But my life just got even more disjointed and surreal. I've been in the position of trying to make it on $466 per month in unemployment--which first of all caused me to default on June's and this month's mortgage payments. Monday morning I had to go to the post office to pick up a certified letter from my lender on my delinquency. It says they're prepared to initiate foreclosure proceedings.

You know that you are either doing something right, or wrong, when one diary leads into another.  In the previous diary, I took two different situations and showed how one statement could be used in both situations.

Out of that diary, two comments made brought out two issues I want to discuss in this diary: the issue of rape itself and the issue of blame vs accountability (which is where I'm really going to focus).

Onward... through the fog...

Yes, what should have been the title of this diary was already used in this diary.  Oh well.  It really does fit here, as well.  What title you ask?

IT WAS ALL HER FAULT!

I'm talking about the situational ethics and standards that some people, and even a portion of our society, have expressed.  I can use one statement and show to you exactly what I am talking about.

So, on we go...

Today there is a top rated diary about the tragic story of Carlene Balderrama near Boston, and it has been noted by many that this is not an isolated occurrence.  Now, every story is not the same, and in many regards the outpouring of sympathy for the late Ms. Balderrama is well deserved -- her life ended in tragedy.

However, amidst all the hand-wringing about the mortgage/foreclosure crisis, in this diary I am going to say some things that may strike you as callous.  While on one hand it is absolutely true that lenders adopt predatory tactics, and while it is also absolutely true that bankruptcy law has tended to tilt away from consumers, we do not live in a society where consumers are not expected to be at least a little responsible for themselves.  And I see the loss of Mrs. Balderrama's life not as a story of predatory lending so much as it is the story of what not to do when life throws you lemons.

Join me below the fold if you dare.

When people ask Mayor McLin about her unique eyeglasses – one frame is ovular, the other rectangular – she always offers the same quip.  The glasses are like Dayton: the city is well rounded and gives you a square deal.

Some stories just shock you enough to have to mention something about them, to think they're more indicative of something than the singular tragedy for one family.  What I just read on Boston.com is one of those stories.

A 53 year old woman, a wife and mother, from Taunton, Massachusetts, faxed her mortgage company at 2:30 PM yesterday saying before the 5 PM auction of her home began she would be dead.  When the company received the fax they called police within an hour.  When the police got to the home, she was already dead, 1 1/2 hours before the auction would have started.

http://www.boston.com/...
(more)

Not too long ago my wife and I were on the brink of foreclosure.  I know what that experience is like and I know how my wife and I reacted.  For those of you who have never experienced this kind of thing I would like to share our emotional reaction to this traumatic event.

You think you're going to be sensible.  You think that you'll have a clear head and that you'll explore all the options.  No one pictures themselves acting like complete idiots, putting their heads in the sand until it's too late.  But unfortunately, it happens anyway.

Because I know you're still out there, a note to people who think the mortgage crisis is a personal responsibility issue:

On a recent week, the Douglas County Public Trustee received six new filings for $1 million-plus homes entering the foreclosure process.

And it's not just homes.

Senior centers, office buildings and even churches have been forced to deal with the threat of losing their million- dollar real estate to the lenders, forcing them to scramble to escape foreclosure auctions.

For example, the biggest health club in the metro area, the Lakeshore Athletic Club - Flatiron, was in foreclosure for about six months last year, before the $19 million foreclosure was withdrawn, according to public records. - Rocky Mountain News

Nationally, RealtyTrac shows 261,255 properties received foreclosure notices during May -- a 7 percent increase from the previous month and a 48 percent boost from May 2007.

The report also states one in every 483 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month, the highest monthly foreclosure rate since RealtyTrac began issuing the report in January 2005. - mlive.com

To convince any reasonable person this is a personal responsibility issue, you're going to have to come up with a reason why all of a sudden, in the United States, rich people and poor people and people in between and churches and senior centers and health clubs just all spontaneously became  really irresponsible, on a historic level. Was it in the air, or the water?

Or was it in the lending practices? New rules approved by the Fed offer a few reminders of shady practices widespread enough to be worth banning:

For all mortgages, prime and subprime, the new rules will:

— Prohibit seven misleading advertising practices, including representing that a rate or payment is "fixed" if it will change over the course of the loan.

— Prohibit advertising in which different loans are compared unless all payments and rates are also disclosed.

— Prohibit foreign-language mortgage ads in which required disclosures are presented in English.

— Prohibit a lender from encouraging or coercing an appraiser to misrepresent a home's assessed value.

Misleading advertising, bullshit appraisals...all things mortgage-holders did to themselves, no doubt.

