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STORIES:
Arkansas
law jails tenants who don't pay their rent - (www.rawstory.com) Under a state
law in Arkansas, renters can be imprisoned for failing to pay their rent. According to a report by Human Rights Watch,
titled “Pay the Rent or Face Arrest: Abusive Impacts of Arkansas’s Criminal
Evictions Law,” hundreds of tenants each year are taken to court, fined and
jailed under the state’s “failure to vacate” law. “The failure-to-vacate law
was used to bring charges against more than 1,200 Arkansas tenants in 2012
alone,” read the report. “This figure greatly understates the total number of
people impacted by the law. The vast majority of tenants scramble to move out
when faced with a 10-day notice to vacate rather than face trial — and with
good reason.”
Grandmothers
Worldwide Could See Pensions Shrink Thanks To OCWEN and Deutsche Bank
- (www.mfi-miami.com) Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of sweet little old ladies from
around the world, most of whom are grandmothers living on social security and
their pensions, are at risk of losing more money out of their pensions.
It’s not because of some thug armed with brass knuckles, a switch blade
or even a gun, it’s from people wearing business suits who work in office
buildings in Frankfurt, Germany and West Palm Beach, Florida, who for the sake
of greed mismanaged hundreds of thousands of sub-prime mortgage loans that were
sold into mortgage backed security trusts on Wall Street. Yes, I’m talking
about Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in the world who acts as a trustee for
nearly 40% of the sub-prime mortgage backed security trusts in the United
States. I am also talking OCWEN, the fifth largest mortgage servicer in
the U.S. and the only one who is not subsidiary of a major bank and who has
been gobbling up it’s competitors faster than Homer Simpson consumes doughnuts
at a doughnut shop. While OCWEN has focused on gaining market share, the
quality of it’s management has declined to the point that it rivals only
the Detroit Fire Department.
Fee increases are making FHA mortgages more expensive - (www.latimes.com) If you want to buy a house with minimal cash by using an FHA-insured mortgage, here's some sobering news: Because of
an ongoing series of fee increases and underwriting tweaks, those mortgages are
getting steadily more expensive and may not work for you. The Federal Housing
Administration is the largest source of low-down-payment mortgage money in the
country. Its minimum down is just 3.5%, compared with 5% to 20% or more from
conventional, non-government sources. For decades, FHA financing has made
homeownership possible for first-time buyers with modest incomes and credit
history blemishes.
S&P Granted Top Grades to Doomed Lehman CDO as Downgrades
Rose - (www.bloomberg.com) A unit of New York Life Insurance Co. issued a $1.5 billion
collateralized debt obligation named after a Northern sky constellation in
April 2007. The deal burst when it defaulted less than a year later. The Corona
Borealis CDO, underwritten by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., is one of dozens
of deals named in the Justice Department’s Feb. 4 lawsuit accusing the world’s
largest credit- rating company of deliberately misstating the risks of mortgage
bonds as it sought to keep its share of the booming business of repackaging
home loans for sale as securities. Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union lost
its investment after purchasing a portion of the Corona Borealis CDO, relying
in part on Standard & Poor’s assessment of the securities, according to the
Justice Department’s complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles. The U.S.
is seeking penalties against S&P and its New York-based parent, McGraw-Hill
Cos. that may amount to more than $5 billion, based on losses suffered by
federally insured financial institutions.
Spanish sentiment belies scandal and woe - (www.ft.com) Bond markets
and bank analysts are warming to Spain again, despite the latest political scandal to
engulf the government of Mariano Rajoy. The country’s debt is back in demand,
shares have rallied and speculation over a sovereign bailout has subsided.
Hardly a day goes by without a fresh assurance from Madrid that the Spanish
economy is finally turning the corner. In the small Catalan town of Arbúcies,
however, that corner has just moved further out of sight. After a long struggle
with its creditors, one of the biggest local employers declared bankruptcy last
month. Founded in 1964, Noge was one of several companies
in town that specialised in making bodywork for bus manufacturers. As many as
93 workers now risk losing their jobs.
Greece cuts investments to hit Jan budget target - (www.reuters.com) Greece cut
tax refunds and curbed public investments in January to offset a slide in tax
revenues and meet its budget targets, the government said on Monday. Gross tax
revenues fell 241 million euros short of expectations due to falling VAT
receipts in the context of the country's crippling recession. Revenues sank 11
percent year-on-year to 4.42 billion euros. Hurt by the government's austerity
program, Greek retail sales are
plunging at double-digit rates, thus reducing indirect tax receipts. To
compensate for the unexpectedly large decline, the government slashed tax
refunds to 45 million euros, compared with a 311 million euro target. It also
spent just 67 million euros on public investment projects, less than the
interim 200 million euro target.
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