Thursday, 30 December 2010

foreclosure report

Fox News personality and former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) recently began appearing in television commercials calling for viewers to dial a 1-800 number to sign a repeal petition against health reform called “Repeal It Now.” The ad, a “project of Restore America’s Voice” (RAV), a political action committee run by Huckabee’s friend Ken Hoagland, also directs viewers to a website that solicits donations [...]


According to disclosures filed with the FEC, RAV’s campaign is managed by a firm called the 949 Media Group. 949 has been paid tens of thousands of dollars to set up RAV’s website and Google search optimization, and receives a regular commission of $10,000 for related media work from RAV. ThinkProgress spoke to a representative from RAV, who told us that 949 is run by an individual named Derek Oberholtzer. According to the representative, Oberholtzer has worked with RAV since the PAC formed in October.


Oberholtzer is well known as scam artist who has used a myriad of tricks to defraud people out of their money. In addition to 949 Media Group, he started a number of companies, including “Apply 2 Save” (A2S) and Giant Media Works. Consumer report websites are rife with complaints about Oberholtzer’s odious business practices. In one scheme, Oberholtzer paid for radio and other advertisements telling distressed homeowners to contact his company A2S to pay a flat $595 fee to receive assistance in renegotiating their loans or to block a bank foreclosure. The Federal Trade Commission has prosecuted Oberholtzer for deceptive practices. In numerous cases, Oberholtzer took the $595 payment, and never did anything to stop a foreclosure or even contact the mortgage company in question. In many instances he continued billing his customers further fees totaling nearly $1,000 without lifting a finger to actually renegotiate their mortgage or halt a foreclosure, as his “Apply 2 Save” company promised.

I generally agree with yoru statement, all the tricks the FED did to print hosuing dollars are done now, now people have to bring real money, and that means wages. However I disagree with statement "businesses competing with foreign wages CANNOT pay higher wages to American workers". Businesses overpay their CEOs and upper management all the time (boards are made up of cronies, not directors working in best interest of stockowners) and big US businesses are generally making high profits and have record cash reserves. So businesses CAN afford to pay workers high wages, but rather, they simply WON'T because they do not have to (no laws, unions etc to force them) and the WON'T because unlike the waste of over-priced salaries at high-end of coroporate ladders, business are not so stupid and wasteful and low-end and they keep low and middle workers wages as low as they can or they outsource.


But just so you know in real world there is an alternative ( not one you will ever see in US due to our politics and people assumptions like yours) look at Germany. They are an exporting machine. Their companies are very competitive in world market AND their worker wages and benefits are much higher than US. They have higher horuly salaries, their workers get 6 weeks vacation from get go, etc.. Also, they are fairly heavily regulated, their companies are held to high safety standards, high worker fairness standards, and tough environmental standards and also their companies do a lot with expensive alternative energy.


So in my mind there are at least two ways to for a countries companies to be competitve on world market, China or Germany, the only option is NOT China and depressed wages and weak currency.


Again and again, I see smart people assuming we must just do a China to compete, low wages, weak currency, trash the environment, peel back regulations that keep workers safe and keep work place fair. Its like Germany's example does not enter our consciousness. No way we can have a strong social safety net, treat enviroment well, have a strong currency, pay workers well, regulate businesses to ensure fairness and still compete, pay not attention to Germany.


It may not be easy for US to replicate what is working for Germany, primarily simply because most in US media and culture has it so we don't even know it that at least one coutnry is already proven it is possible, but it is crazy not to at least look at what they are doing and see if maybe we could strive for something closer to them. Germany competes and grows and German workers benefit. Germans model is very good for the common wealth, and yet, all we can fixate on is China.


We see same phenomen in business. There are some companies that are very successful and treat their workers much better than average, while other companies see their only way to success is to treat low end workers as badly as possible and to overcompensate upper management. See simply Costco vs. Sam's club.


Stop self-limiting, we can be a globally competitive country and have a solid middle class and have clean air and water, safe workplaces. But we won't if we let crony upper management of US companies decide everything in their interest, because clearly, sh%^ting on workers and over-compensating themselves and their friends, corrupting our government for their purposes is what they will keep doing unless we fight for something better.



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Geraldine Hoff Doyle, Inspiration Behind &#39;We Can Do It!&#39; Poster <b>...</b>

Geraldine Hoff Doyle, the woman whose face inspired the famous.

