Craig:  Nice sentiment.  I understand the frustration as I'm in the same boat.  Here's a couple of things I have learned about the real estate business lately.  1) if a lender forecloses on a house, they are fined by the Federal Reserve for having REO (real-estate owned) properties on their books and those fines are 7 to 10 times the value of the loan.  It's supposed to be an incentive for the banks to find other ways of collecting, but as we've noted, it ain't workin' too well.  2) if you are fortunate enough to have even part of your loan forgiven, you will have to pony up to the IRS for it.  Yes, that's right, if you get $175,000 of your loan forgiven, brace yourself for a demand for payment letter from the IRS stating that you are now liable for 35% (or $61,500) of that loan.  A forgiven loan is considered income to the IRS and by God come hell or high water, they'll get their money if they have to slap a lein on your house to get it.

Craig; Really enjoyed this one! Learned a bit from both You and Mr. Carson! Mr Carson: Two things about Your comment. First I wonder what kind of loop hole(s) are there for the 'fines' for REO. I wonder if it's so simple that They just don't have to pay the fine? (like tell the Public the Fed. Res. fines Them but doesn't collect) and about the 35% the IRS: Isn't it amazing how Our Government is working SO hard FOR Us?

I had planned to write a review of the wonderful Dish Cafe until I read Craig’s latest article.  I’ll do it later.  Craig, your segue between your mortgage fraud exposes and my article Blame The Greedy Home Loan Lenders for This Frightening Recession is seamless.  You have laid track on which a mighty train is now running.  Every home loan borrower should immediately take Craig’s letter, modify it to their particular dollar amount and interest rate, and present it to their lender.

“There are things known, and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors.”  Jim Morrison.  There is another reason to add to Craig’s argument/doors for Note Modification.  That is the millions of Short Sales the lenders have approved through their vigorous efforts.  A Short Sale is when a home is sold for less than what is owed on it.  It is repugnant how those Short Sales put millions of Americans out of their homes.

Craig’s exposes and my article, now combined, lay out a basis for our understanding and answers Craig’s two questions of “1) why have lenders not followed them before, and 2) why have lenders instead chosen their senseless fanaticism to foreclosure?”  Years ago, I wrote about it.  I correctly predicted it.  The reason is the loan origination fees.  A sale generates them in the buyer’s loan(s).  Moreover, they are an enormous amount per loan.  A Note Modification does not.  That is why the proposal to refinance into a government backed, insured or subsidized loan is untenable. It is swaggering jargon that confirms lender smallness in their thinking.  It is more houses of cards and smoke and mirrors.  A Short Sale or a refinance do not benefit the borrower.  Neither benefits the American taxpayers.  Neither benefits the American economy.  A Short Sale and a refinance only benefit the lenders.  They are strong evidence for more Bait & Switch loan practices.  Are decent people really that easy to manipulate?

The point is that lenders have already approved millions of Short Sales.  Lenders used these Short Sales to drive, deliberately, Americans out of their homes knowing they would be future homebuyers with future home loans.  Lenders created the problem and created for themselves future profits.  It was draconian.  A Note Modification would have avoided that.  Lenders are already approving a reduction in principal aka loan forgiveness in these Short Sales.  They can do as you pointed out, the same allowed for loan forgiveness in a Note Modification.  Then the homeowner remains in their home.

In B-school, I learned about the impact of Porter’s Five Forces on Competition.  Home loans provide one test of the efficient market hypothesis.  Efficient market theory is a theory that all available information is reflected in the current price of an asset.  Higher return aka yields mean higher risks.  These characteristics are built into the price and hence the returns.  Any investor, such as a lender, can only adjust the return to their portfolio by adjusting risk.  For a lender, a performing home loan, one being paid back, is an asset on their books. We shall not get to the truth if we prematurely dismiss wrong behavior as merely everyone does it.  I have made this argument before and I still stick by it.  Lenders are consciously not reflecting all information when they price their product aka loans.  My argument is built on four premises.  One is that American lenders make decisions based on the short-term rather than the long-term.  The other is the cost to lenders of imperfect competition.  The third is the role of government in home loans.  The fourth is lender greed.

First, American lenders make decisions based on the short-term rather than the long-term.  There is a difference in the time-horizon in which American managers, and foreign managers are trained to think in.  American managers are trained to think of today’s bottom-line profits.  For lenders, this quarter’s profits even at the economic expense and social cost of tomorrow’s foreclosures.  European, Japanese, Indian, Canadian and increasingly, Chinese, Middle-Eastern and South American managers, are trained to think of long-range growth.  A weakness of short-term thinking is that it does not take into account technology or the employment/unemployment rate.  Nor does it look at barriers to entry, government regulation and intervention, or even nationalization. The results of short-term thinking have always been costly to America. The cost to America will continue to grow in the free-for-all of global competition unless we change our managerial and savings habits. That change will free up more money for capital investment.

Lender’s tradeoff is the cost of one option, short-term profits, in relationship to another, future foreclosures resulting from those past short-term profits.  Like all of us, lenders must make a tradeoff because resources are scarce.  Cost is not just the direct expenditure.  It is also opportunity cost.  The way we calculate tradeoffs is by comparing the cost of one option to another.  If I have already made an expenditure, and I cannot recover it no matter what choice I make, it’s known as a sunk cost.  Economists say that a rational person should ignore sunk costs.

Opportunity cost is the benefit lost of my next-best option.  The benefit I lose is measured by the value of the next-best, alternative use of my option.  It is a sacrificed opportunity or resource.  Specifically, it is the foregone probability of my next-highest-valued alternative.  I must always give-up the next-highest-valued choice for the opportunity selected.  I make a tradeoff.  A tradeoff is a choice, and all choices cost an opportunity elsewhere.  The opportunity is forever lost.

There are several relationships to make the change to thinking in long-range growth.  Some are defining the management change, establishing the process, identification and selection, negotiation, and implementation.  There is also the managing the ongoing relationship via the organizational structure, its service delivery process and management controls.

Second, the costs of imperfect competition.  Advertising manipulates consumer tastes to a considerable degree.  Home loan lenders all have the same investors they sell their products/loans to or have them insured by.  The are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD, VA, Wall Street, or for their HELOCS (Home Equity Lines of Credit) their own Loan Portfolio Credit Committee.  Lenders expensive attempts for product differentiation are carried to the point of silliness and substantial economic waste all at the expense of the borrowers.  The strength of my argument is in the evaluation of the transaction costs to these inefficiency costs.  Implementation difficulties are the reallocation of resources.

Third, the role of government in home loans.  I believe the call is way long overdue for a return to American pragmatism in economic policy to use government to represent the interests of the future to the present.  The public sector must be actively used to support and strengthen the private sector.  Enforce what’s already on the books!  To fight and fight again against fraud, and to never stop fighting to keep evil at bay, if not eradicated.  Boy, did the FBI, State Attorney Generals, State Real Estate Divisions, State Mortgage Divisions, County District Attorneys, local police and sheriffs, and the National and local Association of Realtors ever drop the mortgage fraud enforcement ball.

