Thursday, December 30, 2010

Making Internet Money




Don't Worry, Howard Stern's Still Making a Ludicrous Amount of Money





In your sunny Thursday media column: Howard Stern returns to Sirius, the NYT social media editor disappears, Brenda Starr dies, errors galore, and more!



  • Howard Stern has signed a five year deal to keep his show on Sirius Radio. No exact monetary figure yet, but his last deal was $100 million a year, and he called this deal "very fair," so it has to be in the same ballpark. The good thing is it keeps Howard Stern fans all in one easily identifiable media ghetto.



  • The New York Times has quietly eliminated its useless (we say that with no prejudice) "Social Media Editor" position. Jennifer Preston, who held it, is returning to reporting. The paper will reportedly "shift social media responsibilities to Aron Pilhofer‘s interactive news team." Ah well. We'll always have the archives of Jennifer Preston's Twitter feed to remember this amazing time in history.



  • After 70 years, "Brenda Starr, Reporter" is ending as a daily comic strip. Brenda Starr will take over as the New York Times social media editor.



  • Regret The Error's "Year in Media Errors and Corrections" list is well worth reading tits.



  • Confidential to Joe Lieberman: keep talking all that shit about investigating the New York Times for Wikileaks. See how that works out for you.


[Photo: Getty]



Send an email to the author of this post at Hamilton@gawker.com.






well i don't have much thought provoking opinion in regards to any of those 5 subjects. except Øbomba is a liar and has no balls. now i am very confused what to think about JA. i just read a long article this morning on NYT about the accusations these swedish woman made in regards to him and having sex with him. i think they sound like tiger's dumb doo girls. they wanted it so bad from this julian man, probably secretly wanted to get pregnant. then twist the whole story and condemn him. i am just sick of all this shit being news anyway.


yeah, let's just all be really merry around here like WB7 is every day. winky faces galore and so happy holidays. jeeze get real, it ain't so happy for 99% of people on this earth. why are you pretending to be so above this blight of criminals, destroying every piece of earth, wildlife, ocean beings and people's lives and future, happy holly dazing. america showing all this fake shit like lights and cutting down evergreen trees and putting stupid fake ornaments and lights in each window. it is a BIG waste of energy, that gets EXCEL energy wealthy and those MOFO ceo's billions. christ someone here in boulder put up a HUGE light bulb star on flagstaff mt. it looks hideous. stars don't look like this, nor made of fake stupid incandescent light bulbs.


i don't celebrate christMASS, i get through it.



surface encounters surface encounters review surface encounters review surface encounters rock tops surface encounters complaints surface encounters complaints surface encounters complaints surface encounters surface encounters rock tops surface encounters complaints surface encounters complaints surface encounters rock tops surface encounters review surface encounters review surface encounters review surface encounters review surface encounters rock tops surface encounters complaints surface encounters review surface encounters review

Geraldine Hoff Doyle, Inspiration Behind &#39;We Can Do It!&#39; Poster <b>...</b>

Geraldine Hoff Doyle, the woman whose face inspired the famous.

Good <b>news</b>: School officials destroy girl&#39;s college plans over <b>...</b>

Good news: School officials destroy girl's college plans over knife mix-up.

Windows Phone Marketplace hits 5000 Apps and is Cracked

There's been good news and bad for Microsoft this week. The good news is that the number of apps available in the new Windows Phone marketplace has been growing steadily since October and has now passed the 5000 mark. ...


surface encounters complaints surface encounters complaints surface encounters review surface encounters review surface encounters surface encounters complaints surface encounters surface encounters review surface encounters review surface encounters rock tops surface encounters complaints surface encounters complaints surface encounters surface encounters complaints surface encounters review surface encounters review surface encounters

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Women Making Money

First, there are things like money and energy.  Russia has both.  The EU is going broke.  The Kremlin could be thought of as a rich uncle once removed, a kind of orthodox Santa Claus.  The Russian economic model may be predicated on natural resources and larceny, but whatever the Russians are doing seems to be keeping Europe warm and working better than communitarianism.  Indeed, if Angela Merkel stops writing checks, Western Europe may fold like a cheap tent.  And Americans may not see black ink until sometime after they win a World Cup.  NATO should welcome Russia because all clubs should have at least one member solvent enough to pay for the electric bill and the adult beverages.

Over two years ago I wrote about a startup called StyleHop that set out to identify hot fashion items through the use of casual games — instead of having to fill out a survey or poll, it would generate fashion recommendations based on how you played these games. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out (nor did the startup’s second business plan) and today the company is announcing that it will be shutting its doors early next month.


Some of the company’s struggles stem from the financial meltdown of 2008 — founder David Reinke explains that after raising some seed money, StyleHop was planning to close a Series A in October 2008, which happened to be right when Sequoia’s RIP: Good Times was making the rounds. The funding round never happened, and the company quickly had to shift gears from its consumer-facing fashion games to something more directly related to generating revenue.


This second model was to help retailers with their merchandise selection by assembling a consumer panel of women who had proven that they could pick winning items. To create this panel StyleHop asked prospective panelists to rate items that had already been released, and compared their predictions to historical data to see who had the keenest eye.


StyleHop signed up two big-box retailers as pilot customers, who used the service to pick out which fashion items to feature in their stores the following season. And it apparently worked: Reinke says that StyleHop panelist predictions were seven times more accurate that the predictions of in-house ‘product pickers’ when comparing how each item sold versus how much inventory had been ordered.


Unfortunately, despite these encouraging results, the service couldn’t land any larger-scale rollouts. Reinke attributes this in part to the company’s lack of funding, and also to the fact that many retailers weren’t ready to experiment with new merchandising techniques during the economic downturn. He also believes that StyleHop may have taken the wrong approach when dealing with these retailers — it was mostly negotiating with middle- to senior-level managers, some of whom could have their jobs potentially threatened if the system worked. Instead, Reinke thinks StyleHop should have tried to work more directly with CEOs and company boards.


