October 26, 2009
Economist Thomas Sowell Examines The Housing Boom & Crash
I'm reading this new book by economist Thomas Sowell — The Housing Boom and Bust.
For more than a decade, US newspapers have editorialized that banks are more conservative than they should be about lending money to blacks. The current foreclosure debacle suggests otherwise.
Read more on Economist Thomas Sowell Examines The Housing Boom & Crash…
Filed under Bad Credit, Bankruptcy, Banks, Books, California, Credit Cards, Credit Line, Debt Consolidation, Defaults, Politics, mortgage by Luke Ford
October 20, 2009
Hatred Aimed At Banks
Bankers seem to have a sweet deal. No matter how incompetent they are, no matter how bloody minded their business practices, no matter how dumb their decisions and how stupid their loans, they always get government to bail them out of their mistakes.
Filed under Bankruptcy, Banks by Luke Ford
October 8, 2009
Hotel Foreclosures Rise In California
More than 300 hotels in California were in foreclosure or default as of Sept. 30.
Tourism is way down in the state. Unemployment is way up.
Many hotels on the brink are fighting to stay up.
Filed under Bankruptcy, Banks, California, Foreclosure, mortgage by Luke Ford
October 7, 2009
New Private Funds To Purchase Toxic Assets
The U.S. Congress approved the $700 billion TARP program a year ago but it has yet to be implemented as intended.
Initially, the U.S. Treasury planned to buy up to a trillion dollars worth of toxic assets from banks.
Filed under Bankruptcy, Banks by Luke Ford
Credit rating agencies were spectacularly wrong in the past few years when they tried to assess the worth of mortgage-backed securities.
When thousands of home owners can no longer afford to send in their monthly mortgage payments, all the fancy financial instruments in the world are still going to fail.
Read more on New Regulations To Promote More Accurate Lending Risk…
Filed under Applications, Appraisals, Bad Credit, Bankruptcy, Credit Line, Defaults, Derivatives by Luke Ford
October 5, 2009
Public – Private Partnership To Buy Banks' Troubled Assets
The U.S. Treasury will unveil a plan this week for banks to sell off their troubled mortgage assets.
This comes a year after Congress allocated $700 billion for this purpose.
The NYT: Treasury officials said that five out of the nine money-management firms it selected to buy up unwanted mortgage-backed securities had raised the minimum amount of money from private investors — $500 million each — to qualify for matching investments and loans from the federal government.
Read more on Public – Private Partnership To Buy Banks' Troubled Assets…
Filed under Bad Credit, Bankruptcy, Banks, Foreclosure, Politics, Refinance by Luke Ford
September 30, 2009
Democrats Considering Shielding Banks From Tougher State Laws
The Washington Post reports that Democrats are considering a bill "to shield big banks from potentially tougher state regulations of credit cards, mortgages and savings accounts."
This approach differs from that of President Obama. He wants to give states a considerable role in regulating financial institutions.
Read more on Democrats Considering Shielding Banks From Tougher State Laws…
Filed under Bad Credit, Bankruptcy, Banks, Politics, Regulation, mortgage by Luke Ford
July 12, 2009
What Caused The Housing Boom & Bust?
I'm reading this new book by economist Thomas Sowell — The Housing Boom and Bust.
From 2000 to 2005, the average home price in the United States increased by one-third. Millions of Americans began using their homes as ATMs, getting credit lines from numerous banks to pay off their other debts (whose interest was not tax deductible, only mortgage interest payments are deductible). Then in 2007, it all crashed.
Filed under Bad Credit, Bankruptcy, Banks, Books, California, New York, Politics, Prices, Race, Rates, Real Estate, bank of america by Luke Ford
June 13, 2009
William D. Cohan's New Book: House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street
Click here to see the book on Amazon.com.
Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers had huge investments in securities backed by home mortgages, a market with rising defaults and collapsing home values.
Filed under Bad Credit, Bankruptcy, Banks, Books, Bridge Loan, bonds by Luke Ford
June 2, 2009
Thomas Sowell's New Book: The Housing Boom and Bust
Check out the book on Amazon.com.
Economist Thomas Sowell appeared on Dennis Prager's radio show May 27:
Tom: If the results weren't so serious, all this would make a great Gilbert & Sullivan musical, with all the mutually contradictory statements by the politicians…
Read more on Thomas Sowell's New Book: The Housing Boom and Bust…
Filed under Bad Credit, Bankruptcy, Banks, Britain, California, Canada, Journalism, Politics, Refinance, bank of america, bonds, mortgage, wall street by Luke Ford