Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The HAMP program continues to disappoint.

HAMP actually causes people to lose their homes, says Watchdog

HAMP is a scam, the banks gert everything

BoA boasts of poor HAMP performance

Foreclosuregate Status - Karl Denninger provides a candid look at the foreclosure problem

Nicely done .. check it out here

Please take the time to listen to the audio from the KOH radio show - interviewee, a foreclosure defense attorney in Nevada, does an excellent job of exposing the credit default swaps and their use to incentivize the banks as they proft from defaults of loans.

Direct link here

Be sure to check out the first few minutes, a couple of minutes starting at 12:30 in.  Then listen to 16:30, and 42:30, right around 50:00 and then again at 70:00 and finally, at 78:00 in.

Investors Create Cleringhouse to Share Info on Bank Lawsuits

Read all about here at Neil Garfield's LivingLies blog.

A sober look at the state of our economy. States think they have problems now? As the damage done by the banks continues to trickle out (by design, mind you), State governments will begin to face significant budget problems.

Check it out here

Fore a cheery writeup on income inequality check out this article.

Top Fed Official On Government's Foreclosure Prevention Efforts: 'Three Years Of Failed Policies'

Read all about it here.
 
Want more?  "The Obama administration's signature anti-foreclosure effort, unveiled in 2009 with the promise of helping three to four million homeowners modify their mortgages, is such a failure that it now risks "generating public anger and mistrust," according to a federal audit released Monday."

Read about it here.

Robert Sheer, puts two and two together and asks: "How do you foreclose on a home when you can't figure out who owns it because the original mortgage is part of a derivatives package that has been sliced and diced so many ways that its legal ownership is often unrecognizable? "

Sound familiar?

Read the whole post here

Dylan Ratigan with Bill Black. Pay close attention at the 6:20 mark

msnbc.com Video Player
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MERS in the news again.

MERS Comes Under Fire in Foreclosure Crisis: Video (Correct)
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Foreclosure methods under intense scrutiny - but will officials look to shield banks from liability to reserve the housing market?

Top Stories
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Excellent article that gives some insight into why banks will not do loan mods - fails to mention one thing: credit default swaps. Other than that, great article.

NYT: Foreclosures Are Revived; Shor
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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Dcoumentation Problems downplayed by CitiGroup CFO

CitiGroup claims it did not use robo-signers, but still has problems
Of particular interest from this article:
 ---------------
One analyst on Monday's call, James F. Mitchell of Buckingham Research Group, brought this up.
"[P]eople are worried about not just the documentation issue but the poor quality of the underwriting of the loans," Mitchell said about Citi's loans that were ultimately securitized and sold. "Does that somehow ... break the representation and warranties in the prospectus, and therefore investors can put the whole securitization back, not just on documentation but on loan quality issues? Did you have a discussion with your counsel on that?"
Gerspach, Citi's chief financial officer, responded.
"We had several counsels. I couldn't find anyone that indicated that there was this big red button that gets pushed and completely blows up a transaction based upon underwriting quality," Gerspach said. "But I'm going to leave that one up to all the lawyers in the world to argue about," he added, dodging the larger question about Citi's underwriting practices.
----------------
But the underwriting is not the problem, its the problems with the documents that will haunt the banks - as noted here at the blog The Stopped Clock:

the problem of widespread failures to convey notes to the securitization trust isn’t a “technicality”; it means what were sold as MBS are potentially just unsecured consumer paper. And it goes further than that: if no notes were conveyed at closing, the trust under New York law (and all these trusts elected NY law for the trust operation) was “unfunded” meaning it does not exist (multiple top experts on NY trust law concur on this issue).

Is this just the beginning, or will this train wreck be derailed by the Federal Investigation?

Pimco and NY fed said to seek BofA repurchase of mortgages

Read it here:
BofA being asked to buy back $47 billion in bonds

Feds Will investigate Foreclosure Problems

Not sure where this is going.  Either the Govt is looking to recoup losses for Fannie and Freddie, which pay losses to financial institutions on failed loans, or if this is a means to a band-aid for the problem ...

