Archive for the 'National News/Local News' Category
Channel 5 News Report on Chase Bank
June 16th, 2010 categories: National News/Local News, Short Sales
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Shares to Be Pulled Off NYSE
June 16th, 2010 categories: National News/Local News
The NYSE plans to delist the shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This means Fannie and Freddie Mac will no longer be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
As of June 15, 2009, one share of Fannie Mae stock was selling at .92 cents while Freddie Mac shares were at $1.22.
In September of 2008 the Government took over both Fannie and Freddie when the housing bubble collapsed. So far taxpayers have poured $145 billion dollars into Fannie and Freddie to keep them afloat during the housing crisis and now they are being pulled from the NYSE.
What does this mean to you and I?
Well it means to date there is no confidence in our government running these two agencies and no market to sell these guaranteed mortgage back securities to private investors.
Remember Fannie and Freddie were created by Congress to buy mortgages from banks and then package them into bonds and sell them into the open market as mortgaged backed securities to investors. When the rating system of these mortgages collapsed and loans started to go into default then the market lost all confidence.
Today 31 million home loans worth $5.5 trillion dollars or half of all mortgages are guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie Mac.
When you see Congress debating over financial reform they are really debating over how to fix Fannie and Freddie as they are crucial to the success or failure of our housing market and banking markets.
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Up or Down Goldman Sachs Wins
April 28th, 2010 categories: Just "My" Opinion, National News/Local News
During the last couple of days I have been hearing the testomony from top executives at Goldman Sachs.
It appears from their testimony that it does not matter whether the market is up or down they will always find a way to profit.
According to Lloyd Blankfein , Chief Exectutive at Goldman, betting against mortgage backed securities that the firm was selling to clients was not a conflict of interest, or unethical.
According to Blankfein and other at Goldman, betting against mortgage back securites was just good business sense for the firm since the firm was hedging against lossess on sub-prime mortgages when they were on the other side of the transaction.
To them Short Selling a Security is just a normal activity for Goldman Sachs and their customers know this and trust them.
Yet would you trust a company when their interests come first before their customers?
It may take months before we see the affects of any financial reform legislation as a result of Golman Sachs behavior.
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TWO DIFFERENT STORIES… HARD TO FIGURE OUT
April 16th, 2010 categories: Just "My" Opinion, National News/Local News
In the Tribune business section on Thursday were 2 articles with 2 different stories and its hard to figure out or who to believe.
The first article was on the front page of the business section ” Illinois Housing Defaults Double” the other was on page 4 of the same section “$3.3 billion profit at JPMorgan tops estimates”.
So here is my question, is JPMorgan making such huge profits? I think the answer can be found in the article on the first page and that would be the homeowner.
Almost 15,000 Illinois homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure this year in the first 3 months. This is twice as many homes that went back to lenders during the same period in 2009.
Clearly there is a disconnect between what is being reported and the realities of the housing market as it relates to homeowners in Illinois.
According to Jamie Diamond, Chase Bank CEO, the US economy is clearly showing signs of improvement.
Well Jamie maybe it is showing signs at your bank with profits up from $2.1 billion in 2009 to $3.3 billion in 2010 but don’t tell that to homeowners who are loosing their homes to foreclosure in Illinois because I do not think they can appreciate what you are saying.
Maybe thats why this news is on the 4th page of the Business section instead of page 1.
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Political Action Voices Heard Loud and Clear…
April 12th, 2010 categories: Loan Modification, National News/Local News
The Voice of Frustration over the number of homes being foreclosed was Heard Loud and Clear today at James R. Thompson Center.
Several Political Action Neighborhood Associations met at a rally to voice support for a $1,000 fee on all judicial foreclosure sales in Illinois that would be used to try to prevent foreclosure.
- The $1,000.00 fee would be collected from purchasers at a Sherrif Sale.
- The collection of this fee would affect most lender’s because they are usually the ones who buy back the property at a Sheriff Sale.
- The fee would go into a Foreclosure Prevention Fund and help finance foreclosure prevention programs, organizations who are assisting homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgage.
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Illinois Attorney General Sues Debt Settlement Company
October 12th, 2009 categories: Loan Modification, National News/Local News
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed a law suit against Dallas Based “Credit Solutions of America”. Madigan is attempting to stop them from doing business in Illinois and wants the company to pay restitution to its Illinois customer, pay a $50,000 fine for violating the state’s Consumer Fraud Act and pay additional fines of $50,000 for each instance of fraud.
In the lawsuit, Credit Solutions of America accepted money from Illinois customers but failed to negotiate a lower payment on their debt with the bank. While Credit Solutions claimed to be successful in reducing customers debt by 50% it actually left them deeper in debt according to the law suit.
Lisa Madigan and the Illinois Attorney Generals office has filed similar lawsuits against SDS West Corporation and Debt Relief USA.
Her office seeks to ban all Debt Settlement Companies from operating in Illinois, unless they meet the following requirements:
- Provide individual credit counseling:
- Become licensed and Bonded in Illinois:
- Disclose risks to customers about entering into a debt settlement contract;
- Provide a written contract with a right to cancel clause.
Over the past year the Attorney Generals office received over 12,000 complaints regarding debt an credit issues.
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Listen to NPR Report “FDIC is Running out of Money”
September 30th, 2009 categories: National News/Local News
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Do You Feel the Recession is Over?
September 23rd, 2009 categories: National News/Local News
Last week we heard news that the “Recession is Over” and that we are on the “Road to Recovery”. Economists looked at several indicators from consumer confidence, stock market,housing, and concluded that the “Worst is Over” and we should be coming out of the recession.
Why it appears we may be coming out of a recession there were words of caution. Both Fed Chairman Bernake and Treasury Secretary Geithner warned us that even though we are coming out of a recession it may not feel like it and it will be slow.
There are still concerns about unemployment and predict the number of people unemployed will continue to lag even though we are in a recovery.
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Countrywide Told it could not Pass the Buck …
August 20th, 2009 categories: National News/Local News
Greenwich Financial Services wins case against Countrywide Financial in the State of New York.
Greenwich Financial Services, as Plaintiff, alleged that Countrywide had no right to transfer any losses onto trusts who purchased loans from Countrywide and sold them as Securities to Investors.
As part of a class action law suit made against Countrywide by the Attorney Generals in at least 15 state, Countrywide Financial Corporation agreed to reduce payments on hundreds of mortgages that were thought to be fraudulent. The total amount of this settlement was up to $8.4 billion dollars.
In its lawsuit Greenwich Financial Services, said that any agreement to reduce payments was not something that investors had agreed to and that if there were any losses or reductions in payments to investors then Countrywide had to payoff the loans so investors would not loose money.
While we will never know who owns these bad loans the complaint states that the number of Investors could be in the thousands. When Countrywide needed money it pooled and sold loans to Trusts, these Trusts in turn sold securities( often called “certificates” which were sold in different classes or ‘tranches”)
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13% of All Americans are Behind in their Mortage…
August 20th, 2009 categories: National News/Local News
The Mortgage Bankers Association new numbers indicate more than 13 % of American homeowners are behind on their mortgage or in foreclosure.
As of June, 4% of all mortgage borrowers were in foreclosure and 9% had missed at least on mortgage payment.
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, one in three new foreclosure is from a prime, fixed rate mortgage, rather than a sub-prime, adjustable rate, or option arm mortgage.
The recession, economy, and loss of jobs have been listed as the primary reason mortgage delinquencies are on the rise.
The number of jobless claims for unemployment benefits has risen for the second week in a row from 561,000 to 576,000.
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