Banking Crisis: Money-Spinning Scam for the Financial Giants

Are the Housing Bailouts for Banks or Borrowers?

April 26, 2010

creditwritedowns.com - The money that the government spends on a failed [mortgage loan] modification goes to banks, not homeowners. Typically, the government will have substituted an FHA insured mortgage for the original mortgage issued by a bank. This means that when a redefault takes place, the bank will have received most of the principle back on the loan, with the government incurring the loss on the redefault. The net result of this policy is that far more money is likely to be given to banks through the HAMP than to homeowners. - Dean Baker, Money for Failed Modifications Goes to Banks, Not Homeowners, CEPR

What Dean Baker is pointing out is that the HAMP program looks suspiciously like a way for the banks to shed their bad loans and pile them up at the FHA. And since we know that the vast majority of FHA-eligible modifications are redefaulters, the FHA is going to need some serious capital injections via the US taxpayer.

Baker’s statements about the mod programs being for the banks and not for the borrowers jives with what I have been saying about practically all the government housing bailout plans.

Here’s what I said about principal reduction mods:

It is clear that the principal reduction is more about the banks than the homeowners. In reality this is a another backdoor bailout for the banks camouflaged as support for homeowners. It is a way of recapitalizing banks by having the government pony up for the dodgy assets still on their balance sheets which they have not yet written down.

This principal reduction plan is a very direct transfer of income from you the taxpayer to the bank. -It’s unanimous: Propping up underwater mortgages is a bad idea, March 2010

Let’s not forget that non-recourse loans are made into recourse loans under these programs too. So, you don’t need TARP to bail the banks out. And banks aren’t just getting free money via the steep yield curve and zero rates.

Have a nice day.

Spring Market Will Turn Home Prices on Their Heels

April 6, 2010

CNBC - Today the Administration's Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative Plan takes effect, offering incentives to borrowers, servicers, investors and second lien holders to push short sales through the system. Yep, everyone gets a cut of government funds to get these troubled borrowers out of their homes and get them sold, even if the sale price is less than the value of the loan.

I find it interesting that before the plan even went into effect today, the Administration upped the incentives a week ago, doubling the amount of cash to $3000 offered as borrower "relocation expenses" and juicing the payoffs to the others as well. Of course they want to push short sales because of course they know that their modification program isn't working as planned.

But the biggest impediment to the plan is the lenders themselves, who have to weigh what's going to save them the most money and cause them the least bleeding on their books.

Is it a short sale or a foreclosure sale?

We're already seeing inventories shrinking way down out West, where banks are holding on to foreclosed properties and manipulating prices to their advantage.

I'm also starting to hear rumblings among the number crunchers that the wave of foreclosures we keep hearing about is about to hit with a thunderous roar.

Servicers are ramping up the mod process and pushing those who don't qualify out the door more quickly than ever. A big jump in inventories, which we already saw last month, right in the midst of the Spring market, will turn home prices on their heels.

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the jump we saw today in the Pending Home Sales Index, but there was just something a little too hesitant in the Realtors' report. They seem to be talking about hints and hopes, rather than real change.