The failure of StyleHop is interesting in part because there are currently an increasing number of services looking to reinvent the way fashion is selected and presented to consumers. ModCloth has done extremely well turning this model on its head (see my interview with the founders right here), and Moxsie is also looking to help crowdsource merchandise selection. However, both of these are targeting the indie fashion market — StyleHop was hoping to reinvent merchandising for mass-market stores.


StyleHop has been added to the TechCrunch Deadpool.



bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Fox <b>News</b> - Ratings - 2010 | MSNBC - CNN | Mediaite

Fox News will mark 2010 as one of the best years since the network's launch in 1996. The network posted powerful ratings, beating the combined ratings of CNN and MSNBC and marking the ninth straight year as cable's top news network.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable <b>News</b> Ratings Competition in 2010 <b>...</b>

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News' surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network's 13-year history. (Overall, cable news audiences were down across the board -- though FNC's ...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: December 28, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The reactor on your roof: Caltech breakthrough uses solar power to generate liquid fuel; Fmr. Shell president predicts $5-a-gallon gas by 2012; EPA develops neurotoxicants list; Obama admin takes ...


bench craft company scam

Thursday, December 23, 2010

personal finance manager


Intuit-owned Mint.com is beginning its international expansion today with the launch of its personal finance platform in Canada.


Canadians can access Mint at Mint.com/Canada. The main difference between the Canadian version of Mint.com is that it connects to both Canadian banking financial institutions and U.S. banks and credit unions. Canadian users will still be able to aggregate financial accounts and transaction information, categorize spending, access personal financial data and more. Mint.com’s mobile apps for iPhone and Android will also be available on the iTunes Canada app store and Android Market.


The main barrier to Mint.com’s international expansion is bringing non-U.S. financial institutions onto the platform. But once Intuit does this, I’m fairly certain Mint.com will be able to see a significant growth in the number of users outside the U.S. Currently, Mint.com has 4.5 million users and connects to 16,000 financial institutions.


As Aaron Patzer, vice president and general manager of Intuit Personal Finance and founder of Mint states, “Our Canadian launch is just the beginning of Mint.com’s global expansion.”


CNN’s highly visual new iPad app hit the App Store on Tuesday morning, bringing many of the media company’s best-known products — including all of its articles and videos from CNN.com, as well as live breaking news video coverage and hourly radio updates — to the iPad for free.

Unlike the iPad apps of most other publications, CNN’s app [iTunes link] replicates neither the format of its website nor a newspaper layout. Instead, users are drawn to headlines laid upon enlarged thumbnails to explore different kinds of content — sports is juxtaposed against tech, which is sandwiched between stories on finance and government policy — although they also have the option to browse by section and headline in a text-only format as well.

“We’ve really worked to make this thing feel like it was meant for the iPad,” said KC Estenson, SVP and general manager of CNN.com. “It looks unlike any other thing that we’ve built. We wanted to know what sort of design and user interface would make [the content come] alive on the iPad.”

The app is also more social than any of those released by other major media properties. Comments are given prominent placement alongside articles, which are frequently refreshed. Users can also join the conversation directly from the app, and sign in to Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook and Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter to share and comment upon stories with their respective networks (e-mail is also, of course, a sharing option). Unfortunately text from the articles is not selectable, so sharing favorite clips or quotes can be a bit laborious.

Users can toggle between U.S. and international news, as well as save articles for later offline viewing. Breaking news alerts will appear as a notifications while the app is closed, which can be turned off in settings.

CNN’s app is, in my opinion, the best app from a single news source to date. The combination of access to live streaming video of breaking news and full commenting functionality ensure it will become my personal go-to resource for general world news on the iPad.

In addition to the iPad app, CNN’s iPhone app [iTunes link] has also been made free, part of the company’s decision to make their apps “available on as many devices as possible,” Estenson said. class='blippr-nobr'>Appsclass="blippr-nobr">Apps for class='blippr-nobr'>Androidclass="blippr-nobr">Android and other platforms are in the works, although no release dates have yet been named. CNN’s average monthly mobile audience is up 23% this year to 14.5 million, compared to last year’s monthly average of 11.7 million.

Screenshots

style="display:none" class="gallery_id">499 style="display:none" class="post_id">469215 style="display:none" class="gallery_type">photo class="ytm-view-type">View As One Page »
bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Path adds Video Moments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Path adds Video Moments. Find more Apps + Games news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite

If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...


bench craft company scam

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

foreclosure victims

Ask not for whom the foreclosure bell tolls house flippers.  It tolls for thee.


With profuse apologies to Ernest Hemingway, that butchered metaphor sums up the predicament facing many real estate investors caught in a legal Noman’s land caused by the robo-signing scandal which has left them with properties which they are no longer sure they own.  If they want to get their money back, they may have to prove that the bank knew it was conning them, something that may be difficult to do. They also may face legal action from people evicted from their homes because of faulty paperwork


A foreclosure freeze that several banks instituted hurt sales of existing homes in several hard-hit markets.  Foreclosure auctions have plunged more than 30 percent in California, Nevada and Arizona, according to ForeclosureRadar. Sales of existing homes in Florida tumbled 21 percent in October compared with a year ago.


Though several banks including Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and housing finance giant Fannie Mae have restarted at least some foreclosures, the process has been irrevocably tainted by the industry’s apparent willingness to put profits above the law.  Their legal exposure  may be gigantic — billions of dollars — particularly if courts find that they improperly evicted people from their residences.  Not only could the foreclosure be reversed, but they could face punitive damages as could the realtors and attorneys involved in the transaction.


But what about the people who bought these homes?  That’s where things get a little dicey.   Clearly, their rights were violated as well.   But in the legal tsunami created by the robo-signed documents, they should be last in the pecking order.  Many of them, particularly sophisticated investors looking for a quick flip, probably knew or should have known that something was amiss.  How is it that the foreclosure process — which is purposely cumbersome to protect the rights of homeowners — suddenly became streamlined?  What about the same people’s names appearing in hundreds of documents?  That did raise any red flags either.