Fourth, lender greed.  Let us step out and pursue that flighty temptress, fraud, was their mantra.  What we have here is an illustration of fate’s penchant for irony.  Craig’s exposes show it all too well.  These fraudster’s lies, mud, red-herrings, threats, and smoke are the marks of ineptitude not expertise.  The fraudsters willfully acted with reckless disregard of the truth or the consequences of their actions.

D.E:  "President Bush signs HR 3648, The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007.  It created a three-year exception for debt forgiveness on home loans."

Sir Madmaxx: so correct.

Hey D.E., sorry to read of your hassle with your lender.  Try sending your version of my letter to your lender as not so about the debt relief, or not so for the next three years anyway.  That was the link that Morgana caught and referenced in her comment.  "With a stroke of the pen, President Bush signed into law H.R. 3648, The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007, and dramatically changed the lives of homeowners across the country who are facing foreclosure, considering a short sale, negotiating a loan workout, or have done any of these since January 1, 2007.

While this bill has been long awaited by homeowners who would be penalized by the potential phantom tax, and real estate agents praying that it will open the flood gates to more business via short sale listings, the goal of the Administration and legislators is to reduce the number of foreclosures and the need for short sales by allowing homeowners to renegotiate their loans without tax consequences."

Repeat, "the goal of the Administration and legislators is to reduce the number of foreclosures and the need for short sales by allowing homeowners to renegotiate their loans without tax consequences."

Countrywide has a new way of screwing us.  They take the payment but put on the statement that it is "unapplied."  Then they add a Late Charge!

Said President Bush in signing HR 3648, The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007: "Under current law, if the value of your house declines and your bank or lender forgives a portion of your mortgage, the tax code treats the amount forgiven as money that can be taxed. And of course, this makes a difficult situation even worse. When you’re worried about making your payments, higher taxes are the last thing you need to worry about. So this bill will create a three-year window for homeowners to refinance their mortgage and pay no taxes on any debt forgiveness that they receive. And it’s a really good piece of legislation. The provision will increase the incentive for borrowers and lenders to work together to refinance loans — and it will allow American families to secure lower mortgage payments without facing higher taxes."

Here's some more info to help us out: OpenCongress,  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h3648/show

Since the Housing Bust, I sleep like a baby:  sleep two hours then wake up and cry.

Hopefully with all the push for these loan modifications, the lenders will wake up and smell the roses and we will all be sleeping better.

Moe Bedard “the facts are that lenders and servicers have aggressively stepped up their efforts to offer loan modifications to struggling borrowers.

As of January 1, 2008, I have seen a huge jump where I have personally witnessed and been involved with several homeowners that have fought their lenders for months and all of a sudden they all obtained loan modifications within a 2 week period.”

Clinton Calls For Bold Action To Halt Housing Crisis “announced a four-point plan to stem the tide of home foreclosures, which has been a key driver in the weakening economy.”

Countrywide has done loan modifications.

Statement of Sheila C. Bair, Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Strengthening the Economy: Foreclosure Prevention, “While recent agreements have incorporated many of the strategies I have been advocating, progress in achieving actual loan modifications has been unacceptably slow and the increasing levels of foreclosure remain too high.”

Growing Acceptance of Loan Modifications:  “As servicers examined the benefits of a systematic approach to loan modifications, many of them came to recognize that there are several advantages to the approach I recommended. A streamlined approach can be undertaken much more rapidly than a loan-by-loan restructuring process. Also, this approach does not involve a bailout involving federal tax dollars. In addition, this policy does not involve government action that would affect the contractual rights of mortgage investors because it is based on voluntary action by servicers and existing legal rights and responsibilities. This approach makes economic sense and is an appropriate, proactive response to rapidly changing market conditions. Modifying loans before reset will avoid negative credit consequences for borrowers, permit borrowers to keep their homes while making payments they can afford, preserve neighborhoods and provide investors with a return that exceeds any return they would receive from foreclosures. Under today's conditions, the net present value analysis itself can be streamlined for many markets. Declining housing prices and experience point to the likelihood of substantial losses through foreclosure in contrast to the income stream that can be achieved by sustainable, long-term loan modifications.”

First American Title is stepping up to the loan modification plate. “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD offer loan modifications to loan servicers and borrowers as a tool in the area of default management. In a loan modification, the terms of a loan are restructured to prevent foreclosure.”

The Emergency Loan Modification Act of 2008, “part of a package of legislation designed to mitigate foreclosures.”

Watch out for Wells Fargo!

"Declining housing prices and experience point to the likelihood of substantial losses through foreclosure in contrast to the income stream that can be achieved by sustainable, long-term loan modifications.”  Duh.  The lenders ARE terrorists for gettting us into this mess.  They CONTINUE to be terrorists when they don't do the home loan modifications.

The issue is that house prices have dropped.  Why?  Because of the mortgage fraud that manipulated them up in the mortgage fraud run-up of late 2003, all of 2004 going into spring of 2005.  The mortgage fraud is a significant number of all the home loans.  The problem is not just the sub-prime home loans.  The problem is that people owe more than the home is worth.    The symptoms of the drop in housing prices is foreclosures.  The result is a fundamental problem to not only the occupants of a home but also the American economy and global economy as well.  There is just way too much housing inventory out there for home prices to have hit bottom.  Home prices will go down further as foreclosures continue to further flood the market.  Borrowers that owe more than the value of their homes just walk away.  Last week the Senate Banking Committee approved a bill guaranteeing modified loans when loan holders agree to lower the principal.  Homeowners that have equity in their property are way less likely to default.  ". . . help with loan modifications . . . foreclosures could top out by the end of this year and the market could bottom out by the Spring of '09" says Economy.com Zandi.

Get a loan modification

“Try to get a loan modification before you even miss a payment. This is probably the least onerous of the options out there, if you can get it. This is basically a change in loan terms.

A modification will lower your monthly mortgage payment or let you skip a few payments. The bottom line here is that the term of your loan can be extended.

To request a modification, call your lender and ask to be transferred to the loan modification department. Make sure you have some recent pay stubs, current or prior year W-2 forms, bank statements, property tax bills and insurance bills. If possible, obtain appraisal information for your home.

And the process can be frustrating. It could take weeks.

“It’s up to you to be proactive, persistent and aggressive, says Petrovich. “Loss-mitigation departments are overwhelmed, under-staffed and under-experienced,” he says.”

Better Business Bureau

991 Bible Way

Reno, NV 89502

re:        Follow up to BBB complaint Countrywide Home Loans

Dear Better Business Bureau,

I remain unsatisfied with Countrywide Home Loans.  My complaint to the BBB against Countrywide Home Loans remains inexplicably 100% unresolved.  In March 2008, I began my attempt to get a loan modification from Countrywide.  I have repeatedly provided Countrywide with my information including my income tax returns and income and expenses. As Countrywide knows very well, the Statue of Frauds requires that all communications, contracts etc., regarding real estate must be in writing.  For months, I have made repeated written communications to Countrywide.  I have repeatedly written Countrywide to communicate with me as required by the law, in writing.  That has not happened from Countrywide.

