lead and trying to ensure that they, too, run current-account surpluses. In practice, this means fervent efforts to prevent their currencies from appreciating in value."
Great moments in hobbyism interlude: A Kenyan man with no engineering knowledge makes an airplane from scratch.
Energy
Even a more competent White House couldn't have passed cap and trade, writes David Leonhardt: "The most obvious Republican suspects for a bipartisan bill -- Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, George LeMieux -- simply were not going to vote for it, as Mr. Lizza’s reporting makes clear. Republican leaders have done a very good job of keeping defections to a minimum over the last two years. Meanwhile, the Democrats faced much more internal opposition than on health reform. Evan Bayh, Kent Conrad, Byron Dorgan, Carte Goodwin, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Jay Rockefeller and Jim Webb all looked like questions marks or worse."
The recession, Senate opposition, and industry lobbying killed cap and trade, writes Daniel Weiss: http://bit.ly/d4Kdeo
Clean energy investment should supplement, not replace, a carbon price, writes David Roberts: "Climate policy is not a zero-sum game. These policies work in concert. The carbon price raises the unit cost of dirty energy while efficiency and public investment drive it down. Charging polluters for their climate pollution (and removing existing subsidies to dirty energy) can help raise the money to spend on investment. Regulation can create tangible short-term benefits for the public and help drive industry to the table to negotiate legislation. All the pieces work together and there's no reason they can't all be pushed simultaneously at every level of government."
The spill commission is split on deepwater drilling's future, reports Siobhan Hughes: "William Reilly, a co-chairman of the panel and head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George H.W. Bush, expressed cautious support for a conclusion that endorsed continued, if closely regulated, deep-water drilling. He previously had criticized the Obama administration's ban on new deep-water drilling, a ban lifted Tuesday...But commissioner Cherry Murray, the dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said, 'The hazards of ultra deep-water need to be spelled out a little bit more.'...'If you went to all electric cars, 70% of our oil usage would go away,' responded Ms. Murray."
Solar power jobs are set to grow 26% this year: http://bit.ly/dq26YU
Human activity far exceeds the earth's capability to support it, reports Felicity Barringer: "If business continues as usual, the report predicts, 'humanity will be using resources and land at the rate of two planets each year by 2030, and just over 2.8 planets each year by 2050.' The editorial team that produced the latest report writes that human demand on the planet’s ecosystems more than doubled between 1961 and 2007. Humankind is now consuming the planet’s resources at a rate that outstrips the natural replenishment of those resources by 50 percent."
Some see the EPA's ethanol decision as political pandering: http://politi.co/c8ZHq1
Advertising interlude: ING Direct experiments with human billboards.
Domestic Policy
Obama wants to make permanent a tax credit for college students, reports Lori Montgomery: "The credit provides as much as $2,500 a year per student to cover expenses ranging from tuition payments to other expenses, such as books and supplies. According to a new report by the Treasury Department, the credit has significantly expanded aid to the 12.5 million students who took advantage of it last year, raising their annual benefit to an average of $1,736 - a 75 percent increase over the Hope Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit, two earlier federal tuition-assistance programs. The tax credit is also more broadly available than those programs, which were limited to expenses incurred during the first two years of college instead of four."
The FCC is taking on cell phone "bill shock": http://wapo.st/aC9iAH
Medicare's actuary admits health care reform could cost some seniors, reports Jennifer Haberkorn: "Richard Foster, the actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, also tells Senate Republicans that the overhaul will result in 'less generous benefit packages' for Medicare Advantage plans next year. Foster is independent from the administration and non-partisan. Democrats have long contended that Medicare Advantage plans - private insurance alternatives to Medicare - overpay private insurers, increasing premiums for everyone, and needs to be reformulated."
Social Security benefits are staying constant: http://politi.co/dof4fe
Chile and Australia are handling their aging populations most responsibly, write Richard Jackson, Neil Howe, and Keisuke Nakashima: http://nyti.ms/9rzbgG
States should push market-based changes to health care reform, write Scott Gottlieb and Tom Miller: "ObamaCare intends health-care exchanges to be a regulatory dragnet to trap insurers into offering a single government-prescribed set of health benefits. State-designed exchanges could, and should, do the opposite. Any willing insurers already licensed to operate in a state should be able to offer plans. Their operating rules would focus on providing better information to consumers, rather than limiting the types of plans available. Exchanges should also enable easier allocation of private payments and public subsidies, simplify enrollment, and reduce transaction costs."
Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled and produced with help from Dylan Matthews, Mike Shepard, and Michelle Williams. Photo credit: J Pat Carter Photo
Private businesses "do not take an oath of office, nor do they stand for election. They may have conflicts of interests, are not directly responsible to the public, and are not subject to the same disclosure requirements as government actors," the report said.
Still, the report noted that giving Treasury discretion in the use of private companies meant that the TARP program could be carried out quickly. The Treasury deserves credit for its efforts to improve the contracting process, the report said.
bench craft company reviews
Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Mavens
Social media has created a new vocabulary for small business, a vocabulary that encompasses not only marketing but networking and collaborating as well.
Video: ABC <b>News</b> gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving <b>...</b>
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump Google's autonomous fleet has been.
<b>News</b> Corp. Could Buy Yahoo
It's possible Rupert Murdoch could buy Yahoo if AOL doesn't. His tech isn't cutting edge, but he does hate Google.
benchcraft company portland or
bench craft company reviews
benchcraft company portland or
Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Mavens
Social media has created a new vocabulary for small business, a vocabulary that encompasses not only marketing but networking and collaborating as well.
Video: ABC <b>News</b> gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving <b>...</b>
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump Google's autonomous fleet has been.
<b>News</b> Corp. Could Buy Yahoo
It's possible Rupert Murdoch could buy Yahoo if AOL doesn't. His tech isn't cutting edge, but he does hate Google.
bench craft company reviews
It's becoming clearer that the foreclosure mess is likely to require some sort of federal response. In a good scenario, agencies like Fannie and Freddie can simply take of this on their own. In a bad scenario, where investors are able to push the rotten mortgages back onto the banks that sold them, we could be looking at another insolvency crisis.
But there's opportunity here, too. The foreclosure mess is new, but the foreclosure crisis has been going on for years now, and homeowners still need help. That the banks were this lazy and shoddy and potentially fraudulent when the consequences would be on them is a good reminder of how many homeowners were sold mortgages that they not only didn't understand, but that were simply misrepresented to them.
If we have to help the banks get through this, then we also need to do more to help the homeowners get through this. A good start would be allowing courts to negotiate down principal balances to help underwater homeowners (that's the "cramdown" idea that the House passed and the Senate rejected some months ago), and another idea would be expanding right-to-rent, where foreclosed homeowners have the right to rent their home at fair market value. Either way, it's increasingly clear that if the banks need help to stay out of trouble, they're going to get it. But as the full dysfunction of the mortgage markets continues to reveal itself, it's time to do more for the distressed homeowners the market got into trouble.
Welcome to Wonkbook.
Top Stories
Federal regulators are beginning to address the foreclosure mess -- but mostly just by having banks conduct internal reviews, report Zachary Goldfarb, Dina ElBoghdady and Ariana Eunjung Cha: "While [the Federal Housing Finance Agency] does not oversee banks or most other financial firms directly, the regulator can still exert pressure by way of its authority over Fannie and Freddie, which now own or guarantee well over half the nation's home loans. If banks and other lenders do follow the policy prescriptions, the FHFA could threaten to impose financial penalties and other sanctions. The policy statement tells lenders to make sure that documents used as part of the foreclosure were properly reviewed and signed. If they weren't, lenders must work with local lawyers on a fix. This could include filing new paperwork."
The American people should get mortgage help in return for the bank bailouts, writes Tim Fernholz: "Fannie and Freddie own or insure most of the mortgages in the U.S., and the government could overlook the paperwork irregularities so that Fannie and Freddie can absorb the losses rather than send them back to the banks...People suffering from employment problems, those whose mortgages are underwater due to the drop in home prices, and the victims of fraud should have the opportunity for deep principle write downs and substantial loan modifications. Those have been hard to access because servicers devote few resources to working out sustainable loan agreements with borrowers. That could change if the government has the option of putting a serious package of bad loans back onto the banks - primarily Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citibank."
Sen. Mary Landrieu is refusing to release her hold on OMB nominee Jack Lew: http://bit.ly/aADayP
Congressional liberals want the Bush tax cuts for income over $250,000 to end in order to reduce income inequality, reports Lori Montgomery: "'I just really believe it's an argument we can win,' said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). 'If you look at our tax structure from World War II to 1980, we had a system where the wealthiest paid more, we kept reinvesting back into our country, and we had a strong middle class.' Since then, the rich have raked in a growing share of the nation's income even as their tax rates have fallen. 'It's just been this sucking sound up the ladder to the wealthiest Americans,' he said...Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, wants to go further in taxing the wealthy, by treating their dividends - a large chunk of earnings in top households - as regular income."