“The ones who are really upset are the investors, who buy on the courthouse steps,” said Kevin Berman, a broker with Bankers Realty Services in Fort Lauderdale, Fla, told CNNMoney. “There used to be sometimes 700 sales a day. Now there are like, seven.”


Adds to this the lower prices that new homes are fetching and it becomes even harder for flippers to make a profit on an existing dwelling that has been extensively fixed up.  It’s human nature to prefer something new over something old if they are priced about the same.


Still, there are thousands of people in this country who believe they have what it takes to become the next Donald Trump.  They get plenty of encouragement from cable television shows such as A&E’s “Flip This House” and Bravo’s “Flipping Out” and TLC’s “The Property Ladder.”   Though these programs do illustrate the downside of flipping — potentially losing boatloads of cash — they make it seem like a grand adventure.  These shows offer as realistic view of real estate as  “Gray’s Anatomy”  does for  medicine.  Untold millions watch the flipping shows, though, and figure that if those bozos on TV can do it, so can I.


This sort of delusional or magical thinking is evidence of what economists call a moral hazard.  Essentially, it means that the government shouldn’t reward people for making stupid decisions.   Though the idea was turned on its head during the recent bailouts of industry, it is still a worthwhile idea.  It shows ` there are consequences to actions.   People who acquired homes that they should have known they couldn’t afford crossed the moral hazard threshold.   They deserve some help, particularly if they can prove they were victims of fraud.   Otherwise, their rights should come secondary to the victims of fraudulent mortgage documents.  Flippers are private businesspeople who should have known the risks they were getting into before they entered a deal.   Few if any deserve government help.


Real estate has become a spectator sport in the U.S., which is unfortunate because many people have business playing it.


Jon Berr






Felix Salmon reports on a conversation with departing assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr on newly-commenced reviews of the practices of bank servicers.


Barr’s patter might sound convincing to the uninformed. An “11-agency, 8-week review of servicer practices, with hundreds of investigators crawling all over the banks”! Promises to hold miscreants accountable! Banks required to fix what’s broken!


Felix was skeptical, noting that the reviews were effectively a “physician, heal thyself” approach to a part of the banking business that has proven to be unable to change behavior. But how many mortgage mod programs have the Bush and Obama administrations put into place, which each time led to embarrassingly inadequate results? Here, one can easily imagine more fundamental change might be warranted. Yet in the blogger meeting with Treasury last August, when pressed about the lousy results of HAMP, Geithner took pains to point out that Treasury had little authority over servicers. So how, pray tell, can they force changes in behavior?


And as we saw in the House Financial Services committee hearings on mortgage documentation issues last week, it took persistent grilling by Maxine Waters to establish that regulators aren’t even imposing fines or sanctions for known problems in this arena, which strongly suggests they aren’t even willing to use the powers they do have.


In addition, as Felix pointed out, if the exams were to uncover issues that might pose systems risk, the Treasury is certain to reason to minimize them. Its prime directive has been to defend the idea that the banking system is sound, no matter how compelling the evidence otherwise. It is too deeply committed to this course of action to change course now.


But Felix was far too charitable in his appraisal. He treat Barr as a dedicated public servant, which by implication, unwittingly gives the Treasury and other regulators a pass if their intentions appear genuine. But terrorists, um, freedom fighters are also nothing if not sincere. In my very limited interactions with Treasury staff, they seem at a minimum to be victims of what Willem Buiter has called “cognitive regulatory capture“. Sincerity is of little moment if you are operating from a badly skewed world view.


The evidence to the contrary is compelling. This “review” is clearly a Potemkin exercise, yet another stress test-type charade, in which the facade of a serious investigation is used to sell the message that all is well in the banking industry.


Why are these exams obviously a a whitewash? A somewhat more detailed discussion of the process and progress to date of the so-called Foreclosure Task Force took place at the Financial Servicer Oversight Council meetings today. Michael Barr gave an update, and the critical part comes at 6:10 of the session, where he discusses the areas the review will cover:


Foreclosure process


Loss mitigation (which might be more correctly called “how did those servicers game HAMP?”)


Originator putbacks


Securitization trusts


Disclosure


Barr indicated the investigations had been underway since the fall, with the field work on the foreclosure process investigation to be completed by year end, with a report due in late January. So this is evidently the eight-week, servicer-focused exercise Barr discussed with Salmon. Other investigations are “ongoing”. Barr did indicate that the foreclosure process reviews found “widespread, and in our judgement, inexcusable breakdown in basic controls in the foreclosure process”.


Sounds like they are on the case, no? Then why does it appear likely that this investigation will downplay any serious misconduct? Consider:


1. Inadequate staffing and inadequate time. In my day job as a management consultant, I’ve done quite a lot of what is called fieldwork, as in digging in the bowels of client operations and teasing information out of (often not cooperative) executives, staff, clients, analysts, even competitors, so I have a keen appreciation of how long this sort of inquiry takes if done properly (and unlike most consultants, I have a reputation for getting to the bottom of things in short order). While regulators might in other cases be able to build upon past exams, this angle of investigation is new, so they are starting largely, if not entirely, from scratch.


The ambitious claims for this undertaking, as contrasted with the compressed time frame is a direct repeat of the US and European versions of the bank stress test charades, in which so few bodies were thrown at the problem as to make clear that they were cosmetic exercises.


In the original stress tests, we had 200 regulators stretched across 19 TARP banks over a roughly two month period. Here, on the first task (which is the major but not exclusive focus) we have “hundreds” over, say, fourteen servicers plus foreclosure mills, MERS and Lender Processing Servicers, and hopefully also the trustees and their custodians. Recall the leg work is to be completed by year end. This period includes Thanksgiving and the Christmas-New Year period. Not only will there be fewer working days as a result, but key staff are certain to be taking holiday, plus managerial staff will also be distracted by year-end tasks (strategic reviews, closing out certain activities for financial accounting purposes).