Per the requirements of the Statute of Frauds, I am again making another written request of Countrywide to comply with the law that all of Countrywide’s communications with me be in writing.

Per the requirements of the Statute of Frauds, I am still awaiting a written response from Countrywide as to my several written requests for a loan modification.

Per the requirements of the Statute of Frauds, I am still awaiting a written response from Countrywide as to my several written requests for the error that Countrywide continues to make in applying my payments as unapplied on my mortgage statements resulting in late charges.

Per the requirements of the Statute of Frauds, I am still awaiting a written response from Countrywide as to my several written requests for Countrywide to reverse all late charges and apply the monies Countrywide illegally used of my payment to those illegal late charges instead to my payment where they should have gone in the first place.

Per the requirements of the Statute of Frauds, I am still awaiting a written response from Countrywide as to my several written requests for a note modification in compliance with Congress and my loan’s investor underwriting rules of an permanent and fixed interest rate reduction to 4.625% and a permanent debt forgiveness of $175,000, to a 30 year fully amortized loan.

cc:        Countrywide Home Loans

            Mail Stop, PTX A-65

7105 Corporate Dr.

Plano, TX 75024

According to the front page of the June 6, 2006 Wall Street Journal, one Sheriff John Green of Philadelphia has taken this foreclosure nonsense stand of the lenders to another level.  He's refusing to hold court ordered foreclosure auctions.

3 cheers for Sheriff John Green!

Two states just announced they are sueing Countrywide Homeloans for exactly what Craig's been writing about in his Among Us stories.  The loan officers, escrow officers and Realtors all got paid to risk their client's money.  All of them made money off every transaction no matter what the outcome.  These loan officers and Realtors knowlingly put their clients in loans and properties their clients had no business at all being in.  They broke the rule of don't buy/play when you can't afford the losses.  We don't need more rules and regulations.  We need the perfectly good existing rules and regulations enforced.

I hope Nevada also sues!

"California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed suit Wednesday in the Superior Court of Los Angeles against Countrywide, chief executive officer Angelo Mozilo and chief financial officer David Sambol.

The Illinois attorney general is also filing a similar suit against Countrywide and Mozilo.

The California suit accused the bank of violating the state's unfair business practices and false advertising laws by obscuring risks in the loans, misleading consumers about payment terms, prepayment penalties and other obligations, and telling borrowers they would be able to refinance before the interest rate on their loans adjusted. The loans, which feature low initial payments that sharply increased a few years later, caused borrowers to default resulting in foreclosure.

The Illinois lawsuit accused Countrywide of rewarding employees and brokers who sold more of the questionable loans.

The suit also accused Mozilo of "relaxing underwriting standards, structuring loans with risky features, and misleading consumers with hidden fees and fake marketing claims."

Why hasn't the Nevada Attorney General also sued?  There are sure plenty of reasons here in Nevada to do so.  * Gledhill, Maree, King, Sickler & Kahan, Barry & Countrywide, Clark & First Centennial Title, Vaughan, Stewart & Wells Fargo, Mapes & Prudential Nevada Realty; Zane, Dugan, LeGault, First American Title & RemCor Realty, Homier aginfo@ag.state.nv.us

bribes

Nevada Mortgage Lending Division: MLDInfo@mld.nv.gov

Eddie, I can understand your "bribes" comment as it sure looks that way.  Especailly for Scott Bice, Sheila Walther and Judge Elliott.

Bribes for those three Craig, fall under the category of Public Corruption. Here's the e-mail for the FBI for Nevada: Lasvegas@ic.fbi.gov.  Why also haven't they done anything to put these crooks in jail?

According to Reno Realtor Madeline Zook’s article in the today Reno News & Review, “foreclosed properties (are) at 55 percent of the market, houses sell at a huge discount - $225,000 vs. $435,000.”

FDIC lays out broad home loan modification plan.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, who spent weeks unsuccessfully lobbying Bush administration officials for the foreclosure prevention plan, unveiled her agency's proposal two days after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson dismissed the idea of the government underwriting failing home loans.

http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/loans/loanmod/index.html

The FDIC said its plan would modify about 2.2 million mortgage loans by offering financial incentives to mortgage servicers. It would pay servicers $1,000 to cover expenses for each loan modified to the required standards, and would promise to share up to 50 percent of losses incurred if a modified loan defaults.

Eligible borrowers would include those who have missed at least two monthly payments on loans for homes they live in. Servicers would be expected to lower those borrowers' monthly payments to about 31 percent of the borrowers' monthly income.

The home foreclosures are self-evident that the banks and lenders are terrorists as terrorism refers to the public health consequences.  Patriots actively promote the methods for prevention of the purposeful use of violence or threats of violence by groups or individuals who are engaging in the terrroism in order to serve political or personal agendas.  Unlawfully removing someone from their home is an act of violence.

Joan, I agree with you.  FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair is the only with her act together. 

This month, mortgage giant Fannie Mae began to allow borrowers facing imminent financial difficulties to immediately request loan alterations, rather than having  to be behind two or three payments.

An ambitious mass-market loan modification program recently outlined by the Federal Housing Finance Agency - overseer of Fannie Mae and another major lender, Freddie Mac - along with other banks and mortgage servicers provides help for subprime and other borrowers slipping closer to foreclosure. To be eligible, owners must prove they can make mortgage payments with up to 38 percent of their monthly gross income and show proof of their hardship. If successful, borrowers can get sizable interest-rate reductions, deferral of principal payments or loan extensions.

http://www.fhfa.gov/

failure to deliver services within a reasonable time in Nevada,

Maintaining a pattern of illegal business practices in Nevada

Countrywide has failed to deliver services within a reasonable time per NRS 598.0903, et seq http://leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-598.html and  Countrywide has maintained a pattern of illegal business practices in violation of Nevada's consumer protection laws.  Now Countrywide is also violating the settlement agreement that Countrywide entered into with the State of Nevada Office of the Attorney General in December 2008.

State of Nevada Office of the Attorney General                         fax #  (775) 684-1170 
Bureau of Consumer Protection
100 North Carson Street
Carson City, Nevada 89701

February 15, 2009, Wells Fargo agrees to halt Foreclosures, temporarily..

Some lawmakers have suggested Geithner "strongly encourage" banks receiving government capital through the controversial $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to temporarily stop foreclosures. "TARP-assisted financial institutions should allow struggling homeowners more time to qualify for any systematic loan modification plan," Frank and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., wrote in a letter to Geithner on Wednesday.

JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo each have received billions of dollars in federal aid through TARP.

htthttp://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200902131828DOWJONESDJONLINE000900_FORTUNE5.htm

My follow up to how Countrywide is really screwing us over as individuals and as a country is at http://www.babelation.com/?q=node/1730 in the piece Is Your Lender A Patriot Or Terrorist? Part 2.

