Wednesday, September 1, 2010

CALIFORNIA UNDER FORECLOSURE - BANKSTER & THEIR BOUGHT POLITICIANS

WELLS FARGO – BANKSTERS TO THE MEX DRUG CARTEL… and where NO American need apply for a bankster job!

CA MORTGAGE LICENSE REVOKED FOR WELLS FARGO!

“Wells Fargo said last month that first-quarter profit jumped 53 percent from a year earlier as borrowers rushed to refinance mortgages amid record-low interest rates.”
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Lou Dobbs Tonight
Monday, November 12, 2007

Mortgage giants Wells Fargo and Countrywide Financial are accused of slapping dubious fees on homeowners struggling to save their homes. With fewer new mortgages being written, these
companies appear to be leaning on these lucrative fees to stay profitable—with devastating consequences for homeowners. We’ll have that report.
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DEPARTMENT OF CORPORATIONS
The San Diego Union
By Craig D. Rose May 3, 2003

Wells Fargo mortgage license is revoked
State takes action over interest dispute


Citing a pattern of overcharging borrowers, state regulators yesterday revoked the mortgage lending license of Wells Fargo, but the bank will continue to make and service loans under federal jurisdiction.
The California Department of Corporations said Wells Fargo, the state's largest mortgage lender, has been charging consumers interest for days disallowed by state regulation.
"Wells Fargo charged consumers interest on their mortgages more than one day before being recorded, an admitted violation of California law," said Demetrios Boutris, state commissioner of corporations. "If Wells Fargo is not going to abide by California's laws, it has no right to California's licenses."
*

Assembly rejects foreclosure/modification bill
Robert Selna, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
State legislation to protect homeowners from foreclosure while pursuing a loan modification, widely supported by consumer groups but opposed by the banking California industry, has failed in the state Assembly.
SB1275, which was rejected 36-30 late Monday, would have required lenders to provide homeowners with a fully considered loan modification decision prior to foreclosing. Unlike federal initiatives, it would have given homeowners the right to sue the lender if that process did not occur.
The bill addressed what has become a far-too-common scenario for homeowners delinquent on their mortgages: While negotiating a loan modification, their lender forecloses. Long delays for hundreds of thousands of homeowners nationwide seeking modifications also have been blamed on poor performance by mortgage servicers.
The federal government requires banks participating in its main mortgage protection plan not to foreclose on homeowners negotiating a modification, but the rules are voluntary and have no enforcement mechanism.
The state bill's failure follows a recent report on the Treasury Department's central program to slow foreclosures, showing that it is likely to help just a quarter of the 4 million households it was intended to aid through 2012.
A delinquent state
State data show that nearly 1 in 10 California homeowners is 60 or more days delinquent on the mortgage, compared with 6.67 percent nationwide. Thirty-five percent of the state mortgage holders owe more on their homes than they are worth.
The bill's author, state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said he would continue to pursue a solution to the state's mortgage crisis in the new legislative session, which will begin in January.
"We think we had a very wise compromise (in the bill), unless your philosophy is that the lenders should not be held accountable and not have repercussions for their actions," Leno said.
Industry pleased
Dustin Hobbs, spokesman for the California Mortgage Bankers Association, which opposed the law along with the California Bankers Association, the California Chamber of Commerce and others, said the association "was pleased that the bill in the current form did not pass."
The banking industry had argued that the bill would allow lawsuits to be brought against lenders for technical violations and could delay the foreclosure process even if owners were ineligible for a modification. They said that federal rules have evolved and could change again, potentially making SB1275 outdated and creating a conflict.
New York this year approved laws that give the state attorney general permission to sue lenders for repeatedly failing to consider loan modifications in a timely manner and for foreclosing during the modification process.
In California, the proposed law was approved by the state Senate and three Assembly committees. The vote Monday was largely partisan, with nine Democrats voting no. All 12 Assembly members who did not vote were Democrats.
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Drowning in debt: top 15 states for underwater mortgages

Last week, The Chronicle reported that underwater mortgages are on the decline: that because of increased foreclosures on distressed properties, the number of American homes with mortgages that exceed the properties' value has dropped. But again, foreclosures, rather than rising home prices, accounts for the drop--not then a positive sign.
For a more detailed look at this phenomenon, here is a list of the top 15 states in our union for underwater mortgages.

