Obama Foreclosure-Prevention Plan Lagging, New Data Shows

Shahien Nasiripour, Huffington Post

Only about a third of the homeowners who have successfully completed the trial period of the Obama administration’s mortgage modification program have been offered permanent relief, according to new federal data obtained by the Huffington Post.

The conversion rate — about 33 percent — is woefully short of what the Treasury Department had forecast. Treasury thought the rate would be “ranging up to 75 percent,” Herbert M. Allison Jr., assistant secretary for financial stability, told the Congressional Oversight Panel in October.

The other two-thirds of homeowners who have gone through the trial program and made the necessary payments remain in limbo. Some of those homeowners — more than 350,000 of them — will ultimately lose out on the kind of relief the administration has repeatedly promised: averting foreclosure through lower monthly payments.

“I remain very concerned about the relatively small number of conversions from trial to permanent modifications for homeowners,” said Richard H. Neiman, New York’s superintendent of banks and a member of the COP, in an email to HuffPost. “Hundreds of thousands of homeowners are left in limbo by [mortgage] servicers and [are] once again at risk of foreclosure.”

Read more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/obama-foreclosure-prevent_n_492376.html

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Is JPMorgan Responsible for the Destruction of U.S. Financial System?

Someone forwarded this article to me from a UK website about JP Morgan-Chase being responsible for the destruction of the U.S. financial system.  The article is dated October 18, 2008 but it’s still an interesting read.

Jim Willie, Market Oracle

The tag team of JPMorgan as the monster and Goldman Sachs as its harlot represent a powerful pair that is more responsible for destroying the entire US financial system than 95% of the American public has any awareness. The colossus of JPMorgan is a monster, a predator, nurtured by pond scum. It has gobbled up Chase Manhattan, Manufacturers Hanover, Chemical Bank, Bank One, and more over the past two decades. Their profound presence in keeping the USTreasury Bond yields down can never be understated. They do so by managing 85% of the credit derivatives on the planet. They distorted usury prices, as in price of borrowed money, thus aggravating the LIBOR (London InterBank Offered Rate) market in a very visible manner.

The oblong usury prices have contributed mightily to the destruction of the US Economy itself, created bubbles, killed jobs, and wrecked savings. The ugliest hidden activity for the JPMorgan monster is to manage the Bank of Baghdad, where they manipulate the crude oil price, where drug trafficking money is funneled from Afghan sales, under management by the US Military aegis (guys with no uniform stripes or markings). Maybe such illicit money offsets Credit Default Swap losses, making America strong for freedom and liberty. Goldman Sachs is clearly the investment banking agent for the USGovt, given the privilege of insider trading in unspeakable proportions.

They manage the Plunge Protection Team efforts to intervene in financial markets, making America strong for freedom and liberty. The new kid on the block is the FDIC. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is steering fresh meat into the corralled JPMorgan stockyards for slaughterhouse feeding. The label of harlot might be too kind, especially from the perspective of senior bond holders. But JPMorgan requires fresh meat (capital) periodically, thus making America strong for freedom and liberty. Never mind the fires caused after its hearty meals and flatulence.

This article discusses the JPMorgan monster, its behaviour, and teeth revealed. Robb Kirby (see his website, click HERE ) often covers JPMorgan illicit behaviour This article discusses banking system realignments to destroy savings accounts owned by the people, and the Coup d’Etat just completed. The criminals on Wall Street have taken full control of the USGovt financial management, with blank check written by a thoroughly intimidated US Congress, deceived steadily and easily. Threats and intimidation are central to the successful coup. The Ponzi Scheme has been revealed, even as the frail and tattered Shadow Banking System has been revealed. The key to the bailouts is its continued Top Down approach, which favors the Ruling Elite and denies all but crumbs to the people, who have been subjected to a foreclosure revolving door on mortgage loan assistance.

Since nothing has been solved from this approach, a total systemic breakdown is assured, whose climax will be the current Administration and the Wall Street executives in charge of the criminal syndicate riding off into the sunset in retirement. Rome burns. Much more detail is provided in the upcoming October report due this weekend. The theme is this subset synopsis article is of criminality, deception, monster exploitation, market corruption, and the collapse of a failed system, whose crescendo represents the greatest financial crimes ever witnessed in modern history. Americans do it big! The proprietary Hat Trick Letter covers much more of recent events, interpretation, and analysis, but here, focus on impropriety.

The Monster, Its Broker & Harlot

JPMorgan will require fresh asset meat every several weeks in order to survive, but the process will result in a sequence of severely damaging CDSwap fires. Perversely, the FDIC is their investment banker agent. Two mergers of questionable nature highlight the altered role of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), which no longer protects bank depositors or their investors, but rather serves JPMorgan Chase. When Bank of America merged with Merrill Lynch, a trend started, one that exposed private stock brokerage accounts. Officially they can be legally borrowed across subsidiary lines. The FDIC averted a failure of Merrill Lynch without the credit default implications.

The other event was more blatant, as the FDIC steered Washington Mutual out of bankruptcy failure and into the JPMorgan slaughterhouse. Inside its chambers, JPM gobbled up the WaMu deposits and benefited from ratio improvements. Senior bond holders were crushed, fully denied due process from bankruptcy. The FDIC has become an ugly investment banker lookalike, serving JPM and not the US public. The FDIC owns a pitifully small $45 billion in funds available for bank bailouts, at June count. When the dust clears a year or more from now, many multiples more will be necessary for many bank failures.

Read more here: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article6826.html

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Obama Plan To Modify Second Mortgages Has Yet To Help One Homeowner

Shahien Nasiripour, Huffington Post

Nearly a year after the Obama administration announced a plan to help up to 1.5 million struggling homeowners modify their second mortgages, not a single homeowner has gotten any assistance.

The program, a part of the administration’s $75 billion anti-foreclosure initiative, was supposed to induce mortgage servicers to coordinate payment reductions on additional mortgages when the first mortgage is modified under the administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program.

But it’s never gotten off the ground.

Housing experts say addressing second mortgages is essential in tackling the foreclosure crisis. For many homeowners, particularly those who owe more than their house is worth, modifying only one of the two mortgages is not enough to prevent foreclosure.

The plan was first announced last April. In August the Treasury Department released guidelines on how the program would work. Months passed before any servicers signed up. More than five weeks ago, Bank of America, the nation’s largest servicer with about three million second liens, signed an agreement to join, but a bank spokeswoman said the firm is still awaiting final guidelines from Treasury before proceeding. A Treasury spokeswoman said the firm could technically begin the process now.

On Thursday, Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit told the Congressional Oversight Panel why Citi has not signed up yet. “We’ve said to the Treasury we’re willing to work with them as to what this program is,” Pandit said in response to a question from panel member Richard H. Neiman, New York’s top bank regulator. “We have just seen the details,” said Pandit. “I think it’s prudent for us to go through that before we sign on.”

About three million homes were lost to foreclosure last year, according to RealtyTrac; this year could be worse, in part because so many distressed homeowners have second mortgages. In April, the administration estimated that “up to 50 percent of at-risk mortgages currently have second liens.”

Read more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/obama-plan-to-modify-seco_n_487474.html

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