Hey Countrywide and your four employees Temena McGee, Michelle Langley, Ashley Stix, and Brandon Coltin, the latest is that according to U.S. Treasury Department website at http://www.treas.gov/initiatives/eesa/homeowner-affordability-plan/ExecutiveSummary.pdf.Helping Hard-Pressed Homeowners Stay in their Homes: This initiative is intended to reach millions of responsible homeowners who are struggling to afford their mortgage payments because of the current recession, yet cannot sell their homes because prices have fallen so significantly. Millions of hard-working families have seen their mortgage payments rise to 40 or even 50 percent of their monthly income.

a.   Providing Loan Modifications to Bring Monthly Payments to Sustainable Levels: The Homeowner Stability Initiative has a simple goal: reduce the amount homeowners owe per month to sustainable levels. Using money allocated under the Financial Stability Plan and the full strength of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, this program has several key components:

b.    A Shared Effort to Reduce Monthly Payments: For a sample household with payments adding up to 43 percent of his monthly income, the lender would first be responsible for bringing down interest rates so that the borrower’s monthly mortgage payment is no more than 38 percent of his or her income. Next, the initiative would match further reductions in interest payments dollar-for-dollar with the lender to bring that ratio down to 31 percent. If that borrower had a $220,000 mortgage, that could mean a reduction in monthly payments by over $400. That lower interest rate must be kept in place for five years, after which it could gradually be stepped up to the conforming loan rate in place at the time of the modification. Lenders will also be able to bring down monthly payments by reducing the principal owed on the mortgage, with Treasury sharing in the costs.

c.   “Pay for Success” Incentives to Servicers: Servicers will receive an up-front fee of $1,000 for each eligible modification meeting guidelines established under this initiative. They will also receive “pay for success” fees – awarded monthly as long as the borrower stays current on the loan – of up to $1,000 each year for three years.

d.    Incentives to Help Borrowers Stay Current: To provide an extra incentive for borrowers to keep paying on time, the initiative will provide a monthly balance reduction payment that goes straight towards reducing the principal balance of the mortgage loan. As long as a borrower stays current on his or her loan, he or she can get up to $1,000 each year for five years.

e.   Reaching Borrowers Early: To keep lenders focused on reaching borrowers who are trying their best to stay current on their mortgages, an incentive payment of $500 will be paid to servicers, and an incentive payment of $1,500 will be paid to mortgage holders, if they modify at-risk loans before the borrower falls behind.

f.    Home Price Decline Reserve Payments: To encourage lenders to modify more mortgages and enable more families to keep their homes, the Administration -- together with the FDIC -- has developed an innovative partial guarantee initiative. The insurance fund – to be created by the Treasury Department at a size of up to $10 billion – will be designed to discourage lenders from opting to foreclose on mortgages that could be viable now out of fear that home prices will fall even further later on. Holders of mortgages modified under the program would be provided with an additional insurance payment on each modified loan, linked to declines in the home price index.

For foreclosure, loan modification and mortgage fraud issues, I recommend Hager & Hearne Law Office.  This law office is also doing nationwide class actions lawsuits against the lenders for the illegal foreclosures, the lenders failures to do the required loan modifications, and they are up on the mortgage fraud.

Treva J. Hearne, trevahearn@aol.com

245 East Liberty Street, Suite 110
Reno, Nevada 89501

775) 329-5800

 Fax Number: (775) 329-5819

I spoke with my real estate expert, the only one in Nevada with Real Estate and Escrow Degrees, and here’s what I learned.

Beware of these Real Estate Fraud scammers/fraudsters.  Many of these Notices of Defaults being filed are just more Real Estate Fraud.  Many of these Notices of Default  are not real, they are fraudulent and they are just another way to steal houses.  Then the fraudster “sells” the stolen house under a fraudulent Trustee’s Deed.  By the time the homeowner and real and lawful lender finds out, it’s a huge legal nightmare, and the fraudsters are off with a lot of illegally obtained cash in their rotten pockets.

Too many title companies and sheriff’s offices  are just accepting at face value these Notices of Default without actually verifying them against the actual Deed of Trust as to who really has the lawful authority to foreclose.

If you get one of those dreaded Notice of Default’s filed against your home, check out the facts first.  Like is the one that filed that Notice of Default the one with the lawful authority to do so?  Guess what?  The vast majority of the time, they don’t!  They claim to have the authority, but don’t believe it.  Make them prove it to you.

If it’s not the party written in your Deed of Trust, a legal trail must be established as to how the alleged party now foreclosing is lawfully involved and has the lawful authority to do so.  That included if your loan has been sold one or more times from who you originally did the loan with.  There has to be provided to you the trail of legal transfers.

So that’s for the lender.  You’re the Trustor so it’s the same for the Trustee and the Beneficiary.  If the ones claiming to now be the Trustee and the Beneficiary are not the ones written in your Deed of Trust, these now alleged Trustee and the Beneficiary all have to legally prove how they now have lawful authority to foreclose.

Read your Deed of Trust t find out who the parties are that have legal authority to foreclose.  It will be in your closing documents you got from escrow.  If you can’t find your Deed of Trust, don’t worry.  It’s filed at the country recorder’s office.  You can either get a copy from there, or from any local title/escrow company.

Your Note will also be in your escrow docs you got when you bought the house.  NEVER give a copy your Note to the ones doing the foreclosure.  Odds are they don’t have the original let along a copy.  Without the original Note, which the one doing the foreclosing has to produce, they can’t lawfully foreclose.   The law requires the one doing the foreclosing has to produce the original note.  Make them prove to you they have the original Note.

For example, RECONSTRUCT COMPANY filed a Notice of Default.  Yet, there’s NO evidence RECONSTRUCT COMPANY has lawful authority to do what they have done, which is,

1.         According to the NOTICE OF DEFAULT, “RECORDING REQUESTED BY RECONSTRUCT COMPANY.”

RECONSTRUCT COMPANY appears instead to be engaged in fraud.  According to “Important Legal Notice NOTICE OF DEFAULT, RECONSTRUCT COMPANY, N.A., acting in its capacity as agent for the beneficiary,” alleges it’s the agent for the beneficiary and that “the Creditor to whom the debt is owed is Countrywide Home Loans.”

WRONG

1.                  RECONSTRUCT COMPANY is NOT the agent for the beneficiary.

2.                  Countrywide Home Loans is NOT the Creditor.

Here’s why:

1.                  RECONSTRUCT COMPANY has provided NO evidence that they are their claimed "agent for the beneficiary.”

2.                  According to the Deed of Trust RECONSTRUCT COMPANY references, the lender is Colonial Bank, N.A.

According to “Nevada Important Notice RECONSTRUCT COMPANY, N.A., claims to be “the duly appointed Trustee under a Deed of Trust”

WRONG

1.         Reconstruct Company is NOT the duly appointed Trustee under the referenced Deed of Trust

Here’s why:

1.                  According to the Deed of Trust RECONSTRUCT COMPANY references, the Trustee is FIRST CENTENNIAL TITLE COMPANY.