Keith Olbermann: &#39;Fox <b>News</b> Is 100% Bullshit&#39;

Keith Olbermann is anything but hesitant when it comes to a battle with Fox News, and the MSNBC anchor took to Twitter Wednesday to share his views on the TV network he probably wouldn't even call a rival. "Fox News is 100% bullshit," ...

AOL Weird <b>News</b> Top 10: The Best of the Bizarre

What does a one-legged man, a fly-sized frog, a bacon sculpture of Kevin Bacon, conjoined twins who can see out of each other's eyes and a 115-foot Jesus statue have in common? They've all made the list for AOL's Top Ten Weird News ...


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Tuesday, 28 December 2010

web site promotion internet marketing


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Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Cable <b>News</b> Ratings 2010: Top 30 Programs Of The Year (PHOTOS)

2010 is almost done, and the cable news ratings for the entire year are in. As always, Fox News came out on top, thoroughly dominating the competition and taking the top 12 slots on the ratings list.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

<b>News</b> - Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth Engaged! - Healthy Lifestyle <b>...</b>

The actress and her Hollywood agent beau are "extremely happy," her rep tells Us exclusively.


bench craft company scam

Thursday, 23 December 2010

internet marketing









Facebook passed 400 million active users in February and continued its ascent throughout the year. As at date of writing, Facebook boasts more than 500 million active users, half of whom log on to Facebook on any given day. The average user has 130 friends and, in aggregate, Facebook users spend "over 700 billion minutes per month" on the site. In November, Hitwise reported that Facebook gets nearly 25% of page views in the United States.


With such scale, Facebook hasn't been without its controversies. The biggest in 2010 was a significant change to privacy settings, which Facebook announced right at the end of last year. Previously, most of a user's information was private by default. But heading into 2010, a large swath of the average Facebook user's data was made public: name, profile photo, gender, current city, networks, friends list, and all of the pages they subscribe to. Later, in May, Facebook reluctantly reversed some of those changes - but the
default setting for most content published on Facebook remains public.




Despite concerns ranging from privacy to de-emphasizing third party content, Facebook is a source of joy for many millions of people. It helps keep families and friends stay connected, enables users to track news from their social network, keeps people amused with games, and much more. In 2010, there was no other Internet company as influential as Facebook.


Runners-Up: Apple, Google


After winning Best BigCo in 2008, Apple was a runner-up last year and has been very impressive again in 2010. The launch of the iPad was the highlight - another groundbreaking consumer Internet device that re-defined a market! Apple also released a new version of the iPhone this year, along with improvements to its iPhone OS such as multi-tasking. The new phone had technical issues with the antenna, but still sold extremely well.


Apple's App Store continued to dominate the mobile app market in 2010, although the Android marketplace is catching up. Overall, another great year for Steve Jobs and co.


Google has won our BigCo award 3 times over 7 years and never fails to impress. This year Google made great strides in the all-important mobile market, with Android making up ground on iPhone. It continued to dominate search, despite a big marketing push from Microsoft's Bing. Google showed that it can still innovate in search, with enhancements such as Instant Search. It also made progress in key markets such as enterprise (with Google Apps) and Internet TV (with Google TV).


Things didn't go all Google's way this year, however. Its innovative Wave product was farmed out as an open source project, the launch of a social media tracking service called Google Buzz was a flub, and Google had many critics in the privacy debate (for Google Street View in particular). Overall though, it was a strong year for Google - albeit with some speed wobbles.


Honorable Mentions



Unity Stoakes is the co-founder and president of OrganizedWisdom, an expert-driven digital media company focused on health and wellness. OrganizedWisdom is building the world’s first digital mapping of online health experts to help people easily discover and connect with credible health resources.

Is your doctor easily accessible online, or does he or she believe that the Internet isn’t a resource for accessing health information?

If it’s the latter, it may be time to find another doctor. With nearly 90% of online Americans searching the Internet for health resources, it’s likely you and your friends and family already use the Internet to research health issues. It’s true that the web has a jumble of health information, and engaging online takes time, which most health experts don’t have. The good news, however, is that the increasing number of health professionals now embracing the Internet as an important and useful tool for health and wellness is beginning to change your options as a consumer.

Read on for some ways that social media can help doctors, health experts and everyday users.

Social Wellness Trends/>

An exciting new social media trend is emerging that disrupts the standard view of health care delivery and will have a profound impact on us all. Thousands of doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and health advocates are publicly engaging with people online. In fact, nearly 40% of Americans turn to social media for health information.

