Mortgage relief plan falling short »
Posted By JamesMarcus 1 year, 3 months ago in NewsThe government's flagship program to give struggling homeowners relief from overwhelming mortgage payments has left hundreds if not thousands of callers frustrated by long wait times, lack of follow-up and relatively minor loan modifications that have failed to help.
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JamesMarcus
James Marcus is a writer, translator, critic, and editor. He is the author of Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot-Com Juggernaut and ...
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DanmLiberalsComment removed: User banned.23 Replies
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joeblowe1 year, 3 months ago
I'm not surprised by this. It's sort of typical - particularly close to an election. The gub'mint thinks up some goofy scheme that SOUNDS good, then it's fubar as usual. The follow through simply doesn't match what was promised. Sort of like previous times when the gub'mint sent out a tax "rebate" check. Only to take it away from you again the next tax year. I suspect they want to be able to CLAIM they are helping - without actually putting in the effort/money to get the job done properly.
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OnionHeadComment removed: User banned.
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Charlson1 year, 3 months ago
You can bet that the lenders will not have to bite any bullets. The government bailouts are not aimed for the homeowners but for banks and mortgage companies.
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hkeltsch1 year, 3 months ago
What do we expect from a government who helped get us into this mess in the first place. During the 1980s, the President said he was "..going to get government off our backs". Well, he got government off our backs alright and set us up to fall prey to the greedy realestate speculators. Now the government is trying to straighten the mess up and they found it's easier said then done.
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crespi1 year, 3 months ago
With the widespread warrantless wire-tapping, e-surveillance, all forms of profiling and databanks, mining of your financial information and watching what books a person checks out from a library, we have officially moved from "government on our backs" to "government up our anuses."
(Unless you are part of the super-wealthy class who is "above all it," and then American laws aren't "meant for you.")
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ADAGUY1 year, 3 months ago
I'm sure he's referring to de-regulation of the banking industry.
Like it or not, first time home buyers are not too sharp. De-regulation took advantage of that in many cases.
If lenders had followed the rules that were in place in the early 80's, this mess would never have take place.
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TOD3961 year, 3 months ago
Yeah, Pres. Bush held me down while Cheney forced my hand to sign the papers.
It was all thier fault, I tell ya. I didn't want the loan, they made me take it. They said that if I didn't take it, they would make me look at pictures of Hillary in the nude. What was I to do? I mean, I am blind but, who wants to take that chance?
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jumpmaster1 year, 3 months ago
I am not defending lenders. There are a lot of good ones and there are a lot of crooks. Is this news?
Unless you live in a cave, there has always been unscrupulous people out there who are trying to take advantage of you. How about scamming seniors? How about internet scams? How about snake oil? This has been going on for centuries.
Yes, this was about greed. Greed on behalf of the lenders and the borrowers.
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Will13131 year, 3 months ago
I don't think that anyone expected borrowers to be so greedy and stupid.
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really those are 2 of humans biggest VIRTUES....
GREED AND STUPIDITY.... SEX being in the mix somewhere...
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BravoSierra1 year, 3 months ago
Big business gets the profits on the home...Big business gets bailed out with taxpayer money...Big business gets ownership of all the properties...big business gets the profits of reselling the properties for full value a second time after being bailed out. It's a scam that used to be ran on soldiers by car salesmen around military bases all the time. You'd see the same car sold to a new soldier every 3 - 4 months after being repossessed and having the soldier's wages garnished. It's quite an annuity for the business. They get the down payment, they get a couple months payment, they get the garnished wages and they get to resell the car. Do this 3 - 4 times per vehicle and you've quadrupled your profits from the same investment. The MBAs figured it out and applied it to houses. Bush enables it. The middle class required for a democracy shrinks while he and his buddies get richer and America gets poorer. Get it?
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HMMace1 year, 3 months ago
|So--aLL I HAVE TO DO IS, GET ME ANOTHER MORTGAGE ON MY
HOUSE, AND APPLY FOR FEDERAL HELP TO PAY FOR IT, THEN I CAN BUY A NEW CAR WITH MY MORTGAGE MONEY...
