There are so many crises that we can't afford to ignore yet are managing to do so that the mind boggles, which is the real problem. We will, I suppose, attempt to deal with them when actual large scale suffering gets going, which will by then be too late.

I would like to second Jesse Jackson. George Bush always scorns "borrowers that made bad decisions", but never did he mention "bankers that mde bad decisions" , like such thing does not exist at all.

Our (s)elected officials demonstrated willingness to protect the financial interests of their corporate benefactors (Bear Sterns, et al.) at the expense of their constituency ... overextended and at risk homeowners who have little or no voice in matters which directly and adversely impact their lives.

Barney Frank's and Christopher Dodd's proposed legislation asking lenders to voluntarily agree to modify certain, loan agreements at risk of foreclosure by reducing loan balances to 85% of the mortgaged premises fair market value. Historically, lenders have always had jurisdiction to modify certain at risk loans if the modification served the lender's best, financial self interest, but the relatively recent and hugely profitable innovation of bundling and securitizing individual mortgage loans has created a loan servicing quagmire.. a subprime Chernobyl.

Another brainchild of the collusion between government and corporate interests are in the form of disguised lifelines thrown to distressed homeowners which include access to non profit counseling services. Supposedly independent organizations such as Neighorworks and HopeNow Alliance and a consortium of non profit consumer advocacy service providers often act duplicitously shielding their financial benefactors from exposure to legal liability resulting from at best unconscionable or at worst illegal lending or servicing practices ... instead of simply acting as consumer advocates seeking, at all times, solutions which result in the consumers' best long term financial or legal interests.

It is important homeowners know they can challenge the legality of the foreclosure, and to not simply or too quickly agree to a temporary, quick fix while ill-advisedly waiving their future, legal rights.

In my book, Fight Foreclosure! (Wiley 2008), I discuss options and alternatives available to homeowners threatened by mortgage foreclosure.

Certified Public Accountants are supposed to protect us from financial skullduggery, (like Arthur Andersen was supposed to protect us from Enron), right?

CFO magazine now has an article saying that the entire subprime meltdown was caused by a poor accounting industry standard (SFAS #140) that enabled the securitization of bad loans via "qualified special-purpose entities". I, for one, would like us to nationally pursue this allegation.

BUT FIRST, you need to elect a liberal government that is actually inclined to oversight of such things. The best way to "not ignore" the housing crisis is to elect Obama and a Dem Congress.

Sorry, folks, but you ain't seen nuthin' yet. The financial meltdown is only just beginning and, in at least some respects, is unfolding according to plan. If you thought the Bear Stearns "rescue" by JP Morgan was a bad omen, Lehman Brothers is probably next in line for a massive bailout. The problem is systemic and, given the long absence of regulatory oversight, there aren't really any good options left.

Bush Pioneers behind all this.
http://tinyurl.com/5opul3

damn! there goes the another pillar of American society, i.e., the idea that modern capitalism is depression-proof. now where did i put my copy of Das Kapital?

How about BUYER BEWARE?!!!! Greedy Americans allowed themselves to fall prey to greedy bankers. Now both must be bailed out? I say no. America needs to wake up from its debt driven consumer stupor and this crisis will help. That means no help for anyone.

This sounds hard and cruel but it is not. What do counselors say to do with a relative hooked on drugs? Give them money for more drugs> Continuously bail them out of trouble? No, the answer is tough love, letting them hit bottom and realize they need to change their life. This is the answer to the debt problem of the American consumer and economy. Anything else only makes the problem worse and teh fall more painful.

Jesse Jackson is a phony!

If anyone doubts that statement, take a look at the political documentary "Street Fight." (I got it from my local public library).

"Street Fight" is an Academy Award-nominated documentary by Marshall Curry that tells the story of the 2002 mayoralty election in Newark, New Jersey. The two candidates who squared off in this nonpartisan election – both Democrats and both African-Americans – were Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent, and Cory Booker, the 32-year-old challenger.

Each candidate had various "celebrity endorsements": Cory Booker was supported by notables such as Spike Lee and Cornel West; while Sharpe James was supported by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson – the Fric and Frac of political phonies.

What sort of a campaign did Sharpe James run? What kind of mayor was he?

Well, during the course of the campaign, Sharpe James called Cory Booker: a Jew (which he isn't) … a Republican (which he isn't) … a gay (which he isn't) … someone who had the support of the Klu Klux Klan! (which, obviously, he didn't!) … someone who had 10 million dollars in campaign money when, in fact, Booker had only 3 million dollars in campaign money … and someone who, according to James, wasn't "black enough" to be mayor, Booker being a light-skinned black and Yale and Stanford-educated.

