foreclosures – Page 3 – Shortwoman.com

In the Shorties of Madness

What’s Your Angle: In what I fervently hope will be the last thing I have to say about Sharron Angle ever, Angle announces that she won’t be answering any questions asked by the pesky [local] media until she is a Senator, darn it. And Channel 8? You are so not invited to her Election Night Party, so there! Listen sweetie, if you don’t want people asking you questions in public, don’t be a public figure.

Let common sense prevail: Did you know that something in your body is very likely subject to a United States Patent? Good thing that big corporations haven’t figured out a way to charge you for that. Anyway, it looks like the United States may revisit the idea that my genes and your genes can be somebody else’s intellectual property.

I keep saying this: sugary drinks are not good for you.

Fail: When trying to steal copper from a vacant home, make sure the power is in fact off first. Oh, and leave the kids at home rather than sitting in the car waiting for you.

They’re mad as hell: and worse yet, they think they have some right to hurt or even kill you if you dare to disagree with them and their vision of a Utopian past-future. I’m beginning to wonder if my “liberal” respect for life — endorsed by the 10 Commandments and Jesus himself! — might need some retooling in the face of reality.

It’s the fraud, stupid: That’s the short version. It’s starting to look like the various state Attorneys General don’t like the BAMTOR Principle and may even hold banks accountable for their criminal actions, even if the SEC merely thinks the law is some sort of a suggestion.

I realize you may never need to know this: Table Etiquette for Formal Dinners in Japan.

This could turn out badly: So most people aren’t willing to relocate for a job anymore. More to the point, they can’t relocate for a job because they can’t sell their house for anything close to what they paid for it (advantage to renters?). At what point will job seekers decide to take the job and walk away from the house they can’t afford without work?

Looking forward to it: a long overdue re-work of Power90, a follow-on to Insanity, and more details on P90X MC2.

Ezra is correct again: Since most people retire because they have to rather than because they want to, raising the retirement age is a really dumb idea.

Urine Drug Tests Must Stop: a woman had her newborn taken away because she foolishly ate a bagel with poppy seeds on it. Why do we tolerate businesses, schools, and government entities making decisions about our lives based on such an inaccurate test?

Bloody Romans: “I don’t get nothin from the government!” Except of course for my mortgage interest deduction, student loans, unemployment insurance, Social Security, VA benefits, Medicare, G.I. Bill benefits….

Clearly deregulation is the answer: after all airlines would surely keep planes in good repair all by themselves if there were no pesky regulations requiring it.

Nothing left for me to say: Comrade E.B. Misfit said it all.

A reason to encourage absentee voting: nobody to harass you at the polls for being too brown.

Hope you are having fun: at the Colbert–Stewart rally.

Blast from the past: old computer equipment ads.

And last but not least: at least they are honest about it!

So remember to vote this Tuesday if you haven’t already. And remember my handy tip for voter initiatives, just say no.

Facepalm

Or: Ha ha! Women Like Cupcakes!

The Christian Science Monitor is not the only news source that went with the headline “Obama targets women voters in Seattle trip with talk of jobs, cupcakes.” The title goes back to this paragraph:

The White House gathered a group of female business owners for the Seattle meeting to try and help Obama argue that his policies have benefited women. They included the owner of a metal products manufacturing firm, and the owner of a specialty cupcake bakery.

Goodness knows we couldn’t have gone on to say something about the non-stereotypical woman running a metal shop! Nope, we had to talk about cupcakes. Apparently Secret Service guys like them too. If I liked reinforcing stereotypes, I’d point out the similarity between cupcakes and donuts. After all, aren’t Secret Service guys a lot like cops? And cops love donuts, amiright?? Ha ha!

What a shame that small talk about pastries derailed the actual important point of the article:

[A new report available from the White House Domestic Council] notes that women are now over 50 percent of US college graduates, and close to a majority of the US work force. At his Seattle town hall, Obama made the argument that as women go, so goes the nation, jobwise.

“How well women do … will help determine how well our families are doing as a whole,” said Obama.

What a shame that this message — and the larger message that many of us need decent jobs in workplaces that do not hamper our ability to be part of our families — had to be buried under a pile of designer cupcakes.

