traci gregory AGENCY

Countrywide’s Golden Boy Angelo Mozilo said a year or two ago that within a year the top ten banks would fall to the top 5.  I wonder if he thought his would be one of the first to go, or considered he would be charged with fraud before all the dominos fell.

Since Taylor Bean & Whittaker abruptly shut down last week, I’ve considered Mozilo’s remark and the possibility that there will only be one or two banks left in the mortgage business.  Since that is their money maker, I wonder how many will be left standing at all.

A great many banks are promoting incentives for their banks; Wachovia will give you a gift for referring a new customer, if you are a customer in fact.  Bank of American and Wells Fargo, both of whom are big in online banking have ongoing bank promotions as well.

But would you really choose a bank based on bank promotions?  It is probably a good idea to make sure the bank you choose is one that will be standing after the dust clears, you do want your certificate of deposit to maintain its value, and not have to collect from the FDIC!

The Associated Press says: “The percentage of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their house is worth will nearly double to 48 percent in 2011 from 26 percent at the end of March.”

Ironically, Deutsche Bank reports that “prime” loans that meet the guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be the worst affected: As much as 41 percent will be underwater by the first quarter of 2011, up from 19 percent in 1Q 2009.

Good thing those loans are now available for modification – more and more people are considering the folly of paying a $500K mortgage for a $250K house.

Read the full article at AP

Fannie Mae Home Affordable Modification Program

Under President Obama’s Mortgage Rescue Plan (Safe Harbor Mortgage Modification Bill ) 9 Million mortgages are eligible for Mortgage Loan Modification, the $75 billion program to stop foreclosure for up to four million homeowners.

Mortgage companies are paid $1,000 for each modification & another $1,000/yr for up to three years. This is crucial to the economy. Without it, foreclosures will continue to grow & real estate prices fall. But, since the program began, millions more loans have gone into foreclosure.

Take advantage of the housing rescue incentives and modify your Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage.

Take control of YOUR home loan and prepare your BANK READY Modification Package. If you have a first and second mortgage, prepare a package for both loans.

Three steps to a LOWER Mortgage Payment!!!

Late in June, the EPA was accused by the Competitive Enterprise Institute of suppressing a report that questions global warming, and specifically questioning the regulation of carbon dioxide in the “Cap and Trade” Bill.

According to internal emails (they’ll bite you, every time!) in March, an EPA Director, Al McGartland, squelched a report that warned, in part, against making “decisions based on a scientific hypothesis [that being the global warming we've all been warned of in varied doomsday prophesies] that does not appear to explain most of the available data.”

(emphasis mine)

The EPA researcher, Alan Carlin, isn’t a new kid on the block, he’s been a researcher for 38 years.  Carlin says that the EPA is relying on old data, questions the theory (recognized by and acted upon by the EPA) that greenhouse gases are the cause of global warming, and further that global warming may not be happening at all.

Carlin pointed out that global temperatures peaked in 1998 and have been falling ever since. He went on to suggest that the cap-and-trade regulation isn’t necessary, and would probably have little overall effect on global temperatures. (And it is going to cost you a lot of money. Well, only if you drive a car, or use electricity.)

The Competitive Enterprise Institute obtained a copy of the report and posted it on their website on 6/25/2009. They also have all the emails, but the best one is this from McGartland to Carlin, telling him to shush.

“I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process and that would be a very negative impact on our office.” /s/ Al McGartland, PhD., Director, National Center for Environmental Economics.

You may or may not know that at the end of March, the EPA formally submitted its pro-regulation [cap-and-trade] recommendation to the White House.  While they sat on this report that says the country doesn’t need the cap and trade regulation.

Regardless of the report, EPA center director, Al McGartland, commented to Carlin via email on 3.17 :

“The administrator [of the EPA] and the administration [yep, that'd be Obama] has (sic) decided to move forward…and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision.”

CBSNews.com reports in EPA May Have Suppressed Report Skeptical Of Global Warming that Carlin, author of the report remarked in a telephone interview that McGartland was being pressured . . .

“It was his view that he either lost his job or he got me working on something else,” Carlin said. “That was obviously coming from higher levels.”

