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Mortgage relief plan falling short »
Posted by: JamesMarcus 1 year, 9 months agoThe 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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Comments: 117
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DanmLiberalsComment has been removed: Retracted by user
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joeblowe
March 13, 2008, 1:40 p.m.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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Grrr
March 13, 2008, 2:06 p.m.Just thought this one up...pretty applicable:
TANSTAAFM
There ain't no such thing as a free market...
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OnionHeadComment has been removed: Retracted by user
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jumpmaster
March 13, 2008, 4:04 p.m.Why don't we have a bail out plan for Las Vegas losers?
They gambled and lost too. Don't they deserve a little help too?
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Charlson
March 13, 2008, 4:08 p.m.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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buckheadd
March 13, 2008, 5:09 p.m.Mortgae! i think they need to get rid of that, i pay too much. i want free milliond dollar house, and a free ferarri, and a free lamborgini!! and a free pool@
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hkeltsch
March 13, 2008, 7:45 p.m.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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jumpmaster
March 13, 2008, 8:34 p.m.When I signed my mortgage documents there was not one single government representative there. Not one.
A little propeller survey.
Were any government representatives present at your loan signings?
If so, did they use coercion to get you to sign?
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jumpmaster
March 13, 2008, 8:54 p.m.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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jumpmaster
March 13, 2008, 8:56 p.m.I don't think that anyone expected borrowers to be so greedy and stupid.
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BravoSierra
March 14, 2008, 4:39 p.m.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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lovermanComment has been removed: Retracted by user
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HMMaceComment has been removed: Spammer, Hard Banned
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Sludge-Guzzler
March 14, 2008, 6:06 a.m.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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AtheismIsRealityComment has been removed: Retracted by user
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RCair
March 14, 2008, 11:15 a.m.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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markmawn2
March 14, 2008, 1:22 p.m.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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BravoSierra
March 14, 2008, 4:33 p.m.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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Justice4All
March 14, 2008, 4:39 p.m.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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HanymanComment has been removed: Retracted by user
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Will1313
March 15, 2008, noonHanyman...
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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Will1313
March 15, 2008, 12:01 p.m.Highest foreclosure rate in HISTORY.... can anyone tell me who was president the last time that phrase was appropriate.....
HINT
that president had the same name...
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HanymanComment has been removed: Retracted by user
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