Credit crisis deliberately caused by the regulators
Monday, October 29, 2007
Foreclosure standoff ends with suicide
I’m so tired of being ridiculed by judges and other idiots over my statements that people DIE due to incorrect and incomplete credit reporting and bizarre credit scoring.
You only have to be off by one FICO score point to be declined for a loan or to be forced into a subprime high rate loan.
Most people don’t PUBLICLY commit suicide. They quietly drop off the radar, to OD or freeze to death, or just disappear, never to be seen again.
Lengthy standoff ends in Spring with man’s suicide
By LINDSAY WISE
Copyright 2007 Houston ChronicleA 12-hour standoff ended this morning with a north Houston man lobbing Molotov cocktails at Houston Police before taking his own life rather than vacate a home he’d lost to foreclosure.
James Hahn, a chemist, had told police he would not be taken from the home alive, said Capt. Bruce Williams, an HPD spokesman.
“ ‘You know what I do for a living and you know what I am capable of,’ “ said Williams, recalling one of the conversations police had with the man on Wednesday.
The standoff began at 1:10 p.m. Wednesday when police said Hahn pulled a gun on Precinct 4 constable deputies who had attempted to serve him with a warrant for eviction at the home in the 21000 block of Covington Bridge in Spring, authorities said.
It would appear that Hahn had prepared for the standoff. He had nailed plywood over windows and doors and stuffed insulation into cracks. A cache of weapons and explosive devices were found in the home, along with a gas mask, chemical suit similar to those worn by Haz-Mat crew members.
Williams said it explained why Hahn didn’t vacate the house after police shot tear gas into the residence on three separate occasions in the hopes of bringing the standoff to an end.
Williams said Hahn was recently divorced, depressed and struggled with financial problems and drug addiction.
“We believe this particular individual was not going to go peacefully,” Williams said.
Throughout the day police said Hahn had set small fires in several places in the home. HPD SWAT officers arrived at the home about 3 p.m. Residents living in nearby were asked to leave their homes until Hahn was taken into custody.
About 11:20 p.m. Wednesday, police repeatedly spoke to the man using a loudspeaker they hooked up in his backyard in the Covington Bridge subdivision..
“This is the Houston Police Department. Come out your front door with nothing in your hands and listen for instructions,” an officer said. “You need to come out now.”
It was just one move in a series of efforts throughout the evening Wednesday to remove the man without deadly force, police said.
Sounds of tear gas being deployed into the barricaded man’s home drew Tammy Sample out of her home late Wednesday.
Sample, 51, came out to investigate with her Yorkie, Bruiser, in her arms. She said she wouldn’t be able to sleep until the standoff was resolved.
“It sounds horrible, but it was kind of exciting at the beginning,” Sample said. “… Now it’s just scary because you never think it’s going to happen where you live.”
Sample opened her home Wednesday to another neighbor who was denied access to her house as a result of the standoff.
Shirley Bell, 43, said she returned to the neighborhood about 3 p.m. to find police blocking her way home.
Bell said she never thought the siege would last so long.
“It seems like for whatever comes, he’s ready,” she said of the man.
Sample agreed. Prior to the standoff, it would appear the man was preparing for something, police said.
“He had installed surveillance cameras and boarded up his windows,” Sample said. “He was ready all right.”
Shortly after midnight Wednesday, residents could hear police pleading with the man again to surrender.
“We’re not leaving today. And this is only going to get worse for you come out now,” a SWAT negotiator said.
An hour and a half later, Hahn shot himself as officers closed in on his home.
Residents noted there had been a number of foreclosures in the neighborhood lately.
But none imagined that Hahn would take his life rather than leave a home that no longer belonged to him.
Chronicle reporter Dale Lezon contributed to this report.
It’s the same routine just about every time:
“Williams said Hahn was recently divorced, depressed and struggled with financial problems and drug addiction.”
Nothing destroys a relationship like financial problems.
For most people, the only way to deal with the stress and frustration is to forget reality. Happy pills, alcohol and/or whatever drugs are available do a nice job. Most people survive, but are scarred for life. A crappy life at that. Lousy credit, continuing financial problems and feeling like a worthless piece of shit. Incompetent. Unable to support the family. Unable to keep a roof over their head.
That’s how people feel when they did the best they could and still fail. When they’re told that they SHOULD have read their loan documents, that they SHOULD have done this, that and the other thing.
After all, America is the greatest country in the world and if you fail, it must be your own fault.
Was it really necessary to forcefully remove James Hahn from his home?
Did the new owner have a showing scheduled?
Would YOU want to buy that house?
Who is the owner?
Please post or email if you have any info on this.
Credit crisis deliberately caused by the regulators • Credit - Collection - Economic News • (4) Comments • Permalink
Friday, October 26, 2007
Another reason for the subprime crisis—my TU FICO scores for the last year
My Providian (now WaMu) credit card comes with the TU FICO score monitoring. About once a month, they update with the new score and they provide some of the major score factors.
As you can see, my low score was 619 last December, my current score is 702 and in summer 2006, my score was around 750.
