Showing posts with label housing crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housing crisis. Show all posts
Monday, February 13, 2012
Shame on Missouri state legislators
Well, the Missouri state legislators are at it again. This time they're hitting the news, big time, online and nationally, for real sleaze: Missouri Becomes Second State To Divert Foreclosure Funds Away From Homeowners To Balance Its Budget So you got fleeced by your local, friendly, neighborhood banker and that's the bad news. The good news? There was a cash settlement from the banks for it. It's not much but it's something. The new bad news? Your local legislators are going to pocket it, instead, and keep it away from you. Nice, huh? There is just no shame, no shame at all, for Missouri state legislators in Jefferson City. Link: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/02/13/423677/missouri-foreclosure-settlement-budget/?mobile=nc
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Big ecnomic news today that can't be overlooked
What with all the other major world catastrophes going on right now, most especially the Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear power plant meltdown, it would be easy enough to overlook a rather small but hugely important article I saw today online:
Home prices falling in most major US cities
Home prices falling in 19 major US cities, with 4 now at lowest level in 11 years
NEW YORK (AP) -- Home prices are falling in most major U.S. cities, and the average prices in four of them are at their lowest point in 11 years. Analysts expect further prices declines in most cities in the coming months.
Home values in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Detroit and Cleveland are now below January 2000 levels. A majority of the metro areas tracked by the index now have home prices at levels dating back to 2003, just as the housing boom began.
"The housing market recession is not yet over, and none of the statistics are indicating any form of sustained recovery," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's.
As either an economist or just a regular old citizen of this United States, that is big.
Not finished there, there is also this out today:
Inflation worries push consumer confidence lower
Soaring gas prices and soured outlook on income push consumer confidence down in March
My point?
It is not to say "the sky is falling", I can tell you that.
My point is that, as Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman is pointing out more and again, lately, is that now is decidedly not the time to try to cut $61 billion out of the government's spending.
I'm not all about big spending and we do need to address it and our debt and deficit spending, but to repeat Mr. Krugman, now is decidedly not the time.
I'm concerned that either the Right-wing and Republicans and Conservatives aren't listening and/or don't care because a) they have to cater to the "Tea Party" and extremists in their party so they can be re-elected OR they simply want/need this president and his policies to fail so, again, they can be re-elected.
My biggest concern is that all of those are true.
Links: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Home-prices-falling-in-most-apf-2179818115.html?x=0; http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Inflation-worries-push-apf-1954887602.html?x=0; http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/contraction-is-contractionary/; http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/opinion/25krugman.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss; http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/;
Saturday, March 5, 2011
"This Was Never About the Little Guy" (guest post)
There were approximtely $1.4 trillion worth of subprime loans outstanding in the United States by the end of 2007. By the first quarter of 2009, there were forclosure filings against approximately 4.4 million properties. If it was only the subprime market's fault, $1.4 trillion would have covered the entire problem, right?
Yet the Federal Reserve, the treasury, and the FDIC forked out $13 trillion to fix the housing “correction”… With all that money, the government could have bought up every residential mortgage in the country – there were about $11.9 trillion worth at the end of December 2008 – and still have had about a trillion left over to buy homes for every American who couldn’t afford them.
--Nomi Prin, former VP at Goldman Sachs from her book It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street (with thanks for the reference to Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone Magazine). Ms. Prin "frequently makes the point that the bailouts were more about paying off bets than they were about stabilizing the economy."
We've been had as chumps.
Try to have a great weekend, y'all.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Three requests, some appreciation and a hope
Three simple requests, right off the bat;
1) Could we now make Hedge Funds of any sort illegal as soon as the rest of this financial crisis is cleaned up? They are huge, unregulated and dangerous to the US and world economies.
Hedge Funds, defined, from Wikipedia:
A hedge fund is a private investment fund open to a limited range of investors which is permitted by regulators to undertake a wider range of activities than other investment funds and which pays a performance fee to its investment manager. Although each fund will have its own strategy which determines the type of investments and the methods of investment it undertakes, hedge funds as a class invest in a broad range of investments, from shares, debt and commodities to works of art.
As the name implies, hedge funds often seek to offset potential losses in the principal markets they invest in by hedging their investments using a variety of methods, most notably short selling. However, the term "hedge fund" has come to be applied to many funds that do not actually hedge their investments, and in particular to funds using short selling and other "hedging" methods to increase rather than reduce risk, with the expectation of increasing return.