According to the Deed of Trust RECONSTRUCT COMPANY references, the “Trustee shall give public notice of the sale to the persons and in the manner prescribed by Applicable Law.”  The Trustee according to the Deed of Trust RECONSTRUCT COMPANY references, is FIRST CENTENNIAL TITLE COMPANY.  FIRST CENTENNIAL TITLE COMPANY has failed to “give public notice of the sale to the persons and in the manner prescribed by Applicable Law.”

Bless you for these stories/exposes.  I heard about them from a friend.  My family is now in foreclosure as my husband got laid off last fall.  He hasn’t been able to find work since then.  Our only income is now mine.   The Washoe County Sheriff should just stop enforcing these foreclosures.  They are illegal.  They are morally wrong.  It is not our fault the economy imploded, collapsed, went south, tanked, whatever it is called.  The reality is that it has hit us hard as it has everyone we know.  We never had much savings to begin with.  We never had medical insurance. We have one child, a beautiful 12 year old girl.  We had refinanced in May 2005 to pay off credit cards.  Since my husband’s lay off, we’ve been running them back up.  The loan Sheryl Christenson at Countrywide put us into was what we later discovered was a home equity line of credit, so we never know from month to month what our payment is.  Wish Sheryl Christenson had told us that then.  Our house is down to half what it appraised for in Spring 2005.  There are several foreclosures in our neighborhood.  But it seems that way everywhere we go in town.  Their yards are dead.  Many of them have been broken into.

We will use this stuff here to try to get the loan modification, but we still fear we’re facing bankruptcy.  But the people we know who have or are in bankruptcy have horror stories about it.  We‘ve made our rounds of the free consults with the bankruptcy lawyers and they are a strange lot.  Messy offices.  Late for appointments.  Too many people at them are just out and out rude.  Others look blank we when ask about the loan modification our friend told us about when they sent us to here.  These bankruptcy offices are not exactly the kind of people to make us feel comfortable or that we are in good hands.

We wrote to Senator Harry Reid, Senator John Ensign and Congressman Dean Heller.   They have no clue of the federal laws for the loan modifications or the mortgage fraud that created the Housing Bubble and the inevitable Housing Bust.

I worry most about my husband.  At times, I wonder if he’s had a nervous breakdown.

Stiglitz: Gov’t Should Bail Out Homeowners, Not Banks

Stiglitz: Gov’t Should Bail Out Homeowners, Not Banks

I am the loan officer that was slandered in the above article by Marian Levy. I have NEVER put anyone into a loan that was not fully explained to them during the loan process. Then, the loan disclosures are sent out on each and every loan application that details the loan they are applying for and how it works. When it is time to close and sign their loan documents they go to the title company where the escrow officer, ONCE AGAIN, fully explains each and every page of the loan package in great detail. During this 30 day (or so) process I have, and always will be, reachable by cell phone or office phone, and make myself FULLY AVAILABLE to answer any and all questions that clients have. I have hundreds of clients who can attest to this! I do not appreciate being slandered in this forum Ms. Levy! Furthermore, I have NEVER even heard from you until now to see what I could have done to assist you in any way!!!!  We own our choices, and I really wish people would start taking responsibility for their OWN SELVES instead of BLAMING everyone else! If people would have CHOSEN  NOT to use their homes as ATM's in the first place, and had a savings account with at least 8 months of "living expenses" (like Suze Orman has written MANY books about) maybe people would not be in this situation now. I realize there are exceptions in these challenging financial times, but Marian Levy takes an opportunity like this to slander me on the internet without ever trying to contact, or if necessary, confront me face to face is sickening to me.

Loan officers are so believable. It's a pity the small print isn't in big block capitals as well.

A Loan Officer died.  She met St. Peter at the Pearly Gates where she presented herself for admittance to Heaven.

Peter said, “Well, you did a lot of good helping people get homes and access their equity and you also donated a lot to charity. You even worked with Habitat for Humanity.  But you told too many “little lies” to the underwriters and were very rude and unkind to both your processor, office staff, appraisors, and clients and you skimmed over way too much.

So, we’ve decided to give you tours of both Heaven and Hell and let you decide where you feel most comfortable.”

In Heaven, the Loan Officer really liked the streets paved with gold and the big mansions, but she found all the harp music to be a bit irksome.

When she toured Hell, she saw that everyone had their choice of playing tennis or golf, chilling by the pool smoking and drinking, or playing cards and dancing in the clubhouse. She said to St. Peter “This is a hard choice! Can I sleep on it?”

When they asked her the next month, she begged, “Oh please send me to Hell!”  When they opened up the doors of Hell, it had completely changed! It was the stereotypical Hell of torture, fire and brimstone. It was so hot and horrible with people burning and screaming!

Hey this is not what you showed me last month!!” the Loan Officer accused, tears and sweat pouring down her face.

St. Peter replied: “I know.  Pity you didn’t read the small print we mailed you last month. I have NEVER put anyone into Hell that was not fully explained to them during the Hell process. Then, the Hell disclosures are sent out on each and every Hell application that details the Hell they are applying for and how it works. When it is time to close and sign their Hell documents they go to the title company where the escrow officer, ONCE AGAIN, fully explains each and every page of the Hell package in great detail. During this 30 day (or so) process I have, and always will be, reachable by cell phone or office phone, and make myself FULLY AVAILABLE to answer any and all questions that clients have.”

Brilliant Edward, it's funny because it's true..

Countrywide is definitely anti-America.  Thye’re not doing the required homeloans because of the origination fees they make off the refinance loans for the loans they should never have put us into in the first place.

Sheryl Christensen, can you spell MORTGAGE FRAUD?  Sure you can.  The one with the 30-year Federal felony and $1 million fine per occurrence.  Remember me Sheryl?  The one your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies referred to you.  The one that did three purchases with you from Spring 2003 to Fall 2005 for a total of six loans.  The one that you created that first rental agreement for the house I was selling through your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies.  You were then with Wells Fargo on Kietzke Lane across from Lowe’s.  You told me that your manager, James Elvick had told you to do that when the underwriter conditioned for either the sale of that house or a rental contract of that house.  It was faster for you to create that rental contract than it was then to sell the house.   I had never been a landlord nor did I have any intention of ever becoming one.  Your rental contract worked.  I moved into my new home.  I never did rent my previous home as your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies listed it the morning after close of escrow on my new home.  A bit of a financial hardship for me making both payments, but the market was starting to heat up and it sold in six months.  You put me on that 100% 80 Heloc-20 Heloc that you sold me on that I “could just write a check out of as the property appreciated.”  Use my home as a checking account you extolled.  I’m sure now Wells Fargo was paying you a bonus to push that product.  You sure quickly glossed over the details about that product.  I naively made the mistake of assuming that what you told me was the same as what was in that paperwork in very small print that you mailed to me.  The Sheryl mouth giveth and the small print taketh.  I didn’t know until much later that your 100% 80 Heloc-20 Heloc was a bullet to my head.

