Is The Economy Getting Weaker? CNBC reports

Right click on Bloomberg TV on the left to stop broadcast and listen to CNBC.
Please take a few minutes and listen to this CNBC clip. Again it is a yes it is no it's not report. The main points of this report are that a true indicator of improvement is an increase in jobs which we know is not happening. In addition it is mentioned that the number of hours worked in the month of June declined by .8% which, they say, is the equivalent of one million people losing their jobs for the month.

There are some other good points and ideas brought up here but all in all it just reaffirms my belief that not only is the economy not getting better it will get worse. Commercial real estate has yet to hit, more foreclosures are on the horizon and credit card defaults are on the rise.

This tells me there does not seem to be any discretionary money out there. More then no discretionary money there is not a sufficient supply of money for the population. All around me people from all walks of a previous life are hurting.

What does seem to be improving are the bottom line for the banks and other financial institutions that we have given billions upon billions to. The oil companies are also profiteering which in turn raises prices on food and overall transportation. It limits people's ability to travel to work or even seek employment within what used to be an acceptable commuting distance.

Where are all of those jobs that were going to be created by improving our infrastructure? No money has yet trickled down to the street. We continue to give vast amounts of money to "those too big to fail" companies when it is basic economics that small business drives the economy.

We should be investing in small business. Small business creates more jobs then all of these high and mighty corporations led by grossly overpaid executives who create failure not success and are continually rewarded.

Is the economy getting weaker. I think it is. What do you think?

Welcome Back to Reality

Now that the Fourth of July is over most of us are back to reality. Back to work - I hope n most cases - but in many cases back to the reality of unemployment starting the day with "where do I go today?" or "what do I do today?" or "where can I earn a dollar today?".

The reality is - as I see it - that the economy is not getting any better and in fact is worsening. The latest new unemployment results for last month were still staggaring. 467,000 plus people are new to the unemployment ranks. Add to those the millions that are still receiving benefits - my estimate over the past 7 months is over 3.5 million. Then add to that the numbers over the past two years that have filed for unemployment, stopped receiving benefits are still unemployed but no longer counted in any census data and the numbers would be mindboggling. Several reports have said that if you include all the unemployed not included in the official numbers our unemployment rate is over 16.5%

Unemployment figures are used to compare this economic "depression" to the Great Depression. One of the major differences between these two, our officials tell us, is that during the Great Depression unemployment was in double digits and we currently are not. Currently not, I ask? You all know that old saying, "liars figure but figures don't lie". In other words we can make the figures be what ever we want them to be but the real figures are reality. So, we have many in our government, media and economists world that believe that to say things are not so bad will cause things not to be so bad. They really believe that, in fact, it was administration policy not to long ago.

The feeling by government, politicians and most media is that the American people are gullible. They think that what people hear in small sound bytes they believe what they read on the internet - it it's on the internet then it must be true - and they believe that the American people have become sheeple.

Well, not so, says I. Those that are unemployoed and cannot find new employment know the difference. They know that things are not getting better or beginning to turn around. In fact, for those new 467,000 things are just beginning to get worse.

For those who had established comfortable life styles and have found new employment but at greatly reduced incomes and are having to give up their lifestyles know the difference. The houses they had they could afford in the past (not investment homes or "dream homes") just thier homes they find are going into foreclsoure not because they over extended themselves but due to the complete economic collapse that has affected all middle and low income America.

Predictions are for a turn around the last quarter of this year. Others predict a turn around sometime next year (a year is a long time) and some predict a turn around sometime in 2011.

Are any of them right? Who knows, I certainly don't know nor does anyone else truly know. It is a guess at best by anyone no matter what their experience or training is.

If the prediction is coming from a specific industry or trade group then it will be weighted in favor of that industry so that an optimistic report will help spur that industry. If it comes from the major media then it appeals to their audience specific and if it comes from government, especially the Federal Government, then it is pure optimism based on creating a new reality by "if I say it is then it is" type of philosophy.

My take on this whole situation if you just look at everything and everyone around you is that we are still in for the ride of our lives. Not only do I not think things are getting better for the masses but they could get more ugly.

The Fourth of July was a wonderful holiday. It gave us all the break we needed but now it is back to reality.

I believe the solutions lie in those affected joining together and finding solutions and offering up solutions to our politicians.

To get out of this problem we need the cooperation of our Corporate America. They need to be a part of the solution and no longer be the probelm causing us to look for solutions. Our banking system in particular and our oil industry in particular.

To our banking system I say, stop your greed profit taking. Work with people to help them not to force them into more distress. Lower interest rates on mortgages and credit cards. After all you have sold most of them anyhow. YOu don't own the debts for the most part but evidently you keep the higher rates since your investors are only expecting the original lower rate.

Lower mortage rates and mortgage loans. You are doing that anyway by foreclosing, getting no interest on that loan and selling the foreclosure at amounts less then what the origianl homeowners could pay and would be willing to pay. A self interest way of doing business and certainly not reaching out to help other Americans.