Insurers will be able to charge more from families with sick children if they ask for insurance outside open enrollment periods, reports Robert Pear: "In September, the administration said that insurers could establish open-enrollment periods — for example, one month a year — during which they would accept all children. Now, on Wednesday, the administration, answering a question raised by many insurers, said they could charge higher premiums to sick children outside the open-enrollment period, if state laws allowed such underwriting, as many do....The problem may be solved in 2014. If Democrats can beat back Republican efforts to dismantle the law, most Americans will be required to carry health insurance, starting in 2014, and insurers will be required to accept all applicants, regardless of pre-existing conditions."
Got tips, additions, or comments? E-mail me.
Jon Cohn offers a simple test to apply to stories touting big disruptions from the Affordable Care Act: "Here are three basic questions to ask every time you hear a story about changes the Affordable Care Act is unleashing: 1) Is something actually changing? 2) Is the change related to the Affordable Care Act? 3) Is the change really for the worse?" As he details, the stories we're hearing fail at least one of the tests more often than you'd think.
Live indie interlude: Beach House plays "Norway".
Still to come: Fannie and Freddie have begun investigating the foreclosure mess; the oil spill commission is split over the future of deepwater drilling; Obama calls for extending a tax break for students; and a man builds an airplane from scratch.
Economy/Foreclosures
Fannie and Freddie have started investigating the foreclosure mess, report Nick Timiraos and Carrick Mollenkamp: "Last Friday, Freddie told mortgage servicers to stop sending cases to the Law Offices of David J. Stern, of Plantation, Fla. Fannie followed suit on Monday. The law firm has been at the center of recent allegations by the Florida attorney general's office, which released a deposition of a former law-firm employee. In the deposition, the employee alleged the firm routinely forged notarized documents amid closed-door screaming matches that broke out because files weren't moved fast enough...Fannie and Freddie have hired separate firms to review the foreclosures handled by Stern's offices."
Fast trading may have left big banks without proper mortgage documents, report Ariana Eunjung Cha and Jia Lynn Yang: "The foreclosure debacle has exposed one of Wall Street's little-known practices: For more than a decade, big lenders sold millions of mortgages around the globe at lightning speed without properly transferring the physical documents that prove who legally owned the loans. Now, some of the pension systems, hedge funds and other investors that took big losses on the loans are seeking to use this flaw to force banks to compensate them or even invalidate the mortgage trades themselves. Their collective actions, if successful, could blow a hole through the balance sheets of big banks and raise fundamental questions about the financial system, financial analysts and a lawmaker said."
Critics are pouncing on Obama's admission that "there's no such thing as shovel-ready projects": http://politi.co/9t9ola
Investors believe Fed action is imminent, reports David Hilzenrath: "Several corporate earnings reports might have contributed to the market's optimism, but analysts said that the minutes of a Federal Reserve policy meeting released Tuesday raised expectations that the Fed will buy a boatload of Treasury bonds. 'There's a growing acceptance that the Fed will likely be successful in driving asset prices, including the equity market, higher,' said Barry Knapp, an equity strategist at Barclays Capital. Said Joseph Battipaglia, a market strategist at the brokerage and investment bank Stifel Nicolaus: 'With a day to think about it, the conclusion is they're going to do something sooner than later' and 'it may well be substantial.'"
The auto and bank bailouts don't get the respect they deserve, writes David Ignatius: http://wapo.st/a4kexz
The IMF is partly to blame for currency disputes with China, writes Simon Johnson: "Its handling of the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998 severely antagonized leading middle-income emerging-market countries - and they still believe that the Fund does not have their interests at heart...As a result, emerging-market countries, aiming to ensure that they avoid needing financial support from the IMF in the foreseeable future, are increasingly following China’s lead and trying to ensure that they, too, run current-account surpluses. In practice, this means fervent efforts to prevent their currencies from appreciating in value."
Great moments in hobbyism interlude: A Kenyan man with no engineering knowledge makes an airplane from scratch.
Energy
Even a more competent White House couldn't have passed cap and trade, writes David Leonhardt: "The most obvious Republican suspects for a bipartisan bill -- Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, George LeMieux -- simply were not going to vote for it, as Mr. Lizza’s reporting makes clear. Republican leaders have done a very good job of keeping defections to a minimum over the last two years. Meanwhile, the Democrats faced much more internal opposition than on health reform. Evan Bayh, Kent Conrad, Byron Dorgan, Carte Goodwin, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Jay Rockefeller and Jim Webb all looked like questions marks or worse."