Let’s look at an obvious way in which this foreclosure process exam will fall short. It is pretty clear from the various statements by regulators thus far that no one is taking an issue raised increasingly by borrowers’ attorneys (including those who testified before the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee hearings this week), namely, that a high percentage of foreclosures (estimates run at over 50%) are the result of servicer errors and illegal application of payments, quickly result in compounding fees and charges which can quickly put an otherwise viable borrower on a tight budget into default.


The reason so few cases are contested on this basis is it is very difficult to get the bank to disgorge its reports of how it came up with its fees and charges. Even when the borrower gets the report, it takes a fair bit of painstaking analysis to determine which if any extra charges were legitimate and how payments were misapplied (both the securitization agreement and Federal law require payments to be applied first to principal and interest, and only then to fees and charges, but servicers do the reverse, which assures that regular monthly payments will come up short one a mystery fee is assessed). To look at this seriously, the best way would be for the task force to contact borrowers’ counsels, collect and analyze a large sample to see if their charges had merit, and then ascertain how to investigate servicers more systematically to see if these claims had any merit and implement the in-depth review. There is no way this could have been accomplished in the eight weeks allotted to the “fieldwork” phase of the foreclosure process review.


Let’s look at another area where staffing is certain to be too low, on the putback issue. We’ve pointed out why these cases are so difficult: the legal threshold for establishing liability is high. It isn’t simply that the originators and sponsors misrepresented loan quality; you need to show the misrepresentation was material and that it is why you as investor suffered losses. The fact that we now have broadly measured unemployment at 17% and housing prices down 25% to 45% is probably sufficient to explain a lot of defaults, so investors have a major hurdle to surpass in proving that their losses were due specifically to misrepresentation, as opposed to other causes.


The process for arguing these cases historically has been on a loan-by-loan basis, which is time-consuming and costly. Even if the task force uses a comparatively small sample, it will still need to replicate the onerous process the litigants would go through for its results to have any integrity.


2. The regulators appear not know what they are doing. Get a load of this comment via Felix from Barr:


Barr told me that they’re doing file reviews which take between five and eight hours to go through a single loan file: this is hard, detailed work, and at the end of it all there will be a real understanding of what needs to be done—something necessary, if not sufficient, to finally resolve this mess.


Securitization professionals tell me that someone who was competent would not be capable of spending five, much the less eight hours on a loan file. This is proof that they are so clueless that they don’t have the foggiest idea of what is germane.


One might argue that the file reviews are taking so long because Treasury is also contacting borrowers. I find that unlikely given the language (”file review”) plus the difficulty of finding borrowers and getting cooperation, the compressed time frame, and the mechanics of doing large scale interviews (the herding cats process of drafting and getting input and sign off on the questions, determining who to interview, and documenting interviews means that each hour of interview time requires 3-4 hours total time, and note this is for a comparatively flexible fact gathering/conversational format, as opposed to the more rigid survey type of interview).


3. The regulators are not talking to people who know where the dead bodies might lie. The community of people with securitization expertise who are independent, meaning not in the employ of banks and senior enough to have perspective is surprisingly small and tight-knit. Some are open critics while others adopt a more studiedly neutral posture. I have been told that none have been engaged in or even quizzed about this exercise.


Similarly, RMBS investors are at risk due to the difficulties banks have experienced in forecloses. They are an important constituency and there is very good reason to think they are similarly being held at a remove. Again, the lawyers involved in securitization litigation (another small fraternity) that I am in contact with indicate that they are not aware of any outreach by the Foreclosure Task Force (I’m sure word would spread quickly if any such effort were underway; investors would be all over a prospective ally like a cheap suit).


4. These regulators have history of siding with financial services industry interests. Treasury has served as a cheerleader of banks. The OCC is even worse, and might as well be a branch of the American Bankers Association. The Fed’s failing are somewhat different; since the Greenspan era, it has not taken regulation seriously (even the OCC was tougher about trying to use its authority under the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act to rein in the worst subprime abuses) and it is very much of a “blame the borrower” mindset. HUD, which is also part of this investigation, has been downplaying bank misbehavior. In early November, after “robo signing” had entered the lexicon, its secretary Shaun Donovan claimed,


…we have not found any evidence at this point of systemic issues in the underlying legal or other documents that have been reviewed.


That looks more like a failure to look very hard than reason to believe nothing is amiss.


If the Administration were serious about getting to the bottom of this mess, it would be using a very different process, one with far heavier involvement of independent individuals with real expertise.


5. The process is not transparent. If the objective really were to get to the bottom of questionable behavior in mortgage-land, the process would be far more open, with a clear statement of issues to be addressed and general remarks about process. Weirdly, the Obama Administration seems to want to have its cake and eat it too. It wants credit for having been pro-active on this front, yet seem at the same time trying hard to keep this operation as invisible as possible. When I tried to ascertain how long the Foreclosure Task Force had been at work for instance, I searched the Treasury web site (both “foreclosure task force” and foreclosure + “task force”) and could not find the usual press release announcing its formation. The state attorney generals investigating foreclosure improprieties appear to be aware of it; Tom Miller of Iowa commented favorably in his Senate Financial Services committee testimony on the cooperation he had gotten from Treasury, specifically Michael Barr. So why such a low public profile on such a hot topic?


From what I can infer, this exam is part of a broader effort by something called the Financial Fraud Task Force. Yet when I put that string in Google News, it has been so low profile as to have garnered a grand total of four stories in a Google News search. A decent announcement would generate more fanfare than that. In fact, it appears it was being noised about in early November (Andrew Leonard of Salon mentioned it then), it was not officially established until November 17. (Update/correction per Marcy Wheeler of FireDogLake: the fraud task force was established in 2009, but despite the grand language associated with its formation, it appears to have rested largely moribund, given its apparent inaction until now. The lack of any footprint in the media suggests that this is its first meaningful initiative, and that in turn does not appear to have been presented in any public forum prior to the FSOC hearings I can find save a mention-in-passing by Andrew Leonard early in November, the NPR interview that Salmon highlighted, and the Salmon/Barr chat. The near invisible profile does appear to be by design. Back to the earlier post).