As to oil companies, drop your prices. Not to many months ago a barrel of oil was around $37 and the oil companies posted their highest profits ever. A gallon of oil was down to $1.50= range. Consumption was down but profits up. A gallon of oil is higher now not because oil is costing more - a barrel of oil is $67+ is due to speculators driving up the cost - but because it is mere profit taking. All reports have it that we have a surplus of oil. What was the true cost of that surplus? Should we not be paying based on that cost and the normal markup?

When all forces are working against the common good of the common citizen then this crisis, I believe, will continue for quite some time to come. I am not even sure that at my age I will live to see the end of it. That is not a very optimistic outlook for my kids. What does the future hold for them in this country? Will they enjoy those same benefits of Democracy and Capitalism that my generation enjoyed - before the excess of insanity began just a few short years ago.

Fourth of July...An American Holiday

With all that is happing here and abroad, it is a refreshing pause in our lives to celebrate this important day in our history and to reflect back on the sacrafices made by all including our founding fathers to make this day and our country possible.

We should furhter pause and take note of what they - our founding fathers - were attempting to achieve, what our Constitution really says and what the Bill Of Rights does for all of us. Perhaps it is time to go back to basics - that is to go back to the basis of both of these two great documents and continue to live by them.

With all of the uncertainties in this country, the false sense of security we are being fed and a media obsessed with the death of one person - as famous and controversial and talented as he may have been - we are led to loose sight of our true plight and circumstance.

As unemployment reaches a reported 9.5% - a 26 year high - an additional 465,000 plus PEOPLE are recognizing this holiday with fear and trepidation. How will they feed themselves, where will they live, how will they drive to seek other employment and in general how will they survive?

While we all will be taking the time to rmember all those who have served our country, given their lives on behalf of our country and sacraficed in the name of our country let us not forget all of us who have sufferred as those 465,000 newly unemployed are and will be suffering so that the might of this nation can continue.

We are all Americans and we are all active participants in this sacrafice. We are a nation in crisis and this one day of celebration is a welcome and meaningful rest stop.

Please view this celebration of the 4th of July from GoDaddy.com. Please turn off Bloomberg TV on the left to hear this link below.
Happy Independence Day from GoDaddy.com!

TheMortgageCorner wishes all of you a SAFE and Happy Fourth of July. We will see you next week to discuss all the issues at hand.

Review-Journal resists subpoena for names of readers who posted views

Review-Journal resists subpoena for names of readers who posted views
By JOAN WHITELY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Disclaimer: The Publisher does not necessarily endorse any comments or opinions made by others. The Publisher also does not endorse any other publication or media source or verity its' integrity and correctness in reporting. The publisher may, however, share some beliefs and thoughts as published by others and by virtue of links and reprints here does believe there is some validity which warrants closer investigation by the public.

The article above from the Las Vegas Review Journal has a story I have not seen anywhere else. It should be a major headline for all of the major media. Is our freedom os speech being eliminated? A scary thought and a very important and interesting question.

I am reprinting the article by Joan Whitely below. At the bottom of her piece she posts her email address so that you can contact her directly. In addition, I suggest you go directly to the link so that you can read some of the very interesting comments made by other readers (uh oh, are they going to be in trouble?)

An interesting addition to this article is a piece written in
Survival News Network titled Defense Department sees protests as terrorism
Free speech collides with fair trial said the following:

Antiterrorism training materials used by the Department of Defense teach that public protests should be regarded as "low-level terrorism," according to a letter of complaint sent to the department by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.
"Teaching employees that dissent on issues of public concern is something to be feared, rather than encouraged, is [...]

Publisher's Note: The link does not allow for a continuation of this story. Maybe you can figure out how to see the rest of it but I cannot and therefore cannot publish it.

Now to the story in the Review-Journal.

Free speech collides with fair trial. (emphasis by TMCForum)

Review-Journal readers who posted online their views about a federal criminal tax trial are the target of a sweeping federal grand jury subpoena asking for information so that authorities may identify who they are and where they live.

The Review-Journal plans to file later this week a motion to quash the subpoena, and the American Civil Liberties Union has posted its own online solicitation asking those who posted whether they would like the ACLU to legally represent them.

The newspaper received the subpoena on June 2, and Editor Thomas Mitchell revealed the existence of the subpoena in a June 7 column.

This past week the grand jury subpoena, which is separate from the ongoing trial but was signed by one of the prosecutors involved in the tax trial, was the topic of discussion between the trial judge and attorneys, revealing for the first time a possible motive for the subpoena.

The newspaper's subpoena does not explain why the U.S. attorney's office wants to know who commented on the case, but prosecutors told federal Judge David Ezra that they issued it out of concern for jurors' safety, because some comments hinted at acts of violence.

Las Vegas business owner Robert Kahre and others face federal tax fraud charges for paying contractors with gold and silver U.S. coins based on the precious metal value of the coins but using the much lower face value of the coins for tax purposes.

As of 9 p.m. Monday, 173 comments were listed below the May 26 Review-Journal article about the trial. Many comments deal with the trial and its principal players. Others were posted after the subpoena arrived.

The subpoena bears the name of U.S. Assistant District Attorney J. Gregory Damm, who is part of the government team prosecuting Kahre and three others on charges that include tax evasion, fraud and criminal conspiracy.

Jury members, Damm and Christopher Maietta, another government attorney, are the subjects of online comments that might be construed as threats.