The recession, Senate opposition, and industry lobbying killed cap and trade, writes Daniel Weiss: http://bit.ly/d4Kdeo
Clean energy investment should supplement, not replace, a carbon price, writes David Roberts: "Climate policy is not a zero-sum game. These policies work in concert. The carbon price raises the unit cost of dirty energy while efficiency and public investment drive it down. Charging polluters for their climate pollution (and removing existing subsidies to dirty energy) can help raise the money to spend on investment. Regulation can create tangible short-term benefits for the public and help drive industry to the table to negotiate legislation. All the pieces work together and there's no reason they can't all be pushed simultaneously at every level of government."
The spill commission is split on deepwater drilling's future, reports Siobhan Hughes: "William Reilly, a co-chairman of the panel and head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George H.W. Bush, expressed cautious support for a conclusion that endorsed continued, if closely regulated, deep-water drilling. He previously had criticized the Obama administration's ban on new deep-water drilling, a ban lifted Tuesday...But commissioner Cherry Murray, the dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said, 'The hazards of ultra deep-water need to be spelled out a little bit more.'...'If you went to all electric cars, 70% of our oil usage would go away,' responded Ms. Murray."
Solar power jobs are set to grow 26% this year: http://bit.ly/dq26YU
Human activity far exceeds the earth's capability to support it, reports Felicity Barringer: "If business continues as usual, the report predicts, 'humanity will be using resources and land at the rate of two planets each year by 2030, and just over 2.8 planets each year by 2050.' The editorial team that produced the latest report writes that human demand on the planet’s ecosystems more than doubled between 1961 and 2007. Humankind is now consuming the planet’s resources at a rate that outstrips the natural replenishment of those resources by 50 percent."
Some see the EPA's ethanol decision as political pandering: http://politi.co/c8ZHq1
Advertising interlude: ING Direct experiments with human billboards.
Domestic Policy
Obama wants to make permanent a tax credit for college students, reports Lori Montgomery: "The credit provides as much as $2,500 a year per student to cover expenses ranging from tuition payments to other expenses, such as books and supplies. According to a new report by the Treasury Department, the credit has significantly expanded aid to the 12.5 million students who took advantage of it last year, raising their annual benefit to an average of $1,736 - a 75 percent increase over the Hope Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit, two earlier federal tuition-assistance programs. The tax credit is also more broadly available than those programs, which were limited to expenses incurred during the first two years of college instead of four."
The FCC is taking on cell phone "bill shock": http://wapo.st/aC9iAH
Medicare's actuary admits health care reform could cost some seniors, reports Jennifer Haberkorn: "Richard Foster, the actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, also tells Senate Republicans that the overhaul will result in 'less generous benefit packages' for Medicare Advantage plans next year. Foster is independent from the administration and non-partisan. Democrats have long contended that Medicare Advantage plans - private insurance alternatives to Medicare - overpay private insurers, increasing premiums for everyone, and needs to be reformulated."
Social Security benefits are staying constant: http://politi.co/dof4fe
Chile and Australia are handling their aging populations most responsibly, write Richard Jackson, Neil Howe, and Keisuke Nakashima: http://nyti.ms/9rzbgG
States should push market-based changes to health care reform, write Scott Gottlieb and Tom Miller: "ObamaCare intends health-care exchanges to be a regulatory dragnet to trap insurers into offering a single government-prescribed set of health benefits. State-designed exchanges could, and should, do the opposite. Any willing insurers already licensed to operate in a state should be able to offer plans. Their operating rules would focus on providing better information to consumers, rather than limiting the types of plans available. Exchanges should also enable easier allocation of private payments and public subsidies, simplify enrollment, and reduce transaction costs."
Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled and produced with help from Dylan Matthews, Mike Shepard, and Michelle Williams. Photo credit: J Pat Carter Photo
Private businesses "do not take an oath of office, nor do they stand for election. They may have conflicts of interests, are not directly responsible to the public, and are not subject to the same disclosure requirements as government actors," the report said.
Still, the report noted that giving Treasury discretion in the use of private companies meant that the TARP program could be carried out quickly. The Treasury deserves credit for its efforts to improve the contracting process, the report said.
bench craft company reviews
bench craft company reviews
Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Mavens
Social media has created a new vocabulary for small business, a vocabulary that encompasses not only marketing but networking and collaborating as well.