Hedge funds are typically open only to a limited range of professional or wealthy investors. This provides them with an exemption in many jurisdictions from regulations governing short selling, derivative contracts, leverage, fee structures and the liquidity of investments in the fund. A hedge fund will nevertheless voluntarily limit the scope of its activities via its contractual arrangements with its investors, in order to give the investors some certainty over what they are investing into.
The assets under management of a hedge fund can run into many billions of dollars, and this will usually be multiplied by leverage, meaning that their influence over markets is substantial. Hedge funds dominate certain specialty markets such as trading within derivatives with high-yield ratings and distressed debt.
(see the complete definition here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_funds)
Another word for Hedge Funds would be "highly profitable deck of cards for the ultra-wealthy", frankly.
2) Next could we make "credit swaps" illegal now and go back to having only regulated, financed insurance coverage, the way things ought to be?
Credit swaps are what companies used instead of using out and out insurance because--guess what?--insurance is regulated. These "credit swaps" were ridiculously profitable because they were grossly underfunded. So when times are good, the money rolled in fast and loose. When times are bad--now, of course--everyone's credit swaps collapse, causing everyone else's credit swaps to collapse, hence the global problem. One more facet of insanity to be dealt with, as financial ministers 'round the world try to fix the problems.
3) Could we regulate the trade of energy and oil markets again so there aren't people and organizations speculating--gambling, really--on the rise of these commodities?
Speculation on these markets virtually guarantees they'll go up and the entire world suffers--the poor, middle class, businesses, hell, even the wealthy pay what they ahouldn't have to (not that I'm suddenly an advocate for the wealthy, mind you, let me be clear).
We regulated them for 78 years, until 2000, thanks to the Enron clowns. Going back to it is the only sane thing to do, for all concerned--except greedhead speculators.
Next, I'd like to give a very public (but likely little-noticed) "thank you" to any and every government and private official, anywhere, who is trying to help avoid a collapse of any and every financial market, anywhere in the world.
There are a great deal of people working very hard right now--and they have been for some time and will continue to be, into the foreseeable future--and I, for one, am extremely grateful.
I wish it weren't necessary, of course.
These people wouldn't have to be working so feverishly now, if there had been far more regulatory oversight all along, the last decade. The world would be much more sane and safe now.
The only drawback is that there would be one small group of people--a small group of very wealthy investors--who would have less millions in dollars now. They'd still be millionaires or billionaires but they wouldn't have quite so much, overall.
Finally, hope that, for all of us, everywhere on the planet, that all these people are successful in their work, on all our behalf, on all these economies.
Heaven help us if they're not.
1) Could we now make Hedge Funds of any sort illegal as soon as the rest of this financial crisis is cleaned up? They are huge, unregulated and dangerous to the US and world economies.
Hedge Funds, defined, from Wikipedia:
A hedge fund is a private investment fund open to a limited range of investors which is permitted by regulators to undertake a wider range of activities than other investment funds and which pays a performance fee to its investment manager. Although each fund will have its own strategy which determines the type of investments and the methods of investment it undertakes, hedge funds as a class invest in a broad range of investments, from shares, debt and commodities to works of art.
As the name implies, hedge funds often seek to offset potential losses in the principal markets they invest in by hedging their investments using a variety of methods, most notably short selling. However, the term "hedge fund" has come to be applied to many funds that do not actually hedge their investments, and in particular to funds using short selling and other "hedging" methods to increase rather than reduce risk, with the expectation of increasing return.
Hedge funds are typically open only to a limited range of professional or wealthy investors. This provides them with an exemption in many jurisdictions from regulations governing short selling, derivative contracts, leverage, fee structures and the liquidity of investments in the fund. A hedge fund will nevertheless voluntarily limit the scope of its activities via its contractual arrangements with its investors, in order to give the investors some certainty over what they are investing into.
The assets under management of a hedge fund can run into many billions of dollars, and this will usually be multiplied by leverage, meaning that their influence over markets is substantial. Hedge funds dominate certain specialty markets such as trading within derivatives with high-yield ratings and distressed debt.
(see the complete definition here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_funds)
Another word for Hedge Funds would be "highly profitable deck of cards for the ultra-wealthy", frankly.
2) Next could we make "credit swaps" illegal now and go back to having only regulated, financed insurance coverage, the way things ought to be?
