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FDIC Housing Conference - Future of Housing Finance

By
Industry Observer with RETIRED / State License is Inactive Inactive License Oregon

There has been conferences going on at the FDIC.  Why do I get the feeling that it doesn't really matter?

As I begun to watch the morning segment, there was a really important topic that needed to be addressed.  And, I'm not making this up, the moderator is telling the attendees where to find the bathrooms!

I watch these things, and just want to barf, so had I been there, that announcement might have been critical.  The nauseating titles of the speakers, their CV's, their "pedigrees," how intelligent and bright they are, blah, blah, blah . . . 

I'm sure all the wonderful "titles" really matter to the person who had their loan mod denied then got summarily foreclosed on.

As I watch the conference, I can see they're just looking at the SYMPTOMS.  By now we know what they are.  We've been in the foreclosure nightmare for 3 years now.

They are looking at the SYSTEMS.  By now we know the systems are broken. 

What they don't mention a lot of are . . . what for it . . . what for it . . . the PEOPLE! 

Watching this conference with the presenters presenting their data, their analysis, their hypothesis, their programs with cutsie anagrammed names:  MORE, RADAR . . . oh, and pretty charts, the home owners seem to be a side note.  They aren't even called home owners -- it's "borrowers." 

There were so many pretty charts that CLEARLY put everything into perspective.  The graph that showd the percentage of foreclosures, nice!  And the one that showed how much the investors might lose if the loan modifications were actually approved, brilliant. 

So people . . . home owners . . . are marginalized, literally, into nice, colorful charts and graphs.  They're amassed as faceless and become "borrowers."  They are DATA, to be churned up and out so that "policy markers" have a real fun job to do . . . make MORE graphs and charts to present at the next conference.

The symptoms that have wrecked havoc in just a short amount of time . . . was caused by the systems that have been in place FOR YEARS. 

BEN BERNAKE . . . and his really long CV was there.  Note to Ben:  WHO CARES!  All the babble about this program, that alliance, he even pitches a new "program."  Yeah, that's what we need; another program! Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has a program, and I think Ben stated it served thousands of troubled borrowers.  (around minute marker 7:40)

How very impressive.  Thousands of troubled borrowers!

Then there's another smartie pants from The Boston Federal Reserve, Paul Willen . . .  He's introduced with having a "very esteemed background and pedigree"  . . . and is a policy maker and adviser with the Boston Federal Reserve.  The minute he gets up to the podium, he states he's only on the panel as a "researcher and concerned citizen" and not as a representative of the Boston Federal Reserve of the Federal Reserve System.  (Min. market 16:00)

HUH!?!

Oh, and more pretty charts and graphs.  He had a lot of pretty graphs and charts.

There was one speaker I liked, Adam Levitin, a Georgetown University Financial Regulation Law Professor, about minute marker 30:00

He didn't use ANY pretty charts and/or graphs.

After him, a guy from FDIC who worked with INDY and had over 130,000 files, and only loan modified 23,000 . . . or something like that. 

The trouble I have with these types of powwows is that the home owners aren't talking with YOU guys!  The buffer which separates home owners and the pundits is as thick and dense as the Great Wall of China.

What I would love to produce, if I could, is a juxtaposition of the realities of these parallels -- cause they are happening simultaneously.

Imagine a split screen.  On one side of the screen these types of conferences staring the talking-heads, the academia smartie-pants, the programs, and the policy makers is running.  The blah, blah, blah . . . oh, and the pretty charts and graphs are seen.

On the other side of the split screen we see:  the home owner on the phone trying to talk to someone at the "servicers" office trying to get a loan mod, the family packing up, the Sheriff posting an EVICTiON NOTICE on the home owner's house, the damaged empty house the result of a owner who snapped . . .