On Thursday, the ACLU of Nevada also posted below the article an offer to help people who feel threatened by the subpoena. Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel of the civil rights organization, said it has received "several" inquiries.

Mitchell said the paper is resisting the sweeping nature of the subpoena, noting that anonymous speech is "a fundamental and historic part of this country," citing the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers that argued for passage and against passage of the nation's Constitution as an example. All were written under pseudonyms. He said the paper would consider cooperating if specific crimes or real threats were presented.

Interest in the Kahre case appears to run counter to a remark that Ezra made during a hearing to prepare for jury selection. If "CSI: Tax" were a television crime show, it wouldn't pull much audience, he said.

In the case, the government contends the defendants operated illegally, out of greed. The defense contends they had an honest but mistaken understanding of tax laws, and therefore had no criminal intent.

Many used the newspaper Web site to say the U.S. government has turned socialist, the nation's monetary system encourages deficit spending and guarantees inflation, or the Internal Revenue Service has to be reformed or abolished.

In addition to requesting the names of people who posted, the subpoena also tells the newspaper to supply the writers' gender, birth date, physical address, telephone number, Internet service provider, IP address, credit card numbers and more.

The reason for the subpoena came up in court, outside the jury's presence, after an alternate juror sent a note to Ezra, explaining that his spouse had told him to avoid a certain talk radio station, which was discussing the trial. Ezra retained the alternate after he determined the man did not know any details of the broadcast.

Ezra said this past week in court that he would not be handling the subpoena. However, "anytime we get people writing ... that if a particular verdict isn't reached, that jurors ought to come to physical harm -- that's no good. And if somebody wants to investigate that, that's their perfect right."

One commentator said, "The sad thing is there are 12 dummies on the jury who will convict him. They should be hung along with the feds."

Another writer suggested supporting Kahre with a public protest at the courthouse. A third writer advised moving it across the street from the courthouse, or to the local IRS office, to avoid court security officers.

Kahre has been gaining an opinionated Internet audience after an armed team from several law enforcement agencies raided several of his business locations -- including his sister's home office -- in 2003 to collect evidence for the tax case.

Readers' online feedback, mostly anonymous, is almost entirely pro-Kahre. Some comments personally attack Damm. One, for example, calls him a "socialist, fascist Mormon" and a "Nazi moron."

David Heller, senior staff lawyer at the Media Law Resource Center in New York, characterized the subpoena as "heavy-handed" and "bizarre."

"Federal prosecutors do have very wide latitude in investigating crimes," he said. "Even so, their power isn't unlimited." Some of the online comments struck Heller as "loose slang and hyperbolic language" rather than authentic threats to juror safety.

To ensure safety but still allay the concern about violating writers' First Amendment rights, the Justice Department could have avoided a blanket subpoena and sought instead only authors of specific comments, defense attorney Michael Kennedy said June 9 in court.

The subpoena might entail "mixed motives due to the personal animosity between the parties," the New York media lawyer said after he heard a description of several court actions that have pitted Kahre against Damm, going back several years.

After the raid in 2003 -- but before Kahre's 2005 indictment -- Kahre and several of his workers sued Damm, two IRS agents and others who had helped plan or execute it. That civil matter is on hold until after the criminal trial.

In February 2007, Kahre sued Damm and agents of the FBI and IRS, alleging they conducted themselves during the investigation in a way that constitutes a criminal pattern. Judge Ezra dismissed the complaint in December, but Kahre appealed and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Friday.

Kahre, his sister and a former assistant are standing trial for how they handled their own income taxes as well as their roles in Kahre's unique payroll system. Kahre paid workers at his six trade-related businesses in $50 gold or silver dollar coins. Those minted after 1985 are allowed to circulate as money. He also allowed workers to immediately exchange the coins for paper currency, as determined by the coins' investment value.

Two years ago, Damm prosecuted a similar tax case against nine defendants, including Kahre, on more than 160 counts. The trial ended with no convictions and four acquittals.

Five defendants were only partially acquitted, and two of them were dropped from the indictment that generated this trial.

Contact reporter Joan Whitely at jwhitely@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0268.

TMCForum Commentary:

There appear to be things happening right here in our own country that look very much like countries and governments out of the past in different parts of the world. The direction this country has taken over the past decade plus, needs to be looked at very closely. While many have called my opinions and the opinions of others as unrealistic (actually they have said "crazy") are now saying publically and out loud that there may be some truth to all this.

Glenn Beck is one of those people who on a recent report on the attempted smuggling of $134.5 billion in bearer bonds where the story whas not so much the smuggling of them but their authenticity and the purpose for which they were being smuggled in such a manner that would almost guarantee capture. This is an interesting story in itself leading to many quesitons such as who is behind this, who either legally obtained these bearer bonds (bearer bonds are almost immpossible to trace as possession is the only verification of ownership - hense "bearer" bonds - or forged them. If forged - and experts have said that the forgeries are almost perfect - then why smuggled in a very unprofessional manner? And one last BIG question, why was the amount of tese bonds - $134.54 billion - the EXACT amount of funds that are left from the Troubled Asset Relief Package (TARP) - the initial government bailout program of $700 billion? Coincidence or alternative use and motive?

