On Monday, Alliance members from Colorado Progressive Coalition and Washington CAN! joined over 500 homeowners for a day of action targeting the Department of Justice for its continued failure to prosecute Wall Street banks and their executives for major financial crimes. In March, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee the banks were too big to jail. Continue reading
A win for homeowners in Colorado! Alliance affiliate Colorado Progressive Coalition has been working for two years to pass “Show Me the Note” legislation, which forces banks to prove they own the deed to a home before they can foreclose on it. On Monday, U.S. District Judge, William Martinez, ruled that the unsworn testimony of an attorney for a foreclosing party was not enough to foreclose on Lisa Brumfiel, of Colorado. Continue reading
Re-Posted with permission from The New Bottom Line
Since early 2012, New Bottom Line has driven the campaign to get President Obama to dump Ed DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Today, the organization celebrated the news that the president finally made a nomination for the permanent director of FHFA. New Bottom Line also urges Congressman Mel Watt to support principal reduction at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in his new position, as well as supporting the vital role they play in ensuring homeownership and rental housing opportunities for all communities. Continue reading
Fred and Sophia Patterson have a mortgage that was bought from Bank of America by Freddie Mac. When Mr. Patterson had his identity stolen, he lost everything, and asked for some assistance. The Pattersons accepted a temporary loan modification and continued to pay the adjusted monthly amount, Continue reading
Oregon Action! nailed another victory to move municipal money out from under major banks. After many months working to engage local municipalities on responsible banking practices, OA! moved the Ashland City Council to unanimously pass a resolution authorizing the city to move some of its money out of Wells Fargo and to establish accounts at local credit unions. The amount they have moved is at the fullest extent insurable by law.
More importantly the ordinance sets in motion the process for the city to establish responsible banking criteria for banking services contracts.
Oregon Action and the Oregon Banks Local Coalition has been working for over 3 years to encourage state and local municipalities to begin the process of moving their money– what advocates call divestment– out of the big banks and into more locally controlled institutions. Divestment from major banks to local banks increases economic dividends for municipalities and the state.
Since Oregon’s banking landscape is dominated by the large banks, encouraging local banking by our cities is of three goals for this movement:
Ashland now joins other victories and current initiatives in Corvalis, Portland, Gresham, and Clatsop County.
It’s been five and half years since the largest economic collapse in 4 generations, and fiscal policy is still being executed in a way to favor the banks and not regular folks. We’ve subsequently seen a “jobless” recovery from our recession and are now seeing a “houseless” rebound of home market. But why?
It’s clear that the Obama Administration hasn’t done nearly enough to address the housing collapse. The HAMP program wasn’t nearly enough with too many hoops for homeowners and was voluntary for banks to participate. The latest solution put forth to address the 16 million homeowners who are currently underwater on their mortgages, writing down principal to market value, is being derailed by Ed DeMarco. He’s the temporary head of FHFA which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest loan holders in the country.
Writing down principal for folks would have ripple effect through the economy. First, it would stabilize communities by ending the foreclosure crisis, then it would ensure steady revenue streams for municipalities and states, and lastly it would kick start the home market again as those who are locked into paying more than their home is worth could feasibly sell their home if needed.
President Obama needs heed his mandate from the November elections and remove Ed DeMarco in his first 100 days in order to jump start the economy and make good on his campaign promises to get the economy back on its feet.
In fact, with the release of a letter from 45 Representatives in Congress demanding that President Obama name a permanent director of FHFA the White House needs to make this happen within the first 100 days.
See the New Bottom Line’s Response to the letter here:
http://www.newbottomline.com/new_bottom_line_applauds_congressional_demand_that_obama_fire_demarco
As part of the escalation of tactics against mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, members of Alliance affiliate Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) joined Right to the City, ACCE and others to bring the fight directly to Fannie Mae at their regional headquarters in Los Angeles last week. Continue reading
On August 2, members of Alliance affiliate Idaho Community Action Network successfully disrupted the foreclosure auction of ICAN member Ashlee Wemhoff’s home in Lewiston, Idaho. Ashlee’s home was put into foreclosure after her husband had an accident and was unable to work. Continue reading
Mere days before National Small Business Week kicked off it was revealed that JP Morgan Chase and CEO wonder boy Jamie Dimon lost $2B (now $3B by some estimates) on derivative trades meant to mitigate risk. This was a stark reminder for small businesses that nearly 4 years after the economic collapse wreaked havoc on local economies and small business, there are still significant gaps in the regulatory fabric. Continue reading
From the Main Street Alliance Website:
Main Street Alliance of Oregon has been surveying business owners throughout Oregon and is finding strong interest in electoral reform. Currently around eight in ten business owners feel the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, freeing corporations to spend unlimited sums of money in elections, is bad for small business. And seven in ten would support a constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are not people and money is not speech. Continue reading