Posted by

 

 

Carla Muss-Jacobs has RETIRED effective May 1, 2018

Representing Buyers in the Portland Metro Real Estate Market | Clackamas Multnomah and Washington Counties | Since 1999

Carla Muss-Jacobs, REALTOR®, ABR, CEBA, ePro
Principal Broker/Owner ~~ INACTIVE

Carla Muss-Jacobs' retirement became effective May 1, 2018

Direct: 503-810-7192 

 

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Comments (10)

Jim Hale
ACTIONAGENTS.NET - Eugene, OR
Eugene Oregon's Best Home Search Website

We are truly leaderless.

Say all you might about the Chinese.

They are not leaderless.

It'd be frighteing even itf it wasn't close to Tricks or Treats.

To Ben Ben I say:

B O O ! !

Oct 26, 2010 11:32 AM
John Mulkey
TheHousingGuru.com - Waleska, GA
Housing Guru

Carla - This just isn't real to those guys, just like it's not "real" money they're spending.  It's an academic exercise, like a class project  . . . only this time lives are being forever altered.

Oct 26, 2010 01:38 PM
Alex Morris - Austin Real Estate Agent
Austin, TX
Someone wise once said that if you picked the first 535 people out of the phone book, they could govern as well as those in Congress. I would tend to agree. That Haiku is hilarious, by the way.
Oct 26, 2010 02:38 PM
Jack Mossman - The Nines Team at Keller Williams in Lodi
The Nines Team at Keller Williams in Lodi - Lodi, CA
The Nines Team in Lodi

Carla ... Usually, I watch all your video postings ... this time I'll pass, I just ate!  Thanks for the Reader's Digest version ... I'm with Alex ... but then that'd be too many "A's"  so maybe every 73rd name .... (if it's a really big city!)  The other hundred? ... maybe off the bathroom walls?

Oct 26, 2010 04:42 PM
Carla Muss-Jacobs, RETIRED
RETIRED / State License is Inactive - Portland, OR

Hi Jim . . . BOO! is right!!  

Hey John-- you're so right, they are all doing an "assignment" and nothing substantive gets done.

Hi Alex . . . That is a brilliant way to put it. 

Hey Jack -- yeah, I understand.  I saw some of it on TV, then I saw some on the video.  All in all a yawn fest, with nothing but blah, blah, blah . . . AND pretty charts and graphs!  LOL names off the bathroom walls. 

Oct 26, 2010 06:08 PM
Kevin Dwyer
Sellstate Next Generation - San Diego, CA

I found it very enlightening that while the FED is "investigating possible lender misconduct" that not one person commented about any sort of ramifications. Because there will be none. TARP, HAMP, HAFA all about as useless as the next "system" they will come up with, which will cost us more billions, more lost homes and another round of barf inducing video in about six months.

Oct 26, 2010 07:24 PM
Dawn Maloney
RE/MAX Trinity Northeast Ohio Real Estate Specialist - Hudson, OH
330-990-4236 Hudson & Northeastern Ohio

I am rolling on the floor over that graphic/haiku, but disturbed over the bureaucracy blah, blah, blah.

Oct 27, 2010 02:00 AM
Jon Quist
REALTY EXECUTIVES ARIZONA TERRITORY - Tucson, AZ
Tucson's BUYERS ONLY Realtor since 1996

They have meetings, appoint more committees, and continue to accomplish nothing.

Well, that's not quite true. They usually make the situation worse!

Oct 27, 2010 07:35 PM
Pamela Seley
West Coast Realty Division - Murrieta, CA
Residential Real Estate Agent serving SW RivCo CA

For all their college degrees, pedigrees and other ees, they are all IDIOTS, and they are not fooling anyone with their bullcrap.  This tells you alot about our higher education system -- look it's in progress.  Great post, suggested.

Oct 27, 2010 09:02 PM
Pat Haddad, ABR, CRS, ePRO, GRI
Keller Williams Indianapolis Metro NE - Carmel, IN
Carmel, Fishers, Westfield IN Real Estate Expert

So Carla, just when are you going to run for office???????

Oct 28, 2010 06:19 PM