In reference to the Survival News Network story above, there is a story going around about REX 84, an alleged systems of over 1,000 detention centers around the country to house detained civil protesters. You can google and research REX 84 on your own and draw your own conclusions but it certainly begins to tie into the the Survival News Network (who I know very little about).

Questions, we the American people, must be asking and must get answers to. Some things just don't make sense. We certainly are seeing signs of that.

For those who are old enough to remember, or for those of us that remember our studies of world history (which may not have been accurate either), or for those of us who choose to research history now there are enough signs out there to indicate possible danger ahead in the future of this country.

Of course, these are just my opinions, I could be wrong. What do you think?

Obama's New Financial Regulation Plan

Today most news coverage and commentary is about President Obama's propsed financial regulation. Keep in mind that this is still a basic outline, is not yet a bill given to Congress to vote on and enact into law. Still in all it is a plan that Obama's administration seemingly will lobby and fight for. Certainly there will be many changes and concessions made by both sides of the aisle along with the White House.

CBS News published a good overview of what is being proposed. In order to discuss thiis topic more we need to at least see what it is probably and basically all about. Below is the reprint to this linked article along with video they published as well.

Highlights: Obama's Proposed Financial Fix

A Closer Look At The President's Plan To Improve Oversight Of The Financial Industry

(AP) A look at President Barack Obama's plan to improve oversight of the financial industry:

Creates a council of regulators called the "Financial Services Oversight Council" to monitor risk across the financial system. The council will be chaired by the treasury secretary and include the heads of existing federal financial regulators, the Federal Reserve among them, and representatives of new regulators.

Establishes a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect consumers from deceptive practices by such companies as credit card lenders and mortgage brokers.

Gives new authority to the Federal Reserve to supervise firms considered so big or influential that their failure could topple the economy.

Creates a system to dismantle a troubled firm. Once the Fed and the Treasury Department decide an institution is a threat to the economy, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would step in to break it down and sell its assets with minimal impact on investors.

Establishes a National Bank Supervisor to monitor all federally chartered banks and federal branches of foreign banks. The Fed and FDIC would retain their existing roles in helping to supervise state-chartered banks.

Eliminates the Office of Thrift Supervision. Critics say the office's oversight of American International Group and IndyMac was too lax and contributed to their demise.

Retains the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission as market regulators. However, the SEC would no longer have a role in supervising large holding companies as it did in monitoring Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. That role would be turned over to the Federal Reserve.

Gives the SEC oversight of hedge funds and other private pools of capital, including venture capital funds.

Requires financial institutions to retain more capital when making risky investments.

Calls for regulation of "over-the-counter derivatives," such as the insurance-like contracts that felled AIG. The plan leaves in question who would regulate them.

Aims to deter lenders from writing bad mortgages and passing the risk off to investors by requiring that lenders retain a 5 percent stake in all asset-backed securities.

Requires that shareholders get to vote on compensation packages for financial executives.

Creates an office within the Treasury Department to review the regulation of insurance companies, now done primarily by states.

Calls on the Treasury Department and the Housing and Urban Development Department to make recommendations on the future of government-backed mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank system.

Watch CBS Videos Online

This timeline may also be interesting to many of you and was also published by CBS.

• TimelineFinancial Meltdown

  Track major events that lead to one of the most tumultuous times in Wall Street's history.

END of CBS REPRINT and EMBED

Almost every media outlet, all teh morning television news programs were talking about this today. Everyone of them had their own comments and commentary, their own specialists and experts and their own public officials offering their views and judgements of this proposal.

Some like it, some like some of it and some like none of it. To me, some comments made sense and some did not and as a result I am having a problem with my opinion of it. As said earlier, it may be much too soon to form an opinion as what is being released and talked about today is not - I stress - is not the final version. But what is evident is that there will be - I stress again - will be major changes in how our financial system works in the future.

Major changes and - as much as I dislike saying this - more government regulation and oversight is needed. But maybe we have all the regulation we need - it just has not been enforced. In fact, it may have intentionally not have been enforeced perhaps leading to this crisis we and the world are now in which makes a good case for createing more regulation and giving out more power over the people to a select - elint -few.

One major component of this proposal concerns giving more power to the Federal Reserve. In effect, the way I understand this portion of it, is that the "FED" - a privately owned and held company whose owners are more secretly guarded then the Coca Cola formula - will have total control of our financial system.

What is scary to me about this is a comment made by Meyer Rothschild - the architect of the central banking system and "The New World Order". He said, "Let me control the finances of a nation and I care not who makes its laws". In other words - and think about how true this becomes - control every aspect of a country's finances and you control that nation. He formulated and began to put into effect his concepts and ideas back in the 1700's. He in fact, was instrumental in getting J.P Morgan started along with a host of other long time financier that have become financial mainstays in this country.

Should you want to learn more about Rothschild simply google him and google The Federal Reserve and The Secrets of the Federal Reserve.

I believe that the Federal Reserve has too much power and authority now. It may well have enough power to control the actions of our Presidency - regardless of who holds the position. A nation functions on its economy. The ability of people to earn, invest, buy, sell and have material posessions only money can buy. If you control a populations money supply - well, you see where we are now - don't you.

