scribblings from a deist transhumanist libertarian minarchist citizen soldier

Housing market troubles will continue for some time

Posted by Trevor in under other on Jul 24th, 2008 | View Comments |

You may be wondering what the root causes are behind why your real income has plummeted by a quarter on every dollar in just the last year (those numbers are my best guess). I’m not an economist but I don’t really need to be to notice some really odd things going on behind the scenes. I say odd but I could as easily replace the word odd with stupid or rash or criminal. I could even say with a high degree of confidence that policy makers and politicians behind the scenes are doing a lot of odd, stupid, rash and criminal things to ensure that our dollar cannot hold its value. Let’s get into the meat of things.

First and foremost, I want you – the reader who happened across these words however you did – to remember that the people you elect make decisions that will ultimately help or hurt everyone around them.

TAUNTON, Mass. – A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself shortly after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead.

Police said that Carlene Balderrama used her husband’s high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, shortly after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m.

The mortgage company called police, who found Balderrama’s body at 3:30 p.m. The auction was scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and interested buyers arrived at the property in Taunton, about 35 miles south of Boston, while Balderrama’s body was still inside, according to Taunton police chief Raymond O’Berg.

I am not suggesting that a politician forced Carlene Balderrama to shoot herself in the head with a high-powered rifle, but I am suggesting that our system of governance set her up for failure. How many young Americans are taught sound economic policy in government run schools? I certainly wasn’t. Of course, it is hard for a fiscally irresponsible entity like government to teach sound fiscal policy. Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme ever realized. So it makes perfect sense that Carlene Balderrama found herself in the situation she found herself in. I understand why some people would rather end it all than face losing their only anchor in life – for many people their home is their sanity bubble in a crazy world.

Let’s discuss for a moment some of the individuals and organizations that are responsible for the current mortgage and real estate climate we find ourselves in. We’ll start with the Fannie Mae Gang.

Angelo Mozilo was in one of his Napoleonic moods. It was October 2003, and the CEO of Countrywide Financial was berating me for The Wall Street Journal’s editorials raising doubts about the accounting of Fannie Mae. I had just been introduced to him by Franklin Raines, then the CEO of Fannie, whom I had run into by chance at a reception hosted by the Business Council, the CEO group that had invited me to moderate a couple of panels.

Mr. Mozilo loudly declared that I didn’t know what I was talking about, that I didn’t understand accounting or the mortgage markets, and that I was in the pocket of Fannie’s competitors, among other insults. Mr. Raines, always smoother than Mr. Mozilo, politely intervened to avoid an extended argument, and Countrywide’s bantam rooster strutted off.

The federal government controls banking in this country with an iron fist. A huge arm of banking is the mortgage industry. Thus we can logically conclude that the federal government controls the mortgage industry. I’ll take that a step further and blame the federal government directly for creating a climate of instant gratification and greed. By taking responsibility for educating Americans, government also takes responsibility for the complete lack of economic common sense the average American has. By encouraging lenders to offer easy loans to people with bad credit and low incomes and then buying these questionable loans the federal government takes responsibility for the massive foreclosures and slumped real estates markets that are currently plaguing the economy.

In our ignorance and because we’ve been well trained not to think for ourselves Americans will demand as a solution to these government created problems – you guessed it – more government. Yes, yes, Obama is going to save us all. Good luck with that. It’s a pipe dream.

A nation cannot survive without sound economic policy. Until we start cutting entitlements and eliminating unnecessary government programs and employees we’re going to continue to slide downhill. Unfortunately, as a nation, we are so collectively stupid that isn’t even on the agenda this election cycle.

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vlscpa

BALDERRAMARAMA

This is such a tragic story, and there's been as much sympathy piled on poor John W. Balderrama as there has been hatred toward those GREEDY, PREDATORY LENDERS. Poor Mr. Balderrama, and it seems that even the mortgage company is backing off now, and they may let him live in that house forever, for free, just based on this sad story.

