Archive for the ‘Jon Stewart’ Category
>Foreclosure Crisis Could Spawn TARP 2
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The foreclosure crisis gets stinkier by the day, and with each new revelation comes a startling realization: this thing has no end in sight. Procedural errors and shortcuts by loan servicers including JP Morgan Chase and Ally Finanical, among many others, have clouded titles establishing ownership of homes. In many cases, home ownership is being claimed by several parties.
The recent surge in lawsuits and investigations into falsified mortgage documents indicate that this crisis is likely to grow into a multi-headed beast. JPMorgan (JPM) and Ally’s GMAC Mortgage unit have so far halted foreclosures in 23 states where courts have jurisdiction over home seizures, and earlier today Bank of America (BAC) extended foreclosure halts to all 50 states. A GMAC employee testified that a team of 13 people signed 10,000 documents a month without checking for accuracy. And this is just the tip of the iceberg: ‘Robo signing’ was an industry wide practice. The market is now saturated with illegitimate titles that are contested on several fronts, and the flood gates haven’t even opened.
The issue at the heart of many lawsuits springing up around the country is that, in the presence of falsified documents, the banks who are trying to foreclose do not actually own the titles to the properties. Families are being thrown out of their homes by people who have no right to do so. The White House announced Thursday that President Obama will exercise a pocket veto on legislation that would make it more difficult for homeowners to challenge unjustified foreclosures. Further deliberations are expected to alter the bill in order to bring some resolution to the issue while protecting consumer interests.
Given the complexity of the issue, many predict problems relating to title issues will last for as long as a decade. The problems extend to many different parties, including lenders, title insurers and buyers who purchased homes in foreclosure, who will likely be embroiled in a tangled web of lawsuits for years to come. Another prong to consider is the mounting losses facing big banks, and whether it could bring about Tarp 2. Earlier this week when several analysts forecast future sequels to TARP, nobody thought it would be on the radar by the end of the week.
This is a crisis of epic proportions, but leave it to Jon Stewart to restore sanity with some much needed (but still depressing) comic relief.
t3live 