OBOF SS & MORE PART 36

WELCOME TO OPINIONS  BASED  ON FACTS (OBOF)

Name	Published
OVERVIEW	Dec. 28, 2010
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 1	Dec. 30, 2010
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 2	Jan. 10, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 3	Jan. 17, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 4	Jan. 24, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 5	Jan. 31, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 6	Feb. 07, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 7	Feb. 14, 2011
SPECIAL ISSUE	Feb. 18, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 8	Feb. 21, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 9	Mar. 01, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 10	Mar. 07, 2011
SS & MORE PART 1	Mar. 14, 2011
SS & MORE PART 1A	Mar. 21, 2011
SS & MORE PART 2	Mar. 25, 2011
SS & MORE PART 3	Mar. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 4	Apr. 04, 2011
SS & MORE PART 5	Apr. 11, 2011
SS & MORE PART 6	Apr. 18, 2011
SS & MORE PART 7	Apr. 25, 2011
SS & MORE PART 7A	Apr. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 8	May 02, 2011
SS & MORE PART 9	May 09, 2011
SS & MORE PART 10	May 16, 2011
SS & MORE PART 11	May 24, 2011
SS & MORE PART 12	Jun. 06, 2011
SS & MORE PART 13	Jun. 20, 2011
SS & MORE PART 14	July  05, 2011
SS & MORE PART 14A	July  18, 2011
SS & MORE PART 15	July  19, 2011
SS & MORE PART 16	Aug. 03, 2011
SS & MORE PART 17	Aug. 15, 2011
SS & MORE PART 18	Aug. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 19	Sept. 12, 2011
SS & MORE PART 20	Sept. 26, 2011
SS & MORE PART 21	Oct.   10, 2011
SS & MORE PART 22	Oct.   24, 2011
SS & MORE PART 22 EXTRA	Nov.  04, 2011
SS & MORE PART 23	Nov.  07, 2011
SS & MORE PART 24	Nov.  21, 2011
SS & MORE PART 25	Dec.  05, 2011
SS & MORE PART 26	Dec.  19, 2011
SS & MORE PART 27	JAN.  03, 2012
SS & MORE PART 27A	JAN.  05, 2012
SS & MORE PART 28	JAN.  17, 2012
SS & MORE PART 29	JAN.  31, 2012
SS & MORE PART 30	Feb.  14, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL1	Feb.  21, 2012
SS & MORE PART 30 EXTRA	Feb.  23, 2012
SS & MORE PART 31	Feb.  28, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL2 - 59	Mar.  06, 2012
SS & MORE PART 31 EXTRA	Mar.  07, 2012
SS & MORE PART 32	Mar.  13, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL3 - 1	Mar.  20, 2012
SS & MORE PART 32 EXTRA	Mar.  24, 2012
SS & MORE PART 33	Apr.  10, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL 4 - 2	Apr.  17, 2012
SS & MORE PART 34	Apr.  24, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL5 - 49	May  01, 2012
SS & MORE PART 35	May  09, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL6 - 19	May  15, 2012
SS & MORE PART 35 EXTRA	May  18, 2012
SS & MORE PART 36	May  22, 2012

IN  THIS  ISSUE

1.  Opening note.

2.  The $28 billion man.

3.  No more excuses to homeowners.

4.  Closing thought.

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"VOTE, AN  EDUCATED  VOTE"

What is an educated vote?  It is one that has been made with as much knowledge, based on facts, not misinformation, that an individual can obtain.

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OPENING  NOTE.

On March 7, 2012, I posted an article, in Part 31 EXTRA, relating to the housing foreclosure problem and why President Obama is unable to do anything about it.  This article points out the one thing, that could be holding back the total recovery.

Today, there is an update regarding foreclosures and the, almost unbelievable, status of foreclosures.  President Obama is being blamed for this mess AND HE CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, BECAUSE OF ONE MAN, Senator Shelby of Alabama. 

Now, this posting is only going to include a reprint of the March posting and the update article. 

