01/30/2009 - Tishman Speyer Walked Away From Its Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village Mortgage. Why Can't You? - Tishman Speyer Properties walks away from 11,232 Manhattan apartments because it can't pay its mortgage. That's good business. Rick Gilson, a college custodial supervisor in South Dakota, wants to walk away from the mortgage on his mobile home. If he does, he'll be a deadbeat. - huffingtonpost.com

01/29/2009 - Streamlined loan modification application process to begin June 1 - Treasury officials said Thursday that starting June 1, borrowers will be able to submit a streamlined package of documents, including two pay stubs, to qualify for the Obama administration Making Home Affordable loan modifications. If borrowers make their initial trial payments ontime, they will be give a permanent loan modification - blogs.trb.com

01/28/2009 - Treasury Announces Fix To Foreclosure-Prevention Plan, But Nearly 500K Homeowners At Risk Of Being Bounced - With as many as 450,000 troubled homeowners in danger of being bounced out of the Obama administration's signature foreclosure-prevention program due to documentation problems, the Treasury Department announced major changes Thursday to simplify and quicken the process. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/28/2009 - Press Release: ADMINISTRATION UPDATES DOCUMENTATION COLLECTION PROCESS AND RELEASES GUIDANCE TO EXPEDITE PERMANENT MODIFICATIONS - "With more than 850,000 homeowners in trial and permanent modifications, we are providing immediate relief to struggling homeowners," said Phyllis Caldwell, Chief of Treasury's Homeownership Preservation Office. "Today's guidance represents our commitment to more efficiently move qualified homeowners into permanent modifications." - www.financialstability.com

01/28/2009 - Las Vegas: Most foreclosures of any city in 2009 - Las Vegas had the largest number of foreclosure filings of any city last year, with 12% of its households receiving at least one during the year, according to RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed homes. That was more than five times the national average. - www.cnn.com

01/21/2009 - Treasury May Offer Cash, Extended Grace Periods For Struggling Borrowers - The latest effort to accelerate the Making Home Affordable program - now widely viewed as a disappointment - comes as the administration faces growing pressure to do less for banks and more for households struggling with double-digit unemployment. - www.nytimes.com

01/20/2009 - States urge action on foreclosures - Cut loan principal for borrowers whose homes are worth much less than their mortgages. Attack the problem of option adjustable rate mortgages. Cut down on red tape. Those are some of the ideas in a plan issued Wednesday by a group of state officials who have been working for more than two years to stem the foreclosure tide. - www.cnn.com

01/20/2009 - HuffPost Interviews Joseph Stiglitz: 'We're More Strict With Our Poor Than With Our Banks' - During the economic turmoil of the last few years, Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz has been one of the most strident and incisive critics of the historic bailout of the banking sector. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/20/2009 - State Regulators Warn Of Failing Foreclosure Prevention Efforts - Lackluster foreclosure-prevention efforts and the dearth of principal reductions risk plunging more homeowners into foreclosure, state regulators warned Wednesday in a new report. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/20/2009 - Harder to get an Uncle Sam mortgage - The wealthy have money problems, too -- yeah they do. Even refinancing a mortgage for their fancy digs or getting a new loan can be near impossible these days thanks to skittish lenders. And the higher the loan value, the more they worry. - www.cnn.com

01/20/2009 - $8 million in assets - and can't get a mortgage - The agency, which insured nearly a third of new mortgages in 2009, will increase the premium it charges for its mortgage insurance and require those with weaker credit scores to come up with larger downpayments. - www.cnn.com

01/19/2009 - Joseph Stiglitz: 'Freefall' Excerpt: Too Late To Fix The Biggest Banking Blunder In History? (BOOK) - The entire series of efforts to rescue the banking system were so flawed, partly because those who were somewhat responsible for the mess--as advocates of deregulation, as failed regulators, or as investment bankers--were put in charge of the repair. Perhaps not surprisingly, they all employed the same logic that had gotten the financial sector into trouble to get it out of it. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/17/2009 - Reducing Principal For Struggling Homeowners Could Make The Crisis Worse - Many critics of the Obama administration's mortgage loan-modification program say it won't work because it doesn't do enough to address "negative equity," the plight of people who owe more on their home loans than the current value of those properties. Without equity in their homes, these critics say, borrowers have little incentive to keep paying and are apt to walk away as soon as things get tough, if not before. - www.wsj.com