Video: ABC <b>News</b> gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving <b>...</b>
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump Google's autonomous fleet has been.
<b>News</b> Corp. Could Buy Yahoo
It's possible Rupert Murdoch could buy Yahoo if AOL doesn't. His tech isn't cutting edge, but he does hate Google.
benchcraft company scam
benchcraft company scam
Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Mavens
Social media has created a new vocabulary for small business, a vocabulary that encompasses not only marketing but networking and collaborating as well.
Video: ABC <b>News</b> gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving <b>...</b>
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump Google's autonomous fleet has been.
<b>News</b> Corp. Could Buy Yahoo
It's possible Rupert Murdoch could buy Yahoo if AOL doesn't. His tech isn't cutting edge, but he does hate Google.
bench craft company reviews
Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Mavens
Social media has created a new vocabulary for small business, a vocabulary that encompasses not only marketing but networking and collaborating as well.
Video: ABC <b>News</b> gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving <b>...</b>
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump Google's autonomous fleet has been.
<b>News</b> Corp. Could Buy Yahoo
It's possible Rupert Murdoch could buy Yahoo if AOL doesn't. His tech isn't cutting edge, but he does hate Google.
benchcraft company scam
Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Mavens
Social media has created a new vocabulary for small business, a vocabulary that encompasses not only marketing but networking and collaborating as well.
Video: ABC <b>News</b> gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving <b>...</b>
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump Google's autonomous fleet has been.
<b>News</b> Corp. Could Buy Yahoo
It's possible Rupert Murdoch could buy Yahoo if AOL doesn't. His tech isn't cutting edge, but he does hate Google.
how to lose weight fast benchcraft company scam
bench craft company reviews
benchcraft company portland or
benchcraft company scam
Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Mavens
Social media has created a new vocabulary for small business, a vocabulary that encompasses not only marketing but networking and collaborating as well.
Video: ABC <b>News</b> gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving <b>...</b>
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump Google's autonomous fleet has been.
<b>News</b> Corp. Could Buy Yahoo
It's possible Rupert Murdoch could buy Yahoo if AOL doesn't. His tech isn't cutting edge, but he does hate Google.
benchcraft company scam
Are you facing the Loss of your home through foreclosure? Are you trying to muddle through and make necessary decisions to put a roof over your head, but at the same time trying to deal with the sadness, pain and feeling of shame and embarrassment? And, worst of all, does your heart break as you watch your children suffer this shocking loss? And at the same time, with tears running down your cheeks, you are out all hours of the night trying to get boxes to pack in at the grocery stores?
Take heart; you are not the only one who has gone through this. Right now all over our country people are experiencing this in droves. You will survive, and your kids will be only stronger people for having gone through this.
There are a few things I can share with you that I learned in 2005 when we went through this.
The FIRST Steps, as in anything, are usually the hardest. The phase when you find out you are being foreclosed is quite difficult. Actually for us, this went back to finding out my husband's job was down sized after 22 years. The foreclosure was next. Breaking these unpleasant truths to those we love or having it broken to us is very hard. And at this stage you feel like you might be living under an interstate bridge if something doesn't give! You see ahead of you all of the complications of this impending transition. You see the Loads of Stuff you have accumulated!
And, worst of all, of course you don't have an emergency financial fund set aside. That's the problem to start with.....not enough money! You are facing finding a suitable place and all the upfront money you must come up with. One surprise was that the prospective landlords check your credit rating. WE got turned down twice for rental property! There are still landlords who don't use this to select renters, and we were blessed enough to find one.
Sometimes, the foreclosing company will deal with you and give you some seed money to move on( WE GOT ONE THOUSAND) for getting out by a certain date and leaving it immaculate. This entails hauling off all outside items, attic clutter, etc...
Also during this time, you are trying to straighten out the red tape of the foreclosure and possible bankruptcy. Sometimes the way they foreclose or the way the loan was set up forces you into bankruptcy. It did for us. You need to carefully keep every paper that passes through your hands during this time; you may need these documents one, two or three years later as your taxes can get a little complicated after a foreclosure and especially after a bankruptcy.
Just remember....once you get this behind you....you definitely are through the worst
Focus on the Future. As much as you want to just stand and run your finger over the little marks where you recorded your kids growth in the hall, and cry....you must begin to look forward. Try to focus on how you will arrange your kitchen or just the thought of sitting and watching television on a cozy evening in peace when this is all over!
Get your kids focused the same way.
Let the Sadness Go.