What We’re Hearing In The Media

This post from my other blog TheForeclosureDetonatorFORUM as posted June 12, 2009.

What are we hearing in the media these days in reference to foreclosures and the state of the economy in general?

NOT MUCH!

It is very curious to me that the most important stories of our everyday lives – which relates to the majority of the average Americans – is not prevelant in any of our national media. Oh, yes, they do announce the new unemployment figures each month, but only as a report of numbers with no story or substance behind it.

We hear little if anything about foreclosoures that would have you believe that foreclosoures are not rampant and that this is no longer a problem in our economy and more important in our society.

REALITY:

Unemployment is increasing and the number of actual unemployed – not just those that are currently receiving unemployment benefits – are staggering. You see, only those that are actually receiving benefit payments are considered unemployed, so if you are still unemployed but have gone past your benefit payment period – you no longer count. Startling when you think about it.

In addition, foreclosures are on the rise and with every batch of new unemployed there is created a new batch of foreclosures.

MORE REALITY

Two economic segments have yet to crash – commercial real estate and credit card defaults. We are seeing the effects of these two markets already but not in the media. So no news must be good news. If it is not announced or reported in the media then it must not be. Right!

MORE TRUTH

So what has all this to do in a Foreclosure Defense blog? A lot! You see, little is being done to help the people. Banks, insurance companies, car companies, hedge funds and Wall Street firms are still getting all the government help – that’s you and me giving out that aid – but we cannot give any to ourselves who so desparately need it. What’s more until “we” – you and I – recover there can be no recovery in our country. Allowing the “fat cats” to thrive while the rest of us starve (have you seen any stats on homeless and hungry children in this country?) does not bring about recovery it brings about … well you think about this or research it. Research and ask other what a country where there are a small, very small percentage of people that controls all the money and wealth and the rest of the country’s people live in poverty or near poverty is called.

What me must do is help ourselves – not with violence, hate or anger – but with the laws and constitution of this land. We can speak out and ask questions of those in charge. We can stand up and fight against what is illegal for most but becomes legal for the elite few.

Foreclosures are one of the big areas we can fight back. there is a small revolution already in progress in the foreclosure arena. With the “Produce the Note” defense haveing made it to the forefront in recent months – more and more people are fighting – and winning.

Defending your foreclosure is not a means to get your house free and clear and it should not be. It is however, a means to get the banks (?), lenders (?), servicers (?) and Trustees (?) – whoever they may all be – to stop taking your house illegally then giving it to someone else at firesale prices and worst of all stockpiling the realestate themselves to unload at higher prices (meaning prifits to them) at a later date.

It will cause them to truly and honestly negotiate and modify loans to enable people to stay in their homes, stabalizing values and neighborhoods instead of enabling the rich to get richer and stabalizing the “elite” society.

The Rule of Law is the Rule and is not meant to be interpreted based on personal opinion by judges – appointed or elected. Judges, especially some here in Florida are using their bias and opinion to rule in foreclosure cases and NOT enforcing the laws that are on the books. Much of the reason is that they are overwhelmed by all the cases and want to clear their calendars. I gtuess there is no such thing as working overtime in a salaried position in the courts/government as there is in most corporate jobs. I believe eh 40 hour workweek has long past us by as most salaried people are now working 50 plus hours.

As I always say, two wrongs don’t make a right. Just because you are delinquent on your payment does not disqualify you for justice under the law. The law is fosr EVERYONE, delinquent on payments, homeless, hungry, rich and poor – the law is the same – it does not change.

But were it not for the internet and blogs and the abity to share information – those in control be it the Federal Reserve, the Banks or our elected officials would have free reign to do as they wish. In fact, they are already taking those liberties with us.

Defend your foreclosure, I believe it is the first step to healing our economy and our society. Do the research, there is much to help you do this. Hire an attorney that is knowledgeable in this field but if you find you cannot afford one (there are many that you can afford) then DEFEND YOURSELF PRO SE – meaning defend your self by representing yourslef in court.

If you live in what is called a non judicial foreclosure staste – one where the note holder can simply auction your house with notice to you but without having to take you to court first – you can defend by initiating the “Show me the Note” defense in your local court. Yes, you must take the initiative and file the case and pay the filing fees associated with this but you will find that it will get you that extra time you need or better yet get “them” to the negotiating table.

I will be more proactive on this site from here on. I will provide copies of actual Motions filed in various courts on various cases. I will direct you to other blogs with even more indepth information and to blogs by others who have successfully defended themselves.

More to come.

Addition to this post:

Flippingfrenzy and Ralph Roberts:

There has been no news other then a commenter on the Flipingfrenzy blog who offered an "opinion" (I believe it is an opinion) as no documentation, references or sources were provided to substantiate. I repled to that comment asking for substantiation but todate have not receved any.

We will update you when substantiated and public information is available. We will not disclose or report on rumors.

CAVEAT EMPTOR:

There are still many hundreds of thouseands - perhaps even millions of victims of this economic crisis (Disaster). If you feel you were a victim as an employer, employee or consumer let us know your story. If we choose to print your story - with your permission, of course, it may help others if in no other way then just letting them know theya are not alone. You can email me at lrubinoff@TheMortgageCorner.org.

Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware - my favorite warning is more to be headed today then ever before. Frauds and scams are everywhere, especially in the real estate markets. Our local media did a report last night of a rather new scam taking place with rentals.

People are breaking in to foreclosred and vacant homes, changing the locks on them and advertising them for rent. The news report said the FBI is investigating these cirmes. The report also cautioned people to verify ownership prior to renting, do not give personal information such as your social security number and if the "deal is too good" it probably is not legitimate. Do your homework - CAVEAT EMPTOR.

What happened to Ralph Roberts and Flippingfrenzy blog?

The beginning of this current economic crisis - or disaster as I prefer to call it - in 2007 was entirely blamed on the mortgage broker industry. Mortgage brokers were called the root cause by "selling" people so called "toxic" loans. Loans that the media with the support of our major financial institutions, Wall Street and our Federal Government, were represented as being created by, underwritten by and funded by mortgage brokers who should have known better then to do such a terrible injustice.
In addition to all the finger pointers mentioned above, one non institutional finger pointer was Ralph Roberts who published (publishes?) a blog called Flippingfrenzy.com. His blast against our mortgage broker industry was totally without merit or basis of fact. It was, in fact, just his own spin on the false impressions and opinions of illusionary fact by the previously mentioned large, larger and too large to fail institutions above.

Mr. Roberts blog post angered me and the thousands of readers at the still very popular blog lenderimplode.com - a forum that at the time tracked failing mortgage companies, disclosed some of the truths and was a forum for mortgage brokers to voice their opinions, share the knowledge of the truth they possessed and vent their angers and frustrations.

However, no one seemed to approach or directly challange Mr. Roberts so I did. To my surprise he responded not by email but by a personal telephone call. This in itself impressed me as he is published author, a long time realtor in Michigan, co author and collaborator with others and in general enjoyed a much higher profile then I did and was obviously very busy given all of his activities.

This conversation was the beginning of a relationship that eventually led to him extending me an ivitation to be a guest writer for his daily blog. I accepted his inviation to write and my posts can still be found on www.Flippingfrenzy.com. Whle this became a short lived invitation, my respect for Mr. Roberts continues. You see, he retracted the statements he originally made that angered me and thousnads of others. He consulted me on his writing of his retraction to make sure of accuracy and consulted me on many other occasions after that for articles he was writing. We also had many good conversations as to fraud in the mortgage and real estate industries and how high (the thesis of several of my writings) the fraud was. Of course we know now that it was at the very highest levels of uor financial industry - which we have and still are bailing out.

But an interesting thing happened to me on my way to Flippingfrenzy several weeks ago. There have been no new posts by Mr. Roberts since April 28th. At first, I payed no attention to this as writing daily articles in addition to working your daily job or business is difficult - as I can very well attest to - I guess that is why I was invited to write the weekend articles. I again did not think much of it for a few days as the pattern was for him to not post daily at all times.

Reently I received an email from a couple of readers informing me that Mr. Roberts sites had all been down for several days. News to me as I admit I had not gone there myself for several weeks nor contributed my comments daily as I had been doing for almost 2 years.

All of Mr. Roberts sites - he has several sites in addition to Flippingfrenzy - had been down and then appeared again yet no new content since April 28, 2009. Today being June 11th, this now becomes very curious. Even more curious is that there are still readers at Flippingfrenzy commenting and having dialogue on earlier posts.
I, in fact, posted a comment directing people here to continue dialogue. Please note, I am not trying to "steal" his readership, I am trying to preserve it as I found much of the dialogue to be informative, interesting and necessary.

So the question remains...What happend to Ralph Roberts and Flippingfrenzy? If any of you out there know - please let the rest of us hear from you.

From Mandelman Matters...Stop Blowing Sunshine Up My Skirt - Recovery, My Aunt Petunia

There are many blogs out there but this one really caught my eye. It is a must read. While this particular post contains some news headlines from CNN with commentary by the blog's author it also contains a section on the state of the financial situation especially as it relates to mortgages and the banking situation.

I am going to reprint only part of the post here but urge you all to visit Mandelman Matters. There is a lot of good stuff there. This post was published Sunday, May 31, 2009.

Reprinted with Creative Commons License authorization. The partial reprint below expresses the views and opinions of the author of Mandelman Matters. While it echo's the thoughts and opinions and statemnts of fact that I have, what you see below are those of Martin Andelman.

Copyright © 2009 Mandelman Matters, Martin Andelman in concert with IEHI, Inc.

Credits: Matteo Turchetto | Andreas Viklund | Modified by Justin

So, there you have it… today’s “Hot Topics” according to CNN.com.

Oh, and did you hear last week’s news? The economy has started getting better. The worst is behind us. It’s all going to be okay after all. Why were we so worried anyway? All we ever needed to do was close our eyes and say: “There’s no place like home… there’s no place like home…” Next thing we know… bam… Auntie Em’s baking pies once again.

Apparently, that whole debate over the $700 billion stimulus bill was completely unnecessary. The Republicans said it wouldn’t stimulate anything until 2011, and the Democrats said it would… but neither argument made any sense at all, because even though we haven’t even started spending it yet, the worst is over and blue skies are right around the corner. Just the threat of a stimulus package was enough to send our economy racing towards prosperity.