01/14/2009 - Faith Groups Escalate Campaign to Hold Bank of America Accountable (VIDEO) - "Bank of America had nothing - no new ideas or proposals to offer to keep families in their homes and end the suffering in our communities," said Rev. Lucy Kolin, from Oakland Community Organizations and PICO National Network, who led the negotiation session. - www.piconetwork.com

01/14/2009 - Faith Leaders Call for Reform that Keeps Families in their Homes (VIDEO) - faith leaders contrasted a bountiful celebration for bank executives who will receive billions in holiday bonuses with that of the millions of families who face losing their homes, telling of a crisis not only economic but also moral. - www.piconetwork.com

01/14/2009 - Record 3 million households hit with foreclosure in 2009 - In December, more than 349,000 households, or one in 366 homes, were hit with a foreclosure-related notice. That represents a 14 percent spike from November and a 15 percent jump from December 2008. Banks repossessed more than 92,000 homes, up 19 percent from November. - www.cnn.com
Read More: Foreclosure rate in your state, Best recovery bets for 2010

01/14/2009 - Record Year For Foreclosures: 2.8 Million Households Threatened In 2009, Up 21 Percent - In December, more than 349,000 households, or one in 366 homes, were hit with a foreclosure-related notice. That represents a 14 percent spike from November and a 15 percent jump from December 2008. Banks repossessed more than 92,000 homes, up 19 percent from November. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/09/2010 - Bubble warning - Markets are too dependent on unsustainable government stimulus. Something's got to give - Investors tempted to take comfort from the fact that asset prices are still below their peaks would do well to remember that they may yet fall back a very long way. - www.economist.com

01/09/2010 - The danger of the bounce - Once again, cheap money is driving up asset prices - When investors borrow money in order to buy assets, they push prices even higher. But this also makes markets vulnerable to sudden busts, as investors sell assets to pay their debts. The credit crunch of 2007-08 was the result of this process, with the debts greater and the price swings more violent than at any time in the past 30 years. - www.economist.com

01/09/2010 - Bank CEOs to answer for financial crisis - First up are four chiefs of some of the best-known and largest banks: Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500). - www.cnn.com

01/09/2010 - 2010 Real Estate Predictions: More Foreclosures, Home-Price Declines - The decimated housing market may get considerably worse before it gets better, according to housing-industry professionals, who expect foreclosures and home-price declines to continue pressuring the sector through at least the first half of 2010. A record 3 million homes received foreclosure notices in 2009, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors (NAR). He expects a similar number this year. - www.time.com

01/09/2010 - Obama's Second Mortgage Plan A Bust - Nine Months Later, Obama Plan To Help 1.5 Million Struggling Homeowners Yet To Launch - The program, a component of the administration's $75 billion Making Home Affordable effort, was supposed to attack second-lien mortgages, which are additional, second mortgages taken out on a home on top of the initial first mortgage. It's like taking out two loans to pay the same debt. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/08/2010 - Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Sets Sights On Bankers - As Washington focuses on Congress' regulatory response to the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that Congress created last spring has been an afterthought. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/08/2010 - Branson's Virgin Money Aims To Become Retail Bank - It plans to use the lender as a platform to offer savings and mortgage products to customers under the Virgin Money brand, which is known for its popular credit card and insurance offerings. - www.yahoo.com

01/08/2010 - ROGER LOWENSTEIN Walk Away From Your Mortgage! - These days, lenders typically unload mortgages within days (or minutes). And not just in mortgage finance, but in virtually every realm of our transaction-obsessed society, the message is that enduring relationships count for less than the value put on assets for sale. - www.nytimes.com

