President Obama unveiled his massive program in order to assist homeowners now in threat of foreclosure throughout the nation.
There is only one difficulty with all the bells and whistles both he and the media have attempted to place on this “rescue.” Simply a case of too little, too late.
The American public by and large has been scared off homeownership and entering into any new debt due to the uncertainly of this economy at the present time. The former owners of homes which were foreclosed upon during the past two years as this crisis has continued now have credit ratings that preclude them from even renting an apartment, much less purchasing another home.
The ones who have profited from this past two years are the banks, banking executives and foreclosure industry itself, many now working in concert with Washington doing what should have been done in the first place, negotiating reasonable loan terms and interest rates for these mortgages, while these executives are continuing to make their exorbitant salaries courtesy of the American taxpayers under the bailout terms. What is wrong with this picture?
The banks were and have been making money hand over fist due to most of the terms of the loans for these foreclosed properties, not bankrupted by them. How so, you say, since this banking crisis has been so promoted by both Washington and the media?
As one who was an early victim in ’60 and affected by this crisis under the terms of a refinanced loan taken out due to the escalating costs of my “ownership” in property taxes, insurance, and increasingly restrictive and industry favoring state statutes in Arizona with respect to homeowners associations and their powers over my property maintenance and ownership, the spins truly have left me breathless.
These “subprime loans” and teaser rates also did not come without a higher initial cost, which most forget. Included within them were added points and higher down payments in order to get these “bargain” loans and interests rates in almost every instance.
While the banks are being portrayed as the victims, and turning American against American in the process, much truth has been left out in the reporting.
These loans were resold on the secondary market as investments, so those banks secured those initial “undermarket” rates through Wall Street in their offerings. The banks were and are out nothing in this scam on both the homeowners and private investors, and whatever the banks get for them now at foreclosure sales is simply more gravy. Gravy which they can then turn around and feed their local state or federal legislator come next election time.
So all you Americans who are buying the Washington and media propaganda, there is another agenda at work here in attempting to turn Americans against each other and point the fingers at your fellow countrymen rather than where it belongs.
The real blame should be leveled at the corrupted politicians and a federal government gone berserk with its power rather than protecting it’s citizenry against corporate special interests. It was and is their continued collusion with those banks in marketing these mortgages at what is nothing more than “loan shark” rates as loans for home ownership, rather than simply foreclosure contracts with excessive interest rates, and over the top restrictive terms in the use of those properties and ownership.
Many of the hardest hit states such as those in the Sunbelt States are states in which the only new homes you can purchase are those that come attached with restrictive covenants and use rights that essentially ban even increasing property value or changing them in any manner from the date of sale without a potential lawsuit resulting with either the banks or the homeowner’s associations who have by state statutes been given more power than the banks with respect to foreclosures.
Even such an assumed “right of ownership” as painting your house the wrong color or without “governmental” approval can result in a court case that can and has stripped many of citizen of any equity they may have had, in addition to their homes in those states now with the highest foreclosure rates, and has been left out as a contributing factor.
Don’t buy the spins. Speak with the owners who have lost their homes, and find out the true facts that both the media and Washington are failing to mention.
And for all the monies that Obama is throwing, it is clear that most of his interest is in stimulating home sales for “new buyers.”
After the last two years alone, thousands of citizens will not be as naive or stupid as to sign on that dotted line anytime in the future, even if they were able to at this point.
Those ARM loan terms and excessive “loan” terms with respect to any true ownership of those properties have not changed, in fact the slashing of these interests rates by the Fed and the U.S. prime haven’t at all addressed the loans that are still marketed by the banks using higher LIBOR or London based bank rates and seems nothing more than another sales gimmick or PR stunt in order to “stimulate” the market and hook the next generation of homebuyers into these “foreclosure contracts.”
During Mr. Obama’s recent address to Congress, he seemed no more than an outraged parent chastising the wayward “teen” bankers (while his campaign was funded by a great many of those banks and banking executives).
It certainly appears his mesmerizing “speeching” ability is being utilized again by the Fed “daddy” bankers with those incentives directed at “new home purchasers.”
In fact, Mr. Obama in his sales gimmicks now seems quite similar to a TV used car salesmen than a Constitutional lawyer, even going so far as to undertake his “Sell the Stimulus” tour after the signing in Denver in his appearance in Mesa, Arizona, one of the hardest hit states during the mortgage tsunami (Arizona has a history of land and real estate fraud, however, and is a “foreclosure industry friendly” state in it’s state statutes also even post Keating and that 1980’s pyramid scam with Washington’s support, which was also sidestepped in the Obama address).
Obama’s going to need to do much more than throwing money around, a good speech and used car sales pitch to get many Americans back into the home buying market. And just how many investors are there in this country that will buy up these properties now also, with no guarantee of their ability to find a buyer locally in the immediate future.
I know they are advertising Arizona foreclosed properties for sale now in the Illinois local papers, and I’m sure as with the last Keating disaster, the Eastern papers also in order to set up and take advantage of all those boomer retirees during the next boom and bust cycle.
Thousands of the prior generation retirees lost their homes during Keating there, and thousands more now twenty years later in this “loan shark” Washington collusion staged since then primarily also on the remaining World War II and Korea retirees and now late 40’s, early 50’s boomers.
I wonder how soon it will be before they are advertising “globally,” at the banker’s behest in order to get more bang for their buck after destroying the American economy?
After all, history has repeated itself once, and appears with Mr. Obama’s public “hand slapping” and his closing the barn door after the horse has escaped “foreclosure package solutions” there still is missing the actual solutions which are needed most. And that is, addressing the actual business practices of those banking industries, 65 page “foreclosure contracts” and scarcity of fixed or assumable mortgages anymore which made the American dream possible.
Without that, Obamanomics seems not a “solution” at all, but more a future banker/Washington “setup” for industry profit and legislators future campaign chests on the backs of the survivors who eventually without such steps being undertaken may just find themselves in this worsening economic having to refinance their pre-80’s early 90’s fixed or assumable loans into those ARM escalating loans, along with the “new buyer” GenXers in less than 20 years also out on the streets joining us 2006-08 victims.