“What about the banks,” I hear some of you cry? Banks, shanks… they’re fine. They posted wonderful profits for the first quarter and hear tell they’re all just itching to pay back the TARP funds so they can start overpaying their top executives again. So, I guess the TARP funds did actually fix things after all. See what buying some preferred shares can do? Viola! Problem solved.

But… the mortgage meltdown, the foreclosures, housing prices in a free fall? Oh, pish tosh… stop your whining. It’s just a market correction. In fact, it’s more of a buying opportunity than anything else. The president’s plan has only just begin to refinance mortgages for the responsible homeowners and as to the rest… well, they’re the irresponsible ones, who cares about them anyway?

Unemployment? Didn’t you hear? The numbers for April weren’t as bad as expected. Yea! And apparently the drop in GDP was only 5.7%! Fantastic. I’m going shopping!

What an incredibly obvious and odious pile of crap…

Look, if you’re one of those people who need the news to be good, fine. Perhaps you should consider heading over to CNN.com where you can read a whole pile of happy horse manure. On CNN.com, the bad stuff only happens in Pakistan and North Korea. Me? I can’t do it. I need to understand what’s really happening because I’m just nutty enough to believe that if enough people know, perhaps we can do something to change things.

First of all, between 1929 and 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged over 20% four times, only to fall back each time below previous lows. Today’s crisis has already seen five “rallies” where the market rose by 10% before subsiding once again. The pace of the decline has already been steeper than that experienced in the 1930s. U.S. GDP has dropped for three consecutive quarters, and the IMF is forecasting a 1.3% drop in global output this year, the first time that either of those things has occurred since the Great Depression.

U.S. companies are still defaulting on their debts with increasing frequency, with 40% of corporate bond issuers doing so in April of this year alone. And Moody’s predicts the default rate will reach 14.3% by next year.

Next year? I thought we were expecting a recovery by next year. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. They’re making my ears bleed.

According to the National Delinquency Survey, which was released Thursday, May 28th by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the first three months of this year showed the largest quarter-over-quarter increase in foreclosure starts since the association began tracking foreclosures in 1972. What does that work out to in American money? 616,000 homeowners received foreclosure notices in Q1 of 2009.

There was also a big increase in the number of mortgages 90-days plus overdue, 3.39% of all loans compared to 3% in the previous quarter, which means a lot more foreclosures are on the way. One year ago the percentage of mortgages 90-days plus overdue was less than half of what it is today at 1.56%.

That’s not the only change in the foreclosure crisis that’s occurred since last year. Today, it’s not the sub-prime mortgages that are defaulting in such large and growing numbers, it’s the PRIME mortgages that are the problem. Over the last year, the percentage of foreclosures on PRIME, FIXED RATE mortgages, which are the vast majority of all mortgages, has more than doubled.

Jay Brinkmann, Chief Economist for the MBA, told CNN: “For the first time since the rapid growth of sub-prime lending, prime fixed-rate loans now represent the largest share of new foreclosures.” Brinkmann also said that the number of mortgage defaults won’t fall until the employment situation improves.

Wow. Now there’s sheer genius for you. An economist that can connect dots. I think I’m in love.

CNN also reported the following: “I don’t see how it can’t get uglier,” said Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “Unemployment will continue to go up and you’ll have a lot of people out of work, prime workers in their 40s and 50s, who will exhaust their resources.”

And as long as we’re quoting CNN, here’s the rest of their May 28th article on the subject:

The fact that delinquencies and foreclosures continue to rise is terrible news for the overall economy, according to Pat Newport, a real estate analyst for IHS Global Insight. “Just about every number in the report is a record high,” he said. “It indicates that the problems with the banks will continue for a long time.”

What problems with the banks? What’s he talking about? I thought the banks were posting record profits and paying back TARP funds. What’s going on here? I’m so confused.

Go ahead, CNN, straighten me out with the last paragraph:

“MBA’s forecast, a view now shared by the Federal Reserve and others, is that the unemployment rate will not hit its peak until mid-2010,” he said. “Since changes in mortgage performance lag changes in the level of employment, it is unlikely we will see much of an improvement until after that.”

“After that.” Would that be “some time after that”? Ah, I see. Now there’s a forecast that’s destined to be 100% accurate. Nothing will improve until “after that”. Got it. I do love it when those economist people get precise and technical.

The cold hard fact is… demand has plummeted, with the exception of the government programs, credit couldn’t be tighter, and the collapse of the stock market have all combined to scaring the heck out of consumers and they’re now set on saving, not spending. And this is not a good thing at all.

About a year ago, I saw a model that was put together by David Rosenberg, who was then Chief Economist at Merrill Lynch (now he’s a teller at Bank of America in Glendale California, I believe). His model showed that if the savings rate in America reached 4%, our economy would have serious problems, and some estimates show we are already saving at near 10% levels.

The last three serious recessions have ended because baby boomers have been wiling to spend us out of them. Remember after 9-11… Bush told us to go shopping and on vacation. I listened and left for Hawaii a couple of weeks later, after shopping for new Tommy Bahama shirts and shorts before I left. (Hey, I’m a patriot, so sue me.) But this time, it’s going to be very different, largely because I already have enough Tommy Bahama outfits to last a lifetime.