1. Nevada: 69.9% of all mortgages
2. Arizona: 51.3% of all mortgages
3. Floria: 47.8% of all mortgages
4. Michigan: 38.5% of all mortgages
5. California: 35.1% of all mortgages
6. Georgia: 27.8% of all mortgages
7. Virginia: 24.3% of all mortgages
8.-13. South Dakota, Maine, West Virginia, Wyoming, Louisiana, and Mississippi: 23.8% of all mortgages
14. Maryland: 22.9% of all mortgages
15. Idaho: 22.7% of all mortgages


Though we've heard the term "bail out" more times than we care to, we might be hard pressed to see what, if any, real help is being offered to drowning homeowners. Cavan Hadley, a homeowner and father of two in Morro Bay, California, put the situation-- sadly-- as follows:
"On the verge of losing my house in Morro Bay. Been working with Bank of America for over a year. But apparently the loan modification program wasn't aimed at people, just press releases."
Posted By: Anna Marie Hibble (Email) | August 31 2010

CORPORATE AMERICANS WAR ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE - Hey, It's Only Business!

CORPORATE AMERICA’S WAR ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!


CEOs who cut jobs got paid more, study says
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 1, 2010


The CEOs who cut the most jobs during the recession earned more than their peers, according to a study being released today by a liberal think tank in Washington.
"When CEOs slash jobs they are often very richly rewarded," said Sarah Anderson, lead author of the Institute for Policy Studies' report, "CEO Pay and the Great Recession."
Separately, the report estimated that the CEOs of the nation's largest publicly traded companies make an average of 263 times more the typical U.S. production worker.
The institute used the Forbes.com layoff tracker to identify the 50 firms that laid off the most employees between November 2008 and April 2010. It then used the Associated Press online survey and company financial reports to arrive at 2009 compensation totals.
The institute calculated that the 50 CEOs - who together cut 531,363 jobs - averaged $12 million in salary, bonuses, stock options and other perks, 42 percent more than the average compensation for all of the CEOs on the Standard & Poor's 500.
The report said 7 out of 10 of these top job-cutters laid off workers even though their companies ended the year profitably.
Bay Area firms
The list included Mark Hurd, who recently resigned from Hewlett-Packard Co. in the wake of a sexual harassment investigation, and Intel Corp. chief executive Paul Otellini, each of whom trimmed 5,000 jobs during the period under study.
The institute said Hurd earned $24.2 million in 2009, while Otellini received $14.4 million in compensation.
HP declined to comment, but Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said there was no connection between his boss' pay and the job cuts and that Otellini was evaluated on the same criteria as any other Intel employee.
"The layoffs we did were primarily as a result of closing older manufacturing sites in China, Malaysia and the Philippines," he said.
But Intel shed about 450 jobs locally when it closed its last Silicon Valley chip fabrication plant last year, he said.
Charles Elson, director of the Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, characterized the study as a cheap shot.
"I am a significant critic of CEO pay, but I've never believed there is a linkage between layoffs and CEO pay," he said.
Pay for performance
Elson said the best way to keep CEO pay in line with performance is to make sure that corporate boards include shareholders with large stakes in the company.
He also pooh-poohed the notion that a ratio between CEO and rank-and-file pay had any relevance to corporate governance.
But such ratios could soon become common. The institute said that, under the newly passed financial reform package, publicly traded firms will be required to compute their median pay and the ratio between that figure and CEO compensation.
Hurd
$24.2 million
cut 5,000 jobs
Otellini
$14.4 million
cut 5,000 jobs

ILLEGALS & FORECLOSURES

MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF 38 MILLION ILLEGALS SURRENDERED THEIR JOBS TO LEGALS, AND WENT BACK TO MEXICO TO TURN IT INTO THE VERSION OF MEXICO THEY WANT HERE?

YIKES!


“Walsh stated. Walsh said his analysis indicating there are 38 million illegal aliens in the U.S. was calculated using the conservative estimate of three illegal immigrants entering the U.S. for each one apprehended.”


