Good grief, have you caught Obama on the campaign trail recently? Mr. Hope and Change has become Mr. Doom and Gloom. His new campaign rhetoric is to go around the country telling you how horrible the Republicans are, and all of the terrible things that will befall you, your children, and the country, should you [...]

President Obama has done his darndest to go around Congress on a number of issues. His latest attempted end-run is for those who are in over their heads with their mortgages. Not just any mortgages, of course – only those by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. You know, the very institutions which helped to get [...]

Who would that be, exactly? Oh, you are going to love this. We, you and I, American taxpayers, are footing the LEGAL bills for the Fannie Mae/Freddie mac executives who drove our economy into the ground for fraud suits filed against them starting 10 years ago. Who would that be, exactly? Oh, you know, people [...]

What did we miss in the news? Well, a bunch of things, actually. And perhaps this is why this whole ginned up “civility” discussion has been the primary focus of the talking heads. I hasten to add, the stories of the six victims in Tucson, Judge John Roll, Christina Taylor Green, Giffords Aide Gabe Zimmerman, [...]

What is really going on in regard to the moratorium on mortgage foreclosures? A lot. Not all of it would qualify as the best of “sense on cents.” My thoughts include the following: 1. Can we now declare the HAMP (Making Home Affordable) program to be totally futile? How is it that everybody on Wall Street and in Washington [...]

Editor’s Note: May 9th program concluded and promo bumped down. You can catch the podcast of the show via BlogTalkRadio or iTunes. Check the right column for instructions on how to listen via iTunes. The challenges on our economic landscape remain daunting. While employment and manufacturing may be stabilizing, the housing and mortgage markets remain [...]

ACORN’s Leader, Bertha Lewis, recently spoke to a group of young people. Her talk, excerpts below, was mighty interesting: Holy moley, did you catch all of that? Let’s see: Socialism, Check! Demean Tea Party members, Check! And on it goes. Perhaps it was because of this speech that ACORN’s funds are once again on hold, [...]

Or is it? Much has been made of late about the national office of ACORN shutting down, on April 1st, no less. Yes, that is a bit telling in and of itself. Hence this article, ACORN SWAP?. That pretty much sets the tone: ACORN, the embattled community activist group, says it is disbanding. The group, [...]

My blood is boiling. Why? The assault on the principles of free market capitalism is escalating with news that banks are poised to start reducing principal balances on certain mortgages. I empathize with those who are strapped, but I have never felt more strongly on a topic than this principal reduction. Despite any and all [...]

Banks are increasingly healthy, right? Our nation’s accounting rules promote real transparency and integrity in our financial reporting, right? Housing is bottoming, right? No, no, and no! Why so pessimistic, you may ask? I am not pessimistic at all. I am merely searching for the truth in the midst of the smoke and mirrors on [...]

Is still a nut. You may have heard that ACORN, the group which has received millions of taxpayer dollars, and has misused millions of taxpayer dollars, is restructuring. Along with that comes a name change, to COI (Community Organizations International). I wonder what THAT means (the International part). I shudder to think. Here is the [...]

If you wonder why America is broke, look no further than the individual who wanted to roll the dice on sub-prime lending, that is the Democrat from The People’s Republic of Massachusetts, Barney Frank. In an interview on CNBC, Frank as much admits that maybe sub-prime lending should have been more regulated. Wow! What balls! [...]

When lying is not properly addressed and punished, it will perpetuate. We witness that dynamic in almost all corners of our economic and political landscape. In the world of finance, no market segment seems to have fostered more lying than the mortgage business. It continues. Let’s navigate. A strong and vibrant mortgage market is vitally [...]

Despite overwhelming efforts on the part of Uncle Sam, the simple fact of the matter is the program to successfully and permanently modify mortgages has not gained truly meaningful traction. Public pressure on mortgage servicers specifically and the mortgage modification program at large have generated a slight, but hardly significant, increase in permanent modifications over [...]

The fact that the Obama administration is reticent to release data pertaining to completed mortgage modifications speaks volumes as to the lack of success of this initiative. With almost a third of American homeowners now ‘underwater’ on their mortgages, Obama and team are sticking to their game plan to modify mortgages. Details of Obama’s revised [...]

Yes, indeedy – another videotape courtesy of James O’Keefe, the “pimp,” and his “prostitute girlfriend,” Hannah Giles, in a Philadelphia ACORN office. Only this time, O’Keefe is firing back at the ACORN employee who claimed she showed them the door tout de suite. But first, a round-up about this latest video at the National Press [...]

I came across an article the other day, and was really taken by it, especially as it came out in the midst of the undercover videos by James O’Keefe, four in total thus far, with more to come, which have gone far in exposing the underside of ACORN. O’Keefe’s staggering videos can be found here [...]

Can we truly expect our economy to return to LONG-TERM health if the housing market remains under severe pressure? I think not. While Wall Street rebounds, Main Street continues to lose value. How so? Home foreclosures continue to run at breakneck speed. Bloomberg reports, U.S. Foreclosure Filings Set Third Record-High in Five Months: Foreclosure filings [...]

I guess this woman wasn’t too far off in her prophetic statement last Fall: Is Barack Obama about to move into the rental market and become the largest single landlord in the process? Hat tip to AK for pointing out this developing story. Reuters reports, Obama Mulls Rental Option for Some Homeowners: U.S. government officials [...]

The stereotype of who goes bankrupt is hardly complimentary. The image comes to mind of irresponsible people spending more than they know they have on whatever strikes their fancy, and then look for easy outs when the shit hits the fan. But, you probably know the correct answer to the question posed in the title. [...]