Read about it here:
Fed to Investigate Foreclosure Problems

Federal Judicial Panel Consolidates Class Action lawsuits vs Bank of America

The class action lawsuits filed across the country against bank of America for violations of the HAMP program were consolidated by a judicial panel.

Read about it here:

Lawsuits vs BoA for violations of HAMP consolidated

Monday, October 18, 2010

Friday, October 15, 2010

Will Asia end up being in the same mess we are, in light of this report? Anyone willing to take a guess? :)

Asia surpasses US in derivatives trading
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False attorney affidavits in MD - by one of the top foreclosing firms in NoVa.

Foreclosure robo-signing: Attorneys at two Maryland law firms that handle thousands of foreclosure cases have acknowledged that some of their affidavits were not actually signed by them - baltimoresun.com
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Wells Fargo will not halt foreclosures despite employees admit to having no knowledge of the facts in affidavits they signed.

Wells Fargo won't halt foreclosures
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Wall Street: maybe we did some things wrong, but the homeowner is the problem. Translation: We can take their houses if they default, even if we have no right to foreclose.

The Foreclosure Fiasco and Wall Street’s Shrug | The New York Observer
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GMAC acted in bad faith, rules the court, but moves to evict because the homeowner hasn't paid in two years. Translation: it doesn't matter if GMAC has no right to foreclose. The court should let them because the homeowner hasn't paid *boggle*

NYT: Out of Maine, a National Forec
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Thursday, October 14, 2010

The problem hiding in the back of the room: The title problems that will wreak havoc on property records all over the country. The good news? This problem is only like the fifth biggest resulting from bank behavior.

The Foreclosure Defense Blog: Foreclosure Errors Cloud Homeownership With ‘Blighted Titles’
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Flashback to an article on a complaint we filed a year ago.

Fighting Foreclosure: Lawyers in Virginia launch new and creative attacks to keep clients' homes | North America > United States from AllBusiness.com
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We've been told this story an untold number of times. FYI The servicers receive $1000 or so per person in HAMP. Now multiply $1000 x 1 million. Your tax dollars at work to pay servicers to string people along, default them, then foreclose. Propublica.org has all the stats on servicer compliance for your reading enjoyment.

via HuffPost
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Moratorium? Let's debate it .... They are breaking the law. Debate over.

via HuffPost
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This is going to be a whopper if AG Holder investigates ... buckle up if he does. It will not turn out well. Not for wall st .... or main st.

via HuffPost
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False documents, unethical notaries, and worse ...

Foreclosure Paperwork Scandal 'Same Process' That Fed The Housing Bubble

http://www.huffingtonpost.com//2010/10/04/foreclosure-paperwork-sca_n_749245.html

Things are going to get worse before they get better.

Foreclosures hit all time high last month
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This story will continue to amaze as more and more comes to light.

Lawsuit: Bank 'Foreclosure Experts' Included Hairstylists, Teens, Walmart Workers:
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Attorneys general from all 50 states to investigate foreclosure fraud.

All 50 attorneys general join forces to investigate foreclosure fraud
via HuffPost
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And you were concerned the direct bailout and AIG bailout and Fed discount window were not enough!

Wall Street is on track to pay its employees $144 billion this year, breaking a record for the second year in a row, the Wall Street Journal reports.

via HuffPost
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Pro Publica exposes CDOs

All the stories are worth reading, but do not miss this story:

A Bank’s Best Customer: Its Own CDOs

Or this one:

The CDO Daisy Chain

Welcome!

Finally, our office now has a blog to monitor stories and reports of issues and incidents impacting homeowner foreclosure defense in Virginia, and nationwide!  We will use this blog to monitor, report, and dissect stories concerning foreclosure defense, the financial sector, and the efforts of the government to attempt to assist homeowners through this difficult period.

We are hopeful that by visiting our blog you will learn something that will assist you, or someone you know, in defending their home from foreclosure.  Future posts will focus on particular stories and (hopefully, time permitting) provide some context / interpretation of the meaning and/or impact on foreclosure defense.