It’s quite dramatic to see your FICO score drop over 130 points and not having ANY derogatory data on the credit report. This is another reason why so many people got into subprime mortgages:
Some took advantage of 0% or low rate credit card offers INSTEAD of getting a car loan or home equity loan. Others lost their job, got sick or had some kind of emergency and used their credit cards.
BINGO!
You’re now the cash cow for the bankers, your FICO score sucks, you’re the scum of the planet and you pay 25% on your credit cards once the low rate offers expire. If you want to move the debt to a car loan or mortgage:
You’re a SUBPRIME borrower because your scores are below the minimum required for the LOW rate loans.
FICO scores are based on communist principles:
Individualism is OUT—you are rated according to
1) OTHER peoples’ past performance.
2) Bizarre definitions of what’s good and bad (it’s BAD to accept a finance company account, it’s BAD to finance a car with a 0% credit card check, it’s BAD to refinance loans for lower rates, it’s BAD to get a new phone service with a better plan, etc.)
3) flawed scoring software (fully documented)
I’ll never understand why America, a country supposedly highly valuing individualism, is ruled by Fair Isaac company and the bankers and nobody is upset about it.
Well, that’s nobody except me.
With all the CRAP that’s written about the subprime crisis, I have yet to see anyone looking at the fact that the credit bureaus and Fair Isaac are as guilty as the lying loan agents.
Is there ANYBODY else with half a brain and NOT corrupt and willing to DO something about this?
Credit crisis deliberately caused by the regulators • 2003 Suit (appealed, Experian filed credit reports on PACER) • Fair Isaac - credit scoring fraudware • (0) Comments • Permalink
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Borrowers go to prison for lies on application, no loan agents go to prison for lying to borrowers
I scan several mortgage newsletters every day and it is fascinating to see how many people are convicted of mortgage fraud.
Here’s is a sample of today’s news: 5-24-07--mortgageledger.pdf
Fraud by appraisers, developers, mortgage brokers and even a judge. The mortgage bankers blame the mortgage brokers, but that’s the extent of it.
And then there are the BORROWERS who go to jail for lying on a loan application.
ALL the people who are convicted and sent to prison caused damages to a BANK.
NOBODY is convicted of advertising an adjustable rate mortgage at 7% as a fixed rate mortgage at 1%.
NOBODY goes to prison for lying to a borrower.
Clearly, it is perfectly OK in America in 2007 to defraud consumers and it is a crime to defraud banks. WHY?
Yesterday I received this email from the Center for Responsible Lending: 5-23-07--CRL-email.pdf
… This proposal—a clear attempt to avoid both strong legislation and sensible regulation—includes problems such as these:
Loopholes that would allow lenders to continue providing the same dangerous loan products that have caused the subprime crisis;
Policies that would obliterate state laws that protect homeowners; and
Over-reliance on disclosures in an industry that already overwhelms consumers with paper. ...
“Dangerous loan products?”
HUH?
What drugs are they on? My very first mortgage was a negative amortization loan as was every mortgage I’ve ever had. They are GREAT products, as long as the borrowers understand how they work.
Of course the disclosures compliant with the law are rarely understood by borrowers. I used to provide my own disclosures to my mortgage clients, the current payment, the payments as they increase with the worst case scenario and at the maximum as per the note, along with an amortization schedule so they could see how the balance increases.
Every one of my clients, including the ones who were immigrants and didn’t speak much English understood exactly what they were getting.
From http://www.responsiblelending.org/about/
“The Center for Responsible Lending is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and policy organization dedicated to protecting homeownership and family wealth by working to eliminate abusive financial practices. CRL is affiliated with Self-Help, one of the nation’s largest community development financial institutions.
In the late 1990s, homeowners began coming to Self-Help Credit Union seeking help to avoid foreclosure. Unfortunately, it was too late for many of these families. Unscrupulous lenders already had stolen their home equity—their greatest source of wealth and future financial security. The targets for this theft are often among our most vulnerable citizens, including the elderly and working families in minority communities.
In 1999, Self-Help worked with a state coalition to help pass the North Carolina Predatory Lending Law, the first such law in the country. In 2002, Self-Help established the Center for Responsible Lending to build on initial successes and expand our focus to include practices outside of mortgage lending, such as payday lending.
Since then, CRL has conducted or commissioned landmark studies on predatory lending practices and the impact of state laws that protect borrowers. We have also supported state efforts to combat predatory lending and worked for regulatory changes to require responsible practices among lenders nationwide.
Have they ever applied for a loan?
What is their real objective?
It’s certainly NOT preventing foreclosures and helping borrowers understand their loans.
Do they really think that the average American is too stupid to understand the “dangerous loan products?”
Why don’t they go after the lying loan agents?
Why is it so acceptable that everybody lies to consumers to sell their crap?
It would be so easy to encourage all borrowers to RECORD those phone calls and to then send the lying loan agents to prison.
It would be so easy for regulators to revoke the licenses of lenders who advertise ARMs as fixed rate loans.
It would be so easy to require that the MAXIMUM rate be disclosed in ALL advertisements.
Why is nobody talking about the ROOT of the subprime crisis, the lies, lies and more lies to the consumers?
URL emailed for comments to Carol Hammerstein and Sharon Reuss with CRL.
Credit crisis deliberately caused by the regulators • Corruption • (0) Comments • Permalink