This is precisely the same tactic the American Securitization Forum used when it released its remarkably unconvincing white paper on the conveyance of mortgage loans the same day of the Senate hearings. The intent, as with the ASF, is to create the impression at the same time meaningful probes are on that the supervising adults really do have matters in hand, and therefore there is no reason for the public to worry its head about these matters.


A saying I heard in Venezuela is, “A politician is someone who gets in front of a mob and calls it a parade.” The cynic in me wonders whether the impetus for this task force was the announcement of the 50 state attorney general investigation into the foreclosure mess. Thus, Treasury’s seeming generosity and cooperativeness may result from their desire to influence, moderate, and if necessary, end run the attorney generals’ investigation.



bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> - Britney Spears Tells Us About &quot;Best Birthday of My Life <b>...</b>

She and beau Jason Trawick escape a fake abuse scandal at a luxe resort in Mexico.

<b>News</b> Corp. Tablet Newspaper Won&#39;t Launch Before January - Digits - WSJ

News Corp.'s much-hyped, tablet-only newspaper will not launch before the end of the year, the company's chief operating officer said on Wednesday.

Shep Smith: Based On Today&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Guests Obama May Not Get The <b>...</b>

Based on today's Fox News lineup Shep Smith is concerned Obama won't get the compromise his is expecting following this week's tax deal. From Shep: One of the things the President emphasized yesterday is, we've compromised here and now ...


Tuesday, December 7, 2010

foreclosure

With recent revelations of the fraudclosure scandal, and a spike in interest toward all things REO, we decided to go back to basics and present some "appendices" over why this process of excess bank inventory clearance is so important and what its implications are, especially in a world in which foreclosing has suddenly become legally impossible.

First, courtesy of UBS, an outline of the Foreclosure process:

The Foreclosure Process

The foreclosure process may vary significantly across states and even across countries, but the following description is general enough that it should be applicable to most of the US.

Delinquency and foreclosure. After a homeowner with a mortgage loan has missed three monthly payments, he or she is considered to be “90 days delinquent,” and the servicer of the mortgage (the company to which the mortgage payments are made) can initiate foreclosure proceedings.

Auction. At some point, the borrower will be asked to vacate the home, and if necessary at some later point, the borrower will be compelled to vacate the home by local authorities. The home will then go up for auction.

REO. If the auction bids do not reach a high enough level to cover the outstanding balance of the loan, the lender can take ownership of the property. Once the lender owns the property (referred to as real-estate-owned or REO), it will typically remain vacant until the lender is able to sell it.

A quick back of the envelope analysis that shows how much incremental inventory foreclosure creates:

A flow chart of the foreclosure process:

The charts below show the geographic/spatial concentration of foreclosure filings, as well as concentration of GSE in selected states:

The states where foreclosure accounts for the bulk of transactions:

A snapshot of contagion effects of foreclosure on homes in the same naighborhood:

Those who wish to dig into the fascinating topic of contagion (in foreclosures, not in default European countries), can find more info below:

As those who have been following our RealtyTrac updates know, in the last quarter the discount between a regular home sale and that in foreclosure just hit an all time record. Here is how the pricing matrix looks like by state and nationally:

And possibly the scariest chart of all: the end buyer of all the REOs, the properties that end up having the lowest salvage value, for the most part end up being acquired by the nationalized GSEs. And since the GSEs are on the US shadow balance sheet, these are simply more "assets" that collateralize US treasurys, and therefore, the US currency.

Take all the data above, and layer on top the complete confusion courtesy of the self-imposed foreclosure moratorium, and the utter confusion in the market becomes apparent.




Manal Mehta, Branch Hill Capital:


DONALD BISENIUS, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FREDDIE MAC: “…every day, every month I wait to start that foreclosure process costs, and costs a lot. If you do back of envelope math, as I suggested in my written statement, it’s $30 to $40 a day. If we have 300,000 loans sitting in foreclosure, that can start to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars a month from those delays. We have to find a way to remove the confusion, because I understand it is a painful process and a confusing process.”


(see page 8)


WITH COMMENTS MADE BY BRIAN MOYNIHAN ON 11/16/2010 AT THE BANK OF AMERICA FINANCIALS CONFERENCE:


: I was wondering if you could comment what the foreclosure moratorium is costing Bank of America, on the increased personnel costs and how long do you think those costs will go on for?


: In terms of the actual, the costs in our mortgage company, we went from about 30,000 people to 50,000 people. The foreclosure piece is actually a small part of that business, the work up to a foreclosure, the collections and modification effort, that’s where all the work goes in. So I think Chuck said at earnings, it’s $10 million, $20 million a month for a couple, for several months, so it’s not a major issue. The cost in the mortgage business, and one of the reasons for our expenses, when you look at them from the outside you say geez, why isn’t more coming out here, is we are continuing to build people to do the modifications and collect the delinquent credit, to work the people, with the customers to help them to try to avoid foreclosure and ultimately foreclose, but the actual cost of that particular redo of the 100,000 affidavits and getting that process exactly right has been relatively modest in the context of people working on it.


The real cost was going from 5,000 to 10,000 to 15,000 to 20,000 people working on the whole delinquent book. And what will happen is over the next three years, you will see that plateau and come back down. If you look at us from a company producing a couple billion, or $70 billion of mortgage credit a quarter and servicing it when delinquencies are more normalized after we get the pig in the snake and delinquency will come down in the front end, that’s a company that needs about 30,000 employees, and we literally have 50,000. So that will take us a few years to complete it.