01/08/2010 - HOUSING CRISIS: NO BOTTOM IN SIGHT 3 Million Homes Received Foreclosure Notices In '09... Expected Same In '10... Government Loan-Modification Program Disappointment - The decimated housing market may get considerably worse before it gets better, according to housing-industry professionals, who expect foreclosures and home-price declines to continue pressuring the sector through at least the first half of 2010. - www.time.com

01/07/2010 - Simon Johnson: We're Setting Ourselves Up For A Big Catastrophe, 'Crisis Is Just Beginning' MIT Economist: 'The Financial Crisis Is Just Beginning' - "We now have a financial system that is completely based on moral hazard," Johnson said. "Crazy things happen when you have a financial system like that." - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/07/2010 - Elizabeth Warren: Consumer Protection Agency Would Have Prevented Crisis (VIDEO) - Warren argued that if a consumer agency aimed at regulating financial products (like the one passed by the House) had existed five years ago, the financial crisis would have largely been averted: - www.huffingtonpost.com

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01/06/2010 - Fed's Housing Stimulus Program Divides Central Bank Officials. Fed Divided Over Enormous Support For Housing Market - Some Federal Reserve policymakers last month were conflicted over whether to expand or cut back a program intended to drive down mortgage rates, bolster the housing market and keep the recovery going, - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/05/2010 - New Home Sales Down - Is Housing Headed For A Double-Dip? - The number of people preparing to buy a home fell sharply in November, an unsettling new sign that the housing market may be headed for a "double-dip" downturn over the winter. The figures Tuesday came after a similarly discouraging report on new home sales, illustrating how heavily the housing market depends right now on government help. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/05/2010 - Fed Economist: Housing Is a Lousy Investment - - Karen Pence, who runs the Federal Reserve's household and real estate finance research group, argues at the American Economic Association's meetings this week that homes are actually a terrible investment. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/04/2010 - This Year's Housing Crisis - Figures released last week show that after four months of gains, home prices flattened in October. The situation, we fear, will only get worse in months to come. As a result, an estimated 2.4 million foreclosed homes will be added to the existing glut in 2010, driving prices down by another 10 percent or so. - www.nytimes.com

01/04/2010 - U.S. Growth Prospects Deemed Bleak In New Decade By Economists - A dismal job market, a crippled real estate sector and hobbled banks will keep a lid on U.S. economic growth over the coming decade, some of the nation's leading economists said on Sunday. - www.reuters.com

01/04/2010 - Foreclosure Crisis Is Fueling 'Deal-Killing' Appraisals - Across the country, agents and homebuilders are complaining too many appraisals are coming in low, scuttling deals. The National Association of Realtors says nearly one in four of its members has reported clients losing a sale due to botched appraisals. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/04/2009 - PPIP: Banks 'Making A Killing' On Government Toxic Asset Program - Remember the - Public-Private Investment Program Bloomberg reports this morning, some of the nation's largest banks have actually bought more risky home loans instead of getting them off their balance sheets. - www.huffingtonpost.com

01/01/2010 - Obama Foreclosure Program Seen As Failing, Possibly Making Things Worse - The Obama administration's $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good. - www.nytimes.com

01/01/2010 - Harsh lessons we may need to learn again - The best that can be said for 2009 is that it could have been worse, that we pulled back from the precipice on which we seemed to be perched in late 2008, and that 2010 - www.chinadaily.com

12/31/2009 - Arianna Calls Out Kudlow For Dow '50,000' Prediction, Urges People To Ditch Bailed Out Banks (VIDEO) - Kudlow repeatedly denied ever having made that prediction -- but he did, and near the end of the segment, Arianna read his direct quote back to him. - www.huffingtonpost.com

12/31/2009 - Move Your Money To Community Banks - Too-big-to-fail banks are profiting from bailout dollars and government guarantees, and growing bigger. - Tell us which community bank you use, and why. The big banks on Wall Street, propped up by taxpayer money and government guarantees, have had a record year, making record profits while returning to the highly leveraged activities that brought our economy to the brink of disaster. - www.huffingtonpost.com