Credit swaps are what companies used instead of using out and out insurance because--guess what?--insurance is regulated. These "credit swaps" were ridiculously profitable because they were grossly underfunded. So when times are good, the money rolled in fast and loose. When times are bad--now, of course--everyone's credit swaps collapse, causing everyone else's credit swaps to collapse, hence the global problem. One more facet of insanity to be dealt with, as financial ministers 'round the world try to fix the problems.
3) Could we regulate the trade of energy and oil markets again so there aren't people and organizations speculating--gambling, really--on the rise of these commodities?
Speculation on these markets virtually guarantees they'll go up and the entire world suffers--the poor, middle class, businesses, hell, even the wealthy pay what they ahouldn't have to (not that I'm suddenly an advocate for the wealthy, mind you, let me be clear).
We regulated them for 78 years, until 2000, thanks to the Enron clowns. Going back to it is the only sane thing to do, for all concerned--except greedhead speculators.
Next, I'd like to give a very public (but likely little-noticed) "thank you" to any and every government and private official, anywhere, who is trying to help avoid a collapse of any and every financial market, anywhere in the world.
There are a great deal of people working very hard right now--and they have been for some time and will continue to be, into the foreseeable future--and I, for one, am extremely grateful.
I wish it weren't necessary, of course.
These people wouldn't have to be working so feverishly now, if there had been far more regulatory oversight all along, the last decade. The world would be much more sane and safe now.
The only drawback is that there would be one small group of people--a small group of very wealthy investors--who would have less millions in dollars now. They'd still be millionaires or billionaires but they wouldn't have quite so much, overall.
Finally, hope that, for all of us, everywhere on the planet, that all these people are successful in their work, on all our behalf, on all these economies.
Heaven help us if they're not.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
More of What "W" Has Wrought, Part II
Americans' Unhappy Birthday: 'Too much wrong right now'
By PAULINE ARRILLAGA (AP National Writer)
From Associated Press
July 05, 2008 2:32 PM EDT
Even folks in the Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an upbeat line these days.
Eighteen members of the volunteer organization's Gilbert, Ariz., chapter have gathered, a few days before this nation's 232nd birthday, to focus on the positive: Their book drive for schoolchildren and an Independence Day project to place American flags along the streets of one neighborhood.
They beam through the Pledge of Allegiance, applaud each other's good news - a house that recently sold despite Arizona's down market, and one member's valiant battle with cancer. "I didn't die," she says as the others cheer.
But then talk turns to the state of the Union, and the Optimists become decidedly bleak.
They use words such as "terrified," "disgusted" and "scary" to describe what one calls "this mess" we Americans find ourselves in. Then comes the list of problems constituting the mess: a protracted war, $4-a-gallon gas, soaring food prices, uncertainty about jobs, an erratic stock market, a tougher housing market, and so on and so forth.
One member's son is serving his second tour in Iraq. Another speaks of a daughter who's lost her job in the mortgage industry and a son in construction whose salary was slashed. Still another mentions a friend who can barely afford gas.
Joanne Kontak, 60, an elementary school lunch aide inducted just this day as an Optimist, sums things up like this: "There's just entirely too much wrong right now."
Happy birthday, America? This year, we're not so sure.
The nation's psyche is battered and bruised, the sense of pessimism palpable. Young or old, Republican or Democrat, economically stable or struggling, Americans are questioning where they are and where they are going. And they wonder who or what might ride to their rescue.
These are more than mere gripes, but rather an expression of fears - concerns reflected not only in the many recent polls that show consumer confidence plummeting, personal happiness waning and more folks worrying that the country is headed in the wrong direction, but also in conversations happening all across the land.
"There are so many things you have to do to survive now," says Larue Lawson of Forest Park, Ill. "It used to be just clothes on your back, food on the table and a roof over your head. Now, it's everything.
"I wish it was just simpler."
Lawson, mind you, is all of 16 years old.
Then there's this from Sherry White in Orlando, Fla., who has a half-century in years and experience on the teenager:
"There is a sense of helplessness everywhere you look. It's like you're stuck in one spot, and you can't do anything about it."
In 1931, when the historian James Truslow Adams coined the phrase "The American Dream," he wrote of "a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement."
________________________________________________________
The article goes on from there to be very "PC" and not blame the President, his administration, their lying and creation of their war--for oil--etc., etc., and just, instead, leave the question in the air, so to speak.