E-mail messages released by Competitive Enterprise Institute show that McGartland ordered Carlin not to “have any direct communication” with anyone other than his group at the EPA on the topic of climate change, and was told that his report would not be shared with the EPA group working on the topic of global warming.

Sam Kazman, General Counsel at Competitive Enterprise Institute cites multiple violations by the EPA, and suggests that they should immediately make Mr. Carlin’s study public, enter it into the Proposed Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0171, and either extend or reopen the comment period in this proceeding to allow public responses to that study.

Saving the best for last, he shows us that the President’s “Transparency and Open Government” might have been a worthy goal, but it has fallen by the wayside in six short months.

C. Violations of EPA’s Commitment to Transparency and Scientific Honesty:
Finally, the emails suggest that EPA’s extensive pronouncements about transparency and scientific honesty may just be rhetoric.

Shortly before assuming office, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson declared: “As Administrator, I will ensure EPA’s efforts to address the environmental crises of today are rooted in three fundamental values: sciencebased policies and programs, adherence to the rule of law, and overwhelming transparency.” Jan. 23, 2009, http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/2297c12a9f4773d285257547006497d4!OpenDocument.

See also Administrator Jackson’s April 23 Memo to EPA Employees, “Transparency in EPA’s Operations”.

These follow the President’s own January 21 memo to agency heads on “Transparency and Open Government”.  And in an April 27 speech to the National Academy of Sciences, the President declared that, “under my administration, the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over.”

And here, Mr. Kazman delivers his best line:

“Because of ideology, however, it was this back seat to which Mr. Carlin’s study was relegated; more precisely, it was booted out of the car entirely.“

Nowhere else in mainstream media are they reporting this.  Only at CBS.Com. . . . And in the meantime, it is going to cost you a lot of money . . . gotta cover those trillions that Obama is spending to shore up the economy (groan) . . .

The House passed (219-212) the “Cap-and-Trade” bill that President Obama intends to have . . . as noted above by Al McGartland, on June 26.

The bill requires a 17% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and an 83% cut by 2050, reductions to be accomplished by putting a price on carbon dioxide through a cap-and-trade system. It also requires that at least 20% of electricity comes from renewable sources and increased energy efficiency by 2020.

Experts on either side, including President Obama, agree that Cap-and-Trade will result in higher energy prices, and that means higher prices for fuel, home heating and cooling.

Peter Orszag, Obama’s budget director, told Congress last year that

“Those price increases are essential to the success of a cap-and-trade program.”

Earlier this year President Obama not only concurred that they would rise under his cap-and-trade plan, he said

“electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

Gary D. Halbert has a great article putting all of this together, detailing the bill, they whys and the wherefores. . . . He said, and I wholeheartedly agree,

“The bottom line is, it is all about intrusive government control of our lives, from what cars we can drive to how much energy we can use in our homes and businesses. It is not about carbon emissions or global warming (if it exists). It’s about expanding government and indirectly raising our taxes.”

And he asks,

“If the “cap and trade” bill is such a good idea, [and not just a source of funds for the money being squandered in Washington faster than we can calculate] why did the EPA bury a major study which concludes that global warming may not be happening, and that regulating carbon emissions is not needed?”

Fannie Mae PDF Home Affordable Modification Program Full Text

Freddie Mac PDF Home Affordable Modification Program Full Text

Now borrowers who are current in their payments, but lack home equity, may be able to modify their mortgage loans to a lower interest rate.

Op Ed today muses:

Banks say they are overwhelmed by the clamor for relief and are working hard to meet demand. We have heard that before. In May 2007, a group of banks and loan servicers went to Washington to promise a solution for troubled borrowers. The problem has only gotten worse.  A more plausible explanation is that banks feel no great urgency to act.

They are being buoyed by immense government support.   And the Obama plan — which provides up to $75 billion in subsidies and incentive payments to help lenders and borrowers come to new loan terms — imposes no real penalty on lenders if the modifications don’t happen.

So instead of moving forcefully on foreclosure relief, the players in the mortgage chain — lenders, servicers and investors — have spent months parsing whether the incentives are adequate. Administration officials have spent countless hours clarifying the rules, trying to iron out the differences and pressing the industry to do more.