He bought that house in November 2002, with a $220000 mortgage, 8.6% fixed rate, $1707 payments a month. There were seven or eight payments made prior to the end of 2003, but they never paid another dollar to live there. That works out to about $190 a month, and that's fair, right?

Well, those GREEDY LENDERS didn't think it was fair, and when they insisted on their BLOOD MONEY, he ran to hide under the robes of a federal bankruptcy court judge. He paid $276 for each filing, and that bought him 27 months of further delay. He couldn't be bothered to attend two of the three creditors' meetings, TO SAVE HER LIFE, and he couldn't be forced to make the scheduled payments ($527 2004, $740 2005, $1066 2006) in any of those three plans, payments much less than his mortgage payment, to have the bankruptcy protection confirmed.

Maybe he needed the money to buy more high-powered rifles. From the looks of the house, peeling paint, window unit A/C, he wasn't spending his money on home maintenance. Hell, even the bankruptcy attorney doesn't get paid when you don't pay to play, so WHERE WAS ALL HIS MONEY GOING?

In a late August interview, Mr. John W. Balderrama claims that he never filed for bankruptcy. He's claimed all along, from the day she allegedly shot herself, that he knew nothing. Nobody can prove otherwise, or they would, right? He also claimed in that interview that Carlene was extremely religious, quite active in her church. He also admits that she didn't know or like the rifles.

So, the house IS HIS, the mortgage IS HIS, the rifles ARE HIS, and the alleged life insurance, if it pays, IS HIS. That house backs up to woods and a river, for a long way, but he was an hour away that day, right?

Something ain't right about this picture. Well, at least she didn't drown in a bathtub with no water.

I became interested in this sad, tragic story because I was dragged through several courts, including the federal bankruptcy court, by a psycho fraud hustler who, among other issues, was using a bogus SS# and has probably never filed a tax return in his sorry 57-year life. He looks a lot like this John W. Balderrama on paper, and he's a good enough liar to convince half the people for a tiny little bit of the time. He doesn't usually have success convincing the judges, but they all know what he is, and they see guys like him every day.

vlscpa

OBAMARAMA--If Barry sent his brother--the one living in the tar-paper shack on $12 a year--$50 for Christmas he could change his world, and he couldn't even do THAT.

megan

There is a lot more to this story, and it has very little to do with the mortgage crisis and politicians.
Mr. Balderrama is a plumber making a very good income ($90K+) that increased, as did his bankruptcy filings. Three, to be exact, beginning 8 months after they moved into the house. That was in 2002, when the mortgage crisis didn't exist.

They had over $100K equity in the home. It could have been sold and they still would have made money on it.

In public records for the bankruptcy, there are no outstanding credit or medical debts. The only debt was the house and car. No one knows where all the cash went. There is speculation about gambling or illegal drugs, because, quite simply, there are some really bizarre circumstances here.

His bankruptcy filings were thrown out all three times, because he failed to make payments and scheduled court appearances.

How he could say he didn't know what was happening in regards to the mortgage, is bizarre to say the least, since he was earning a better-than-avergage income, yet was filing bankruptcy.

The media is making this a sensational story about foreclosure, but you should really be questioning this family - and Carlene's - true motivations.

Trevor

I think we'll have record turnout in the upcoming Presidential election Dave. Unfortunately, ignorant people voting for big government candidates will only ensure things get worse before they get better.

dave

you're right. The electorarte has decided to sit this one out and instead of loudly demanding, on the steps of the Capitol that its business was run with considerable restraint, intelligence and integrity they allowed themselves to be hurded behind the flag and looking for terrorists. Power was never this easy.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost and it will be tough pickings.

The time ahead is not so much an economic disaster [although there will be plenty of that] rather than it is a civics lesson on exactly why it is that active participation in the business of government and politics is an exercise that the citizenry will leave in the sole hands of the political class at its own peril.

If they had an idea of just how bad things are going to get they'd yank the occupant of the Oval Office from behind the Resolute Desk and kick him to the curb.