READERS, THIS POSTING IS LONG, BUT IT IS CLEAR AND IT IS VERY INFORMATIVE.  MOST OF ALL, I BELIEVE IT TO BE ACCURATE AND IMPORTANT FOR EVERYONE TO KNOW ABOUT.

 I PROMISE YOU, YOU WILL BE GLAD THAT YOU TOOK THE TIME TO READ THIS.  WHEN YOU DO AND SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING, LET EVERYONE YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH, AND HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY, TO LET THEM KNOW THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA IS ULNABLE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT REPLACING MR. DeMARCO.  HE HAS TRIED.    

I use to think that Grover Lindquist was the most influential man in Washington, but this tells a story that puts Lindquist to shame. Senator Shelby (R) Alabama, certainly replaces Lindquist as the most influential man in Washington. 

The damage Senator Shelby has, and is, doing to our country and our hard working middle class, is unconscionable.  The Republicans seem to have a very large share of those who don't  give a damn about our country, just about themselves and what they want to do. 

~~~

THE 28 BILLION DOLLAR MAN:

IS  SEN.  SHELBY  THE  MOST  FISCALLY, IRRESPONSIBLE  POLITICIAN  EVER?

Republicans love to say that nothing's more important cutting the Federal deficit.  So why is Sen. Richard Shelby wasting $28 billion of taxpayer money?  Shelby's used parliamentary tricks to put more than half of the nation's mortgages under the rule of an unelected official who answers to no one - except apparently Richard Shelby - whose wasting money like it's going out of style.

Is Richard Shelby a closet Deficit Lover?  In Washington that's called The Love That Dare Not Speaks Its Name.

But the real answer's much simpler. Richard Shelby is losing tens of billions of dollars, hurting millions of middle-class homeowners, and stalling our economy recovery for one reason: to take the White House away from the Democrats.

Shelby's following the path laid out by Senate Majority (suppose to be Minority, not Majority) Leader Mitch McConnell, who said the number one priority of GOP Senators is to make Barack Obama a "one-term President" - not to serve the nation.

If you want to create jobs or treat the sick, Sen. Shelby and his fellow Republicans will insist that we can't afford it.  But there aren't enough zeroes on this page to count the money they'll waste for partisan gain.

Edward DeMarco: The Man Shelby Made King

George W. Bush brought a far-right ideologue named Edward DeMarco into the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and therefore has power over more than half the mortgages in the country.  Now DeMarco's Acting Director of the FHFA, and where those mortgages are concerned he's king.

Three years after becoming President, Barack Obama can't get his own appointee into the job - because of Richard Shelby. That means DeMarco gets to stay on indefinitely.

Edward DeMarco misled Congress and the public by claiming that lowering principal on underwater mortgages would cost $100 billion. DeMarco's own staff produced a report showing that a principal reduction program would actually save taxpayers $28 billion. But DeMarco didn't tell Congress about that report.

An FHFA employee testified before Congress that there was a good pilot program designed to do exactly that.  DeMarco didn't tell Congress about that either.  The employee testified that the DeMarco team killed the program, as a letter by two Democratic representatives explains, for "ideological reasons."

The Shelby/DeMarco War On Homeowners

Interest rates for new loans climbed slightly to an average of 4.33 percent for mortgages of $417,000 or less, according to the FHFA's own figures. But the FHFA isn't even making it easier for homeowners to refinance, even though some underwater homeowners are paying 6 or even 7 percent on their loans.  In fact, the unelected Ed DeMarco/Richard Shelby mortgage junta is making it harder to refinance by charging more to do it.

Even the economic traditionalists - Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner - are outraged. As a recent white paper from the Federal Reserve noted, Fannie and Freddie aren't helping homeowners get loans - even when they clearly fall within the underwriting guidelines.

It would be sound financial management to help these homeowners refinance.  But it would get in the way of the Shelby/DeMarco ideology.

Inside Bets

The Richard Shelby/Ed DeMarco FHFA is betting that these homeowners will never refinance - and it's paying some guy $2  million per year of taxpayer money, plus a huge bonus, to create complicated derivative-like deals to place its bets.