[emphasis mine]

There have always been banks that were great to work with when escrow problems showed up, getting payoff’s, payment information, etc.  And there have been banks that were the worst! to work with . . . I won’t name names, if you’ve tried to get something from your servicer you know whether or not they actually give any “service” to their customers.

I guess now they don’t have to think about their customers being the ones who write their paychecks . . . after all, Obama seems to have pen to checkbook at all hours of the day and night to assist lenders, and while he’s made laws about everyman’s mortgage being made manageable, apparently the incentives to the lenders to make them manageable just aren’t enough incentive.

Couple that with organizations who have absolutely no reason to impress you with customer service, because you are stuck with them until you pay off your mortgage or refinance, it looks like stalemate for the economy, after all.

If you’d like to see if you can have your loan modified, we’ll certainly do everything we can to get it done . . . DIY Mortgage Loan Modification

I continue to be amazed at the direction of President Obama’s stimulus bill . . . and the twists and turns of the economy regardless of Washington’s attempts to direct and control it.

In Georgia, I read the headline, “Construction on first Georgia stimulus transportation project to begin“

And read how proud Governor Purdue is to spend $940,000 resurfacing four miles of U.S. Highway 19/State Route 3 “to create and sustain jobs”.

They’re going to need those jobs in Cobb County, where the property tax website reports that taxes are going up on homes due to the loss of the homestead exemption . . .

The ‘Governor’s Tax Credit’ for homestead property was NOT funded by the State legislature for 2009 which will result in an increase on your 2009 tax bill between $77.04 and $228.24 (depending on other exemptions you have or whether your Property is located within the city limits).  You can determine the exact amount your tax bill will increase in 2009 on this web site by locating the ‘Homeowners Tax Credit’ amount deducted on your 2008 tax bill.  If your taxes are paid from an escrow account through your mortgage lender, you may want to notify them so the escrow payment amount can be adjusted accordingly. [emphasis mine]

That’s in addition to whatever your income taxes will go up after the Stimulus bill pays $3,000 for each mortgage loan modification done by a lender in this country, and the bailout billions, and the interest on all that stimulation.  God knows I don’t have a calculator to figure that math.

I can calculate the amount of irony involved and estimate the anger when all those people who want the government to take care of everything learn that the government takes care of everything with money it takes from everyone.

The level of complacency in this country continues to astonish me as I everyone around me just wants to maintain the status quo, except of course those of us who’ve already lost it and are attempting to rebuild in a world we don’t recognize.  I was Chicken Little in August of ’07, when I wrote Sub-prime Meltdown?  What about My Meltdown? on Active Rain, and closed with this remark.

So now it is My meltdown. I don’t worry about my job anymore, or even about my industry. . . Now I’m worried about my country.

I don’t know that I have better info than those in Washington, or more brainpower, but I do believe

• You aren’t too big to fail, and that includes countries as well as companies
• If you do bad business, it should put you out of business
• We are being dragged into a socialistic environment, and there aren’t enough people kicking and screaming about it.

There’s a poignancy about this “faded” glory image that strikes me as particularly relevant now.

In Obama’s fourth of July speech, he urged Americans to to tackle health care reform, foreign oil, the school system, and fix the economy.”That is the spirit we are called to show once more,” Obama said Saturday. “We are facing an array of challenges on a scale unseen in our time.”

Really?  How newsworthy.

Credit? Hardly.

Foreclosures aplenty.

Financial institutions and myriad other companies will continue to fail, and unemployment will remain high.

But, we’ve had a large increase in HedgeLoan applications over the past two weeks. Evidently people have decided that securities financing products and services have “weathered the storm”, and you know what?  We have.

Now more and more people are beginning to think that being able to have one’s stocks working for you at the same time you use the non recourse loan cash from securities financing for investments, debt restructuring, or other means of maintaining and strengthening financial health — is the only way to survive the economic storm.

If you’d like to “have your stocks and use them too”, consider a securities loan. We have a wide range of tailored securities loan products, including institutional “never sold or traded, stay in account” Premier for those who feel security is paramount.