But that's not *nearly* how dirty a campaign Sharpe James ran. ... James used various forms of blackmail and physical force to try to intimidate Booker supporters. For example, if a Newark storeowner displayed a "Booker For Mayor" poster in his shop, James would get the Building Code Department to go to the business and shut them down, citing some minor code violation.

But it wasn't just Newark shop owners and businessmen James tried to intimidate. Filmmaker Curry interviewed a policeman who after he expressed support for Booker was reassigned to an extremely dangerous neighborhood.

And so if you did something as fundamentally democratic as displaying a "Booker for Mayor" poster in your shop window … or if a restaurant owner dared to host a Booker fund raiser … or if you simply verbally expressed support for Cory Booker – Mayor James would use his power to, as one person put it, "make your life impossible."

One woman who was interviewed by Curry who lives in the projects was afraid to display a "Booker for Mayor" poster for fear that she'd lose her public housing.

Curry himself was told by James' plainclothes police thugs that he couldn't film James giving as campaign speech. Why? Because James and his police thugs knew that Curry was also filming Booker's campaign, and the contrast between the two campaigns would be obvious to anyone viewing Curry's film. In short, only campaign lackeys were allowed media access to Mayor James.

(Continued)

During one confrontation, in which the police tried to take Curry's camera away from him, the police threatened to "lock him up" if he didn't stop filming and give them his camera. Curry refused. Another time the police pushed Curry around to where they broke his microphone. Again, Curry refused to surrender his camera.

What mainstream media –The New York Times, The Newark Star-Ledger, the New Jersey television stations – were reluctant to do, that is to say, expose longtime machine boss Sharpe James for the antidemocratic, political thug he was, Marshall Curry (this, amazingly enough, being his first documentary) did with his commitment, his courage and his integrity.

At one political rally, a Booker supporter, wearing a Booker for Mayor cap, was accused by Mayor James of being a "terrorist." This was the same rally at which James lunged at a Booker supporter, a lawyer no less, and tried to physically assault him.

The strong-arm tactics used by James operatives – that Mayor James was fully aware of – were carried out by the police, by housing authority personnel and by building code inspectors. Newark was, in effect, King James' kingdom for 16 years and you dare not cross him.

Death threats were made against Booker and, after a while filmmaker Curry asked one of Booker's campaign workers if *he* should be afraid. Yes, said the campaign worker, telling Curry that a couple nights earlier someone smashed down his front door and that since then he was carrying a gun.

On Election Day, Newark police took down Booker posters; power outages mysteriously occurred at voting locations favorable to Booker; and James' operatives arranged for people who lived in Philadelphia to be bussed into Newark, where they were paid to vote, illegally, for Sharpe James.

NOTE: Booker – who is Stanford and Yale-educated and who was also a Rhodes scholar as well as an All-American/All-Academic football player – for several years and while running for mayor lived in Newark's Central ward in one of the projects: a neighborhood awash in drugs and crime, unpatrolled by the police and mired in generational poverty. … By contrast, during his four-terms as mayor Sharpe James voted his annual salary up from $70,000 in 1986 to $200,000 in 2002 – more than the governor of New Jersey made, and more than any other mayor in the United States made. James also has a 46-foot yacht and two vacation homes.

This then is the lowlife political thug Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton supported for mayor of Newark in 2002 – Jackson calling Cory Booker, "a sheep in wolf's clothing." Wow, talk about ironic! Talk about "The Big Lie."

One can only assume that Maritn Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers are all rolling over in their graves. Shame on you, Jesse Jackson. Shame on you.

But this is hardly "breaking news." Jesse Jackson sold out, long ago, to Corporate America. The Right Reverend is comfortably in bed with the multinational corporatists who have raped the planet and corrupted political systems the world over, the United States most prominent among them. In supporting political thugs such as Sharpe James, Jackson shows himself to be far from a progressive, but is rather instead a quisling, a defender of the status quo and an opportunist of the worst kind.

Jesse, you've come a long way, baby. There was a time when any progressive would have been proud to march with you. Now you're nothing but a transparent phony.

Congratulations, Jesse, you're now part of the problem.

wsws,

You've put a lot of dirty dealings out there to be seen, but you haven't made much of a case that Jesse Jackson is a part of them. People endorse candidates for a variety of reasons, even though those candidates are rarely angels.

