Wednesday was the first of the month. Rent was due. Unemployment claims for Massachusetts were 329,000 over the last two weeks. That's ... 4.8% of the entire population of Massachusetts, and 9% of the workforce, newly out of a job, right … [Read more...]
Coakley to Big Banks: It’s On!
It's been three years since the big banks crashed our economy, costing millions of American families their homes, their jobs and their life savings. Their “punishment” to date: taxpayer bailouts and huge bonuses for bank executives. All … [Read more...]
Obama broke pledge to help homeowners
Treasury staffers began conversations with congressional aides by saying the administration supported cramdown and would then "follow up with a whole bunch of reasons" why it wasn't a good idea, said an aide to a senior Democratic … [Read more...]
Grace Ross on Elections and Beyond
Ross is right out there. She is also pretty optimistic. For one, she thinks that the anger and energy the Tea Party types rode in this last election cycle is populist not right wing energy. I am not as confident as she that clear-eyed … [Read more...]
Grossman to Banks: Act Responsibly or Lose State Funds
Those criteria are: Loans to small businesses to help grow jobs. "I have been to more than 175 cities and towns so far in the campaign," he said, "and one thing I hear consistently is that while local community banks are helping the … [Read more...]
Action Plan: Save Family Homes Now!
Republicans and other opponents of the bill want to blame the mortgage crisis on borrowers saying they were dishonest and irresponsible. Rep. Virginia Foxx from North Carolina put it into words on the House floor on Thursday. It's … [Read more...]
How Not To Help Homeowners
The Treasury Department is planning to subsidize thirty-year, fixed rate mortgages at 4.5% interest. But the plan apparently only extends to new home purchases, not to refinances. Am I missing something? I thought our problem was that we … [Read more...]
It’s the foreclosures, stupid.
Bruce Marks of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America -- an outfit that has probably done more than just about anyone else to combat predatory lending and help low- and moderate-income folks buy and stay in their homes -- makes … [Read more...]
Stunning video of a high foreclosure neighborhood in New Bedford, MA
This puts into pictures what the phrase "high foreclosure neighborhood" means: I know that it is human nature to look at what has not been done, as in what the Democrats in Congress have not accomplished, but the Housing bill just passed … [Read more...]
Patrick takes action on foreclosures
This just in:In an ongoing response to the state's foreclosure crisis, Governor Deval Patrick today directed Commissioner of Banks Steven L. Antonakes to seek delays from mortgage lenders, on a case-by-case basis, for any Massachusetts … [Read more...]