I was glad to see the article (see link at bottom for the complete article) but for pity's sake, not putting any blame? It was the responsible thing to do and this isn't Keith Olbermann, for sure, but it's been W's push for his precious Big Oil companies and large corporation's profits that has gotten us into this mess. Get some education, people. Read the papers. Since you haven't, apparently, been reading anything for the last 7 years, do some research, check it out. Learn about your country, your government, what they're doing. Vote, for God's sake, but not if you're going to be stupid and listen to some "spirit" or voice you think you hear or some friend who quotes Rush Limbaugh and/or talk radio.
Our country's in a mess because we got George W. Bush and his cronies in office and they've been wreaking havoc for these 7 long years.
And if you don't know why we're in the mess we're in, then you haven't been paying attention and, frankly, you're a dumbass and you deserve what you get. As for the rest of us, we didn't vote for this clown, we do read and we're pissed.
---
Contributing to this report were AP Writers Allen G. Breed, Martha Irvine, Todd Lewan, Martha Mendoza, Vicki Smith and Becky Bohrer.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Find the original post here:
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20080705/486ef1c0_3ca6_1552620080705-1059433911
By PAULINE ARRILLAGA (AP National Writer)
From Associated Press
July 05, 2008 2:32 PM EDT
Even folks in the Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an upbeat line these days.
Eighteen members of the volunteer organization's Gilbert, Ariz., chapter have gathered, a few days before this nation's 232nd birthday, to focus on the positive: Their book drive for schoolchildren and an Independence Day project to place American flags along the streets of one neighborhood.
They beam through the Pledge of Allegiance, applaud each other's good news - a house that recently sold despite Arizona's down market, and one member's valiant battle with cancer. "I didn't die," she says as the others cheer.
But then talk turns to the state of the Union, and the Optimists become decidedly bleak.
They use words such as "terrified," "disgusted" and "scary" to describe what one calls "this mess" we Americans find ourselves in. Then comes the list of problems constituting the mess: a protracted war, $4-a-gallon gas, soaring food prices, uncertainty about jobs, an erratic stock market, a tougher housing market, and so on and so forth.
One member's son is serving his second tour in Iraq. Another speaks of a daughter who's lost her job in the mortgage industry and a son in construction whose salary was slashed. Still another mentions a friend who can barely afford gas.
Joanne Kontak, 60, an elementary school lunch aide inducted just this day as an Optimist, sums things up like this: "There's just entirely too much wrong right now."
Happy birthday, America? This year, we're not so sure.
The nation's psyche is battered and bruised, the sense of pessimism palpable. Young or old, Republican or Democrat, economically stable or struggling, Americans are questioning where they are and where they are going. And they wonder who or what might ride to their rescue.
These are more than mere gripes, but rather an expression of fears - concerns reflected not only in the many recent polls that show consumer confidence plummeting, personal happiness waning and more folks worrying that the country is headed in the wrong direction, but also in conversations happening all across the land.
"There are so many things you have to do to survive now," says Larue Lawson of Forest Park, Ill. "It used to be just clothes on your back, food on the table and a roof over your head. Now, it's everything.
"I wish it was just simpler."
Lawson, mind you, is all of 16 years old.
Then there's this from Sherry White in Orlando, Fla., who has a half-century in years and experience on the teenager:
"There is a sense of helplessness everywhere you look. It's like you're stuck in one spot, and you can't do anything about it."
In 1931, when the historian James Truslow Adams coined the phrase "The American Dream," he wrote of "a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement."
________________________________________________________
The article goes on from there to be very "PC" and not blame the President, his administration, their lying and creation of their war--for oil--etc., etc., and just, instead, leave the question in the air, so to speak.
I was glad to see the article (see link at bottom for the complete article) but for pity's sake, not putting any blame? It was the responsible thing to do and this isn't Keith Olbermann, for sure, but it's been W's push for his precious Big Oil companies and large corporation's profits that has gotten us into this mess. Get some education, people. Read the papers. Since you haven't, apparently, been reading anything for the last 7 years, do some research, check it out. Learn about your country, your government, what they're doing. Vote, for God's sake, but not if you're going to be stupid and listen to some "spirit" or voice you think you hear or some friend who quotes Rush Limbaugh and/or talk radio.
Our country's in a mess because we got George W. Bush and his cronies in office and they've been wreaking havoc for these 7 long years.
