Show me the MORTGAGE money!

Sharp words about Wall Street and Washington...

Financial Crises Inquiry Commission

Man Makes Ridiculously Complicated Chart To Find Out Who Owns His Mortgage

We all know the mortgage securitization process is complicated.

But just how complicated? The chart below from Zero Hedge shows the convoluted journey a mortgage takes as it morphs into a security.

Dan Edstrom, of DTC Systems, who performs securitization audits, spent a year putting together a diagram that traces the path of his own house's mortgage. "Just When You Thought You Knew Something About Mortgage Securitizations," says Zero Hedge, you are presented with this almost hilariously complicated chart

to read on click the link above.

...the OOPS factor...Thanks for NOTHING Dude!...Former Fannie Mae CEO Apologizes for Collapse

By NICK TIMIRAOS

Associated Press

Robert Levin, former executive vice president, Fannie Mae, left, and Daniel Mudd, former chief executive of Fannie Mae, are sworn-in before giving testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

WASHINGTON—Former Fannie Mae executives said that competing demands to boost profits and satisfy a public mission created an "impossible" balancing that led to the company's demise as the U.S. housing downturn worsened.

"I was the CEO of the company, and I accept responsibility for everything that happened on my watch," ex-Fannie Chief Executive Daniel Mudd said at a Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearing Friday investigating the causes of the financial crisis.

read on: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304024604575173623669689564.html?mod=WSJ_myyahoo_module

...the OOPS factor...ex Fannie Mae officials..."We never saw it coming?!?"..

Your government at work. Say x FAnnie officials.."Who knew?" "wow were we surprised!"

Fannie Mae Official: Hoocoodanode?

by CalculatedRisk on 4/09/2010 11:03:00 AM

From Ron Orol (updated) at MarketWatch: Fannie Mae official: We were surprised by extent of crisis. First the obligatory "no one saw it coming" comment:

"Few if any predicted the unusual and rapid destruction of real estate values that occurred," Robert Levin, former Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Fannie Mae told a financial crisis inquiry panel.

.....Peggy tells it like it........was...

After the Crash, a Crashing Bore

The men behind the bailout take refuge in impenetrable jargon.

By PEGGY NOOONAN

Like all Americans, I continue to seek to understand exactly what moods, facts, assumptions, dynamics, agendas and structures underlay and made possible the crash and the great recession.

We do this so that we will be able to bring our gained wisdom into the future and keep another crash from happening, should we ever have another bubble to precede it. We also do it so that we know who to hate.

That's why this week's Financial Industry Inquiry Commission hearings were so exciting, such a public service. The testimony of Charles Prince, former CEO of Citigroup, a too-big-to-fail bank that received $45 billion in bailouts and $300 billion in taxpayer guarantees, was riveting. You've seen it on the news, but if you were watching it live on C-Span, the stark power of his brutal candor was breathtaking. This, as you know, is what he said:

read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304198004575172251738485686.html

 

...the OOPS factor...Foreclosures Hit Rich and Famous ...WSJ

By CRAIG KARMIN And JAMES R. HAGERTY

The rich and famous now have something in common with hundreds of thousands of middle and lower-class Americans: The bank is about to take their homes.

Houses with loans of $5 million or more will likely see a sharp rise in foreclosures this year, according to a RealtyTrac study for The Wall Street Journal.

Just this week, a Tudor mansion in Bel-Air belonging to film star Nicolas Cage was in foreclosure auction and reverted to the lender. On Wednesday, Richard Fuscone, a former top Wall Street executive, declared personal bankruptcy, forestalling a foreclosure auction that had been scheduled this week on his 14-acre Westchester mansion. Last month a Manhattan condominium owned by Italian film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori was sold in a foreclosure auction for $33.2 million.

read more... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304198004575172303998670976.html?mod=WSJ_Real+Estate_LEADTopNews

...The OOPS Factor..Bank Sorry for Taking Parrot ...WSJ...

By JAMES R. HAGERTY

Jeff Swensen for The Wall Street Journal

Angela Iannelli came home from work to find her home padlocked and her 11-year-old Blue and Gold Macaw, Luke, missing. Bank of America had erroneously told a contractor to enter the house and change the locks.

PITTSBURGH—Bank of America Corp. apologized after its local contractor entered the home of a mortgage borrower when she was away, cut off utilities, padlocked the door and confiscated her pet parrot, Luke.

Angela Iannelli, 46 years old, alleged in a lawsuit Monday that the October incident—which separated her from her 11-year-old parrot for more than a week—caused so much "emotional distress" that she needed a prescription medication for anxiety.

A Bank of America spokesman said Wednesday a bank employee erroneously believed the house was vacant and sent the contractor there with instructions to install a new lock and otherwise "secure" the property. The bank spokesman said those instructions were inappropriate because Ms. Iannelli wasn't in default and the house wasn't vacant.

Mortgage lenders have struggled in the past three years to hire and train enough people to deal with the biggest wave of foreclosures since the 1930s. Nearly eight million households, or 15% of those with mortgages, are behind on their payments or in the foreclosure process.

Many borrowers complain they get the runaround when they call their lenders for help, receive contradictory information from different employees and are required to repeatedly fax the same documents.

At the same time, suicide threats from distressed borrowers are so common that one lender, OneWest Bank Group in Pasadena, Calif., had to establish procedures for alerting the police. Lenders' call-center employees are under heavy pressure. "These people make $14 or $15 an hour, and we ask them to move mountains," said a OneWest executive at an industry conference last month.

read on:.. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704655004575113872190094934.html?mod=WSJ_Real+Estate_LeftTopNews

...The OOPS factor...Fannie Posts $72 Billion Loss for '09

WSJ

By NICK TIMIRAOS

Fannie Mae reported a staggering $72 billion net loss for 2009, underscoring the challenges that still face the nation's largest mortgage financier and offering more grim news for taxpayers who may ultimately pick up the bill.

The Washington-based company posted a $15.2 billion fourth-quarter loss and said it asked the U.S. Treasury for another $15.3 billion to stay afloat, bringing its total bailout tab past $76 billion. The quarterly results were an improvement from the year-ago period, when Fannie reported a $25.2 billion loss, but the annual loss surpassed the year-earlier loss of $58.7 billion.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940704575089983572747598.html?KEYWORDS=Timiraos