Patients (and a few early adopter health pros) moved online years ago to share health guidance, give support and find answers. But until recently, many health professionals have avoided using the Internet and social media as a way to help patients. This reluctance is changing, as savvy physicians, nurses, dentists and other health pros are realizing that if their patients are online, then perhaps they should be too. Health practitioners who were once too busy, inexperienced or afraid to share their expertise online, now actively share links on Twitter and Facebook, blog, write for online medical journals, engage on Q&A sites, or contribute to online health sites and forums.

For too long, health and wellness has been a do-it-yourself proposition for patients online, and people have been left on their own to determine how to effectively utilize empty search boxes. People have great access to lots of information, but they must sort through the billions of articles to determine the credible from redundant health encyclopedias, marketing web sites or sites with potentially unknown sources. Then, the task of deciding the credibility of the sources and articles has fallen on the patient alone.

While the number of health experts interacting with patients online is relatively small, there is a clear trend taking shape. A recent Manhattan Research survey of U.S. physicians shows an increase of Internet usage for professional purposes up from 2.5 hours per week in 2002 to 8 hours per week in 2010. More strikingly, while more than 100,000 doctors are using closed social health networks like Sermo.com and publishing in peer-reviewed journals online, thousands of health professionals are now blogging, using Twitter, and connecting with patients on Facebook in very public ways. So much so that this November, for the first time, the American Medical Association released a set of guidelines to direct physicians communicating and engaging with patients via social media. And earlier this year, the CDC also published its own best practices toolkit for how health professionals should be using social media.

Given that so many people now go to the Internet before, during and after their visit to the doctor’s office, the lack of guidance from credible and trusted health experts online is a growing problem. In fact, Manhattan Research shows that 61% of people now use the Internet instead of visiting a doctor. Thankfully, the tide is turning as thousands of health practitioners move online to do much more than interact with friends, family and colleagues and are instead using the social web to dispense their particular health expertise.

What This Means for Health Information Seekers/>

We are standing at the precipice of a new online revolution in health care. As more and more health experts embrace the Internet and increase their social media activity, health information seekers will undoubtedly benefit in profound ways. Based on conversations and surveys conducted with experts and health information seekers, here are some of the benefits associated with a robust online community of active health experts:

Interaction With Experts: In the real world, people seeking answers to important health, financial or legal matters look for guidance from the best experts. With a growing community of health experts participating in online discussions, people have access to more expertise than ever before at their fingertips.

Credibility and Trust: With doctors and other health professionals contributing information online in increasing numbers, it is important for a trust filter to separate credible information and sources from information that is not credible. The community of health professionals that is forming online will act as a system of checks and balances to separate good information and sources from the bad.

Transparency: It’s been a watershed year for increased transparency as government, big business, the financial services industry and other sectors have been shining a light into their operations like never before. Healthcare is taking a major step forward in this regard at the grassroots level, with an expert community being formed online by doctors, nurses and other health professionals across the country. As more doctors view social media as an extension of their professional reputation, you can be sure that they will treat their online interactions with the same care as they do in the offline world.

While the increase in the online activity of health experts is a welcome development, searching for crucial health information online remains an overwhelming and intimidating process for many. In the offline world, people searching for health information seek out the best experts — and now with more health professionals moving online, people will finally be able to connect with credible experts they can trust.

More Social Media Resources from Mashable:

- 4 Effective Tools for Monitoring Your Child’s Online Safety/> - Social Media Parenting: Raising the Digital Generation/> - 5 Fun and Safe Social Networks for Children/> - HOW TO: Help Your Child Set Up a Blog/> - The Case For Social Media in Schools

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, dcdr

For more Social Media coverage:

    class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

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Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Obama <b>news</b> conference: liveblog – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the lame duck session of Congress and plans for the upcoming year.

WikiLeaks documents leaked again : Views and <b>News</b> from Norway

“I have no comment on how we secured access to the documents,” Aftenposten's news editor Ole Erik Almlid told DN. “We never reveal our sources, not in this case either.” DN also reported that WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had ...

Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox <b>News</b> conducting terrorism <b>...</b>

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.


bench craft company scam

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

Making Money Online With






If you are already selling on eBay; have you ever thought about selling on Amazon, you get different rates between the two depending on what you’re selling? Read on and I’ll explain the differences between the selling platforms.