In Closing: On the Yalie frat boyz (am I correct that we would already be talking about their expulsion if they were chanting “Lynch Them!” instead of high-spirited talk of rape? Please say I am); right, putting parents in jail will really make them better parents; try stomping your foot when you want a large corporation to do things your way; I NEVER NOTICED; I didn’t even notice The Great Nevada Shake Out; roar; water on the moon (everything you learned in grade school is suspect); “legal” pot in California might save more on law enforcement than it generates in revenues (like that’s a bad thing); yes, insurers will have to spend at least 80% of premiums on health care instead of profits; 2017??; our local paper may have to actually deal with the concept of “Fair Use“; the accidental girls school; an excellent question; noooooooo!; end of the CD?; wanna buy a live crab?; and a comic:

Shorties in the Sky

Impressive: America needs roughly $2,200,000,000,000 in repairs to things like roads, tunnels, bridges and the like. You don’t suppose doing something like that might result in some kind of fiscal stimulus?

Stick to feeding the poor and preaching peace: young people increasingly turned off by the hateful political crap spewed by many churches.

Do Not Grope the Pilot: He would also like you to not take naked pictures of him, and moreover he would like you to assume he is not a terrorist.

Is it time to resign yet?: Senator John Ensign (the guy who isn’t Harry Reid) raised a whopping $18,000 last quarter. Unfortunately he had to shell out over a half million dollars in legal fees.

Color By Numbers: There are more black men in prison today than were enslaved in 1850. You don’t really believe that’s because the overwhelming majority of crimes are committed by black people, do you? You don’t suppose that there could be just a wee tiny bit of racism going on?

I Dare you?: D.A.R.E., encouraging children to put their parents in prison and themselves in foster care, all for the unworthy goal of the long since lost “War On Drugs.” Heck, we couldn’t even win the “War On Drugs” by re-destroying the #1 opium producing nation in the world!

Go Ahead, Make the Case for Medicare For All: Some insurance companies are threatening to stop writing policies if they are forced to follow the law in 2011 instead of a largely theoretical future date of their choosing. Yeah, you just go on and do that, suckers. In the meantime, the Feds are taking on Michigan Blue Cross for stifling competition in a way that raises prices. Nice to see them the Feds actually giving a darn about normal people over corporations for a change.

Obligatory Items on the Economy: Reich’s Perfect Storm; donations down 11% at the top 400 American charities; the problem with the economy so that absolutely anybody can understand it.

No Woman Should Have to Put Up with This Crap: “Some students and the Yale Women’s Center board complained after pledges were videotaped last week, chanting about necrophilia and a specific sexual act.” Pledge activities have been suspended, but as far as I am concerned, some wealthy young [insert offensive plural noun] needs to get suspended or expelled. Let them explain to their daddies and mommies what they did on videotape and why. “Boys will be boys” my ass!

Password protection for your internet connection is a good idea: “Deputies arrested Candice Miller only after they raided the wrong house. Investigators busted into the neighbors’ house suspecting they were sending child porn. Turns out Miller’s neighbors didn’t secure their wireless Internet connection.”

The Difference Between Theft and Piracy: boils down to what you’ve got afterward.

If Only: Myth Busted! Can we move on to where you were born?

Smart people drink more: Alcohol consumption correlates with intelligence.

I guess I know what I’m wearing tomorrow: purple. Relevant.

It’s less annoying than air travel: record number of riders on Amtrak.

No I don’t really need this: but a pizza cutter shaped like the Enterprise is still pretty cool.

I promise it’s the only thing I’ll say about it here: (But expect a post over at BridgetMagnus.com about foreclosures later) Ladies and gentlemen I present the dumbest thing anybody has said about a moratorium on foreclosures! “For instance, in Cleveland, where there are over 18,000 vacant homes, lives Millie Davis who recently earned her Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from Cleveland State University and just bought her first home – one that had fallen into foreclosure and sat abandoned for years. Had a blanket moratorium been in place, that sale would have fallen through — not only deferring her dream of homeownership but leaving neighbors on the block to stand by and watch as their property values continue to plummet.” Now then first of all her Master’s degree couldn’t possibly have less to do with the situation. I’ve got one of those myself and a fat lot of good it’s done me. Second, I don’t think anybody is talking about going back and examining the paperwork on homes that “sat abandoned for years.” That is all water under the bridge. The priority right now is to make sure that the banks or other entities that are foreclosing on homes a) have the legal right to do so and b) follow all the applicable laws when they do it (and they probably don’t). Failing to find this out now could result in millions of homes that can’t be sold at all because nobody can prove who really owns them. Oh, and c) “vacant” and “foreclosed” are two different things, which is something I would have expected the Secretary of HOUSING and Urban Development to know.

And one last thing: great descriptions of things on TV.