Greed Homeowners + Greedy Lenders = Tax Payer Bailouts

Once again taxpayers are cleaning up a financial mess because an institution is too big to fail.  I am becoming quite disgusted that the only people taking responsibility for our current state of affairs seem to be the American taxpayers as generously volunteered by our elected officials.

Homeowners, irresponsible lenders, those who turned these bogus mortgages into securities, and  complete lack of functioning government regulations all share pretty equal portions of the blame.

NY Times Story Here

Obama and a townhall meeting in Georgia today as reported in the Caucus.

So Jeana Brown raises her arm in a forest of outstretched hands in the bleachers at the local high school and the presidential candidate picks her – "Me?!" "Yes, you" – and voice quaking, she rises and informs him:

A lack of regulation in the financial markets and the many seeing a quick buck at the expense of everyone other than themselves.

"I am one of your small contributors — five dollars actually," she says.

My colleague David Sirota has a new diary today about the topic that's on just about everyone's mind where I work in NYC: what's going to happen now that stalwart Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno is on the way out?

If you want to catch the most up-to-date dirt on the shady FBI investigation subplot to Bruno's exit or the swirling gossip around his likely successor, be sure to check out the Albany Project, which, as always, are keeping it on lock when it comes to tracking even the smallest minutiae of New York State politics.

However, if, like Mr. Sirota, you agree that Bruno's exit is a major opportunity for progressives to make a national impact through state-level, then you'll want to do a little more than that.  

Here we have a seemingly innocuous story about the housing crisis.  On the face of it, you might actually agree somewhat with the premise that Ed McMahon should not be the face of the housing crisis.  I know I do.  

I agree, Ed has a lot of resources.  But what's also true is nothing in this country addresses problems like a celebrity or a senator who feels the pinch himself. Ed McMahon probably isn't the best choice, but he's a celebrity (of sorts) and he attracts attention. So I guess I can understand the basis of his argument, as far as that goes.

Until you get to this buried nugget:

A lot of people hear the word "foreclosure" and immediately picture a family living in an alleyway or in a city shelter, but that's not usually the reality.

We've made an offer on a house...for the second time. Same house, same offer. And it still has not been accepted or rejected.  The house is a foreclosure, and evidently these things take time...a lot of time.  And apparently the realtor representing the bank has his hands full.  Too full to show us enough courtesy to keep us in the loop.  But what is he busy doing?  Certainly not presenting our offer(s) to the bank.  Certainly not informing us the house was up for auction.  Certainly not telling us whether the house had sold at auction.  Certainly not telling us whether our second, revamped offer was accepted or rejected.  With so many foreclosures  out there and so few houses in general being sold, I don't understand what's taking so long.  Don't the banks want to unload these houses and recoup at least part of their money?

More below.

Cross-Posted at Calitics.com.

So the Daily Breeze (covering the Torrance-LAX-Long Beach area) has an update on the Laura Richardson foreclosure story.  Seems her lender on her vacant Sacramento house has rescinded the foreclosure.  That would be good, except another party has already  bought the house and has spent money on repairs and improvements.  He's not leaving, and he says he'll sue Richardson and WaMu, the lender.

Did Richardson get a break?

Sad news on the economic front, folks.  CNN is reportingon a release by the Mortgage Bankers' Association on how foreclosures have passed the 1 million mark.

Today TPM Muckraker and The Hill picked up on the story about Laura Richardson, which I diaried here and at Calitics this last weekend.

This could be a big story, and a very big problem in the district come November.

The new housing bill going through congress won't really help anyone but the rich bankers. Based on an article from the guardian, the new bill provides loans to homeowners which refinance their loans at 85% of the existing loan.

The new mortgages would pay off the first mortgages at 85% of the appraised value of the house. While the banks will still lose money under this plan, they will almost certainly end up much better off than if situation was just left to the market. In fact, since the banks decide which loans get into the program, it is virtually guaranteed that they come out ahead.

Sounds great right?????

Update: Sorry! Forgot to provide the link. Rob from the poor

We are led to believe that if the government freezes mortgage rates the foreclosure problem will go away. Only a small proportion of foreclosures are the direct result of mortgage rate adjustments. According to Countrywide, most foreclosures are the direct result of reduced income from job lost, unexpected health problems, death or divorce. While subprime loans may have been the straw that exacerbated the over leveraged, under regulated debt-market, the resulting credit crunch topples all that teeter. People are being pushed to their limits.

The mortgage crisis is a result of collusion between real estate brokers, appraisers, bankers, and the government. The house market became dependent on a steady price increase to permit refinancing. Without refinancing homeowners were unable to escape high initial mortgage rates. Eventually, without substantial inflation, houses had to become unaffordable. House prices had reached levels that often required most of a household’s income. Subprimes were just a frantic attempt to continue a pyramid.