Jesse Jackson is no god, but he has consistently shown in word and deed that he is on the side of the working people, black or white. He has been one of our most courageous and principled leaders for 40 years now. The case you made against him in no way justifies the names you've called him, even if every word you've said is Gospel.

Your post leaves me feeling angry and disgusted. With you.

Regardless of the individuals involved in criticism, the foreclosure crisis is one of the most serious financial problems, on both sides of the Atlantic.
In my opinion, it has been created by the banking sector, to "enable" pretty much anyone to buy a property, without questioning their ability to pay. It was common for people to blame real estate agents, or greedy sellers, but the truth of the matter is, that a person can only afford to pay a reasonable amount, if there are sufficient regulations in place in the lending sector.
We have crazy situations in place here in the UK, where people have taken out 105% mortgages over 35 - 40 years, thus instantly placing them in a position of negative equity. The banks are offering desperate people low initial rates of interest, in order to trap them, and in six months or a years time, the payments may have doubled. Very often, a mortgage indemnity premium will have been taken out, seemingly protecting the person if they fall behind payments, whereas in reality this premium is there to protect the bank in the event of any shortfall. The bank is then insured against loss, and can repossess the property as a "last resort". This "last resort" scenario, is again in question, because in the UK, it is obvious that the lenders are starting action far earlier in the proceedings, sometimes after only two or three missed payments.
The UK's place as fifth largest economy in the World, is built on the fact, that we attract large financial institutions, who are able to practise their unregulated money lending, in a country where the government (Labour or Conservative) is complicit in their immoral ways.

Have you ever thought that inflating property values hurts everyone? What about all the people who really own their own homes and have suffered extreme increases in property taxes.

Congress needs to investigate and the public needs to be WARNED about mortgage lenders' practice of filing falsified IRS tax form 1099-A's or 1099-C's. To illustrate, here is a portion of my statement concerning Wells Fargo's false 1099-A, as well as a link to entire actual statement posted at: http://www.lawgrace.org/2008/08/08/my-august-8-2008-statement-to-the-louisiana-secretary-of-state-office-of-financial-institutions-concerning-wells-fargo-irs-and-mortgage-frauds-sham-foreclosures-and-judicial-collusion-and-national-app/
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This Financial Office mistakenly thought a complaint was filed concerning my property; and on July 30, 2008, Ms. Kathy Drzewiecki sent a responsive letter on Wells Fargo's behalf. . . .As your records show, GE Capital Mortgage Services, Inc., became defunct in year 2002 when it merged into GE Mortgage Services, LLC, its "successor." Therefore, it is impossible for foreclosure auction to have LAWFULLY been carried out in year 2005 on behalf of the non-existent GE Capital Mortgage Services, Inc. Also, contrary to what Ms. Drzwiecki wrote, it is NOT POSSIBLE in year 2005 for Wells Fargo to continue being the "mortgage servicer" for non-existent GE Capital Mortgage Services. Furthermore, if my property was (impossibly) ACQUIRED by GE Capital on May 19, 2005, there is NO LAWFUL REASON for the IRS form 1099-A to exhibit Wells Fargo's name!

Another thing Ms. Drzewiecki's letter failed to state is that I initially acquired my residence property in 1993 through AmSouth Bank. For home improvement in 1999, I refinanced it with GE Capital. I had equity in the property, and I never had a subprime loan. (Marriage failure caused me financial ruin; and crooked deals in Family Court sealed my fate.)

On the other hand, facts overwhelmingly demonstrate that, using defunct GE Capital's identity, debt collector attorney Herschel C. Adcock, Jr., fraudulently seized and acquired more than $80,000 when he flipped my property. Also, contrary to the form 1099-A, the Fair Market Value was not $12,000 -as manifest from the year 2005 sale price for which that property was sold in that same tax year purportedly to a third party.

A lot of displaced foreclosed former property owners will one day discover there is a 1099-A or a 1099-C for which the IRS wants answers! If that 1099 is replete with false information, there could be severe tax effects and a lot of needless untangling to be burdened with.

Across the country, foreclosures have been halted because "real party interest" was absent from those foreclosure proceedings. Yet (in Louisiana), it would not be farfetched for foreclosures to become filed in the name of 'Mary had a little lamb', and judges allow peoples' homes to become seized.

from Barbara Ann Jackson (http://www.lawgrace.org)