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   XPost: alt.alien.visitors, alt.alien.research, sci.skeptic   
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   From: GM@ga7rm5er.com   
      
   I am in Twilight Zone.   
      
   I didn't even see these two posts here.   
      
   ___   
      
   Love to You Sir Artie !!!   
      
   ___   
      
      
      
      
   On Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:55:08 -0700 (PDT), "Sir Arthur C.B.E.   
   Wholeflaffers A.S.A."  wrote:   
      
   >On Oct 15, 6:19 am, Trent Schroyer  wrote:   
   >> worth reading even by those who think the NY Times is a leading   
   >> conservative paper - ( wait till Murdock's 'Wall St. Journal' out   
   >> lasts the Times!)   
   >>   
   >> New York Times Editorial ( & below PAUL KRUGMAN 'The Mortgage   
   >> Morass') October 14, 2010 The Foreclosure Crises   
   >>   
   >> Attorneys general in all 50 states have pledged a coordinated   
   >> investigation into chaotic foreclosure practices by some of the   
   >> nation's largest banks. The Department of Justice is also looking   
   >> into what happened, while some lawmakers are now calling for a   
   >> nationwide moratorium on all foreclosures until the legal questions   
   >> are settled. The Obama administration is insisting such a broad   
   >> delay would hurt the economy.   
   >>   
   >> There is plenty to worry about. But amid all this roiling, neither   
   >> Congress nor the administration has found a way to address an even   
   >> more fundamental problem: What government and banks need to do to   
   >> finally stanch the flood of foreclosures wreaking havoc on the lives   
   >> of millions of Americans and threatening the recovery.   
   >>   
   >> According to the latest figures, 4.2 million loans are now in or   
   >> near foreclosure. An estimated 3.5 million homes will be lost by   
   >> the end of 2012, on top of 6.2 million already lost. Yet the   
   >> administration's main antiforeclosure effort has modified fewer   
   >> than 500,000 loans in about 18 months.   
   >>   
   >> Judges and investigators need to be unflinching in their inquiries   
   >> into the paperwork debacle and must hold the banks fully accountable.   
   >> What we've already learned is chilling - and suggests that bankers   
   >> have learned little since the 2008 implosion and taxpayer bailout.   
   >>   
   >> Major banks - including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Ally   
   >> Bank, which is owned by GMAC - have suspended foreclosures after   
   >> admitting they had submitted tens of thousands of affidavits to the   
   >> courts, attesting to facts about the defaulted loans that had not   
   >> been verified by the bank employees signing the documents.   
   >>   
   >> The Times's Eric Dash and Nelson D. Schwartz reported in Thursday's   
   >> paper that in their rush to process foreclosures, banks hired   
   >> inexperienced workers ("Burger King kids" as one former banker   
   >> derided them) who barely knew what a mortgage was.   
   >>   
   >> The problems may go far deeper. The banks' procedures for keeping   
   >> track of mortgages may also be seriously flawed. If there are   
   >> problems in establishing a chain of title, it could - again - call   
   >> into question the value of mortgage-backed securities. That would   
   >> mean litigation, which would harm bank profits, and in a worst case,   
   >> risk another economywide disruption.   
   >>   
   >> As important, and dismaying, as all this is, it must not obscure   
   >> the underlying problem: potentially millions of foreclosures that   
   >> could and should be avoided.   
   >>   
   >> A mandated, national moratorium may be unavoidable if banks resume   
   >> a rush to foreclosure before all the legal issues are resolved. So   
   >> far, there is no sign of that. A moratorium won't address the   
   >> fundamental problem that banks have not competently and aggressively   
   >> pursued ways to keep more financially viable Americans in their   
   >> homes.   
   >>   
   >> The White House may well be right that a moratorium would further   
   >> rattle investors. But the economy is not going to rebound until the   
   >> housing mess is resolved. What is needed, urgently, are laws and   
   >> policies to give homeowners a better shot at reworking their loans   
   >> so they can keep making payments and avoid foreclosure.   
   >>   
   >> Throughout this crisis, the Obama administration has been far more   
   >> worried about protecting the banks than protecting homeowners. The   
   >> big weaknesses in the administration's main antiforeclosure policy   
   >> is that participation by lenders is voluntary and homeowners have   
   >> little leverage to get better terms - especially reductions in loan   
   >> principal when the mortgage balance is greater than the value of   
   >> the home.   
   >>   
   >> One way to change that would be for Congress to reform the bankruptcy   
   >> law so troubled borrowers could turn to the courts for a loan   
   >> modification if banks were uncooperative. Homeowners also need a   
   >> simple process to challenge a bank if it uses incorrect information   
   >> to deny a modification and justify a foreclosure, or if it refuses   
   >> to divulge the facts and figures it used.   
   >>   
   >> The administration also needs to alter refinancing guidelines so   
   >> that many borrowers who are current in their payments are eligible   
   >> to refinance to lower rates, even if their houses have declined in   
   >> value. It needs to provide more legal aid to homeowners, using money   
   >> authorized by Congress.   
   >>   
   >> This latest foreclosure crisis should settle one issue once and for   
   >> all. The banks that got us into this mess can't be trusted to get   
   >> us out of it. The administration and Congress need to act.   
   >>   
   >> October 14, 2010 The Mortgage Morass By PAUL KRUGMAN   
   >>   
   >> American officials used to lecture other countries about their   
   >> economic failings and tell them that they needed to emulate the   
   >> U.S. model. The Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, in   
   >> particular, led to a lot of self-satisfied moralizing. Thus, in   
   >> 2000, Lawrence Summers, then the Treasury secretary, declared that   
   >> the keys to avoiding financial crisis were "well-capitalized and   
   >> supervised banks, effective corporate governance and bankruptcy   
   >> codes, and credible means of contract enforcement." By implication,   
   >> these were things the Asians lacked but we had.   
   >>   
   >> We didn't.   
   >>   
   >> The accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom dispelled the myth   
   >> of effective corporate governance. These days, the idea that our   
   >> banks were well capitalized and supervised sounds like a sick joke.   
   >> And now the mortgage mess is making nonsense of claims that we have   
   >> effective contract enforcement - in fact, the question is whether   
   >> our economy is governed by any kind of rule of law.   
   >>   
   >> The story so far: An epic housing bust and sustained high unemployment   
   >> have led to an epidemic of default, with millions of homeowners   
   >> falling behind on mortgage payments. So servicers - the companies   
   >> that collect payments on behalf of mortgage owners - have been   
   >> foreclosing on many mortgages, seizing many homes.   
   >>   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)