WITH COMMENTS MADE DURING BAC’S Q3 2010 EARNINGS CALL:


: Okay. And could you just sort of step back from – I mean this foreclosure issue – foreclosure moratorium got blown out basically in the last week or so to a lot of other stuff. The fact that REMICs are not valid, that titles are not being conveyed properly in the REMIC process, et cetera, et cetera. Could you just kind of give us your view of whether this is a big deal, not a big deal, not as big a deal as the press has presented, et cetera?


: Here is what I say, is I think when you’re going through the issue of people losing their home, Nancy, there could be a lot of obstacles put up in front of that process by people who want to keep their homes and people representing them, and we know that. But that’s going on forever, frankly. So I think that on the affidavits that some judges said we want these done right, we went and did them. I’m sure there will be other issues raised. But as we look at the so-called marriage issue is we look at some of the other stuff that’s raised, and I think you’ve seen a lot of people write on this or talk about it. We don’t see the issues that people are worried about, quite frankly. But we’re taking them very seriously. We’re making sure we’re right. But for example, one of the issues was you needed to take title in your own name prior to foreclosure out of marriage, and we’ve done that. That’s been our policy. So there’s nuances in how all those things play out. But I think you are right. I think the best way to think about it is – I don’t think the technical issues are a big deal. The issue of foreclosure is a big of deal, and the issue is we’ve got to get on with it, because it will restore the health in the market. I think the overstatement that this is all messed up, it’s been going on for a while. We’ve been ramping up the people, us and the other servicers. They’re going to – a big volume of transactions have gone through in this last quarter. It will get bigger over the next quarters. But within three or four quarters, we’ll peak and come down the other side in terms of this activity. It will still be elevated. So I think it’s a big issue because people are losing their homes. It’s not a big issue for the kinds of issues in service.


ON THE NUMBER OF LOAN FILES AFFECTED BY THE FORECLOSURE MORATORIUM:


We will move next to site of Nancy Bush with NAB Research, LLC. Your line is open.


: Good morning. A couple of questions here. Brian, could you just clarify where are you on this foreclosure review? I’m reading the slide here, the moratorium that you had on in the judicial state is now off, but I see at the bottom of this slide, you say we’ll not complete a foreclosure sale at this time. So when do we get to that point when you actually start selling foreclosed assets again?


: I think we’ve said – this sort of timed out with the statements that we put out yesterday. I think you should look at those in terms of timing. I thought we said that we’d begin putting affidavits back in the process next week. Then that’s a judicial process. Then the judge looks at the papers and takes you through. Then the non-judicial states will take a few more weeks to complete the review. So it begins next week, but It builds back up. There’s a basically – if you step back from this, there’s 1,000 people working on this. It’s 100,000 some in the judicial state. So it’s not an amount of work that we’re not used to getting done. Then we’ll turn to the non-judicial states in that series. So the actual re-filings I think start next Monday I thought we said.


CONCLUSION:


THE MATH:


100,000 * $30 (LOW END CITED BY FREDDIE EXECUTIVE) = $3,000,000 PER DAY OR $90,000,000 PER MONTH!!




truth aboutbench craft company rip off

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



guaranteed bench craft company rip off

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



advertising enlargement surgury

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



advertising enlargment

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



best bench craft company rip off pill

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...


ddfghhdfxd

With recent revelations of the fraudclosure scandal, and a spike in interest toward all things REO, we decided to go back to basics and present some "appendices" over why this process of excess bank inventory clearance is so important and what its implications are, especially in a world in which foreclosing has suddenly become legally impossible.

First, courtesy of UBS, an outline of the Foreclosure process:

The Foreclosure Process

The foreclosure process may vary significantly across states and even across countries, but the following description is general enough that it should be applicable to most of the US.

Delinquency and foreclosure. After a homeowner with a mortgage loan has missed three monthly payments, he or she is considered to be “90 days delinquent,” and the servicer of the mortgage (the company to which the mortgage payments are made) can initiate foreclosure proceedings.

Auction. At some point, the borrower will be asked to vacate the home, and if necessary at some later point, the borrower will be compelled to vacate the home by local authorities. The home will then go up for auction.

REO. If the auction bids do not reach a high enough level to cover the outstanding balance of the loan, the lender can take ownership of the property. Once the lender owns the property (referred to as real-estate-owned or REO), it will typically remain vacant until the lender is able to sell it.

A quick back of the envelope analysis that shows how much incremental inventory foreclosure creates:

A flow chart of the foreclosure process:

The charts below show the geographic/spatial concentration of foreclosure filings, as well as concentration of GSE in selected states:

The states where foreclosure accounts for the bulk of transactions:

A snapshot of contagion effects of foreclosure on homes in the same naighborhood:

Those who wish to dig into the fascinating topic of contagion (in foreclosures, not in default European countries), can find more info below:

As those who have been following our RealtyTrac updates know, in the last quarter the discount between a regular home sale and that in foreclosure just hit an all time record. Here is how the pricing matrix looks like by state and nationally:

And possibly the scariest chart of all: the end buyer of all the REOs, the properties that end up having the lowest salvage value, for the most part end up being acquired by the nationalized GSEs. And since the GSEs are on the US shadow balance sheet, these are simply more "assets" that collateralize US treasurys, and therefore, the US currency.

Take all the data above, and layer on top the complete confusion courtesy of the self-imposed foreclosure moratorium, and the utter confusion in the market becomes apparent.




Manal Mehta, Branch Hill Capital:


DONALD BISENIUS, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FREDDIE MAC: “…every day, every month I wait to start that foreclosure process costs, and costs a lot. If you do back of envelope math, as I suggested in my written statement, it’s $30 to $40 a day. If we have 300,000 loans sitting in foreclosure, that can start to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars a month from those delays. We have to find a way to remove the confusion, because I understand it is a painful process and a confusing process.”


(see page 8)


WITH COMMENTS MADE BY BRIAN MOYNIHAN ON 11/16/2010 AT THE BANK OF AMERICA FINANCIALS CONFERENCE:


: I was wondering if you could comment what the foreclosure moratorium is costing Bank of America, on the increased personnel costs and how long do you think those costs will go on for?