I realize we’re pumping trillions into the economy, or at least into the banks, and that will have a stabilizing effect eventually, but the reality is that most of the world’s economies will be dependent on their governments for many, many years. Don’t be fooled into complacency by the twitches of an economy on life support, as the Economist magazine put it in its May 1st issue. “Any real recovery depends on government demand being supplanted by sustainable sources of private spending. And here the news is almost uniformly grim.”

But what about consumer confidence… what about consumer confidence? I’ll be more confident, I promise. Really, we’ll all agree to be more confident from now on, okay? Swear. Pinky swear. Okay, can we please skip the decade of “diminished expectations” now? Pleeaasse? Look, I’m confident… we’re all being confident…. Wahhhhhhhh.

Sure the stock market has twitched up 10% from its doldrums, and many people were undoubtedly fooled to at least some degree by the earnings reports that met or exceeded expectations. But, and I’m sorry to be the one telling you this, it’s just more of that same crap sandwich they’ve been feeding us all year.

How’s this for a disturbing statistic related to those “surprising” earnings reports: According to Andrew Lapthorne of Societe Generale, 62% of American companies missed their sales expectations in the first quarter of 2009. And you know what that means, right? That means accounting shenanigans played a role in the surprising earnings that bumped up the stock market and got everybody talking about recovery being around the corner. Next quarter, or as soon as the accounting hocus pocus has run its course, watch out… it’s going to be like getting on the elevator on the Observation Deck at the Sears Tower in Chicago. “Going down?” (Cool… did your ears pop?)

But, what about the banks? What about the banks? Tim said they’re okay, didn’t he? He gave them all stress tests, didn’t he? Tell me they’re okay… pleeasse…

Well, besides the fantasyland assumptions that were used in the published stress test data, Bank of America came up $34 billion short of the test’s safety mark. $34 billion. We’ve already got near $200 billion in BofA. Hell, what’s another $34 billion? We’ve got $79 billion in cash injected into Citigroup, and that bank would only cost about $12 billion if you bought up all of its outstanding shares.

(GM’s another fabulous investment for the taxpayers, by the way. We’re putting in about $50 billion, in order to own 70%, and last Friday the company was valued at about $450 million… not even half a billion. We’re shrewd I’ll say that for us.)

Still, we’re still doing what the banks want… every single time. The Democrats wanted the “cram down” legislation to pass, and even with their control of the house and near super majority in the senate, with the banking lobby opposing it, the bill got killed by enough of a margin that is unlikely to come up again anytime soon.

Simon Johnson, a onetime chief economist at the IMF (International Monetary Fund) describes the situation between Washington D.C. and the banks this way: “Wall Street has become an oligopoly that has left a generation of politicians and regulators mesmerized and loath to upset it.”

And why would anyone in Washington want to upset Wall Street’s bankers? According to the non-profit Center for Public Integrity, they’ve pumped roughly $500 million into lobbying efforts and campaign contributions over the last decade, and the nation’s top 25 sub-prime lenders have chipped in to the tune of an additional $380 million. I believe that’s what they meant when they coined the phrase: “Bought and paid for.”

The Economist had quite a bit more to say at the end of the same May issue article, and although I usually don’t like to do this… since I couldn’t say it any better… and in the hopes that someone may believe them over me… here goes, word for word:

“Start preparing for the next decade…

Welcome to an era of diminished expectations and continuing dangers; a world where policy makers must steer between the imminent threat of deflation while countering investor’s reasonable fears that swelling public debts and massive monetary easing could eventually lead to high inflation; an uncharted world where government borrowing reaches a scale not seen since the second world war, when capital controls ensured that savings stayed at home.

How to cope with these dangers? Certainly not by clutching at scraps of better news. That risks leading to less action right now.

The worst global slump since the Great Depression is far from over. There is work to do.”

What else can I say? We all need to stop buying the crap we’re being served. We’re running out of time. The banks will bleed billions until the foreclosures are stopped. At some point we will need to take the toxic assets off of their balance sheets. If we buy them low, we’ll leave gaping holes in the bank balance sheets and we’ll need to give them many billions to fill those holes. If on the other hand, we pay face value for the toxic assets, then we’ll be giving the banks many billions anyway.

Do you get it? We’re going to pay for this no matter how you slice it up. The only question is… how toxic will we allow the assets to become? You want to know another way to phrase that same thing: “How long will we allow the foreclosures to go on?”

The longer they are allowed to continue, the more toxic the bank assets become. Funny how that works, isn’t it. So, it’s actually NOT about paying for your neighbor’s kitchen remodel. Rick Santelli is in fact an insensitive jackass, but he’s also a moron.

And it’s not about sub-prime borrowers… prime’s the problem now, remember? Blaming this on sub-prime borrowers was the P.R. campaign launched by the banks. It was like confusing the fuse with the bomb.

Yeah, so you know what they say about all roads and where they lead… to a foreclosed Rome. And with a finishing line like that, it’s only appropriate to add: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

… Thus passes the glory of the world.

So there it is. Well said Mr. Andelman.