Post by Dennis MIn article
Post by JeanIndicator that Republican Congress has Succeeded
Carloads of trash has dropped off the chart.
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/tracking-economy-an
d-gdp-through-trash
OK. Got it too work. Interesting hypothesis.
McDonough: Exactly. On a weekly basis -- that's what's even more
interesting about it. When you think about the concept of using trash as
a proxy for GDP, it's not a leading indicator. If anything, maybe it's a
slightly lagging indicator, because you have to wait for people to throw
things out, possibly.
----
Like when they lose their homes.
And Obama's record there?
Not so good;
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/15/create-a-foreclosure-prevention-fund-for-homeowner/
The Obameter
Create a foreclosure prevention fund for homeowners
Create a $10 billion fund to help homeowners refinance or sell their
homes. "The Fund will not help speculators, people who bought vacation
homes or people who falsely represented their incomes."
Sources:
"Obama: Protecting Home Ownership and Cracking Down on Mortgage Fraud"
Subjects: Economy, Housing, PolitiFact's Top Promises
Updates:
Foreclosure prevention fund a “colossal failure,” special inspector says
Updated: Thursday, March 31st, 2011 | By Angie Drobnic Holan
When it comes to President Barack Obama's promise to create a
foreclosure prevention fund, he's kept to the letter of law, but his
administration has completely failed to meet its spirit. For that, we're
moving this our rating to Promise Broken.
Let us explain.
Back during the campaign, Obama said he would create a $10 billion
fund to help homeowners facing foreclosure. "Too many families are
unable to refinance because no one will lend to them, and they are
unable to sell their homes because the housing market has fallen," reads
as statement of policy from Obama's 2008 campaign. "As president, Obama
will fight to ensure more Americans can achieve and protect the dream of
home ownership." We named it one of our top promises, among the most
significant campaign pledges Obama made.
And soon after his election, Obama outdid the promise of $10 billion,
creating a foreclosure prevention fund that totaled $75 billion, paid
for with funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the
government sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Officials said the fund could help 9 million homeowners. We gave Obama
a Promise Kept.
But as many months went by, the program never lived up to its promise.
As of January 2011, the program had given permanent loan modifications
to only about 500,000 homeowners.
The news website ProPublica has extensively investigated the program
and reached a number of dismal conclusions.
"With millions of homeowners still struggling to stay in their homes,
the Obama administration"s $75 billion foreclosure prevention program
has been weakened, perhaps fatally, by lax oversight and a posture of
cooperation—rather than enforcement—with the nation's biggest banks,"
ProPublica reported. "Those banks, Bank of America, Wells Fargo,
JPMorgan Chase, and Citibank, service the majority of mortgages."
As we were considering whether to change the rating on this promise,
the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program,
Neil M. Barofsky, penned a damning op-ed in the New York Times, calling
the housing program "a colossal failure," blaming a lack of enforcement
on the part of the U.S. Treasury Department.
"Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has acknowledged that the program
‘won't come close' to fulfilling its original expectations, that its
incentives are not ‘powerful enough' and that the mortgage servicers are
‘still doing a terribly inadequate job,;" Barofsky wrote. "But Treasury
officials refuse to address these shortfalls. Instead they continue to
stubbornly maintain that the program is a success and needs no material
change, effectively assuring that Treasury's most specific Main Street
promise will not be honored."
The evidence has been mounting for some time that the foreclosure
prevention fund has fallen far short of its goals. If it ever rights
itself, we'd certainly be willing to reconsider our rating. But today,
it hasn't helped many homeowners faced with losing their houses. We
conclude it's a Promise Broken.
Sources:
ProPublica, Govt's Loan Mod Program Crippled by Lax Oversight and
Deference to Banks, Feb.17, 2011
ProPublica, Dems: Obama Broke Pledge to Force Banks to Help Homeowners,
Feb. 4, 2011
ProPublica, Eye on Loan Modifications, various reports on various dates
The New York Times, Where the Bailout Went Wrong, by Neil M. Barofsky,
March 30, 2011