12/29/2009 - Calculated Risk: Why Homes Prices Are NOT Cheap - House prices are not cheap nationally. This is apparent in the price-to-income, price-to-rent, and also using real prices. Sure, most of the price correction is behind us and it is getting safer to be a bottom caller! But "cheap" means below normal, and I believe that is incorrect. - www.calculatedriskblog.com

12/21/2009 (PART 1) - At Top Subprime Mortgage Lender, Policies Were An Invitation To Fraud - First of two articles about the roots of the subprime lending bubble. An inside look at Long Beach Mortgage - many of whose lending practices were common among subprime loan companies - adds another dark chapter to the evolving narrative of the financial crisis. - www.huffingtonpost.com
Read More: GO TO PART 2,

12/22/2009 (PART 2) How A Subprime Loan Goes Bad. The Fate Of A Subprime Loan: Can This Man Hold On To His Mortgage? (VIDEO) - (Second of two articles about the - roots of the subprime lending bubble.) a web forum where users share employment-related information, released the results of its survey of the best and worst companies to work for. - www.huffingtonpost.com
Read More: GO TO PART 1

12/22/2009 - Small-town bankers say they are ready to lend - Unlike big-city bankers, Stan Wilmoth didn't make lots of dumb loans during the boom. After the crash, he accepted not a dime of taxpayer money for his bank. He credits his grandfather, a Protestant minister, with giving him "moral fiber." - www.heraldtribune.com

12/21/2009 - At Top Subprime Mortgage Lender, Policies Were An Invitation To Fraud - Securitization Is Back! Investor-Owned Mortgages Have High Re-Default Rates, These are loans that are sliced and diced and sold to investors in the form of securities. - www.huffingtonpost.com

12/21/2009 - HOME (FORECLOSURE) FOR THE HOLIDAYS - n its headlong rush to grow, Long Beach Mortgage, like most subprime lenders, tossed aside its tried-and-true tools for identifying risky borrowers and catching fraud in the form of falsified loan applications. - www.huffingtonpost.com

12/14/2009 - 'I'm Losing My Home Basically For Being Fat' (VIDEO) - At least that's how the Farmington, Minn. resident sees the situation, and he's created an elaborate website to tell his story: www.becauseimfat.com - www.huffingtonpost.com

12/14/2009 - Lenders put bad loans in subsidiaries - Wow! A house bought in 2007 actually went up in value. Some call the technique 'extend and pretend,' others 'delay and pray.' But by any name, the FDIC calls it fine. - www.heraldtribune.com

12/12/2009 - Get Ready, Get Set, Point Fingers. - a dispute between two European banks and Bank of America indicates, the revelations aren't pretty. - www.nytimes.com

12/05/2009 - Quarter Of Homeowners In Anti-Foreclosure Program Are Late Paying Lower Bills - 650,000 borrowers have been enrolled into the initial, or "trial," phase of the program and have seen their payments lowered by an average of $640 a month, or 40 percent. - www.washingtonpost.com

12/04/2009 - FINALLY: The Government May Cut Mortgage Principal For Distressed Homeowners - FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair indicated Thursday that she is exploring the idea of reducing the principal on as much as $45 billion in mortgages her agency has acquired from failed banks. - www.huffingtonpost.com

12/04/2009 - Bradenton couple prevail in mortgage imbroglio - Gulfcoast Legal Services attorney found numerous problems and fraud in the loan, the lender offered to give them the home for a single $1,000 settlement payment. An attorney discovered so many problems in their loan document that they now own their Bradenton home free and clear. - www.heraldtribune.com

12/04/2009 - Mortgage interest rates are down to all-time low, but challenges remain - That's the lowest recorded since Freddie Mac first started weekly mortgage rate surveys in 1971. Rates dropped 0.07 percent since last week. - www.sun-sentinel.com