Illegal alien population may be as high as 38 million

Study: Illegal alien population may be as high as 38 million A new report finds the Homeland Security Department "grossly underestimates" the number of illegal aliens living in the U.S. Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Studies released a report August 31 that estimates the number of illegal aliens residing in the U.S. is between 8 and 12 million. But the group Californians for Population Stabilization, or CAPS, has unveiled a report estimating the illegal population is actually between 20 and 38 million.

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In Rep. Dan Tancredo’s district there have been more than 10,000 mortgages owned by illegals that went into foreclosure. It’s only part of the border to border crime wave perpetrated by illegals from Mexico.
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E-Verify for Mortgage Applications (fraudulent claims from illegal immigrant)


Rep. Kenny Marchant Proposes Bill to use E-Verify for Mortgage Applications
Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 9:56 AM EST - posted on NumbersUSA



Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas) has offered the Mortgage E-Verify Act that would require a mortgagor to be verified through E-Verify when applying for a modification of a home loan owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

"As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, I am happy to introduce my bill, the Mortgage E-Verify Act, which would require, as a condition for modification of a home mortgage loan held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), that the mortgagor be verified under the E-Verify program," Rep. Marchant said in a press release. "My bill will potentially save millions by cutting down on fraudulent claims from illegal immigrants and protect taxpayers from subsidizing the restructuring or renegotiation mortgages of illegal immigrants."

Rep. Marchant's bill is a result of a major case in Nevada where a loan officer submitted false income and employment documentation to help illegal aliens secure FHA loans. The scam totaled $6.2 million in loans with many going into default, costing HUD nearly $2 million. The loan officer was found guilty on 32 counts of submitting false information.

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HOW MANY OF THESE STATES ARE OVERRUN WITH ILLEGALS?

CALIFORNIA PUTS OUT $20 BILLION IN SOCIAL SERVICES TO ILLEGALS. LOS ANGELES COUNTY ALONE PUTS OUT ONE BILLION. MOST CITIES IN CA ARE “SANCTUARY” SO LAWS PROHIBITING THE EMPLOYMENT OF ILLEGALS ARE TRASHED BY THE ILLEGALS AND THEIR REPS!

Drowning in debt: top 15 states for underwater mortgages

Last week, The Chronicle reported that underwater mortgages are on the decline: that because of increased foreclosures on distressed properties, the number of American homes with mortgages that exceed the properties' value has dropped. But again, foreclosures, rather than rising home prices, accounts for the drop--not then a positive sign.
For a more detailed look at this phenomenon, here is a list of the top 15 states in our union for underwater mortgages.

1. Nevada: 69.9% of all mortgages
2. Arizona: 51.3% of all mortgages
3. Floria: 47.8% of all mortgages
4. Michigan: 38.5% of all mortgages
5. California: 35.1% of all mortgages
6. Georgia: 27.8% of all mortgages
7. Virginia: 24.3% of all mortgages
8.-13. South Dakota, Maine, West Virginia, Wyoming, Louisiana, and Mississippi: 23.8% of all mortgages
14. Maryland: 22.9% of all mortgages
15. Idaho: 22.7% of all mortgages

UNEMPLOYMENT UP! FORECLOSURES UP! bankster profits SOARING!

WHILE BIG BANKSTERS PROFITS SURGE, SO DOES UNEMPLOYMENT & FORECLOSURES!... and Obama’s plan to fix it all… AMNESTY!
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CA MORTGAGE LICENSE REVOKED FOR WELLS FARGO!

“Wells Fargo said last month that first-quarter profit jumped 53 percent from a year earlier as borrowers rushed to refinance mortgages amid record-low interest rates.”
*
Lou Dobbs Tonight
Monday, November 12, 2007

Mortgage giants Wells Fargo and Countrywide Financial are accused of slapping dubious fees on homeowners struggling to save their homes. With fewer new mortgages being written, these
companies appear to be leaning on these lucrative fees to stay profitable—with devastating consequences for homeowners. We’ll have that report.
*
“Month after month of mass unemployment, compounded by sweeping cuts in social services at the state and local level and wage cutting in both the private and public sectors, have already produced a social disaster for tens of millions of Americans. One million families are losing their homes to foreclosure every year. Hunger and homelessness are on the rise.”