If you have ever bought anything on Amazon, you may have seen the item offered by sellers too. There are individuals and businesses selling all kinds of goods on Amazon in the same way.


If you are selling on eBay it may be worth considering if you should also be selling on Amazon. It is safe to say that some items are better listed with eBay however Amazon might be the best choice for a different type of product. But there are many similarities between products selling well on both platforms.


What’s the difference?


The main difference between the sites is that eBay focuses mainly on the auction format whilst the Amazon Associates platform relies on a fixed price arrangement, although eBay also offers buy-it-now as a fixed price listing option.


Undoubtedly if you’re eager to shift something quick then the auction option is the best, although you may be disappointed with the end result if you haven’t set a reserve at the beginning of the sale.


For some businesses, especially those looking for a fixed price sale Amazon may be the preferred way forward especially if they are using this method on all their products. Even thought eBay is typically an auction site they’re moving more towards fixed price listings to compete more with the rise in Amazon’s market share in this area.


What are the Advantages?


There are some differences in the type of shoppers that use Amazon & eBay. eBayers tend to be the bargain hunters who will go to any lengths to find what they’re looking for cheaper, whilst Amazon shoppers tend to be more conventional, albeit looking for good value but at a fixed price. By selling on both sites you can take advantage of larger number of buyers that could potentially view and buy your products, giving you advantage over a number of your competitors and increasing your coverage.

Continued on the next page

CNBC released a brand new iPad app late Monday, delivering the first truly useful, real-time market updates dashboard for the device.

The free app is cleverly organized for quick access to the latest information on the markets, including real-time stock quotes and charts from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ, as well as articles and videos from CNBC.com. Users can customize the dashboard to keep track of their individual portfolios and save articles (although not videos) for later offline viewing. A news ticker (which can be customized to track certain industries or personal portfolios) runs along the bottom of the app, making it easy to catch relevant breaking news as users navigate through the different sections.

Users can also watch highlights from CNBC’s more popular shows, including Mad Money and Fast Money.

It makes Fox Business’s [iTunes link] and Bloomberg’s [iTunes link] iPad apps, which have a 15-minute reporting delay on stock quotes, look primitive by comparison.

Only two things are lacking: streaming access to CNBC’s live TV content and better social integration. Admittedly, finance is not a popular topic of discussion on social networks currently; however, the growth of online social communities like Stocktwits may very well reverse this trend. We’d love to see sharing options for class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook and class='blippr-nobr'>Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter, live commenting functionality on videos and articles, as well as live, stock-related tweets from Stocktwits’s API.

Check out CNBC’s app for yourself in the screenshot gallery below, as well as in the App Storeclass="blippr-nobr">App Store [iTunes link].

CNBC Real-Time for iPad

style="display:none" class="gallery_id">481 style="display:none" class="post_id">463361 style="display:none" class="gallery_type">photo class="ytm-view-type">View As One Page »
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Tuesday, 7 December 2010

bank foreclosure

With recent revelations of the fraudclosure scandal, and a spike in interest toward all things REO, we decided to go back to basics and present some "appendices" over why this process of excess bank inventory clearance is so important and what its implications are, especially in a world in which foreclosing has suddenly become legally impossible.

First, courtesy of UBS, an outline of the Foreclosure process:

The Foreclosure Process

The foreclosure process may vary significantly across states and even across countries, but the following description is general enough that it should be applicable to most of the US.

Delinquency and foreclosure. After a homeowner with a mortgage loan has missed three monthly payments, he or she is considered to be “90 days delinquent,” and the servicer of the mortgage (the company to which the mortgage payments are made) can initiate foreclosure proceedings.

Auction. At some point, the borrower will be asked to vacate the home, and if necessary at some later point, the borrower will be compelled to vacate the home by local authorities. The home will then go up for auction.

REO. If the auction bids do not reach a high enough level to cover the outstanding balance of the loan, the lender can take ownership of the property. Once the lender owns the property (referred to as real-estate-owned or REO), it will typically remain vacant until the lender is able to sell it.