Then your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies told me I “should buy another property and flip it for a quick buck.”  I had zero cash but your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies told me “Sheryl’ll show you how to do it.”  Sheryl certainly did.  Sheryl, the Pusher, created another rental contract on my home and put on the loan I was moving into the new property.  Again, I had no intention of being a landlord, and in this case, of moving.  That property was flipped, but the next year during tax filing, after all the loan fees to you, the real estate commissions buying and selling, the income tax prep fees, and the capital gains taxes since the loan paperwork had it as an owner occupant which wasn’t exempt since I’d just taken the exemption on my other home, since my tax preparer wisely disclosed to me what tax fraud is, its consequences and that she wasn’t participating in it, I’d made a grand net profit of minus $9,872.  At the time though, I hadn’t yet learned all that.  Or that the only ones that made money off that deal was you and your fellow Pusher Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies.  In fact, it turned out, you and your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies made a lot of money of that deal.  In stocks, what you and your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies were doing is known as churning.  The deal was done for your benefit, not mine.  I still didn’t yet know that though.

So you and your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies had me do another one exactly like the previous one.  But the market, unknown to me, had peaked and was collapsing.  No flipping in that market.  I lost that house in foreclosure soon after my tax preparer broke all the bad news to me of what you and your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies had aggressively tricked me into.

My tax preparer also broke more bad news.  The IRS is one of the few hiring.  The IRS is hiring

So the IRS can go back and audit loan files such as yours.  The IRS is looking for declarations of rental status then matching that up to the borrower’s income tax returns.  No rental income tax income declared and the IRS hauls the borrower in for an audit.  In my case, there was no rental income, but my tax preparer says I won’t be believed since my loan documents, with my signature, say different.  My six Deed of Trusts recorded at the Washoe County Recorder’s Office clearly has owner occupant on all those turns out were fraudulent loans you did for me.  So I’ll be assessed taxes and penalties for rental income that I never received on three properties.  I may even be facing criminal charges.  My recourse will then be to sue you and Wells Fargo and Countrywide and your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies and Ferrari-Lund Real Estate for the MORTGAGE FRAUD I didn’t know then you and they then were doing. MORTGAGE FRAUD, you know, that creating and/or providing false information to a lender.  Which I have since learned is also an NRS 645 violation for Ferrari-Lund Real Estate.

My tax preparer is convinced once the IRS gets to me I’m screwed.  I’m not going down alone.  I hear the FBI and Nevada AG is also hiring to go after the MORTGAGE FRAUDSTERS.  If the IRS comes after me, I’m going to the FBI and Nevada AG and telling them everything.  I know you’ll then say to them what you said to me, that your manager, James Elvick had told you to create a rental contract when the underwriter conditioned for either the sale of that house or a rental contract of that house.  Elvick will of course deny he said that.  I’ll have your loan records and Ferrari-Lund’s real estate records subpoenaed and since you and/or your Ferrari-Lund Real Estate buddies created the false rental contracts, they’re not in my handwriting.

My home?  Well, I finally met an honest loan officer and she, a veteran herself, refinanced me into the loan Sheryl really didn’t want to do for me, my 30 year fixed VA loan.

Mortgage fraud happens when whoever makes any false statement or report for the purpose of influencing in any way the action of the lender.  John S. Pistole, Deputy Director Federal Bureau of Investigation in his Statement Before the House Committee on the Judiciary April 1, 2009, said, “each mortgage fraud scheme contains some type of material misstatement, misrepresentation or omission relied upon by an underwriter or lender to fund, purchase or insure a loan.”

Greene, creating a false rental contract to satisfy a lender’s underwriter condition is material and is mortgage fraud.  Fraud for Housing is what you did.  Fraud for Housing represents illegal actions perpetrated by a borrower, typically with the assistance of real estate professionals such as loan officers and real estate agents. The simple motive behind this fraud is to acquire and maintain ownership of a house under false pretenses.  Which you did, three times, with the assistance of your loan officer and real estate agent.  That connects the dots for a criminal conspiracy.  You do indeed have a looming IRS and probably an FBI problem.  The IRS will inevitably get to you.  Congress has just allocated more funds to mortgage fraud investigations and prosecutions.

Marian, please contact me and we’ll set up a time to go over your Countrywide paperwork, hopefully you still have it.  Let’s see if I find something in them.  And how’s the loan modification process going?

Eddie, http://www.flippingfrenzy.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/FraudCartoon2.jpg.

I was uneasy when the loan oficers were telling me to just make up a rental agreement.  I said no, but somehow one still appeared it to satisfy that underwriter condition.

I believe Marian Levy and Greene because I myself with my nephew confronted Countrywide Loan Officer and Branch Manager Sue Barry about the Mortgage Fraud Sue Barry had done several times with John and Kay Sickler.  Sue Barry told me to talk to the president of Countrywide as Sue Barry claims that mortgage fraud is what she had been told to do.  Not likely as Sue Barry, being her own underwriter, knew she was overriding the Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, HUD and Wall Street investors’ underwriting rules when Sue Barry did the mortgage fraud for John and Kay Sickler.

Sue Barry was Countrywide Loan Officer Sheryl Christenson’s Branch Manager.

But will they, John and Kay Sickler, Sue Barry, Sheryl Christenson, and Judge  Barbara Finley, get their just due in my lifetime?  Here’s how River City bullies like John and Kay Sickler, who are also mortgage fraudsters, get what they want.  “Give me everything I want right now or I will pound you, your company, your family, and your friends with an unrelenting surge of litigation/frivolous lawsuits.”

About what I expect from John and Kay Sickler since John Sickler refers about wife Kay Sickler as, “Old ball and chain.”

http://www.ccwashoe.com/public/ck_public_qry_cpty.cp_personcase_details_idx?backto=P&soundex_ind=&partial_ind=&last_name=&first_name=&middle_name=&begin_date=&end_date=&case_type=&id_code=@1127676

The U.S. Congress should pass immediate legislation for the President to sign into law that offers temporary relief for twelve months for all homeowners and business property owners for a one-year mortgage moratorium forbearance period.

Renters of apartments, office and retail space will benefit as well by receiving a 50% monthly rent reduction relief. This would give renters a huge economic boost as well. 

With this plan everyone wins, nobody gets left out. This plan is for the elderly, middle aged, newly married couples, small, medium and large business owners, and especially the Americans who are really feeling the financial pain from personal and business debt, massive layoffs, the housing collapse, the depressed economy, and the stock market loss of value!

Three million illegal foreclosures to date and counting!!  Lucy, thanks for the info on SOE.  I'm all for it.

I still have been unable to get the loan modification from Countrywide.  Since I started trying to get this required loan modification from Countrywide, Countrywide has stopped sending me my statements.  After going through a Liddy then a Cliff then a Kathleen then a Marcus then a Maryann then a Tamara Brown I talked with a Kathleen Walker tel # 800-669-0102 x 8408, fax # 805-520-5019.  She is one incompetent manager.  No wonder Countrywide’s employees Liddy, Cliff, Kathleen, Marcus, Maryann, and Tamara Brown are incompetent!

