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