For you:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29960781

U.S. mulling mortgage aid for unemployed
Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:22pm EDT Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page[-] Text [+]

1 of 1Full SizeBy Patrick Rucker and David Lawder

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is mulling new ways to delay foreclosure for jobless homeowners who are unable to keep up with monthly payments, an administration official said on Monday.

The official told Reuters it was reasonable for policymakers to consider options for loan forbearance — allowing borrowers to delay, defer or skip payments — that are more effective than those currently available in the private sector.

The number of failing home loans has been climbing for three years as risky borrowers have defaulted on their easy-to-get loans, property values have sunk and the unemployment rate has climbed.

But the official said the idea, which is still evolving, was difficult from a policy perspective and carries potential hazards. It could help more people struggling with economic difficulty, but it also could create perverse incentives that distort the housing market, said the official, who did not want to speak on the record about internal administration debates.

The official said such a program would be in keeping with other measures to help workers who have lost jobs in the current recession.

CONTINUED SLIDE

Officials have been frustrated as red-tape and rising mortgage rates have slowed a housing rescue plan announced in February that was meant to refinance 5 million borrowers and lower monthly payments for 4 million more.

A housing crisis of record defaults began at the end of a five-year housing boom of easy lending but the current crisis is being driven by climbing unemployment, say many analysts.

“All these numbers keep going up. We are not anywhere near the bottom,” said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Traditionally, homeowners have been tipped into default after a personal crisis, but the current downturn is worse as many borrowers have no home equity to soften the blow.

“What I don’t know is will every job loss, every divorce, every death going to lead to a foreclosure because there is just not enough equity left in the home to avoid foreclosure?” Brinkmann said.

Recent data from bank regulators present a mixed picture for the industry in responding to the foreclosure crisis as more modifications are being offered while the number of tardy loans continues to grow.

Servicers implemented 185,156 loan modifications during the first quarter of the year, up 55 percent from the prior quarter, according to data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Office of Thrift Supervision.

The report also showed that seriously delinquent mortgages, defined as loans that are 60 or more days past due, increased by nearly 9 percent from the prior quarter to 5 percent of all mortgages in the portfolio.

The Treasury Department asked the largest 25 mortgage service companies last week to appoint a special liaison officer to work directly with government officials trying to stem defaults. Continued..

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56D04920090714

You are mistaken. That is not a tiger. That is Stu going for a cable TV discount.

i knew that a long time ago.

It also helps if you want someone to do something for you, or if you wanna scare the shilt out of someone.

or, if you need to break in some little wet private.
SAS

You are mistakem. That is not a tiger. That is Stu going for a cable TV discount.

Thanks for the Mon Co. numbers. Are you a RE agent as well?

“Odin, a white Bengal tiger”
http://tinyurl.com/ku3fpk

SAS

Ahh, I feel better already:

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56C3WX20090713

Swearing can make you feel better, lessen pain
Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:31am EDT Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page[-] Text [+]
LONDON (Reuters) – Cut your finger? Hurt your leg? Start swearing. It might lessen the pain.

Researchers from the school of psychology at Britain’s Keele University have found swearing can make you feel better as it can have a “pain-lessening effect,” according to a study published in the journal NeuroReport.

Colleagues Richard Stephens, John Atkins and Andrew Kingston, set out to establish if there was any link between swearing and physical pain.

“Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon,” says Stephens.

“It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain. Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists.”

Their study involved 64 volunteers who were each asked to put their hand in a tub of ice water for as long as possible while repeating a swear word of their choice.

They then repeated the experiment using a more commonplace word that they would use to describe a table.

The researchers found the volunteers were able to keep their hands in the ice water for a longer when swearing, establishing a link between swearing and an increase in pain tolerance.

Stephens said it was not clear how or why this link existed but it could be because swearing may increase aggression.

“What is clear is that swearing triggers not only an emotional response, but a physical one too, which may explain why the centuries-old practice of cursing developed and still persists today,” he said.

also, you boys think too locally.
just cause one county has a little uptick, yer thinken green shoots?

balderdash
SAS