Sheryl, it is not slander as you wrongfully charge.  I will take a polygraph.  Will you?

Marian, time for you to contact Nevada congressmen Sen. Reid, Ensign or Congressman Heller.  I agree with you about those Countrywide Home Loan's employees’ systemic incompetence.  It’s very frustrating and even frightening for many how much control these Countrywide Home Loan's incompetents have over our lives.

Nevada legislators finally got fed up enough with the lenders illegal foreclosures and did something.

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/75th2009/Bills/AB/AB149.pdf

From Brandon @ BLC4law@aol.com

Beware of Loan Modification Documents -- Read Carefully!

 

Folks, as part of my ongoing misery with Countrywide -- after it failed to follow through with a loan refinancing deal because I refused to sign the loan application that CW employees completed with false information (they overstated my income and also showed me as having a $30,000 savings account when I had none at all!) -- Countrywide sent me a "loan modification" agreement. This process is apparently totally separate from any refinancing arrangements.

Supposedly, the loan modification was based on CW's discussion with the Attorneys General of various states that sued the company for fraud / deceptive trade practices. The letter I got from CW regarding the loan modification said I needed to do absolutely nothing to get a reduced interest rate and most importantly to us, a reduced monthly payment schedule. Yet when they sent the loan modification document, lo and behold, there was a paragraph in the document by which I agreed to give up any legal rights I might have against Countrywide based on alleged fraud or misconduct in refinancing. I refused to sign it. Nobody had ever mentioned that I was going to have to give up and release any claims I might have against this company. CW puts people in horrible economic circumstances, gets them over a barrel, so to speak, then knowing that a person in that position will do and sign almost anything to save the home, puts provisions in the loan modification documents to protect themselves from past lies and misconduct. How egregious is that?? Did Congress really give BOA and CW billions in funds so that the company could run roughshod over the rights of borrowers and silence their complaints of fraud and deception in the refinancing process? I think not.

The refinancing scam is going to prove more deadly to our nation than even the subprime loan origination practices that set our economy's downfall in motion. Sooner or later, the truth will come out. For those of us who are CW customers and have experienced this firsthand, there will be no surprise when it all surfaces. But it will likely be too late to reverse the damage done...

Where is the government oversight? Where is the "transparency" in Countrywide's handling of these matters that we have heard would be required of these monster corporations receiving billions from the federal government?

Note that Countrywide's attorneys -- in a court of law, mind you -- have stated that their refinancing offers are "not promises of anticipated future performance" on the company's part but are mere "puffery" ... What does this mean in plain-Jane English? It means, ladies and gentlemen, that CW's refinancing offers are absolutely meaningless. Also be aware that if your refinancing depends on an appraisal of your property, that Countrywide has been sued in the State of Washington for mortgage appraisal manipulation. Meaning, Countrywide cherry-picks appraisers to give the company the valuation that it wants, not the true valuation of your property. There are countless ways this company will scam you, defraud you and eventually send you to foreclosure.

Then of course when the refinancing fails, for whatever reason (a loan application that CW itself falsified, or a bogus appraisal on your property that results in you NOT qualifying after being promised and assured that you do), you get a loan modification document that will take away any legal rights you have against the company. BEWARE!!

Brandon

BLC4law@aol.com

http://mariokenny.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/cops-enforce-illegal-bank-foreclosure-homeowner-dies-resisting-eviction/

There is another reason to add to Craig’s argument/doors for Note Modification.  That is the millions of Short Sales the lenders have approved through their vigorous efforts.  A Short Sale is when a home is sold for less than what is owed on it.  It is repugnant how those Short Sales put millions of Americans out of their homes.

Right.  If the lender oks a Short Sale, why in the world wouldn't they instead do the Note Modification letting the homeowner stay in their home!

Why is Countrywide NOT doing the REQUIRED loan modifications?

Up front loan mod fees are illegal and they are illegal because it is illegal for anyone except attorneys to take a fee before they provide the assistance.  Under California’s Mortgage Foreclosure Act as codified in Sections 2945 et seq. of the Civil Code, all so called foreclosure specialist or consultants are prohibited from collecting an upfront fee from a consumer, even if they work with attorneys or have attorneys inside their shop. Hence, they must perform services before collecting a fee absent being a law firm where an ordinary attorney/client relationship has occurred under a normal retainer agreement.

The lender or the note holder can not charge anything upfront.

@ Craig I did contact Reid’s office and they made a call for me.  About contacting Congressman Heller.  More Troop-Haters and Veteran-Haters are Nevada Republican Representative Dean Heller, his staff persons Pace and Mark Sutcliff, Reno attorney Shawn Patterson, Nurse Kathleen Solomon, Dr. Ralph Coppola at the Reno VA Hospital ENT Clinic, 786-7200 x 1772; and Marie Sterkel-Munson 786-7200 x 1844 Reno VA Hospital Audiologoy Supervisor.  Even the Reno VA Hospital Director Dr. Kirk is a Veteran-Hater for his insane policy of not seeing or dealing direct with Veterans.  My neighbor’s medical training was good enough for the United States Marine Corps but not good enough for these veteran-haters who have repeatedly mocked his military medical training and repeatedly put him down for it.  I sometimes drive him to and from his appointments.  He is a Veteran.  An Honorably Discharged with Medical Veteran.  He has no other health care but the VA. .  These veteran-haters are working in a Veterans Hospital. These arrogant, rude, self-important Veteran-Haters work at a Veterans Hospital on the public payroll and they hate, ridicule, hurt, belittle, embarrass, harass, and abuse Veterans.

Marian, first, I hope Senator Reid's office was able to help you.  Second, veterans are the largest single group discriminated against.  Veterans status should be Federally protected like age, religion, marital status, gender, race, etc.

President Obama has pledged to help as many as 9 million American homeowners refinance their mortgages or avert foreclosure, an initiative he said would shore up distressed housing prices, stabilize neighborhoods and slow a downward spiral that he said was “unraveling homeownership, the middle class, and the American Dream itself.”

The plan, more ambitious than many housing analysts had expected, was unveiled by Mr. Obama in a high school gymnasium in a community that is among the nation’s hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.

“This plan will not save every home, but it will give millions of families resigned to financial ruin a chance to rebuild,” the president told the crowd. “It will prevent the worst consequences of this crisis from wreaking even greater havoc on the economy. And by bringing down the foreclosure rate, it will help to shore up housing prices for everyone.”

In a nutshell from the LA Times, the plan would:

• Remove restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that prohibit the institutions, both taken over by the government last year, from refinancing mortgages they own or have guaranteed when more is owed on a home than it is worth. The White House says this could reduce monthly payments for up to 5 million homeowners.

• Create incentives for lenders to modify subprime loans at risk of default or foreclosure. For lenders that agree to reduce rates to levels borrowers can afford, the government will make up part of the difference between the old monthly payment and the new payment. Participating lenders also will be required to cut payments to no more than 31 percent of a borrower's income. Up to 4 million homeowners could benefit.