And if you don't know why we're in the mess we're in, then you haven't been paying attention and, frankly, you're a dumbass and you deserve what you get. As for the rest of us, we didn't vote for this clown, we do read and we're pissed.
---
Contributing to this report were AP Writers Allen G. Breed, Martha Irvine, Todd Lewan, Martha Mendoza, Vicki Smith and Becky Bohrer.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Find the original post here:
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20080705/486ef1c0_3ca6_1552620080705-1059433911
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Bad Moon Rising
More evidence that we all need to pay attention to what's going on. In the past, I've said politically. Now, financially--locally, nationally and internationally.
For several reasons, I do, indeed, think there is at least a "bad moon rising", if not out-and-out financial turmoil coming down the pike, unless I'm mistaken and/or unless we do things differently, and very soon. I usually say the same thing, too, and that is, I hope I'm wrong.
The several things that make me think this are the following:
1) High household debt, per household, here in the States. In fact, it's at record levels, as we've heard for years. (http://www.occ.treas.gov/qj/qj24-1/3-SpecialStudies.pdf)
2) High national debt of the United States: Right now it stands at approximately 9 trillion dollars, and rising fast (thank you, Mr. Bush)(http://brillig.com/debt_clock/);
3) High deficit spending in by the United States due to the Iraqi war and the wide expansion of government, mostly in the past 7 years (thanks again, Mr. Bush) (http://www.deficitsdomatter.org/);
4) The housing crunch in the United States (and really, the world), right now (http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/BIZ/801020387&sfad=1);
5) The credit crunch (intertwined with the housing crunch) right now (http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/;
6) Low household savings in the United States (http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2002/el2002-09.html):
7) All the "baby-boomers" about to retire--with all that debt and low savings rate--and the huge costs to the Social Security system on the United States (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/aging-boomers);
8) All those same "boomers" having crappy health care coverage, given the state of health care and how weak and nearly non-existent it is here in the States (http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=353);
9) The Medicare and Medicaid systems will both be tremendously burdened by these same "boomers" retiring in all their numbers (http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm875.cfm);
10) The huge expansion of troubles in the American auto industry right now, in part due to the housing and credit troubles but also due to the extremely high prices of oil and the lack of competitiveness of the American automakers (http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/06/gm-death-watch.html) and, finally,
11) The extremely high and really, explosive cost of oil internationally. This speaks for itself and drives up the cost of virtually everything, either in manufacturing and/or the delivery of those same goods (http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm).
Given all these factors, it seems like, virtually, the "perfect storm" for financial calamity, frankly. Honestly, I don't think the Great Depression of the 30's and 40's had this much going for it's creation, so many years ago.
I hope I'm just getting old and crotchety and all these things aren't really such a big deal after all.
But I don't think it's just me. I think I'm right about all this and, again, hope I'm wrong.
(As a side note, for an important, brief but poignant article on another aspect of our collective futures, go to this link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91681112. It also has the original audio interview it came from.)
For several reasons, I do, indeed, think there is at least a "bad moon rising", if not out-and-out financial turmoil coming down the pike, unless I'm mistaken and/or unless we do things differently, and very soon. I usually say the same thing, too, and that is, I hope I'm wrong.
The several things that make me think this are the following:
1) High household debt, per household, here in the States. In fact, it's at record levels, as we've heard for years. (http://www.occ.treas.gov/qj/qj24-1/3-SpecialStudies.pdf)
2) High national debt of the United States: Right now it stands at approximately 9 trillion dollars, and rising fast (thank you, Mr. Bush)(http://brillig.com/debt_clock/);
3) High deficit spending in by the United States due to the Iraqi war and the wide expansion of government, mostly in the past 7 years (thanks again, Mr. Bush) (http://www.deficitsdomatter.org/);
4) The housing crunch in the United States (and really, the world), right now (http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/BIZ/801020387&sfad=1);
5) The credit crunch (intertwined with the housing crunch) right now (http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/;
6) Low household savings in the United States (http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2002/el2002-09.html):
7) All the "baby-boomers" about to retire--with all that debt and low savings rate--and the huge costs to the Social Security system on the United States (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/aging-boomers);
8) All those same "boomers" having crappy health care coverage, given the state of health care and how weak and nearly non-existent it is here in the States (http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=353);
9) The Medicare and Medicaid systems will both be tremendously burdened by these same "boomers" retiring in all their numbers (http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm875.cfm);
10) The huge expansion of troubles in the American auto industry right now, in part due to the housing and credit troubles but also due to the extremely high prices of oil and the lack of competitiveness of the American automakers (http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/06/gm-death-watch.html) and, finally,
11) The extremely high and really, explosive cost of oil internationally. This speaks for itself and drives up the cost of virtually everything, either in manufacturing and/or the delivery of those same goods (http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm).
