Ever since Superstorm Sandy, we’ve seen the phenomenon of storm-washing from our finance sector. That’s when banks decide to capitalize on the storm and generate some good PR by offering extended reliefto homeowners in the storm’s path. Banks are offering extended relief to homeowners in areas affected by superstorm Sandy in the form of loan [...]

Thankfully, most people got the RealtyTrac data on foreclosures in the first quarter of 2012, which showed the lowest amount of filings since the beginning of the recession, mostly right. We had a settlement on foreclosure fraud that just got approved by a federal judge last Friday, after the end of the first quarter. So [...]

Harold Ford’s prescription for the President is obviously ridiculous, but I want to highlight and examine one of his recommendations. Second, the President should order his department heads and agency chiefs to declare a moratorium on new regulations until further notice. The broadband ecosystem is an excellent example of why a moratorium is needed. The [...]

The President immediately tried to turn the tables on the earmark debate, putting those in his party as well as those on the Republican side, who are poised to forswear earmarks, in an awkward position. I welcome Senator McConnell’s decision to join me and members of both parties who support cracking down on wasteful earmark [...]

The inspector general for the Interior Department alleges that the White House edited a report to make it look like independent scientists and engineers supported the Administration’s moratorium on deepwater oil drilling. In the wee hours of the morning of May 27, a staff member to White House energy adviser Carol Browner sent two edited [...]

From the same poll showing that more than half of the country is worried about finding enough money to make their next mortgage payment, Americans want homeowners to get the upper hand in the aftermath of the foreclosure fraud scandal. The recent foreclosure mess provides another example of this gap between the policy decisions in [...]

Lost in the frenzy surrounding a potential foreclosure moratorium is the fact that foreclosures just hummed along at a record clip in September, before the “troubles” began. Foreclosure filings were reported on 347,420 U.S. properties in September, an increase of nearly 3 percent from the previous month and an increase of 1 percent from September [...]

Ally Financial (the parent company of GMAC Mortgage) expanded their review of their foreclosure processes to all 50 states, the second mortgage servicer to do so after Bank of America. It’s assumed but also a bit unclear whether this means they’re halting evictions or other foreclosure operations, though they provide this statement: “Foreclosure is a [...]

The White House supports the 40-state investigation into fraudulent foreclosure practices, though they stopped short of endorsing a nationwide moratorium. It’s worth noting that the chief executive could not accomplish such a moratorium by himself. States are undergoing their own moratorium attempts. Independent regulators like the FDIC or the OCC could potentially enact moratoria on [...]

Democratic candidates are already dead in the water in Louisiana, so I wouldn’t term this an October surprise. But Robert Gibbs told reporters today that the Administration would lift their moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico soon, possibly by the end of the week. The moratorium was never meant to be an [...]

The smaller servicers have begun to follow the big boys, by closing up some of their foreclosure operations. Litton Loan Servicing LP, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, halted “some” foreclosure operations. But this vagueness is why public officials like Richard Cordray doesn’t want to leave this to internal reviews and the discretion of the lenders. [...]