A quick back of the envelope analysis that shows how much incremental inventory foreclosure creates:

A flow chart of the foreclosure process:

The charts below show the geographic/spatial concentration of foreclosure filings, as well as concentration of GSE in selected states:

The states where foreclosure accounts for the bulk of transactions:

A snapshot of contagion effects of foreclosure on homes in the same naighborhood:

Those who wish to dig into the fascinating topic of contagion (in foreclosures, not in default European countries), can find more info below:

As those who have been following our RealtyTrac updates know, in the last quarter the discount between a regular home sale and that in foreclosure just hit an all time record. Here is how the pricing matrix looks like by state and nationally:

And possibly the scariest chart of all: the end buyer of all the REOs, the properties that end up having the lowest salvage value, for the most part end up being acquired by the nationalized GSEs. And since the GSEs are on the US shadow balance sheet, these are simply more "assets" that collateralize US treasurys, and therefore, the US currency.

Take all the data above, and layer on top the complete confusion courtesy of the self-imposed foreclosure moratorium, and the utter confusion in the market becomes apparent.




By Thomas Cox, a retired bank lawyer in Portland, Maine who serves as the Volunteer Program Coordinator for the Maine Attorney’s Saving Homes (MASH) program, cross posted from New Deal 2.0


Back in September, I was asked to give some unusual advice to a client. This woman, a resident of rural Northwestern Maine, wanted to know if she should buy the two cords of wood that she needed to heat her $48,000 home for the winter. I had previously told her that my bag of legal tricks was empty, and that I could not stop KeyBank from completing a foreclosure of its $28,000 second mortgage on her home. She was having trouble accepting the fact that it would really evict her, since she owed $50,000 on her first mortgage to a local bank, a loan on which she was current in her payments, which meant that KeyBank could recover nothing by foreclosing on its second mortgage. She told me again how, even though she had lost her job in the local paper mill, she had found other, but much lower, employment income and that she was able and willing to make reduced payments on the second mortgage. But KeyBank refused to accept reduced payments.


I had to tell my client that she should not buy the firewood, as I knew that it was planning an eviction within days. I had managed to penetrate the executive offices in Cleveland, Ohio, telling the “Executive Client Relations” person in the “Office of the President” how foolish it was to evict this woman, who had reduced income but a real willingness to devote as much of that as she could to continued second mortgage payments. The letter that I received in response told me how much KeyBank “valued” this woman as a client, how it “is committed to providing her with excellent service,” and how it regrets “any inconvenience or frustration your client may have experienced.” The letter closed by telling me, “e appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns with quality and integrity.” That letter also told me that it was not willing to do anything at all to restructure this woman’s loan or to stop the eviction process.


After spending over $4,000 on foreclosure costs and legal fees, it purchased my client’s interest in the property at its foreclosure sale (there were no other bidders for this worthless second interest) and it did evict this woman from her home at the beginning of October. She is now living in the basement of her daughter’s house. Since the interest in this home that it purchased was still subject to the outstanding first mortgage, it then paid $50,000 to the first mortgage holder so that it could own full title to the property as it made plans to re-sell it. Thus, at this point it had over $54,000 invested in gaining full title to this property. Last week, KeyBank listed this property for sale for $44,000. It will surely net no more than $40,000, if it can sell it at all. This will leave the bank with a real cash loss of over $14,000, a woman living in her daughter’s basement who was willing to pay at least some level on her second mortgage, her community with an empty and devalued property in its midst, and a very sour taste for all of us who try to help these people.


Looking only at this loan and the personal situation of its borrower, KeyBank’s actions make no sense at all. However, along with all of the other major lenders and loan servicers in this foreclosure crisis, it does not look at these loans from a personal perspective. Everything is driven by “the numbers.” Those numbers tell financial institutions like KeyBank that it makes economic sense to avoid the costs of evaluating these loans on an individual basis. The numbers tell them not spend the money to pay employees to make individual decisions on whether a situation such as the one described here makes sense or whether ways can be found to work with the homeowner. KeyBank and the other large financial institutions and loan servicers do not care if they needlessly ruin the lives of some of their customers, as long as they can minimize the expense of dealing with their individual situations. The only “quality and integrity” that these institutions care about is the quality and integrity of their bottom lines.


I used to represent KeyBank back in my bank lawyer days. It grew out of purchases of two venerable old-line Maine banks with roots going back into the mid-1800s. Even as late as the 1990s, when I was representing KeyBank of Maine, it was still a “local bank.” There were bank officers assigned to dealing with loans such as this one who would make real human decisions on appropriate courses of action. Since these banks have gone national, they no longer care about how they hurt their individual customers, and they no longer care about the communities where those customers live. They are entirely willing to sacrifice a certain (and substantial) percentage of those customers on the altar of corporate profits. They can get away with this because they can lend money more cheaply then our local banks can — Federal monetary policies allow them to borrow money at a cheaper rate. Is this what we want from our Federal government?