Given all these factors, it seems like, virtually, the "perfect storm" for financial calamity, frankly. Honestly, I don't think the Great Depression of the 30's and 40's had this much going for it's creation, so many years ago.
I hope I'm just getting old and crotchety and all these things aren't really such a big deal after all.
But I don't think it's just me. I think I'm right about all this and, again, hope I'm wrong.
(As a side note, for an important, brief but poignant article on another aspect of our collective futures, go to this link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91681112. It also has the original audio interview it came from.)
Monday, March 31, 2008
Here we go again (2nd post in one day, too!)
Hud chief resigns amid criminal probe (don'tcha just love this Bush Administration?)
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, his tenure tarnished by allegations of political favoritism and a criminal investigation, announced his resignation Monday amid the wreckage of the national housing crisis.
He leaves behind a trail of unanswered questions about whether he tilted the Department of Housing and Urban Development toward Republican contractors and cronies.
The move comes at a shaky time for the economy, with soaring mortgage foreclosures imperiling the nation's credit markets.
In announcing that his last day at HUD will be April 18, Jackson said only, "There comes a time when one must attend more diligently to personal and family matters."
Some Congressional Democrats had pushed for him to leave.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said that while Jackson's resignation is "appropriate, it does nothing to address the Bush administration's wait-and-don't-see posture to our nation's housing crisis."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said HUD will be called on to work with Congress on assisting refinancing for borrowers faced with imminent foreclosure.
The ethical allegations against Jackson "meant that the Bush administration's ineffective housing policies were being burdened by an even more ineffective HUD Secretary," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said after Jackson's announcement.
President Bush called Jackson "a strong leader and a good man." Ties between the two men go back to the 1980s when they lived in the same Dallas neighborhood. It was Jackson's personal ties to Bush that brought him to Washington, where he displayed a forceful personal style at HUD for seven years, first as the agency's No. 2 official and since 2004 in the top slot.
Despite a strong commitment to housing for those in need, Jackson was capable of ill-advised public comments.
Last year, after the subprime mortgage crisis erupted, many policymakers underlined the disproportionate impact of the high-risk, high-cost mortgages on minorities and the elderly, who often are targets of predatory lending practices that lure people into loans they are incapable of repaying.
Asked about the problems with subprime mortgages last June, Jackson insisted that many such borrowers were not unsophisticated, low-income people but what he called "Yuppies, Buppies and Guppies" — well-educated, young, black and gay upwardly mobile achievers — with expensive cars who bought $400,000 homes with little or no money down.
In announcing his departure, Jackson said that in his time at HUD, "We have helped families keep their homes. We have transformed public housing. We have reduced chronic homelessness. And we have preserved affordable housing and increased minority homeownership."
Bush has been cool to the idea of a big federal housing rescue. "The temptation of Washington is to say that anything short of a massive government intervention in the housing market amounts to inaction," the president said recently. "I strongly disagree with that sentiment."
On Monday on his way out of the country for a trip built around a NATO summit, Bush said he wants Congress to modernize HUD's Federal Housing Administration, allowing more struggling homeowners to refinance their mortgages.
In October, the National Journal first reported on the criminal investigation of Jackson. The FBI has been examining the ties between Jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by Jackson's department as a construction manager in New Orleans. Jackson's friend got the job after Jackson asked a staff member to pass along his name to the Housing Authority of New Orleans.
In another instance of alleged favoritism that came to light in February, the Philadelphia housing authority alleges that Jackson retaliated against the agency because it refused to award a vacant lot worth $2 million to soul-music producer-turned-community developer Kenny Gamble for redevelopment of a public housing complex.
Jackson's problems began in 2006, when he told a group of commercial real estate executives that he had revoked a contract because the applicant who thanked him said he did not like President Bush. Jackson later told investigators "I lied" when he made the remark about taking back the contract.
The probe of Jackson's comment by the HUD inspector general ended with no action taken against him, but the investigators brought to light friction between the HUD secretary and some contractors who have long done business with the agency, a number of them donors to Democrats. On Monday, the IG's office said it had seen Jackson's latest remarks and "there is nothing more that we can add."
