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POPSMortgage Broker in Chief Yesterday’s taxpayer-funded infomercial came just 10 days after President Obama played car salesman in the Grand Foyer of the White House and five weeks after he played stockbroker in the Oval Office. How did this happen? Why is the chief executive officer of the most powerful country in the world acting like a towel salesman? Because he has to. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are owned by the federal government. Three-quarters of the American people get their mortgages through a Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac qualified loan. Last year Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae lost over $100 billion combined. The federal government already loaned General Motors and Chrysler at least $17 billion and that total keeps going up. In 2008 GM lost $31 billion and Chrysler lost $8 billion. Banks lost hundreds of billions of dollars last year and now the federal government owns major stakes in some of them, like the 36% stake the Obama administration purchased in Citibank.
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POPSBlagojevich INDICTED on federal corruption charges Blagojevich, 52, and others are accused of illegally pressuring an Illinois congressman for help in raising funds and lying when FBI agents came to question him. His publicist, Glenn Selig, said a statement would be issued shortly. Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on a criminal complaint, and U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald had faced a Tuesday deadline to supplant it with an indictment from a federal grand jury. The Democrat's arrest meant curtains for his political career: The Illinois House impeached him Jan. 9, and the Senate convicted him and removed him from office Jan. 29. Others charged in the indictment include the former governor's brother, Robert Blagojevich, one-time chief fundraiser Christopher G. Kelly, former aide Lon Monk, Springfield lobbyist-millionaire William F. Cellini and former chief of staff John Harris.
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POPSCan Dodd be trusted? You can decide We asked readers this week if they had a question they’d like to ask Dodd. The response was strong — and so were the questions. We forwarded the questions to Dodd’s office, and offered to post his response to them on our Web page. But apparently they were never passed on to the senator. So when the senator came by for an editorial interview Friday, we began the discussion with that. The senator was given the 10-pages of questions readers submitted, and was asked if he’d like to take the opportunity to answer those questions now. We had the video camera rolling, and told him we’d put that on our Web site so he could answer directly to his constituents. You can view his response on www.NorwichBulletin.com, and decide for yourself if his answers are satisfactory to you, or if he answered them all.
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POPS$75 Billion for Homeowner Bailout According to the report, $75 billion is "more ambitious than initially expected -- and more expensive." More ambitious and expensive is probably what's called for here. AP has the details .
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POPSObama's Plan to Solve Housing Crisis
President Obama continues to impress and impress. This $75-billion dollars was initially given to the Bush Administration and was going to wind up in the hands of big banks, Wall Street speculators and credit card companies. Now the money will actually go to reduce mortage rates of millions of homes in threat of foreclosure. And banks that specifically help do this will get some cash. And incredible Feudal Age bankrupcy laws that only favored the Lord of the Mannor will not be available to people who own only their one home and live in that home who were previously excluded from this legal recourse. It's truly incrdible to see such common sense and well targeted actions from government. Under the Bush Administration bank TEN TIMES this amount was given to big banks, Wall St. speculators, etc. with no rules for them to do anything. Will some folks complain? Sure. Republicans, and those who resent people on the street getting aid. Efforts to prevent abuses look good. H
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POPSStop Me If You've Heard This One Before ~ Fannie Mae’s appraisal change doesn’t mean borrowers with less than 20 percent home equity can forgo mortgage insurance, the analysts said. That’s because Fannie Mae will likely use automated models to check home values listed on applications before offering to waive appraisals, the analysts said. The company’s DU Refi Plus program will start April 4.
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POPSA Mortgage Bailout? The Bush administration has said time and again it won't bailout the troubled mortgage industry, but this comes awfully close. -- Brian Wingfield
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POPSLenders slow to rescue failing mortgages
Foreclosure means the Bank gets the house. A mortgaged House is portrayed to be a customer's asset, when it is in fact a Bank asset. Not to mention the lure of borrowing on equity. The Banks are being defensive, but they don't want to do any deals with 'Customers' that will lead to an overall reduction in their profits. Banks can do amazing things with their books, and the alleged advantages of a Lifetime Debt sentence. If anyone has a Mortgage. The Bank owns them. I belong to a 'Credit Union', which is owned by and operated by the customers. The funds are a pool of customers assets, and and profits are reinvested in a community or customer services. The Credit Union 'Reliance' has opened branches in remote areas where bank branches have closed, and internet, or electronic transfer is the only way to get financial services. A Credit Union can be set up in a town or city and every customer has a share. The only way to beat banks, is to take the money out and put it somewhere safe .
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