• Keep mortgage rates low for millions of middle-class families seeking new mortgages. Using money already approved by Congress for this purpose, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve will continue to buy Fannie and Freddie mortgage-backed securities to maintain stability and liquidity in the marketplace. The department, through its existing authority, will provide up to $200 billion in capital for this purpose.

• Pursue reforms to help families avoid foreclosure. The administration will continue to support changing bankruptcy rules so judges can reduce mortgages on primary homes to their fair market value, as long as the borrower sticks to a court-ordered repayment plan. As part of the $787 billion stimulus package that Obama signed into law on Tuesday, the administration will award $2 billion in competitive grants to communities experimenting with innovative ways to prevent foreclosures.

And still the lenders, who all received taxpayer funded bail-outs, continue with their illegal foreclosres!

Foreclosures Reduce The Value of Everybody Else’s House.

Playing his customary role as predictably as Charlie Chaplin, Michael Moore keeps up the assault.  Adding to it, Oliver Stone's new film portrays socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a champion of the poor who is unfairly demonized by the U.S. media.  "Democracy is not a spectator sport, it's a participatory event," Michael Moore told a news conference. "If we don't participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy. So Obama will rise or fall based not so much on what he does but on what we do to support him."

In one scene from Michael Moore’s latest opus, the neighbor of an evicted family in Florida argues with the enforcer sent from the bank, shades of organized crime and their muscle, telling him if too many people are locked out, “the value of everybody else’s house goes down.” Foreclosures Reduce The Value of Everybody Else’s House.   That, on a more vast scale, was precisely the rationale offered by the George W. Bush White House for the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.

“One of my favorite lines in the film, and I hoped it would provoke a reaction,” Michael Moore, the product of a middle-class upbringing spurned by the corporation and the system his family helped to build, said. “The bailout in and of itself — the idea of protecting people’s pension funds and hoping that everything doesn’t go down a rathole — that’s not a bad thing. It’s the way it was done.”

Corporate lobbying should be outlawed as lobbyists are only pretending to be capitalist.  Lobbyists are Socialists of the worst kind.  The Republicans spent eight years demolishing the federal budget so Republicans can hardly hold themselves up as a paragon of fiscal responsibility.  Bill Clinton balanced the budget, reduced the debt, reduced spending and left the government with a surplus, all things that fiscal conservatives advocate. On the other hand, George W. Bush increased spending and the debt, and left a $500 billion deficit for his successor. Indeed, it was George W. Bush, Haney Paulson and the Republicans who started the massive bailout process which the Democrats have inherited (and continued) although all rhetoric aside, when you run the numbers, it’s the Democrats who turn out to be the party of fiscal conservatism, not the Republicans.

The Democrats are certainly not free-market capitalists, and then again, they correctly don’t claim to be.

Here are some facts about small businesses in the U.S. from the Small Business Administration, which defines small as fewer than 500 employees which is 99.7 percent of all businesses.  These small businesses

Employ about half of all private sector employees.

Pay nearly 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.

Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade.

Create more than half of nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).

Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer
workers).

Made up 97.3 percent of all identified exporters and produced 28.9 percent of the known export value in FY 2006.

Produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms; these patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.

http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20090916/NEWS/909169991?Title=Capitalism-146-s-Little-Tramp

The bank executives owe every American taxpayer and their community for us bailing them out and need to show humility for it and that they learned from their costly mistakes.

In my neighborhood, and even around town, it seems like three fourths of the houses are either in foreclosure or bank owned. It’s gotten so bad that the bank owned properties are no longer letting the real estate agents put For Sale signs on them because if the foreclosed on owner didn’t strip the property, the Fore Sale sign is an invitation to do so. Those doing the break-ins to the vacant properties fast figure it out that the property is a foreclosure though from the dying or dead landscaping, and if the property has been winterized, not all the banks are doing that though, so beware frozen water pipes, the yellow stickers all over the windows are advertising that, which is again another invitation saying “Break In.” Although some of the properties have doors that are not even locked. Some are due to the French doors’ latches are broken.

I also don’t understand why with the names, dates, places, paperwork etc. documented, more of these criminals are not in prison. I believe it about the bribes offered and paid to quash investigations and prosecution. Bribes explains why the complaints and lawsuits here are getting no where – the corrupt activist state administrators and judges quash them. Did and is the FBI agents also taking bribes as they sure drag/dragged their heels? Although no surprise there I guess with all the pre-knowledge the FBI had about 9.11. The lack of judges, Real Estate Division, Mortgage Division, police, sheriff, state legislators, federal legislators, FBI and IRS actions against these criminals could be something just as simple as ignorance of this (mortgage fraud) type of white collar crimes, and/or their laziness and incompetence.

It’s plain old fashioned corruption. Bribes were offered by the mortgage fraudsters and those bribes were then accepted. Anything’s an improvement from the FBI’s repeated failings in fighting mortgage fraud under Bush. I want an Attorney General, state and Federal, who will actually fight mortgage fraud, and stop the corruption of the officials who took or are still taking the bribes to protect the mortgage fraudsters, I’m expecting and frankly hoping to soon see more of these mortgage fraudsters, especially the judges, state administrators, investigators, and other so far useless flunkies, real estate agents and loan officers/home mortgage consultants get taken down with million dollar plus fines and 30 year plus prison sentences. Sheila Walther at the Mortgage Division and Sue Barry, Beverley Stewart, Sheryl Christensen, Kevin Anderson, and Rick Vaughan, all from Countrywide Home Loans, Mendy Elliott and her lovely corrupt judge husband Steve, are all dirty with this mortgage fraud.

According to http://www.newsreview.com/reno/content?oid=1336127,

CONGRESS SELLS OUT TO WALL STREET

The total tab for the Wall Street bailout, including money spent and promised by the U.S. government, works out to an estimated $42,000 for every man, woman and child, according to American Casino, a documentary about subprime lending and the financial meltdown. The predatory lending free-for-all, the emergency pumping of taxpayer dollars to prop up mega banks, and the lavish bonuses handed out to Wall Street executives in the aftermath are all issues that have dominated news headlines.

But another twist in the story received scant attention from the mainstream news media: the unsettling combination of lax oversight from national politicians with high-dollar campaign contributions from financial players.

“The worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d’état,” Matt Taibbi wrote in “The Big Takeover,” a March 2009 Rolling Stone article. “They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders who used money to control elections, buy influence, and systematically weaken financial regulations.”

In the 10-year period beginning in 1998, the financial sector spent $1.7 billion on federal campaign contributions, and another $3.4 billion on lobbyists. Since 2001, eight of the most troubled firms have donated $64.2 million to congressional candidates, presidential candidates, and the Republican and Democratic parties.

Wall Street’s spending spree on political contributions coincided with a weakening of federal banking regulations, which in turn created a recipe for the astronomical financial disaster that sent the global economy reeling.