SMALL GOVERNMENT CONSERVATIVE WATCH
#1 on the list of items to directly help consumers.
THE STRENGTH OF THE GOP DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN
While one wouldn't favor a permanent change, it does make sense, so long as other items to clear the market are a waste and little additional information is flowing about what the terms of the problem loans look like in aggregate (i.e. how many have provisions that we would now consider against public policy, like onerous pre-payment penalties and re-sets higher than Kansas corn, or a history of rolling-refinancing for great fees or at above-market interest costs, etc.).
Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, had championed the bankruptcy provision but asked that it be set aside when it threatened to stall the larger bill — a move that won him praise. Tabling the amendment effectively killed it.
After the Senate voted, 58 to 36, to table Mr. Durbin’s amendment
-NYT
FORECLOSURE IS IN THE INTEREST OF PREDATORY LENDERS
If we recall that maybe 1% of sub-prime loans went to create new homeowners.
That implies that most borrowers were tapping home equity.
To the extent that predatory lenders targeted people who were vulnerable (maybe 10-40% of lending?), like the elderly, their (hidden) intension is to foreclose, to seize the assets.
Therefore, a voluntary program, such as Bush-Paulson have undertaken, is doomed from the start, right?