Pets: This was one of the hard parts of going from being a home-owner to being a renter. NO PETS. Almost Everywhere...What do you do? Well, we placed our pets "temporarily" with the two grand moms. One took the two kittens and one took the dogs. The cats immediately got run over in the busier subdivision. The dogs lasted a while; they were old. But, we didn't "officially" get rid of them, and we were lucky to have family to do this. But, all I can say is that if the situation had been different where we were moving and we could have at all pulled it off, I probably would have kept any pets I could have to save my kids that extra sadness. Good luck with that. Maybe you can soon add something to replace it that will work out or at least be undetected!
HOLD YOUR HEAD UP
Try to show your kids this principle. If you know others who have been thru this or are going through it, tell your kids. Help them understand how common it is. I really think that our foreclosure was harder on our older kid than the younger one. Don't assume because they are young adults that they are not really emotionally struggling through this. One thing is that they are old enough to see through some of the faces you put on trying to make the best of it.
Sometimes, through this time, you will feel the bile rise in your throat as someone makes a comment about renters or how they abuse property, etc ...W hen we were trying to find a place to live and were literally begging these people to overlook our credit report let us rent from them. They would talk to us so condescendingly and "tell us" how we couldn't really afford the rent. Coming from the neighborhood we had lived in and the lives we had lived, this was quite difficult to take. You just try to remember how that feels and NEVER EVER treat anyone else that way . I think that lesson right there is one of the most important that we took away from the whole thing. My husband and I and our kids all have a different way of looking at folks than we used to.
....For Goodness Sake, quit feeling embarrassed and ashamed. You just don't know how many people you see every day that have been through the same thing, or are in the early stages of it. I was embarrassed when the cable man came to hook up our cable at the apartment we had leased. He had just lost his house the month before! .... It is difficult to find a balance between expressing the intense longing you have sometimes for your lost house, especially depending on the length of time, etc...and being swallowed up in looking backwards to your kids' childhoods, or your newlywed years, or whatever it is. It is important that the kids know you are grieving, too; this validates their feelings. But, you need to be very careful to what degree from now on you express these longings. LET THEM GO. You put a pallor on every family activity when you rewind back to some sad longing for the other house. When it comes down to the very core of things, the memories you are grieving are your family memories. If you come away with your family still safe and together, you have everything you really need, and are more blessed than most people. With a passing nod to the past, Make new family memories!
...maybe get them planning for an inexpensive room redo....(at least a color change and a new bedspread that doesn't remind them of their "old room." Just be sure and don't promise anything you can't carry through with financially They have been let down enough. If you have time, maybe they could have a yard sale and use their money for a new room redo....or new game system or stereo for the new room or whatever floats their boat. And, treat the whole thing as an ADVENTURE! New friends, new places to play, maybe a new yard, or a new tree to climb, a romantic window seat to dream in........ WHATEVER YOU CAN FIND ....Be upbeat and positive as you anticipate some new possibilities. Kids are resilient, and always curious. If you present things in that way, it will help keep them wondering about the future with some positive feelings.
. Hold your head up, Pray, and....focus on how comforting the quietness will be when the storm is over. And, it will be soon.
When it comes down to it.....Home is where your family and your stuff is.
Psalms 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread.Imagine yourself back in the old house without your family......see?At the time we lost our house, my husband's dear aunt lost her only son. She told me that her beautiful, big home, Lexus, etc...didn't really matter that much. Ask God what He wants you to learn through this experience? It may even involve a calling or career change, etc.....For me, I developed the desire to do social work. I haven't actually done that yet, but I returned to school and completed the first two years with high honors last spring!
big seminar 14
Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Mavens
Social media has created a new vocabulary for small business, a vocabulary that encompasses not only marketing but networking and collaborating as well.
Video: ABC <b>News</b> gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving <b>...</b>
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump Google's autonomous fleet has been.
<b>News</b> Corp. Could Buy Yahoo
It's possible Rupert Murdoch could buy Yahoo if AOL doesn't. His tech isn't cutting edge, but he does hate Google.
big seminar 14
Small Business <b>News</b>: Social Media Mavens
Social media has created a new vocabulary for small business, a vocabulary that encompasses not only marketing but networking and collaborating as well.
Video: ABC <b>News</b> gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving <b>...</b>
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump Google's autonomous fleet has been.
<b>News</b> Corp. Could Buy Yahoo
It's possible Rupert Murdoch could buy Yahoo if AOL doesn't. His tech isn't cutting edge, but he does hate Google.
big seminar 14
No comments:
Post a Comment