Sadly, my advice to my client was correct. It was good that she did not waste her limited resources on the two cords of wood, as she no longer has a house to heat for the winter.




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With recent revelations of the fraudclosure scandal, and a spike in interest toward all things REO, we decided to go back to basics and present some "appendices" over why this process of excess bank inventory clearance is so important and what its implications are, especially in a world in which foreclosing has suddenly become legally impossible.

First, courtesy of UBS, an outline of the Foreclosure process:

The Foreclosure Process

The foreclosure process may vary significantly across states and even across countries, but the following description is general enough that it should be applicable to most of the US.

Delinquency and foreclosure. After a homeowner with a mortgage loan has missed three monthly payments, he or she is considered to be “90 days delinquent,” and the servicer of the mortgage (the company to which the mortgage payments are made) can initiate foreclosure proceedings.

Auction. At some point, the borrower will be asked to vacate the home, and if necessary at some later point, the borrower will be compelled to vacate the home by local authorities. The home will then go up for auction.

REO. If the auction bids do not reach a high enough level to cover the outstanding balance of the loan, the lender can take ownership of the property. Once the lender owns the property (referred to as real-estate-owned or REO), it will typically remain vacant until the lender is able to sell it.

A quick back of the envelope analysis that shows how much incremental inventory foreclosure creates:

A flow chart of the foreclosure process:

The charts below show the geographic/spatial concentration of foreclosure filings, as well as concentration of GSE in selected states:

The states where foreclosure accounts for the bulk of transactions:

A snapshot of contagion effects of foreclosure on homes in the same naighborhood:

Those who wish to dig into the fascinating topic of contagion (in foreclosures, not in default European countries), can find more info below:

As those who have been following our RealtyTrac updates know, in the last quarter the discount between a regular home sale and that in foreclosure just hit an all time record. Here is how the pricing matrix looks like by state and nationally:

And possibly the scariest chart of all: the end buyer of all the REOs, the properties that end up having the lowest salvage value, for the most part end up being acquired by the nationalized GSEs. And since the GSEs are on the US shadow balance sheet, these are simply more "assets" that collateralize US treasurys, and therefore, the US currency.

Take all the data above, and layer on top the complete confusion courtesy of the self-imposed foreclosure moratorium, and the utter confusion in the market becomes apparent.




By Thomas Cox, a retired bank lawyer in Portland, Maine who serves as the Volunteer Program Coordinator for the Maine Attorney’s Saving Homes (MASH) program, cross posted from New Deal 2.0


Back in September, I was asked to give some unusual advice to a client. This woman, a resident of rural Northwestern Maine, wanted to know if she should buy the two cords of wood that she needed to heat her $48,000 home for the winter. I had previously told her that my bag of legal tricks was empty, and that I could not stop KeyBank from completing a foreclosure of its $28,000 second mortgage on her home. She was having trouble accepting the fact that it would really evict her, since she owed $50,000 on her first mortgage to a local bank, a loan on which she was current in her payments, which meant that KeyBank could recover nothing by foreclosing on its second mortgage. She told me again how, even though she had lost her job in the local paper mill, she had found other, but much lower, employment income and that she was able and willing to make reduced payments on the second mortgage. But KeyBank refused to accept reduced payments.


I had to tell my client that she should not buy the firewood, as I knew that it was planning an eviction within days. I had managed to penetrate the executive offices in Cleveland, Ohio, telling the “Executive Client Relations” person in the “Office of the President” how foolish it was to evict this woman, who had reduced income but a real willingness to devote as much of that as she could to continued second mortgage payments. The letter that I received in response told me how much KeyBank “valued” this woman as a client, how it “is committed to providing her with excellent service,” and how it regrets “any inconvenience or frustration your client may have experienced.” The letter closed by telling me, “e appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns with quality and integrity.” That letter also told me that it was not willing to do anything at all to restructure this woman’s loan or to stop the eviction process.