Make Me Mad

This morning I read a little item called “It’s time to stop blaming the lenders.” The essence can be told in less than one paragraph:

It’s okay that people made the mistake of borrowing more than they could afford. But is it really the lenders’ fault? Really? Maybe the banks didn’t deserve to be bailed out for their own poor judgment, but do the rest of us really deserve to bailed out for our own?

So let me make sure I’ve got this right. It’s our fault?

It’s Harry Homeowner’s fault that when he went to talk to Mary Mortgage-Broker, he actually believed her when she told him he could afford up to a $300,000 mortgage? It’s his fault that she lied to him, or pressured him into a pick-a-payment or adjustable rate mortgage he didn’t completely understand?

It’s Nicolle Bradbury‘s fault that she lost her job and — like so many other people — hasn’t been able to find another job that would allow her to continue making a modest $474 monthly payment?

It’s Joe Average’s fault that “everybody ought to own a house” propaganda combined with shoddy underwriting to create a housing bubble, even when the people who should have known it was a bubble said everything was fine?

It’s my fault that mortgage company executives were making insider trades?

It’s Darrell‘s fault that the mortgage company lost his paperwork not once, but five times?

It’s your fault that banks sold one another worthless securities based on your neighbors’ mortgages, and now sometimes can’t even figure out who owns what?

It’s our fault that banks hired scores of people with dubious qualifications to sign legal documents equivalent to swearing in a court of law, attesting that they knew things they couldn’t possibly know about our mortgages?

Is it also Nancy Jacobini‘s fault that her home didn’t look “lived in” enough for the goons hired by her mortgage company to change the locks? Is it her fault that he couldn’t be bothered to look in a window or knock on the door?

It’s Patrick Jeffs‘s fault that a mortgage company tried to take his home when he didn’t even have a mortgage with them?

This is nothing more than a pathetic attempt at victim blaming. It’s right up there with “she wore a short skirt so she deserved to be raped” and “he was walking at night; he should have known better.” The author should be ashamed of himself, but he honestly believes that it’s as simple as “no pay, no stay.”

In Closing: they want to build a steam powered computer; obesity is a threat to national security; venture capitalists are spending less money on new companies, which bodes ill for future job creation; average teen sends 3,339 text messages per month; girls can so do math; bad boys, bad boys, whacha gonna do?; health insurance reform isn’t over yet; overworked; and let me make sure I understand, the kids throw a wild party that got out of hand, and so you arrest the parents, leaving the kids to throw another party? Egads.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Looks Like Rain

Most people don’t carry around an umbrella unless they think there’s a good chance of rain.

That being said:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board approved interim guidelines to help clarify its procedures for liquidating complex financial firms [edit: that is, “too big to fail” firms] when they collapse, including permitting better treatment for some creditors when it benefits the estate or broader economy.

However, in the event of an impending implosion, the statute authorizes the FDIC to use U.S. taxpayer dollars to make partial payments to “healthy” counter-parties of the failing firm so that they wouldn’t go down with it. Once economic disaster is averted, the law requires the government to recoup the costs of the bailout by selling the bank’s assets and by collecting fees from big financial institutions with $50 billion or more in assets.

So then, the question as I see it is simple: which big bank does the FDIC expect to collapse? My money is on the one that declared last week that they were halting all foreclosures in all 50 states.

In closing: Mankiw is an idiot; what made them think that was a good idea??; I would rather take my chances with the slot machines; in denial; she can raise money but can she stop being crazy?; epilogue to cholesterol story; “I don’t know if he’s qualified to be on the Federal Reserve Board. He’s only got a Nobel Prize in Economics“; This Angry Season; and recovery.

Do Not Panic

Yesterday, two elementary students were injured when a nutcase wearing black and spewing nonsense about the President opened fire with a gun.

Mark my words, by Monday some parent will be insisting that outdoor recess be abolished as “too dangerous.” The argument will be nothing more than “What if something like this happens again?? Better safe than sorry!”

But before we start herding all the children into the gymnasium, let’s look at some facts. According to these guys, there are over 38,000,000 elementary school students in the United States. The nice folks at the Census (plus my pocket calculator) say it’s only 37,811,132. For simplicity’s sake, let’s just say 38 million. This doesn’t include high school students.

Now then, how many students have been injured by guns at an elementary school? This is sufficiently rare that a Google search for “elementary school gun” turns up a collection of stories of kids expelled for having guns, toy guns, water guns, BB guns, stories of gun scares, etc.. Add the word “injured” and yesterday’s item fills most of the first page. If we go to Wikipedia’s page on “school shootings”, we find that in the last three years exactly 34 people have been killed in school shootings, including incidents on college campuses and high schools, including faculty and other adult victims. In fact, there have only been 27 school shooting incidents on elementary, middle, junior high, and grade school campuses in the United States ever, including yesterday.