In the IG probe, some of Jackson's own aides contradicted his account of one incident in which investigators found the HUD secretary had blocked a contract for several months to one heavily Democratic donor. Jackson blamed his aides for the delay in the award.
Jackson was the first black leader of the housing authority in Dallas, where his integration efforts caused clashes with some local homeowners in predominantly white neighborhoods.
___
Associated Press writers Marcy Gordon, Ben Feller, Hope Yen and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, his tenure tarnished by allegations of political favoritism and a criminal investigation, announced his resignation Monday amid the wreckage of the national housing crisis.
He leaves behind a trail of unanswered questions about whether he tilted the Department of Housing and Urban Development toward Republican contractors and cronies.
The move comes at a shaky time for the economy, with soaring mortgage foreclosures imperiling the nation's credit markets.
In announcing that his last day at HUD will be April 18, Jackson said only, "There comes a time when one must attend more diligently to personal and family matters."
Some Congressional Democrats had pushed for him to leave.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said that while Jackson's resignation is "appropriate, it does nothing to address the Bush administration's wait-and-don't-see posture to our nation's housing crisis."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said HUD will be called on to work with Congress on assisting refinancing for borrowers faced with imminent foreclosure.
The ethical allegations against Jackson "meant that the Bush administration's ineffective housing policies were being burdened by an even more ineffective HUD Secretary," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said after Jackson's announcement.
President Bush called Jackson "a strong leader and a good man." Ties between the two men go back to the 1980s when they lived in the same Dallas neighborhood. It was Jackson's personal ties to Bush that brought him to Washington, where he displayed a forceful personal style at HUD for seven years, first as the agency's No. 2 official and since 2004 in the top slot.
Despite a strong commitment to housing for those in need, Jackson was capable of ill-advised public comments.
Last year, after the subprime mortgage crisis erupted, many policymakers underlined the disproportionate impact of the high-risk, high-cost mortgages on minorities and the elderly, who often are targets of predatory lending practices that lure people into loans they are incapable of repaying.
Asked about the problems with subprime mortgages last June, Jackson insisted that many such borrowers were not unsophisticated, low-income people but what he called "Yuppies, Buppies and Guppies" — well-educated, young, black and gay upwardly mobile achievers — with expensive cars who bought $400,000 homes with little or no money down.
In announcing his departure, Jackson said that in his time at HUD, "We have helped families keep their homes. We have transformed public housing. We have reduced chronic homelessness. And we have preserved affordable housing and increased minority homeownership."
Bush has been cool to the idea of a big federal housing rescue. "The temptation of Washington is to say that anything short of a massive government intervention in the housing market amounts to inaction," the president said recently. "I strongly disagree with that sentiment."
On Monday on his way out of the country for a trip built around a NATO summit, Bush said he wants Congress to modernize HUD's Federal Housing Administration, allowing more struggling homeowners to refinance their mortgages.
In October, the National Journal first reported on the criminal investigation of Jackson. The FBI has been examining the ties between Jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by Jackson's department as a construction manager in New Orleans. Jackson's friend got the job after Jackson asked a staff member to pass along his name to the Housing Authority of New Orleans.
In another instance of alleged favoritism that came to light in February, the Philadelphia housing authority alleges that Jackson retaliated against the agency because it refused to award a vacant lot worth $2 million to soul-music producer-turned-community developer Kenny Gamble for redevelopment of a public housing complex.
Jackson's problems began in 2006, when he told a group of commercial real estate executives that he had revoked a contract because the applicant who thanked him said he did not like President Bush. Jackson later told investigators "I lied" when he made the remark about taking back the contract.
The probe of Jackson's comment by the HUD inspector general ended with no action taken against him, but the investigators brought to light friction between the HUD secretary and some contractors who have long done business with the agency, a number of them donors to Democrats. On Monday, the IG's office said it had seen Jackson's latest remarks and "there is nothing more that we can add."
In the IG probe, some of Jackson's own aides contradicted his account of one incident in which investigators found the HUD secretary had blocked a contract for several months to one heavily Democratic donor. Jackson blamed his aides for the delay in the award.
Jackson was the first black leader of the housing authority in Dallas, where his integration efforts caused clashes with some local homeowners in predominantly white neighborhoods.
___
Associated Press writers Marcy Gordon, Ben Feller, Hope Yen and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
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