Bw Bank Online

Source: Business Week Online

In early 2007, as overextended borrowers began to default on too-good-to-be-true subprime mortgages, housing experts sounded an alarm heard throughout Washington. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, wanted to push a bill requiring banks to modify loans whose enticingly low "teaser" interest rates soon give way to tougher terms. But he knew that with Republicans strongly opposed, he lacked the muscle, according to Senate aides. So Dodd did what politicians often do. He convened a talkfest: the Homeownership Preservation Summit.

A who's who of banking executives gathered on Apr. 18, 2007, behind closed doors in an ornate hearing room in the marble-faced Dirksen Senate Office Building. Dodd told them they needed to get out in front of the foreclosure fiasco by adjusting loan terms so borrowers would continue to make some payments, rather than stopping altogether. Foreclosure proceedings typically cost banks about 50% of a property's value. That's assuming the home can be resold -- not a certainty when empty houses multiply in a neighborhood. "What are you doing?" Dodd asked the executives. "What do you need me to do to help you modify loans?"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20090213/bs_b w/0908b4120034085635

Is this why Republicans constantly vilify Christopher Dodd, because he's actually trying to fix the problem?
"Senate Banking Committee spokeswoman Kate Szostak says Dodd aggressively pursued the foreclosure issue, but "both the industry and the Bush Administration refused to heed his warnings.""

Why did Bill Clinton start the whole mess in the first place?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht ml?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F95826 0&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

2009-02-13 09:04:01 by gitrdoneobama

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