12/02/2009 - Upside-down homeowners get some help - The Treasury Department unveiled sweeping rules this week to help financially troubled homeowners who need to sell but cannot get a price high enough to pay off their mortgages. Homeowners will even get $1,500 to help cover their moving costs. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/30/2009 - Obama Administration To Shame Lenders That Don't Offer To Modify Mortgages - The U.S. government will start to publicly identify those companies that are failing to give troubled homeowners permanent loan modifications, and hound them daily to monitor their progress, the Treasury Department declared. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/29/2009 - Professor advises underwater homeowners to walk away from mortgages - Brent T. White, a University of Arizona law school professor, says that it's in the homeowners' best financial interest to stiff their lenders and that it's not immoral to do so. - www.latimes.com

11/29/2009 - Hotel Owners, Like Home Owners, Are Falling Into Debt - In October, 8.7 percent were distressed, compared with 1.5 percent last year. That's almost double the 4.8 percent rate for commercial property and the 4.5 percent rate for stores. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/29/2009 - White House Gets Serious About Foreclosures, Wants Banks To Help - "We are taking additional steps to enhance servicer transparency and accountability," Reilly said. She said the goal was to increase the rate that troubled home loans were converted into new loans with lower monthly payments. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/29/2009 - MY PIGGY BANK IS NOT ENTITLED TO TARP FUNDS - "The Simpsons" is in its 21st season, making it one of the longest running shows of all time. Over the past two decades its producers have churned out over 450 episodes, each with an opening chalkboard gag. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/26/2009 - Judge Cancels Couple's $525,000 Mortgage to punish 'repulsive' bank - Judge Jeffrey Spinner ruled that their lender's behaviour had been "harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive to the extent that it must be appropriately sanctioned so as to deter it from imposing further mortifying abuse". - www.timesonline.com

11/24/2009 - Millions trapped in 'underwater' mortgages - Report shows 10.7 million borrowers are stuck with mortgages whose property values are less than what the they owe. In a sign that more foreclosures could be on the horizon, 23% of people with mortgages owe more than their home is worth, according to a report released Tuesday. - www.cnn.com
Read More: WOULD YOU WALK AWAY?

11/22/2009 - Housing Crisis Broadening: Even Renters Are Not Safe From Foreclosures - Renters not immune to foreclosure crisis. A new wave of foreclosures stands to hurt people who may have never taken out a mortgage: renters. - www.washingtonpost.com
Read More: Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University

11/22/2009 - Slump? What slump? For some Realtors, business is thriving - While faraway housing analysts predict more gloomy days ahead with a second wave of foreclosures, Charryl Youman is too busy to take notice. She has sold 41 homes in Sarasota County this year, about one per week, and nearly half just within the last 90 days. - www.heraldtribune.com

11/22/2009 - Underwater owners hardly dumping loans in droves - research by three academics suggests that the willingness of people to default depends largely on just how far underwater they are. "People default because of the size of their negative equity, not just because they cannot afford to pay." - www.heraldtribune.com

11/21/2009 - Why Are The Wealthy Qualifying For FHA Loans? With F.H.A. Help, Easy Loans in Expensive Areas - In its efforts to prop up a shattered housing market, the government is greatly extending its traditional support of real estate, including guaranteeing the mortgages of middle-class and even upper-class buyers against default. - www.nytimes.com

11/20/2009 - ZOMBIE BUILDINGS: The Next Economic Calamity? - While the overall U.S. financial system is showing signs of stability, a rapidly rising tide of troubled loans for commercial real estate threatens the survival of hundreds of the nation's small and medium-sized banks. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/19/2009 - New Fannie Mae Deed for Lease program could help condo owners headed to foreclosure, or does it just forestall the pain? - A new Fannie Mae program aims to "help" homeowners headed toward foreclosure (and onto the street) by allowing them to become renters in their home in exchange for their deed. - www.sun-sentinel.com

11/19/2009 - Delinquencies and foreclosures set 9th straight record in 3rd quarter as layoffs keep rising - More than 14 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of September, a record-high for the ninth straight quarter - www.sun-sentinel.com