And just to show how far the Shelby/DeMarco crowd will go to push their radical-right agenda, they're even opposing a very reasonable lending program that allows homeowners to cut energy costs and improve the value of their home.  President Bill Clinton explains here.

Remember: They do what they do for "ideological reasons."

The Real Cost of Shelby/DeMarco

The Shelby/DeMarco FHFA isn't just costing us $28 billion. It's also dragging down the entire real estate market, costing the entire economy tens of billions more.

And it's not as if they're good fiscal managers otherwise. After the massive bailouts that taxpayers were forced to pay for Fannie and Freddie, the Shelby/DeMarco FHFA is still bleeding red ink.  DeMarco's Fannie Mae just came to Congress, hat in hand, asking the government to cover $4.6 billion in additional losses that it has incurred under the supervision of the Shelby/DeMarco FHFA.

How do these people keep their jobs?  By having Richard Shelby around to abuse the Senate's rules.The Senate's #1 Rule Abuser

Senators can put a "hold" on nominations, and Sen. Shelby has used this parliamentary trick in extraordinary ways.  He put every single Presidential nomination in the nation - all of them - on hold in 2010, just so that he could get some pork for his home state of Alabama.

That's right: Richard Shelby was prepared to paralyze the government to get his earmarks passed.

As might be expected, President Obama made a very moderate choice when he appointed Joseph Smith to replace DeMarco. Smith was the former banking commissioner for South Carolina. He had an excellent reputation as a regulator, but he also had years of experience representing bankers as an attorney.  So he was hardly a leftist firebrand.

That didn't stop Shelby from claiming, with characteristic discourtesy and disrespect, that Mr. Smith would be a "lapdog" for the Administration.  Shelby then resorted to the characteristic procedural chicanery for which he has become so infamous, and killed Mr. Smith's nomination by placing another "hold" on it.

And that's how America's mortgages fell under the iron fist of the unelected Shelby/DeMarco regime.

Rocket InYour Pocket

He's never really cared about deficits. Shelby, the self-described conservative, even pulled out all the stops in an effort to get billions of dollars for his home state in order to build the world's biggest rocket.

Freudians might suspect that there is overcompensation involved, but the real motive's much simpler: he wants more taxpayer-funded pork for his corporate patrons in Huntsville. Shelby's cover story was that the rocket would improve the nation's "competitiveness and prestige" - as if mass foreclosures, endless recessions, and joblessness aren't hurting competitiveness and prestige.

But then, ending foreclosures won't make billions of dollars for Boeing Corporation.  When big corporations want taxpayers dollars, it's deficits be damned.  They can count on Richard Shelby to put a rocket in their pocket.

The Man Who Sold the World

So how much is Richard Shelby really costing the nation? $75 billion? $100 billion? More?  We can't know - in part, because Shelby soulmate Ed DeMarco isn't exactly forthcoming with his data.  But we do know that Sen. Richard Shelby's partisan agenda may be the most expensive act of electoral manipulation in American history.

Meanwhile the foreclosures roll on.  Each one is a story of family heartbreak. And each one drags the economy down even more. It's not just that the Shelby/DeMarco gang is made up of terrible fiscal managers, although that's certainly true. But the other thing to know about them is this:

They're not very nice people.

Arise, Ye Prisoners of Conservatism

You know who should join Occupy DC and the other great groups that are defending homeowners and pushing for the removal of Edward DeMarco? Fiscal conservatives.  These guys are blowing a hole in the deficit the size of Indiana - literally. The total Indiana state budget is $28 billion - and that's for two years.

You know who else should show up? Anybody who says they're "tough on crime."  The money Shelby and DeMarco are wasting would restore the cuts that the last Republican budget made to law enforcement - and would cover them for the next 28 years.

We could go on like this forever, but you get the idea.  Edward DeMarco is costing the taxpayer $28 billion in direct losses, and is hurting the entire economy a whole lot more than that.  He's also causing untold - and unnecessary - human suffering.

And who's keeping him in power?  Sen. Richard Shelby, the $28 Billion Man.  He's determined to win the next election for his party, and he doesn't care how much of your money it takes to do it.

Richard (RJ) Eskow / Campaign for America's Future

Published 3-3-12

~~~

NO  MORE  EXCUSES  ON  RELIEF  TO AMERICAN  HOMEOWNERS

by Alan Jenkins

CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE.