: In terms of the actual, the costs in our mortgage company, we went from about 30,000 people to 50,000 people. The foreclosure piece is actually a small part of that business, the work up to a foreclosure, the collections and modification effort, that’s where all the work goes in. So I think Chuck said at earnings, it’s $10 million, $20 million a month for a couple, for several months, so it’s not a major issue. The cost in the mortgage business, and one of the reasons for our expenses, when you look at them from the outside you say geez, why isn’t more coming out here, is we are continuing to build people to do the modifications and collect the delinquent credit, to work the people, with the customers to help them to try to avoid foreclosure and ultimately foreclose, but the actual cost of that particular redo of the 100,000 affidavits and getting that process exactly right has been relatively modest in the context of people working on it.


The real cost was going from 5,000 to 10,000 to 15,000 to 20,000 people working on the whole delinquent book. And what will happen is over the next three years, you will see that plateau and come back down. If you look at us from a company producing a couple billion, or $70 billion of mortgage credit a quarter and servicing it when delinquencies are more normalized after we get the pig in the snake and delinquency will come down in the front end, that’s a company that needs about 30,000 employees, and we literally have 50,000. So that will take us a few years to complete it.


WITH COMMENTS MADE DURING BAC’S Q3 2010 EARNINGS CALL:


: Okay. And could you just sort of step back from – I mean this foreclosure issue – foreclosure moratorium got blown out basically in the last week or so to a lot of other stuff. The fact that REMICs are not valid, that titles are not being conveyed properly in the REMIC process, et cetera, et cetera. Could you just kind of give us your view of whether this is a big deal, not a big deal, not as big a deal as the press has presented, et cetera?


: Here is what I say, is I think when you’re going through the issue of people losing their home, Nancy, there could be a lot of obstacles put up in front of that process by people who want to keep their homes and people representing them, and we know that. But that’s going on forever, frankly. So I think that on the affidavits that some judges said we want these done right, we went and did them. I’m sure there will be other issues raised. But as we look at the so-called marriage issue is we look at some of the other stuff that’s raised, and I think you’ve seen a lot of people write on this or talk about it. We don’t see the issues that people are worried about, quite frankly. But we’re taking them very seriously. We’re making sure we’re right. But for example, one of the issues was you needed to take title in your own name prior to foreclosure out of marriage, and we’ve done that. That’s been our policy. So there’s nuances in how all those things play out. But I think you are right. I think the best way to think about it is – I don’t think the technical issues are a big deal. The issue of foreclosure is a big of deal, and the issue is we’ve got to get on with it, because it will restore the health in the market. I think the overstatement that this is all messed up, it’s been going on for a while. We’ve been ramping up the people, us and the other servicers. They’re going to – a big volume of transactions have gone through in this last quarter. It will get bigger over the next quarters. But within three or four quarters, we’ll peak and come down the other side in terms of this activity. It will still be elevated. So I think it’s a big issue because people are losing their homes. It’s not a big issue for the kinds of issues in service.


ON THE NUMBER OF LOAN FILES AFFECTED BY THE FORECLOSURE MORATORIUM:


We will move next to site of Nancy Bush with NAB Research, LLC. Your line is open.


: Good morning. A couple of questions here. Brian, could you just clarify where are you on this foreclosure review? I’m reading the slide here, the moratorium that you had on in the judicial state is now off, but I see at the bottom of this slide, you say we’ll not complete a foreclosure sale at this time. So when do we get to that point when you actually start selling foreclosed assets again?


: I think we’ve said – this sort of timed out with the statements that we put out yesterday. I think you should look at those in terms of timing. I thought we said that we’d begin putting affidavits back in the process next week. Then that’s a judicial process. Then the judge looks at the papers and takes you through. Then the non-judicial states will take a few more weeks to complete the review. So it begins next week, but It builds back up. There’s a basically – if you step back from this, there’s 1,000 people working on this. It’s 100,000 some in the judicial state. So it’s not an amount of work that we’re not used to getting done. Then we’ll turn to the non-judicial states in that series. So the actual re-filings I think start next Monday I thought we said.


CONCLUSION:


THE MATH:


100,000 * $30 (LOW END CITED BY FREDDIE EXECUTIVE) = $3,000,000 PER DAY OR $90,000,000 PER MONTH!!




advertising enlargement info

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



advertising enlargment

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



bench craft company rip off photo

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



visit ddfghhdfxd.com visit ddfghhdfxd.com

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



small bench craft company rip off

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



roaring tiger ad

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



advertising enlargement info

With recent revelations of the fraudclosure scandal, and a spike in interest toward all things REO, we decided to go back to basics and present some "appendices" over why this process of excess bank inventory clearance is so important and what its implications are, especially in a world in which foreclosing has suddenly become legally impossible.

First, courtesy of UBS, an outline of the Foreclosure process:

The Foreclosure Process

The foreclosure process may vary significantly across states and even across countries, but the following description is general enough that it should be applicable to most of the US.

Delinquency and foreclosure. After a homeowner with a mortgage loan has missed three monthly payments, he or she is considered to be “90 days delinquent,” and the servicer of the mortgage (the company to which the mortgage payments are made) can initiate foreclosure proceedings.

Auction. At some point, the borrower will be asked to vacate the home, and if necessary at some later point, the borrower will be compelled to vacate the home by local authorities. The home will then go up for auction.

REO. If the auction bids do not reach a high enough level to cover the outstanding balance of the loan, the lender can take ownership of the property. Once the lender owns the property (referred to as real-estate-owned or REO), it will typically remain vacant until the lender is able to sell it.