So, we have a literal less than one in a million chance of being shot at school. You have more chance of dying today in a car wreck than being involved in a school shooting ever.

By way of contrast, an American child has a one in 3 chance of being overweight or obese, putting them at increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, cancer, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a host of other life shortening problems.

You want to play the “won’t somebody think of the children” card? Send them outside for recess. Let them go play.

In Closing: Could you pass the citizenship test?; People other than me are calling the foreclosure mess fraud (perhaps the BAMTOR Principle will crumble and people will go to prison?); if everybody eats there then how come I never see them?; disconnected; demented; decline of business casual (it’s all your fault!); and smell like a monster.

The BAMTOR Principle

There’s a story I first heard told some years ago by Cokie Roberts. Perhaps you weren’t aware that both her parents were in the United States House of Representatives. Not at the same time, of course: her father was elected; upon his death her mother was nominated to take his vacated seat, and she was later re-elected several times in her own right. After she had been in the House for a while, she decided that she would like to have a condo in Washington where she could stay while Congress was in session. So she went down to the local bank to apply for a mortgage. She began to question some of the documents that were required of her, and the mortgage officer said they were required by federal law because she was a single woman applying for a mortgage. Rep. Boggs calmly replied something to the effect of “No dear, it’s against a federal law that I helped write!”

The BAMTOR Principle isn’t something that happens when language-challenged super-heroes get mad: it stands for Banks Always Make Their Own Rules. It was true in the mid-70s when Rep. Boggs tried to get a mortgage — how many women simply sighed and handed over the illegally-requested materials? Nothing has changed for the better.

This week GMAC, under it’s new identity as Ally Mortgage, announced that they were halting foreclosures in 23 states. A quick search revealed to me that those 23 states included every state where a foreclosure has to actually go in front of a judge, and many states where they must pass under the Sheriff’s eyes, but no states where it’s a simple matter of a Trustee’s Sale. The obvious conclusion is that their documents will not pass legal muster — but who cares if all you have to do is file papers with the County Recorder and have a sale?? It’s obvious to many observers that they failed to follow the law, in spite of “company policy” that they follow the law, and that this pattern of not giving a **** about the law has persisted for some number of years. Nor are they the only mortgage company with this problem.

Perhaps you’ve heard that Wells Fargo is trying to avoid the responsibility of selling homes they may or may not have the actual right to sell? Most people buy a home assuming that it is theirs and they can sell it to somebody else someday, but that might not be true here; regardless of how many places buyers initial the “bank addendum,” I smell a future lawsuit, particularly when the buyer’s mortgage company gets involved. No wonder banks prefer cash offers.

This brings up another interesting point of law that the banks don’t care to follow:

Now this little problem can be solved by title insurance, right? Well, guess what, some title insurers have exited the business, some others are starting to write policies with meaningful exceptions when they can’t go to the courthouse and find a clear chain of title. Oh, and Wells is trying to steer you towards their title insurer. What do you think the odds are that their title insurance policy doesn’t have exceptions?

A Federal law called RESPA says they can’t actually make you use their title company, but in practice good luck using any other title company. This particular fear is a little overblown because title companies use three standard policies, but the point is taken.

Nor is real estate the only realm where banks ignore the law. Earlier this month, remember that Goldman Scahs decided to graciously close down the proprietary trading unit that the financial services reform bill prohibited. And let’s not forget that back in the 90’s, the Citibank/Traveller’s merger was allowed go ahead most of a year before the actual law allowing such a merger was passed. There was barely a peep from regulators, who assumed that Congress would bend to the bankers’ wills.

When they can’t just outright break federal law without repercussions, they bend it. New rules on bank fees? Let’s just make some new fees!

Nor is it just Federal law that banks choose to ignore; they are perfectly willing to bypass state law as well. Bank of America (and Countrywide before them) has a nasty habit of foreclosing on the wrong house, mostly in Florida. As someone who lives in a neighborhood with a bunch of similar street names and its fair share of foreclosures, I can’t help but wonder if I need a better alarm system. Here in Nevada, we have a number of laws that banks choose to ignore, but since they are “federally regulated” I am told I have to take my complaints directly to the Comptroller of the Currency in Houston. Senator Ensign’s office was particularly condescending about it; if the lady I talked to could have patted me on the head through the phone, she likely would have.

