Consumerist
mortgage meltdown
Posts Tagged “
subprime meltdown
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Over 400 people have been charged in the government's national mortgage fraud probe, called "Operation Malicious Mortage," which dealt with individual rather than corporate fraud. [Reuters]
Two former Bear Sterns executives were arrested today for securities fraud. [NYT]
mortgage meltdown
corruption
Is This Woman The Smoking Gun Of The Mortgage Meltdown?
Meet Tracy Warren. NPR says she's not surprised by the mortgage meltdown because she was supposed to be in charge of preventing it. Tracy worked for a quality control contractor that reviewed subprime loans for investment banks before they were sold on Wall Street, and her company's biggest client was none other than Bear Stearns. Tracy says she found plenty of loans to reject. The trouble is, according to Tracy, after she rejected them... her bosses unrejected them. More »
rude
Countrywide CEO Accidentally Emails Homeowner, Calls His Plea For Help "Disgusting"
Apparently Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide, has never made a mistake and needed help (from, say, Bank of America,) because he thinks that homeowners who are desperately trying to refinance out of their disastrous home loans and avoid foreclosure are "disgusting" if they look to the internet for help writing letters. More »
Last week the best radio show ever, This American Life, tackled the housing and credit crisis by talking to some of the real people involved with packaging junk no-proof loans into "sensible" investments. In the words of host Ira Glass and friends, it all comes back to "The Giant Pool Of Money." [This American Life]
subprime meltdown
Countrywide Still Asking Consumers To Lie About Their Income
Countrywide would like you to believe that it put all that messy "predatory subprime lending" business behind it and is no longer coaching consumers to lie on their loan applications in order to qualify them for loans they can't afford... but are they telling the truth about telling the truth? One woman who recently contacted Countrywide about refinancing her home told NPR that sketchy mortgage lending is alive and well at Countrywide. More »
credit cards
Completed Walmart Credit Card Applications Are Now Worth Four Types Of Soda, Candy
Back in the glory days, when credit and food were cheap, it took a mere 2-liter bottle of Pepsi to bait customers into filling out a Walmart credit card application.
More »
translations
How The Candidates Would Address The Foreclosure Crisis
Mark Ireland, former Minnesota Assistant Attorney General, took a look at what the three remaining presidential candidates are saying about the foreclosure crisis and translated their campaign-speak into good ol' American English. More »
securitization
Why Few Seem To Be Able To Work Out Better Loan Terms
Call it what you will, the borrower bailout/rescue/whatever does not seem to be working. Foreclosures are still on the rise along with defaults and sad stories. And while those numbers go up, the economy continues to worsen. More »
class action
Subprime Meltdown Class Action Lawsuits On Rampage
Behind the scenes of the subprime and credit crunch hooplah, subprime-related class action lawsuits have been quietly building up a massive head. Navigant Consulting broke down the numbers on the gathering storm that will take years to dissipate:
- There are 448 subprime related federal lawsuits as of March 31 2008
- 170 federal lawsuits were filed in Q1 2008, vs 181 total filed in the last 6 months of 2007
- The Savings and Loan scandal of the 90's resulted in 599 lawsuits
- 57% involved at least one Fortune 1000 company
- 46% of the subprime related class action lawsuits are brought by borrowers
- 42% of those are related to disclosures made at loan origination
The Subprime Litigation Tsunami: Are We Dealing with Case Overload? [DSNEWS]
(Photo: Getty)
Bob Lawless considers why fewer homeowners walk away from "underwater" mortgages than you might expect. [Credit Slips]
subprime meltdown
No Help For 70% Of Homeowners Facing Foreclosure
A new study shows that despite the best efforts of lawmakers and mortgage-service companies, little is actually being done to help homeowners facing foreclosure, says the Wall Street Journal. More »
bonuses
WaMu Reverses Decision To Exclude Subprime Losses From Executive Bonus Calculations
Activist shareholders forced big changes at a Washington Mutual stockholder's meeting last week, especially the reversal of a much-criticized decision to exclude subprime losses when calculating executive bonus pay. Washington Mutual was one of the lenders cavorting the most eagerly in the refuse trough of subprime lending, and has endured some of the largest losses as a result. Other key shareholder wins included splitting the CEO and Chairman position, and the resignation of several key board members. Nice job, activist shareholders, way to wake the hell up long after the damage was done.
Shareholders Score at WaMu [Business Week]
PREVIOUSLY: WaMu Rewrites Executive Bonus Plan To Avoid Subprime Meltdown Responsibility
subprime meltdown
Real Estate Speculation: From A Trailer Park To Foreclosure On 4 Homes
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has a fascinating article about real estate speculation in Minnesota. The article focuses on Bradley and Sarah Collin, a couple with three children who were living in a trailer park when they were suckered by a local "property management company" that (illegally) paid the couple $20,000 cash to buy 4 houses in a new subdivision. More »
subprime meltdown
1 in 33 Homeowners Predicted To Be In Foreclosure Within Next 2 Years
For those of you hoping that foreclosure crises has hit bottom, we've got some bad news. A new report released by the The Pew Charitable Trusts says that 1 in 33 homeowners is expected to be in foreclosure over the next two years, due primarily to subprime mortgages made in 2005 and 2006. More »
recession watch
WaMu announced today that they lost $1.14 billion in the first-quarter and CEO Kerry Killinger said that nothing of this scale had happened "since the Great Depression." Comforting!
(Photo:Maulleigh)
WaMu CEO Compares Mortgage Meltdown To The Great Depression
WaMu announced today that they lost $1.14 billion in the first-quarter and CEO Kerry Killinger said that nothing of this scale had happened "since the Great Depression." Comforting!"Nothing of this scale has happened since the Great Depression," Chief Executive Kerry Killinger said at WaMu's annual meeting. "This is the toughest credit cycle I have seen in my years in the industry."WaMu says it will cut 3,000 more jobs, including that of Mary Pugh, chair of their finance committee who "had been fiercely criticized for failing to protect Washington Mutual from overexposure to subprime and other risky mortgages," according to Reuters. A Loss and a Shake-up at Washington Mutual [NYT]
(Photo:Maulleigh)