NOW, CAN I APPLY FOR MONEY FOR THE HOUSE MY DAD LOST IN '29 ??? THE LAW HAS TO BE FAIR --RIGHT??
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Sludge-Guzzler1 year, 3 months ago
Whose at fault here? The guy who works at McDonalds, earns $20k a year and asked for a $600,000 ARM or the lender who gave it to him?
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mackiemesserComment removed: User banned.
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jumpmaster1 year, 3 months ago
"Whose at fault here?"
The guy who signed the papers.
Who is at fault for obesity? Krispy Kreme or the guy who eats a dozen a day?
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SusieQ721 year, 3 months ago
The guy who works at McDonalds.
Who obviously works at McDonalds because he is terrible with math and doesn't understand that you can't make a payment on a $600k mortgage with an income of $20k per year.
If I offer you $50k to jump off a bridge and you take it and injure yourself that is your own fault, you can't blame me for making the offer because I didn't force you to do it.
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AtheismIsRealityComment removed: User banned.3 Replies
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RCair1 year, 3 months ago
The markets will not be steady until mid year.
Oil will continue to increase due to the Dollar which is in free fall, and interest rates in the US are to low for foreign investment.
We are not in a ression, the economy will come back from slow growth to moderate growth by mid year. This is no matter what the Presidential hopeful say.
More inportant everybody should be concerned about the huge tax increase we will get when one of the Democrates are elected. No extra deduction for kids, rate increases, and more taxes on the 401's and IRA's
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markmawn21 year, 3 months ago
Read and Learn.
Information Regarding the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999
http://banking.senate.gov/conf/
People pleaser Clinton signed this bill after being pressured by CitiBank which afterwards formed CitiCorp). It reversed the Banking Act put in place by FDR. Expect investors to act responsibly, and I have beach-front property to sell you.
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jumpmaster1 year, 3 months ago
All along I thought it was Bush's fault. Too much Propeller.
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BravoSierra1 year, 3 months ago
Bush uses only a few impression management and propaganda techniques. This effort is another example of a modified 'bait-and-switch' that he and his communications strategists use. The general premise is to tell a lie...a big lie...make a huge promise to calm the immediate panic and then do little to nothing...but look like you are for a few weeks until the US public with the short attention span is following the next media fad/event. We've seen this with the way he got us to got war, Katrina, victims of floods and tornadoes, the VA scandals, etc. It's not surprising this is yet another failure of Bush's 'lassez faire' free market theory that always seems to benefit and move toward a Mussolini-like industrial fascist state. All you have to do is follow the money to see who benefits in each of his scams...there's a consistent pattern...the industrial elite. He lets them rob us, go broke and then bails them out with taxpayer money. Filling their coffers twice over each time.
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Justice4All1 year, 3 months ago
I've gone through hard times and the government did not bail me out. Now I pay a lot in taxes and object to any program that costs me money. It's that simple. Why should I pay to bail out someone who lives in a house that I can't afford to live in. And how can I buy a house someday if I am paying for people to live in houses they or I could not afford.
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BravoSierra1 year, 3 months ago
The bail out will be to funnel more money to big business just as the 'tax break' we are getting to 'spur' the economy was offset instantly by an increase in oil prices that just happens to be enough to absorb the entire 'break' with no benefit to the quality of life of Americans. I hope US Citizens wake up to realize how Bush's intention is to create an industrial fascist state the same as Mussolini did prior to WWII. When you all realize how you've been conned and ripped off by Bush and his cronies you'll direct your objections to the right source.
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HanymanComment removed: User banned.
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Will13131 year, 3 months ago
Hanyman...
the domino effect .. even comes down to the local level...
you pay your mortgage.. but one by one the neighbors around you... get foreclosed on... those houses become vacant.. and in disrepair.. more people become "homeless" and looking for a place to stay.. begin to INHABIT the area.. causing the crime rate to SOAR.... tax base down.. can't afford to hire more police.. you now live in a high crime area.. that while a nice and desireable neighborhood before.. no one wants to buy into... sending valuations in the the area even lower.. even many responsible people get caught in situations where they are UPSIDEDOWN in their homes.. a vicious cycle...
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