The worst thing about the BAMTOR Principle is that Joe and Jane Average don’t really have a way to enforce good behavior with their wallets. Go ahead and try to open a checking account with a small, local or regional bank; perhaps you haven’t noticed that those smaller banks are disproportionally being shut down by the FDIC and sold to other banks that range from “huge” to “too big to fail.” Assuming you aren’t one of the millions of people who are “underwater” on their mortgage, sure you can get a new mortgage, but you can’t stop that mortgage company from selling your mortgage right back to the company you were trying to avoid!

Go ahead, feds. “Mull new rules.” The Bad Boys of Banking will just find new ways around the ones they don’t like until such time as the feds are willing to take a “tough love” approach, holding bankers responsible — putting people like department managers in jail or fining bankrupting sums of money where appropriate — and breaking up any institution so big that its failure would harm the economy.

In Closing: how abortion protests kill babies; add Michelle Obama and most of the White House Staff to the list of P90X people; where can I get one of these?; Good Samaritan; A question like “How to Lose a Million Jobs” will certainly get your attention; “Super-Rich Get Richer“? Oh good, I know everybody was worried about them; a fascinating read; “luck is not a business model“; more evidence that the insurance companies are doing all they can to subvert “reform“; fewer people working in 36 states, unemployment rises in 27 states, Nevada is still leading the pack; maybe they ought to read what Jesus really said someday; an interesting way of looking at things (h/t Calvin’s Mom); Sharron Angle is only a symptom of the craziness of American Politics; why fiscal stimulus isn’t working; and the Fed is trying to decide if — if! — they need to do more to fix the economy. Well, guys, look at today’s political cartoons and you tell me.

Oh yeah, and happy Autumnal Equinox.

The New New Economy is Not Improved

Let me start by pointing out that today alone, the FDIC had takeover teams at 6 — yes, 6 — different banks in 3 different states. I think that Count Von Count would not be happy to keep track of this. Another number that would fail to please the Count but might make Dr. Evil happy, an anticipated one million foreclosures this year. That situation will get uglier before a healthy market can possibly emerge.

But as Expert Ezra points out, the reason people are so unhappy with the economy right now has a lot to do with the fact that corporate profits are up over 5%, the actual number of available jobs is down over 5% just since 2007. And frankly, I am of the opinion that without the economic shell game the government has been playing with the data, you would probably find that the 2001 recession never ended.

So then, with unemployment what it is, nobody should be particularly shocked that retail sales are down, again, and specifically sales of big ticket items are down. Nobody being able to afford goods leads quite understandably to the possibility of deflation — particularly if you can’t find a way to mask housing prices that are down by half in some parts of the country. Meanwhile, the rich get richer and the poor can, well, do whatever it is they do.

Add to this toxic stew two items: a political party that still thinks you can raise revenues by cutting taxes, but that making sure that “the least of these” can afford groceries is a bad thing; and a financial reform bill that the nicest thing anybody can say about it is that it’s better than nothing, probably. The safety net is being cut just as we need it most despite our protests, and our largest banks may still have the power to ruin us all.

Next time, assuming I am not distracted by something shiny or butterflies or kittens, The Latte Economy.

In Closing: Gee, greater blogosphere, thanks for noticing what I thought I was too late to say yesterday!; this could be bad; Senator Ensign should really give up now; I wonder how much; and two dinosaurs for the price of one.

Sign of the Times

Today news is circulating that right before Christmas, Foreclosure.com filed for bankruptcy. Their “dynamic team of savvy real estate visionaries and brilliant software developers” ended up with too much debt and not enough revenue, much like the people whose homes they advertise on their website. Somehow, they have overlooked putting news of their bankruptcy on the site. I don’t know how long you’ll be able to check out the actual documents, but here they are. I love that they actually had to list the $200 in petty cash and $600 in Paypal accounts.

Going forward, one concern is the effect this will have on their creditors. They owe close to $19 million to Fifth Third Bank, and another $4 million to Legacy Bank of Florida. Unfortunately for Legacy Bank of Florida, they already have $8.6 million in non-performing loans, which doesn’t seem to include money owed by Foreclosure.com.

What a shame they won’t be able to simply foreclose on Foreclosure.com.

In closing: if you haven’t read this piece on The Obama Disconnect, do!; on the intersection of banking reform and mortgage cramdown; good news for the American economy, manufacturing is picking up on demand for American made products (proof that we can make things profitably other than lattes); here’s what conservative economic policies do to for our economy (note that the Reagan Years weren’t as good as the 40s, 50s, 60s, or those bad old 70s); happy songs make happy teenagers?; Fighting Women; global warming; you didn’t actually need medical care, did you?; and health costs keep rising.