housing

Brad Miller's letter to Obama's boy idiot Tim Geithner gets front page attention at Firedoglake.

If only the rest of Congress was willing to call these absurd bankers on their bullsh!t.

Congressman Miller:

I do not place a high priority on protecting the solvency of the banks if they are insolvent.

Damn right.

Big banks: You are insolvent and do not deserve to be spared the consquences of your greed by the taxpayers anymore.

Ireland is breaking up their banks. WTF are we waiting on?

And why didn't we do this 2 years ago?

If you are concerned about the effects of the new legislative make-up on the state budget and frontline issues, the NC Justice Center and the United Way are sponsoring forums across the state during the rest of the month. Description of purpose below; all forums scheduled can be found here.

An Overview of the North Carolina State Budget,
Economic Forecast, and Issues Affecting Your Community

The link below is a brief but clear interview with Chris Whalen during which he explains that what is being passed off as a housing recovery – evidenced by stats such as housing starts – is actually just an extension of massive government subsidies. Subsidies that now extend to actually paying builders to build homes for a market that has no demand.

Thus, instead of saying “recovery,” the government’s language would be far more accurate and far less misleading were it to say something more along the lines of, “additional deficit spending is adding to the massive overhang of unwanted houses on the market.”

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/05/whalen-housing-recovery-government-subsidy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheBigPicture+(The+Big+Picture)

At my first job as a community organizer with Maryland ACORN I organized tenants in a number of apartment complexes all owned by the same slumlord.

It was a good organizing opportunity because just about everyone living there (over a thousand families) had the same problems: vermin, flooding on the 1st floor, lack of repairs, and issues with safety and lighting. Also Maryland has some basic laws protecting renters. These weren't sufficient, but there was at least a limit to what renters were expected to tolerate.

Fannie has not released its list of zip codes that will be slated for systematic disinvestment. However, GMAC has taken a step to give its brokers the ability to see if their borrowers will need extra downpayments.

Panelists:
State Rep. Dan Blue — former House Speaker and current chairman of the House Select Committee on Rising Home Foreclosures
Mark Pearce, Deputy Commissioner of Banks
Paul Stock, Executive Vice-President and Counsel, N.C. Banks Association
Al Ripley, Consumer and Housing Attorney, N.C. Justice Center

Elizabeth Dole's inaction on a key housing bill is worsening skyrocketing homelessness problem.

Today, victims of Hurricane Katrina and local advocates held a press conference at Sen. Elizabeth Dole's office in Raleigh calling on the Senator to take action to save homes in the still-devastated Gulf Coast region.

In Las Vegas this Thursday, at the Democratic debate, the elephant in the room will be housing. With the housing market meltdown, foreclosures are sweeping the country. Nevada has the worst rate with one foreclosure filing in every 61 households, while the nationwide rate is one foreclosure filing for every 196 households.

Democrats have done little on this issue...and are poised to make problems worse...