September 2009

“I couldn’t have a pizza. I can’t use the facility. I can’t go to the pool,” Melendez said. No one, not even a relative, can visit them in the Terracina community. It’s all because the owner, Micki O’Callaghan, is in [...]

Living here in Southern California, I get to see all the same perps who sold subprime slime now selling loan modification snake oil. Some are doing it above board, but most of these companies are not and many of them [...]

One of the banks named was mentioned more than other institutions. Viewers said Bank of America has not given them help they need. “Their customer service has been horrible,” Tempe resident Shelley Peterson said she first applied for a loan [...]

A few months later, at the other end of the pipeline, Chris Angelus, a Lake Oswego advertising agency owner caught in an industry-wide slump, began inquiring about a temporary adjustment in his mortgage payments. “I was shipped all around Wells [...]

The FDIC has been the most effective regulator since the onset of the crisis, closing down failed banks in order to limit risk to taxpayers. But its resources are woefully inadequate to deal with the largest institutions. (I am excluding [...]

Tens of thousands of financially strapped homeowners who have asked lenders to lower their mortgage payments are instead winding up with higher monthly payments and larger debts on their homes. Homeowners who were hoping for lower payments are discovering to [...]

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ — Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Ken Lewis issued the following comments regarding President Barack Obama’s September 14 speech regarding financial regulatory reform. “A year ago this week, the U.S. economy was on the [...]

Where are the perp walks for the subprime mortgage executives like Angelo Mozilo that dragged us into this mess? Embedded video from CNNMoney.com Video Three years after the housing bubble popped, federal prosecutors have yet to bring a case against the [...]

Today, it’s the stage for a different kind of battle, one that involves a struggle over preserving the American dream. For years, the towns of the High Desert–places like Victorville, Adelanto, Hesperia, Barstow and Apple Valley–have lured thousands of working- [...]

A program set up last year to help North Carolina homeowners with subprime loans avoid foreclosure has been expanded to include those with traditional mortgages. The State Home Foreclosure Prevention Project lets homeowners call a toll-free number and receive counseling [...]

Owners and developers of commercial real estate will now have more flexibility to rework their mortgages or obtain loan extensions under a new federal tax rule, a change that could aid the troubled sector. The new rule, issued by the [...]

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – A federal judge in East St. Louis has ordered a southwestern Illinois minister to spend four years in federal prison and repay $142,000 in a mortgage fraud case. The government says he made fraudulent transactions [...]

In its ruling, the supreme court said that MERS was not a “contingently necessary party.” It added since Sovereign Bank didn’t register its interest with the county’s register of deeds, it had no rights in the foreclosure preceding. In response [...]

Legendary investor and truth teller, Jim Rogers says, “We haven’t seen the worst yet,” and “we should have let them fail!” If you are someone who does not know much about Wall Street and wants to avoid snake oil salesmen [...]

Let’s dive into the world of breaking news here, as the New York Attorney General’s office has decided to mark the one-year anniversary of the financial meltdown by preparing charges against some Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) executives. Reportedly, the [...]

There are so many foreclosures in the legal system that it cannot handle them, reported the Task Force on Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Cases. It was appointed by the Florida Supreme Court, and issued its first report recently. How bad is [...]

I know this is off topic for my blog, but I thought I would bring this news to your attention. Sometimes I write on this blog that we are heading into a depression (if we are already not in one). [...]

Bank of America “is in serious, serious trouble now,” says St. John’s University law professor Anthony Sabino. “The judge’s rejection of the SEC settlement, which is of course rooted in the same transactions, will embolden Cuomo to attack BofA head [...]

Tens of thousands of financially strapped homeowners who have asked lenders to lower their mortgage payments are instead winding up with higher monthly payments and larger debts on their homes. Homeowners who were hoping for lower payments are discovering to [...]

Sometimes I wonder if I am living in a movie. Some type of fantasy land where bankers steal my money, my kids money, take out bonuses for failing and then party high on the hog in Malibu beach fronts as I [...]

Dub them Generation F, for foreclosure. For them, the boogie man has morphed into the repo man.   “Experts tell us the lingering effects of foreclosure on the kids impacted by it and on our communities will remain for years [...]

The proliferation of complaints against lawyers who said they could help rescue clients threatened with foreclosure has hurt tens of thousands of people and confronted the bar with a mounting and costly disciplinary burden, said Howard Miller, a partner with [...]

Bank of America Corp., pressured by the U.S. Treasury Department to justify executive perks after receiving a taxpayer-funded bailout, said the firm doesn’t need to impose new constraints on employee use of company aircraft. The lender encourages use of its [...]

The association at Shoreline Towers, a 378-unit Chicago condominium, plans to use reserve funds to buy foreclosed units, rent them, then resell them when the market improves. The move prevents foreclosed units from being sold far below market value and [...]

After being burned by a negative-amortization loan that left her owing more on her Compton home than it was worth, Bell, 62, has soured on the home-refinancing craze. Never a big spender anyway, she has clamped down even harder — [...]

“Although defendants deny it, by arguing that TILA requires a different interpretation of the contract, defendants are raising a federal defense,” the judge said in his decision. “A federal defense has never been sufficient for federal question jurisdiction.” Two investors [...]

“I just never heard back,” Chavez said. “They just kept giving me the runaround, telling me, ‘You’ll hear something, don’t worry.’ But I never heard from them and I’m in this position now.” Chavez claims Bank of America told him [...]