11/19/2009 - Foreclosures: Prime Borrowers Are The Latest Victims - A rising proportion of fixed-rate home loans made to people with good credit are sinking into foreclosure, adding to concerns about the strength of the economic recovery. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/18/2009 - Biden On The Bailout: 'Socialism For The Rich And Capitalism For The Poor' (VIDEO) - I was in Arizona the other day and said I would get more support in the Congress saying 'Let's pass a law restoring rattlesnakes in the desert' [than helping Wall Street again], - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/18/2009 - Elizabeth Warren: Financial Rules 'Literally Don't Work Anymore,' Regulations Should Be 'Clear And Painful' - Consumers can enter the market to buy physical products confident that they won't be tricked into buying exploding toasters and other unreasonably dangerous products ... we need ... a new regulatory regime, and even a new regulatory body, to protect consumers who use credit cards, home mortgages, car loans, and a host of other products. The time has come to put scaremongering to rest and to recognize that regulation can often support and advance efficient and more dynamic markets. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/18/2009 - America's Newest Land Baron: FDIC, Reluctant Landlord, Owns $1.8 Billion In Real Estate - In the past two years, the FDIC has taken over 150 failed banks. In the process, it has seized more than 5,000 houses, subdivisions, buildings, parcels and other foreclosed assets. The current backlog of property stuck on the agency's books, with an appraised value of $1.8 billion, - www.wsj.com

11/18/2009 - How A Government Bailout Created Today's Commercial Real Estate Catastrophe - In a pattern familiar from the housing crisis, the value of commercial real estate has been plunging while the volume of distressed commercial real-estate loans is rapidly rising. The problems in commercial real estate could slam financial institutions, especially smaller regional and community banks, with billions of dollars in new losses. That, in turn, could snuff out whatever chances we have of a sustained economic recovery. - www.businessinsider.com

11/18/2009 - The Debt Economy - The recent financial crisis was no exception, with everyone-homeowners, private-equity investors, our biggest banks-taking on enormous amounts of debt. If it's frustrating that the government is footing the bill to clean up the mess, it's even worse that the government helped pay for the debt binge that created the mess in the first place, thanks to a tax system that actually subsidizes borrowing. - www.newyorker.com

11/18/2009 - Home Prices Will Rise 4% In 2010, Say Realtors - Home resales rose in September to the highest level in more than two years, something Yun said shows buyers are eager to get back into the market. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/18/2009 - Main Street Tells Wall Street, 'Get a Real Job': Susan Antilla - disgusted when he thinks about "what Wall Street has done to average, honest, tax-paying, no-loopholes citizens," and says it makes him ill when he considers that Congress is letting taxpayer-assisted financial outfits get rich "without producing anything of real value to our society." - www.bloomberg.com

11/18/2009 - Banking Fix Made Easy With Six Simple Steps: - Financial reform seems to be flailing. Legislation has been proposed, but it is complicated and diffuse. Most of the proposed fixes are incremental changes that don�t seem likely to prevent a future bubble. - www.bloomberg.com

11/18/2009 - A BAILOUT FOR MAIN STREET? - Democrats want homeowners and workers to get money from TARP. Congressional Democrats want struggling workers and homeowners to receive money from the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. - www.thehill.com

11/17/2009 - WATCH: Elizabeth Warren: Our Financial Rules 'Literally Don't Work Anymore" - The time has come to put scaremongering to rest and to recognize that regulation can often support and advance efficient and more dynamic markets. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/17/2009 - Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Another Record In 3Q - For the three months ended Sept. 30, 6.25 percent of U.S. mortgage loans were 60 or more days past due, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion. That's up 58 percent from 3.96 percent a year ago. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/16/2009 - The new flipping: short sales - Late Friday, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation issued a cease and desist order against Counselors and its three principals, James Erwin and Shari Erwin of Chicago and Damian Sichak of Homer Glen, Ill., meaning they cannot easily operate a title agency in Illinois. - www.heraldtribune.com