Bailed-out banks spent big on financial lobbying
By EILEEN AJ CONNELLY
The Associated Press
NEW YORK รข€” The 10 banks that received the most bailout aid during the financial crisis spent over $16 million on lobbying efforts in the first half of 2010, as the debate over the financial-regulatory overhaul reached its height.
Bank of America and Wells Fargo both also spent more than $2 million in the first half of the year. Spending far less were PNC Bank, US Bancorp, Capital One Financial and Regions Financial. The American Bankers Association, the main trade group for the industry, also lobbied heavily, spending $4.2 million in the first half of 2010.
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WSWS.org
As US “recovery” collapses, White House rules out social relief
1 September 2010
Recent weeks have seen a collapse in US home sales, a weakening of manufacturing activity, an upward trend in jobless benefit claims and, on Friday, a downward revision of second-quarter gross domestic product growth from 2.4 percent to 1.6 percent.
The latter figure is far below the rate of economic expansion needed to bring down unemployment, now at its highest levels since the Great Depression. On the contrary, the sharp slowdown in economic growth heralds a further rise in the jobless rate.
Month after month of mass unemployment, compounded by sweeping cuts in social services at the state and local level and wage cutting in both the private and public sectors, have already produced a social disaster for tens of millions of Americans. One million families are losing their homes to foreclosure every year. Hunger and homelessness are on the rise.
USA Today reported Monday that the recession has resulted in one in six Americans relying on government assistance to survive. Over 50 million people are on Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled. That is an increase of at least 17 percent since the recession began in December 2007.
Over 40 million are receiving food stamps, an increase of nearly 50 percent since the slump began. Close to 10 million are getting unemployment benefits, nearly four times the number in 2007. More than 4.4 million people are on welfare, an 18 percent jump since the recession began.
While the vast majority of workers are struggling to make ends meet or are sinking into poverty, the rich are doing better than ever. Corporate profits are up sharply, driven by downsizing and cost cutting. The stock market has recovered from its lows in the spring of 2009, and executives are continuing to award themselves seven- and eight-digit compensation packages.
Two years after the eruption of the financial crisis, precipitated by the recklessness and criminality of Wall Street, the chasm separating the financial elite and everyone else has grown wider than ever. The New York Times reported Tuesday that the rebound on Wall Street has led to a further polarization between rich and poor in New York City. While the median pay of managerial workers was up 11 percent from three years ago, the median weekly pay of non-managers had fallen 10.4 percent, to $472.
The latter figure is barely above the official poverty line for a family of four of $22,000 a year, an absurdly low plateau that, in New York, means something close to destitution.
The response of the Obama administration and the entire political establishment to the collapse of the so-called “recovery” is to reject out of hand any significant spending to generate jobs.
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden on Monday, Obama sought to lay the blame on the Republicans for holding up his $30 billion small business bill—a token measure consisting mainly of tax cuts and other incentives for small and large businesses and so-called “community” banks. Beyond that, he spoke vaguely about more tax cuts for business and incentives for renewable energy projects, adding that there is no “silver bullet” to revive the economy.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs acknowledged there would be no major initiatives, saying, “There’s only so much that can be done.” He went on to reassure big business that there would be no use of public funds to hire unemployed workers, saying the administration’s “targeted initiatives” would aim to “create an environment where the private sector is not simply investing but also hiring.”
In an op-ed piece on Sunday, the New York Times wrote: “[I]n the political realm a rare consensus has emerged: The future is now so colored in red ink that running up the debt seems politically risky in the months before the congressional elections, even in the name of creating jobs and generating economic growth. The result is that Democrats and Republicans have foresworn virtually any course that involves spending serious money.”
Just one year ago, Obama was emphatic in declaring that he would do “whatever it takes” to bail out the banks. He did precisely that, allocating trillions in taxpayer dollars to cover Wall Street’s gambling debts. At the same time, he opposed any measures to restrict CEO pay or hold the corporate criminals responsible for the catastrophe they had created.
He then intervened to force General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy and impose a 50 percent pay cut on newly hired workers. That was the signal for a wave of corporate and government wage cutting that is intensifying.
Now there is supposedly “no money” for jobs—or schools, or housing, or relief for the unemployed. This at a time when US banks and corporations are sitting on a cash hoard of more than $1 trillion.
The media universally asserts that the administration and congressional Democrats are constrained from pursuing any serious stimulus measures by public demands for austerity in advance of the November elections. This is a fraud.
Far from there being a popular groundswell for austerity, the opposite is the case, as indicated by a Gallop poll taken in June which found that 60 percent favored more government stimulus to create jobs, and a poll this month showing that 85 percent opposed to cutting Social Security to reduce the deficit.
There is no contradiction between Obama’s $862 billion stimulus package of 2009 and his administration’s overt shift to austerity today. Both represent the implementation of the ruthless class policy of the American financial-corporate elite.
Last February’s stimulus bill—consisting largely of tax cuts and other incentives for business—was a carefully calibrated measure designed to prevent a collapse in consumer spending, avert a social explosion by creating the impression that the government was doing something for “Main Street,” buy time to carry through the bank bailout and create conditions for a revival of corporate profits and the stock market.
These goals having been largely achieved, at least for the present, the ruling class is intent on keeping unemployment high and using mass joblessness to permanently drive down the wages and conditions of the American working class to those that existed in the 1930s, and to narrow the labor cost differential between American workers and super-exploited workers in China and other “emerging economies.”
That, in a nutshell, is the policy of the Obama administration and, whatever their tactical differences, both big business parties. They have relied on the trade unions to suppress the mounting anger and opposition in the working class and block any mass resistance. The unions completely support the class-war policy of the ruling class, as demonstrated in the announcement by the AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union last week that they were teaming up to raise $80 million for the Democrats in the midterm elections.
The unions will not be able to prevent the eruption of mass social struggles. Already the first signs of coming upheavals are emerging, showing that workers will move into action in opposition to the corporatist union apparatuses. That is the significance of last month’s rejection by auto workers at General Motors’ Indianapolis stamping plant of the United Auto Workers’ attempt to impose a 50 percent wage cut.
The Socialist Equality Party calls on workers to break with the unions and establish democratic rank-and-file action committees to organize factory occupations and strikes against layoffs and plant closures and mobilize the support of the entire working class. This industrial action must be combined with a political struggle against Obama and both parties of big business, based on a socialist program to break the stranglehold of the financial aristocracy.
We call for an emergency public works program to provide every unemployed worker with a decent-paying job. Millions should be hired to build schools, affordable housing and hospitals and rebuild the public infrastructure. The resources for such a program can and should be obtained by confiscating the wealth of the capitalist class—beginning with the bankers, hedge fund owners and corporate CEOs—and reorganizing economic life to serve the needs of the people, not private profit.
Barry Grey
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Drowning in debt: top 15 states for underwater mortgages