After spending over $4,000 on foreclosure costs and legal fees, it purchased my client’s interest in the property at its foreclosure sale (there were no other bidders for this worthless second interest) and it did evict this woman from her home at the beginning of October. She is now living in the basement of her daughter’s house. Since the interest in this home that it purchased was still subject to the outstanding first mortgage, it then paid $50,000 to the first mortgage holder so that it could own full title to the property as it made plans to re-sell it. Thus, at this point it had over $54,000 invested in gaining full title to this property. Last week, KeyBank listed this property for sale for $44,000. It will surely net no more than $40,000, if it can sell it at all. This will leave the bank with a real cash loss of over $14,000, a woman living in her daughter’s basement who was willing to pay at least some level on her second mortgage, her community with an empty and devalued property in its midst, and a very sour taste for all of us who try to help these people.


Looking only at this loan and the personal situation of its borrower, KeyBank’s actions make no sense at all. However, along with all of the other major lenders and loan servicers in this foreclosure crisis, it does not look at these loans from a personal perspective. Everything is driven by “the numbers.” Those numbers tell financial institutions like KeyBank that it makes economic sense to avoid the costs of evaluating these loans on an individual basis. The numbers tell them not spend the money to pay employees to make individual decisions on whether a situation such as the one described here makes sense or whether ways can be found to work with the homeowner. KeyBank and the other large financial institutions and loan servicers do not care if they needlessly ruin the lives of some of their customers, as long as they can minimize the expense of dealing with their individual situations. The only “quality and integrity” that these institutions care about is the quality and integrity of their bottom lines.


I used to represent KeyBank back in my bank lawyer days. It grew out of purchases of two venerable old-line Maine banks with roots going back into the mid-1800s. Even as late as the 1990s, when I was representing KeyBank of Maine, it was still a “local bank.” There were bank officers assigned to dealing with loans such as this one who would make real human decisions on appropriate courses of action. Since these banks have gone national, they no longer care about how they hurt their individual customers, and they no longer care about the communities where those customers live. They are entirely willing to sacrifice a certain (and substantial) percentage of those customers on the altar of corporate profits. They can get away with this because they can lend money more cheaply then our local banks can — Federal monetary policies allow them to borrow money at a cheaper rate. Is this what we want from our Federal government?


Sadly, my advice to my client was correct. It was good that she did not waste her limited resources on the two cords of wood, as she no longer has a house to heat for the winter.




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Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

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Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

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Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...



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Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

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Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...



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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

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Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...



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With recent revelations of the fraudclosure scandal, and a spike in interest toward all things REO, we decided to go back to basics and present some "appendices" over why this process of excess bank inventory clearance is so important and what its implications are, especially in a world in which foreclosing has suddenly become legally impossible.

First, courtesy of UBS, an outline of the Foreclosure process:

The Foreclosure Process

The foreclosure process may vary significantly across states and even across countries, but the following description is general enough that it should be applicable to most of the US.

Delinquency and foreclosure. After a homeowner with a mortgage loan has missed three monthly payments, he or she is considered to be “90 days delinquent,” and the servicer of the mortgage (the company to which the mortgage payments are made) can initiate foreclosure proceedings.

Auction. At some point, the borrower will be asked to vacate the home, and if necessary at some later point, the borrower will be compelled to vacate the home by local authorities. The home will then go up for auction.

REO. If the auction bids do not reach a high enough level to cover the outstanding balance of the loan, the lender can take ownership of the property. Once the lender owns the property (referred to as real-estate-owned or REO), it will typically remain vacant until the lender is able to sell it.

A quick back of the envelope analysis that shows how much incremental inventory foreclosure creates:

A flow chart of the foreclosure process:

The charts below show the geographic/spatial concentration of foreclosure filings, as well as concentration of GSE in selected states:

The states where foreclosure accounts for the bulk of transactions:

A snapshot of contagion effects of foreclosure on homes in the same naighborhood:

Those who wish to dig into the fascinating topic of contagion (in foreclosures, not in default European countries), can find more info below:

As those who have been following our RealtyTrac updates know, in the last quarter the discount between a regular home sale and that in foreclosure just hit an all time record. Here is how the pricing matrix looks like by state and nationally:

And possibly the scariest chart of all: the end buyer of all the REOs, the properties that end up having the lowest salvage value, for the most part end up being acquired by the nationalized GSEs. And since the GSEs are on the US shadow balance sheet, these are simply more "assets" that collateralize US treasurys, and therefore, the US currency.

Take all the data above, and layer on top the complete confusion courtesy of the self-imposed foreclosure moratorium, and the utter confusion in the market becomes apparent.