A quick back of the envelope analysis that shows how much incremental inventory foreclosure creates:

A flow chart of the foreclosure process:

The charts below show the geographic/spatial concentration of foreclosure filings, as well as concentration of GSE in selected states:

The states where foreclosure accounts for the bulk of transactions:

A snapshot of contagion effects of foreclosure on homes in the same naighborhood:

Those who wish to dig into the fascinating topic of contagion (in foreclosures, not in default European countries), can find more info below:

As those who have been following our RealtyTrac updates know, in the last quarter the discount between a regular home sale and that in foreclosure just hit an all time record. Here is how the pricing matrix looks like by state and nationally:

And possibly the scariest chart of all: the end buyer of all the REOs, the properties that end up having the lowest salvage value, for the most part end up being acquired by the nationalized GSEs. And since the GSEs are on the US shadow balance sheet, these are simply more "assets" that collateralize US treasurys, and therefore, the US currency.

Take all the data above, and layer on top the complete confusion courtesy of the self-imposed foreclosure moratorium, and the utter confusion in the market becomes apparent.




Manal Mehta, Branch Hill Capital:


DONALD BISENIUS, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FREDDIE MAC: “…every day, every month I wait to start that foreclosure process costs, and costs a lot. If you do back of envelope math, as I suggested in my written statement, it’s $30 to $40 a day. If we have 300,000 loans sitting in foreclosure, that can start to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars a month from those delays. We have to find a way to remove the confusion, because I understand it is a painful process and a confusing process.”


(see page 8)


WITH COMMENTS MADE BY BRIAN MOYNIHAN ON 11/16/2010 AT THE BANK OF AMERICA FINANCIALS CONFERENCE:


: I was wondering if you could comment what the foreclosure moratorium is costing Bank of America, on the increased personnel costs and how long do you think those costs will go on for?


: In terms of the actual, the costs in our mortgage company, we went from about 30,000 people to 50,000 people. The foreclosure piece is actually a small part of that business, the work up to a foreclosure, the collections and modification effort, that’s where all the work goes in. So I think Chuck said at earnings, it’s $10 million, $20 million a month for a couple, for several months, so it’s not a major issue. The cost in the mortgage business, and one of the reasons for our expenses, when you look at them from the outside you say geez, why isn’t more coming out here, is we are continuing to build people to do the modifications and collect the delinquent credit, to work the people, with the customers to help them to try to avoid foreclosure and ultimately foreclose, but the actual cost of that particular redo of the 100,000 affidavits and getting that process exactly right has been relatively modest in the context of people working on it.


The real cost was going from 5,000 to 10,000 to 15,000 to 20,000 people working on the whole delinquent book. And what will happen is over the next three years, you will see that plateau and come back down. If you look at us from a company producing a couple billion, or $70 billion of mortgage credit a quarter and servicing it when delinquencies are more normalized after we get the pig in the snake and delinquency will come down in the front end, that’s a company that needs about 30,000 employees, and we literally have 50,000. So that will take us a few years to complete it.


WITH COMMENTS MADE DURING BAC’S Q3 2010 EARNINGS CALL:


: Okay. And could you just sort of step back from – I mean this foreclosure issue – foreclosure moratorium got blown out basically in the last week or so to a lot of other stuff. The fact that REMICs are not valid, that titles are not being conveyed properly in the REMIC process, et cetera, et cetera. Could you just kind of give us your view of whether this is a big deal, not a big deal, not as big a deal as the press has presented, et cetera?


: Here is what I say, is I think when you’re going through the issue of people losing their home, Nancy, there could be a lot of obstacles put up in front of that process by people who want to keep their homes and people representing them, and we know that. But that’s going on forever, frankly. So I think that on the affidavits that some judges said we want these done right, we went and did them. I’m sure there will be other issues raised. But as we look at the so-called marriage issue is we look at some of the other stuff that’s raised, and I think you’ve seen a lot of people write on this or talk about it. We don’t see the issues that people are worried about, quite frankly. But we’re taking them very seriously. We’re making sure we’re right. But for example, one of the issues was you needed to take title in your own name prior to foreclosure out of marriage, and we’ve done that. That’s been our policy. So there’s nuances in how all those things play out. But I think you are right. I think the best way to think about it is – I don’t think the technical issues are a big deal. The issue of foreclosure is a big of deal, and the issue is we’ve got to get on with it, because it will restore the health in the market. I think the overstatement that this is all messed up, it’s been going on for a while. We’ve been ramping up the people, us and the other servicers. They’re going to – a big volume of transactions have gone through in this last quarter. It will get bigger over the next quarters. But within three or four quarters, we’ll peak and come down the other side in terms of this activity. It will still be elevated. So I think it’s a big issue because people are losing their homes. It’s not a big issue for the kinds of issues in service.


ON THE NUMBER OF LOAN FILES AFFECTED BY THE FORECLOSURE MORATORIUM:


We will move next to site of Nancy Bush with NAB Research, LLC. Your line is open.


: Good morning. A couple of questions here. Brian, could you just clarify where are you on this foreclosure review? I’m reading the slide here, the moratorium that you had on in the judicial state is now off, but I see at the bottom of this slide, you say we’ll not complete a foreclosure sale at this time. So when do we get to that point when you actually start selling foreclosed assets again?


: I think we’ve said – this sort of timed out with the statements that we put out yesterday. I think you should look at those in terms of timing. I thought we said that we’d begin putting affidavits back in the process next week. Then that’s a judicial process. Then the judge looks at the papers and takes you through. Then the non-judicial states will take a few more weeks to complete the review. So it begins next week, but It builds back up. There’s a basically – if you step back from this, there’s 1,000 people working on this. It’s 100,000 some in the judicial state. So it’s not an amount of work that we’re not used to getting done. Then we’ll turn to the non-judicial states in that series. So the actual re-filings I think start next Monday I thought we said.


CONCLUSION:


THE MATH:


100,000 * $30 (LOW END CITED BY FREDDIE EXECUTIVE) = $3,000,000 PER DAY OR $90,000,000 PER MONTH!!




photos of bench craft company rip off

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



advertising enlargement pumps

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



bench craft company rip off methods

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...



free bench craft company rip off program