Last week, The Chronicle reported that underwater mortgages are on the decline: that because of increased foreclosures on distressed properties, the number of American homes with mortgages that exceed the properties' value has dropped. But again, foreclosures, rather than rising home prices, accounts for the drop--not then a positive sign.
For a more detailed look at this phenomenon, here is a list of the top 15 states in our union for underwater mortgages.

1. Nevada: 69.9% of all mortgages
2. Arizona: 51.3% of all mortgages
3. Floria: 47.8% of all mortgages
4. Michigan: 38.5% of all mortgages
5. California: 35.1% of all mortgages
6. Georgia: 27.8% of all mortgages
7. Virginia: 24.3% of all mortgages
8.-13. South Dakota, Maine, West Virginia, Wyoming, Louisiana, and Mississippi: 23.8% of all mortgages
14. Maryland: 22.9% of all mortgages
15. Idaho: 22.7% of all mortgages


Though we've heard the term "bail out" more times than we care to, we might be hard pressed to see what, if any, real help is being offered to drowning homeowners. Cavan Hadley, a homeowner and father of two in Morro Bay, California, put the situation-- sadly-- as follows:
"On the verge of losing my house in Morro Bay. Been working with Bank of America for over a year. But apparently the loan modification program wasn't aimed at people, just press releases."
Posted By: Anna Marie Hibble (Email) | August 31 2010