By Thomas Cox, a retired bank lawyer in Portland, Maine who serves as the Volunteer Program Coordinator for the Maine Attorney’s Saving Homes (MASH) program, cross posted from New Deal 2.0


Back in September, I was asked to give some unusual advice to a client. This woman, a resident of rural Northwestern Maine, wanted to know if she should buy the two cords of wood that she needed to heat her $48,000 home for the winter. I had previously told her that my bag of legal tricks was empty, and that I could not stop KeyBank from completing a foreclosure of its $28,000 second mortgage on her home. She was having trouble accepting the fact that it would really evict her, since she owed $50,000 on her first mortgage to a local bank, a loan on which she was current in her payments, which meant that KeyBank could recover nothing by foreclosing on its second mortgage. She told me again how, even though she had lost her job in the local paper mill, she had found other, but much lower, employment income and that she was able and willing to make reduced payments on the second mortgage. But KeyBank refused to accept reduced payments.


I had to tell my client that she should not buy the firewood, as I knew that it was planning an eviction within days. I had managed to penetrate the executive offices in Cleveland, Ohio, telling the “Executive Client Relations” person in the “Office of the President” how foolish it was to evict this woman, who had reduced income but a real willingness to devote as much of that as she could to continued second mortgage payments. The letter that I received in response told me how much KeyBank “valued” this woman as a client, how it “is committed to providing her with excellent service,” and how it regrets “any inconvenience or frustration your client may have experienced.” The letter closed by telling me, “e appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns with quality and integrity.” That letter also told me that it was not willing to do anything at all to restructure this woman’s loan or to stop the eviction process.


After spending over $4,000 on foreclosure costs and legal fees, it purchased my client’s interest in the property at its foreclosure sale (there were no other bidders for this worthless second interest) and it did evict this woman from her home at the beginning of October. She is now living in the basement of her daughter’s house. Since the interest in this home that it purchased was still subject to the outstanding first mortgage, it then paid $50,000 to the first mortgage holder so that it could own full title to the property as it made plans to re-sell it. Thus, at this point it had over $54,000 invested in gaining full title to this property. Last week, KeyBank listed this property for sale for $44,000. It will surely net no more than $40,000, if it can sell it at all. This will leave the bank with a real cash loss of over $14,000, a woman living in her daughter’s basement who was willing to pay at least some level on her second mortgage, her community with an empty and devalued property in its midst, and a very sour taste for all of us who try to help these people.


Looking only at this loan and the personal situation of its borrower, KeyBank’s actions make no sense at all. However, along with all of the other major lenders and loan servicers in this foreclosure crisis, it does not look at these loans from a personal perspective. Everything is driven by “the numbers.” Those numbers tell financial institutions like KeyBank that it makes economic sense to avoid the costs of evaluating these loans on an individual basis. The numbers tell them not spend the money to pay employees to make individual decisions on whether a situation such as the one described here makes sense or whether ways can be found to work with the homeowner. KeyBank and the other large financial institutions and loan servicers do not care if they needlessly ruin the lives of some of their customers, as long as they can minimize the expense of dealing with their individual situations. The only “quality and integrity” that these institutions care about is the quality and integrity of their bottom lines.


I used to represent KeyBank back in my bank lawyer days. It grew out of purchases of two venerable old-line Maine banks with roots going back into the mid-1800s. Even as late as the 1990s, when I was representing KeyBank of Maine, it was still a “local bank.” There were bank officers assigned to dealing with loans such as this one who would make real human decisions on appropriate courses of action. Since these banks have gone national, they no longer care about how they hurt their individual customers, and they no longer care about the communities where those customers live. They are entirely willing to sacrifice a certain (and substantial) percentage of those customers on the altar of corporate profits. They can get away with this because they can lend money more cheaply then our local banks can — Federal monetary policies allow them to borrow money at a cheaper rate. Is this what we want from our Federal government?


Sadly, my advice to my client was correct. It was good that she did not waste her limited resources on the two cords of wood, as she no longer has a house to heat for the winter.




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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...



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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...



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Steve Lopez: Dodgers divorce ruling good <b>news</b> for fans who want <b>...</b>

Around my office, the reactions were nearly unanimous recently when it came time to decide whether to keep our shares in a Dodgers season-ticket plan. One guy had the good sense to opt out; the rest of us saps, who...

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...



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