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

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Joe Biden Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

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

11/13/2009 - Homeowners left in a lurch after mortgage refinancing checks bounce - These flippers target houses on the verge of foreclosure and persuade banks and mortgage companies to accept lowball buyouts, sometimes by using questionable appraisals and not disclosing that a quick sale at a higher price has already been arranged, experts say. - www.miamiherald.com

11/12/2009 - Foreclosures Down 3% In October From September - The number of homeowners on the brink of losing their homes dipped in October, the third straight monthly decline, as foreclosure prevention programs helped more borrowers. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/12/2009 - Meredith Whitney Says Home Prices Have 30% More To The Downside (CNBC Video April 6) - "Home prices cannot bottom while liquidity is still contracting from the economy," she said. She did say that large banks should benefit from low mortgage rates and refinancing. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/12/2009 - WATCH: Ratigan Goes Nuts For The 10th Birthday Of Gramm-Leach-Bliley - "There's no question the system is rigged against the little guy," Dorgan told me. "The bigger interests have a lot more information. They jerry-rig the system so that they always win. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/12/2009 - Obama's Foreclosure Plan Is Failing -- And This Guy Predicted It All - The Economist The Obama Administration Should Have Listened. Rather than cut interest rates, John D. Geanakoplos and Susan P. Koniak wrote, the government should reduce the overall amount owed on the mortgage -- the principal. To - www.huffingtonpost.com
Read More: THE BEST WAY TO HELP HOMEOWNERS

11/12/2009 - Common Sense From The Senator Who Saw The Crisis Coming - one of eight senators who stood up to oppose the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act in 1999. That repeal, which was signed into law by President Clinton exactly 10 years ago today - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/09/2009 - Glass-Steagall Act: The Senators And Economists Who Got It Right - The footage of him speaking on the Senate floor has become something of a cult flick for the particularly wonky progressive. - www.huffingtonpost.com

11/08/2009 - Florida Ranked Last In Economic Happiness List - the Sunshine State may be unhappy to learn that, well, they're the least happy state in the nation, when it comes to money matters. - www.mainstreet.com

11/07/2009 - Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein: "I'm Doing God's Work." - As a committed Christian and a trustee of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth Fund, Griffiths is a useful PR tool. It was he, for instance, who spoke out last month to defend big bonuses. 'If we said we're not going to have as big bonuses or the same bonuses as last year, I think you'd find that lots of City firms could easily hive off their operations to Switzerland or the Far East,' he told an audience at St Paul's Cathedral. - www.timesonline.co.uk

11/05/2009 - Ex-Fannie Mae Exec. on New Rental Program - Fmr. Fannie Mae Chief Credit Officer Edward Pinto on the plan to rent foreclosed homes back to borrowers. - www.huffingtonpost.org

11/03/2009 - A $300 BILLION CRUTCH - Record Aid Went Into Housing In '09 - But Is It Getting Any More Affordable? - www.huffingtonpost.org

11/03/2009 - When Banks Fail, So Do Those Promised CD Rates - letter from the FDIC, similar to thousands that quietly have been sent to customers of failed banks around the nation in recent months: "Your deposit agreement with the Failed Institution is no longer in force." - www.huffingtonpost.org

11/01/2009 - CIT Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filed: US Will Likely Lose $2.3 Billion, Goldman Sachs Will Gain $1 Billion - CIT's move will wipe out current holders of its common and preferred stock, likely meaning the U.S. government and taxpayers will lose the $2.3 billion sunk into CIT last year to prop up the ailing company. Goldman Sachs however, will gain $1 billion because of CIT's bankruptcy, according to a report published Oct. 4 by the - Financial Times: - www.huffingtonpost.org
Read More: Financial Times:, Goldman Sachs