Published:  Thursday 17 May 2012.

One by one, the excuses have fallen. Yet Edward DeMarco, acting head of FHFA, the agency that runs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, still fails to offer the most effective relief available to American homeowners struggling with mortgages held by those entities. Economists, housing experts, and members of DeMarco’s own staff have concluded that reducing to affordable levels the principal owed on at-risk mortgages is effective in reducing foreclosures and their destructive fallout. But, inexplicably, he’s been unmoved by the mounting evidence.

Two weeks ago, after hinting at a possible change of heart, DeMarco punted on the question, saying it needed more study and stating that such a policy question “should be determined by Congress.” But the evidence is too clear, and the stakes are too high, for further delay. It’s time for Mr. DeMarco to either act in the nation’s interest or get out of the way.

While many parts of our economy have gradually improved over the last several years, foreclosures are on the rise in regions around the country. The foreclosure data company RealtyTrac has predicted that one million American homes may enter foreclosure in 2012. An estimated 12 million Americans currently owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, meaning that millions more are at risk.

Fannie, Freddie, and DeMarco’s agency have an oversized role to play in addressing the crisis, since the entities are assumed to own or back roughly 3.3 million underwater mortgages and help set trends in the larger market. By including principal reduction among the tools they use, they could help millions of Americans save their homes while making sustainable payments toward the actual value of their property.

The American people essentially own Fannie and Freddie after a $150 billion bailout. Even before that, the entities were tasked with providing stability and affordability to the nation's mortgage finance market. FHFA’s mission similarly includes supporting housing finance, affordable housing, and a stable and liquid mortgage market, as well as promoting Fannie and Freddie’s safety and soundness.

The calls for principal reduction are growing louder, with evidence increasingly demonstrating that those interests all point toward principal reduction. It results in fewer foreclosures, as compared with alternatives like loan forbearance (delaying loan obligations) that FHFA has authorized. In addition to the obvious benefits to struggling homeowners, reducing foreclosures improves neighborhood home values, prevents abandoned and blighted properties, and saves cash-strapped municipalities the costs of upkeep and enforcement.

Many private lenders have been reducing principal obligations on their own, recognizing it’s often the best way for them to recoup their investment. Moreover, the strategy was a significant part of the Attorneys General settlement over “robo-signing” and related bank misconduct.

Reports have emerged that even FHFA’s own internal analyses show principal reduction is in the interest of both underwater homeowners and Fannie and Freddie. Documents recently obtained by the Congressional Progressive Caucus reportedly show that DeMarco’s agency studied the question in 2009, decided it was worth trying, worked with a major lender to develop a detailed pilot, and then abruptly canceled it in July of 2010 for what the Caucus says were ideological reasons.

To be sure, principal reduction is not a silver bullet. A range of aggressive solutions are necessary to address America’s foreclosure crisis, restore ravaged neighborhoods, and put our national economy back on track. Indeed, a coalition of housing and public interest groups that includes The Opportunity Agenda, National Council of La Raza, and the National Fair Housing Alliance has released a Compact for Home Opportunity highlighting over a dozen actions that government, private industry, and individuals can take to turn things around.

Principal reduction may be only one of those actions. But it’s an important one. With a million American homes at risk of foreclosure, the time for action is now.

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PARTING  THOUGHT

No age or time of life, no position or circumstance, has a monopoly on sucess.  Any age is the right age to stat doing!

Gerard

If he good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again on May 29 and probably before with an extra.  There is a great deal on the plate that we need to consume. 

Floyd

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