The mortgage industry lies and cheats for two years and the President conveys his concerns.
He is worried about deadbeat homeowners.
I have to point out no matter how deadbeat a homeowner, he didn’t deliberately create a half million false affidavits. No matter how far behind in payments a homeowner might be, he didn’t foreclose on a property he didn’t own.
But the President isn’t worried about violations of the law, he’s worried that some homeowner will get aid he doesn’t deserve. That explains the byzantine labyrinth of paperwork required for the federal program, HAMP, (and why it doesn’t work).
“The biggest challenge is how do you make sure that you are helping those who really deserve help and if they get some temporary help can get back on their feet, make their payments and move forward and stay in their home versus either people who are speculators, own second homes that they really couldn’t afford because they’d gotten a subprime loan, and people who through no fault of their own just can’t afford their house anymore because of the change in housing values or their incomes don’t support it,” Obama said during a roundtable discussion with a handful of progressive bloggers at the White House.
“And we’re always trying to find that sweet spot to use as much of the money that we have available to us to help those who can be helped, without wasting that money on folks who don’t deserve help,” he continued. “And that’s a tough balance to strike.”
“The sweet spot,” Wow, do you get the impression that the only people allowed anywhere near him are bankers telling stories of deadbeat homeowners. I assume after they finish their litany about “personal responsibility, they then tell him how sad it is that the American people don’t appreciate his efforts.
I have been directly criticized for having the category, incredible stupidity, as one of my topics for search engines to pick up. It’s shrill. What else is appropriate here? Damn right it’s shrill.
I haven’t the slightest objection to being tough of wrongdoing on the part of the mortgage holders. But, good grief, the banks and foreclosure industry have been gaming the legal system, and refusing to act in good faith. Doesn’t he notice? Is he obligated by his Presidential oath to only worry about wrongdoing by non-banking entities?
Couldn’t he generate an unkind word for robo-affidavits? Just one unkind word?
He couldn’t even manage that.
Is the President right and fifty states’ Attorney Generals wrong?
Well, let’s look at the problem from a different angle – from CBS news –
Now there’s more evidence of just how blatantly the paperwork for that flood of foreclosures has been mishandled. Consider this: a stack of legal documents used to seize homes that don’t even identify the lender claiming to hold the mortgage.
Instead the words “bogus assignee” fill the space where the lender’s name should be. In foreclosure after foreclosure, the lender’s address is listed only as x’s, such as xxxxxxx. In some cases the documents identify the lender as “bad bene.”
“They have foreclosed in the name of ‘bad bene,’ for bad beneficiary,” says attorney Robert Hager.
Hager, who represents homeowners fighting foreclosure, says the paperwork also appears to bear bogus signatures.
“This is how arrogant they are with regard to taking homes,” he says.
How arrogant, indeed.
They might be less arrogant if held accountable.
James Pilant
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
Maybe he needs to get rid of his secret service and elite clout, and have a real meeting with the home owners to understand their issues. There are two sides to a coin, he appears to be seeing only one.
Sonia
LikeLike
You’re absolutely right. You know, you could do me a favor. I get a lot of feedback and I love it, whether critical or supportive. I could use some more criticism. I think I sometimes let my anger get the better of me. If you could call me on it, I would appreciate it. jp
LikeLike
Practice buddhism, it teaches one to do everything without attachment or aversion. Keeps one objective irrespective of the circumstances and people. Excellent for mind control and seeing the bigger picture.
Sonia
LikeLike
You know that I am a big proponent of personal responsibility. I think it sounds reasonable for our government to take steps to ensure that government money is being spent wisely to assist only those people who deserve it.
The problem, however, is not one that can be fixed by throwing money at it. We need to hold those responsible accountable for what has happened. Reform does not mean “throw money at the problem”.
LikeLike
Andrew, personal responsibility cannot only be one way. The banks and the foreclosure companies also have to obey the law and be responsible. They have done neither. I’m not criticizing the President for having a healthy concern for manipulating the government benefits. I’m outraged that with this enormous scandal brewing and very solid evident of financial sector wrong doing, that he still focuses on homeowners as villains. The villains who in many cases used fraud to sell those homes are now gaming the system to foreclose in the same manner as they manipulated the system of creating mortgages in the middle years of the first decade of this century. This is a long term pattern of wrong doing. In criminal justice when you see this, you know you have a repeater, and rehabilitation has to take a back seat to long term incarceration.
LikeLike
I agree completely. Just as regular citizens are expected to maintain a level of personal responsibility, so should the financial industry who made this mess and the government that allowed it to happen.
We, the people, have allowed our government to completely run amok with our country and, by extension, allowed our government to allow the financial industry to behave in this immoral manner.
The problem is that our country is far too large in my opinion. We are so numerous and anonymous that, on the individual level, most americans are apathetic. In a country of 309,000,000 its easy to feel like your vote doesn’t really count for much. Both the government and big business have taken advantage of this. You can rip off over 3,000,000 people and only affect 1% of the population. That’s not going to incite much public anger unfortunately.
LikeLike