Elizabeth Warren Still Fighting For Consumer Protection
Almost a year ago, Elizabeth Warren began a focused campaign to bring consumer protections to the discussion about financial and credit reform. She is Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University, and (yet?) chose to introduce her position on such protections via the following YouTube video:
That was a year ago. Where is she now and how is she reaching out with her ideas? More importantly, how goes the move to create such an agency?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
NeighborWorks Week Draws To Successful Close
The NeighborWorks Week (June 5-12) that just finished (and that we promoted a couple of weeks ago) focused on educating homeowners to the danger signs of mortgage-assistance scams and predatory loan practices. According to the NeighborWorks website, “NeighborWorks America and local NeighborWorks organizations held more than 320 community revitalization and 150 loan modification scam awareness events nationwide.” Not surprisingly, one of the bigger shows of force was in New York City, where the issue was put up in lights. Literally.
Popularity: 1% | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, Nonprofit, Revitalization | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Jobs Report Suggests Slight Or Slighter Growth Depending on Source
The release of the government’s jobs report this past week was cause for about as much speculation as Apple Inc.’s World Wide Developers’ Conference is this week. And just as people pretty much knew about Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone weeks ago, so people were pretty sure what the jobs report would look like before it was made official. The jobs report needed contextualization within the economic disasters we have endured for the last three years. We will leave contextualization of Apple’s WWDC and new iPhone for another post.
Job Losses and Gains Since Jan. 2010
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
End-of-Week/Quarter Economic News:
Glass Half Full Or…?
Don’t call us stupid. We know it’s the economy. It is of central importance to our political, philanthropic, aesthetic, and working decisions. So for the end of this week MKCREATIVE tapped into the bright minds at The Atlantic Magazine as some of its economists commented on the recent numbers released for Q1 2010. The numbers beg for the rhetorical question of whether the glass is half full or half empty, for some of the numbers are wonderful, though, as Derek Thompson also points out, we are still dragging a ‘heavy anchor,’ namely, the housing sector.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Recent Developments in MA Show Economic Opportunities and Pressures on Community Housing
The Neighborhood Housing Service of Springfield Massachusetts has recently sponsored the building of low-income modular homes in their Old Hill neighborhood. The project is notable for at least two great reasons: First, the Springfield NHS built the homes on what had been ‘trash strewn vacant lots,’ so the entire community enjoys aesthetic and economic boosts. Second, the modular buildings used for the homes have inspired the NHS board to “work strictly in modular … we’re very pleased with the quality of the work.” Thus even low-cost housing will include bamboo-wood floors (bamboo being easily sustainable/replaceable) and central heating and air. A growing market in such modular housing could help keep prices down, even as further improvements are made.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, News and Current Affairs, Revitalization | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Homeowners Getting Federal Help
- Image via Wikipedia
The mortgage bubble that Wall Street players were puffing up and were betting would break has, of course, brought down almost everything else with it (save investor bonuses). The fallout was one of the many catalysts for the sweeping political change of the elections of 2008. One of the loudest political debates was over whether federal recovery and stimulus money should go to banks and investment houses who could not expect repayment on their loans or to homeowners whose hastily purchased and heavily leveraged houses were suddenly underwater. Though the debate continues, many of us seem already to have accepted the inevitable: banks and investment houses have lobbyists, home owners have bills. But some efforts to improve the situation on the ground can be found.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Banks Back to Profitability (& Bonuses) But Homeowners Still Drowning
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) likely kept the banking industry afloat, and few doubt the necessity to keep the banking industry solvent for the sake of functioning markets and businesses. The bailout began under the president who encouraged the housing bubble in the first place, and was accepted by the Obama Administration as a necessity, albeit an unpleasant one. But over the past couple of months, the present administration has spent much of its ‘political capital’ trying to explain the value of the $700+ billion dollar program while trying to move toward direct help to the very people the TARP was originally claiming to support: homeowners whose houses were mortgaged beyond the (falling) market value (thus, ‘troubled assets’). What issues confront the homeowner at this time?
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
The Social Costs of the Housing Crash: Hispanic Communities in NYC
A foreclosed home in Jamaica Plains, NY
84% of all homes in area in similar danger
Last week we posted a couple of reports pointing to the relative stability in the housing market that Baltimore has ‘enjoyed’ and how the faltering economy seems to have spurred growth in the non-profit sector. Today we are reminded of how important the qualifier ‘relative’ is. Optimists and bank executives largely believe the economy has bottomed out, but the social ramifications (and, likely more of the economic ramifications in the commercial real estate sector) are still to be dealt with. Many of the social tensions that the economic crisis has wound up do their worst damage on those communities already strained by marginalization: recent immigrants and the working poor.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, News and Current Affairs, Sustainability | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Baltimore’s Crisis: Is a Sustainable Resurgence Possible in 2010?
The community/public-service website LiveBaltimore.com recently announced a free workshop entitled “Is Now The Right Time to Buy a Home?” The website then had to announce that the tsnownamis of 2010 have forced postponement. Keep an eye on the site, as LiveBaltimore will soon post the rescheduled event. Which begs the question, IS now the right time?
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, Local/Maryland, News and Current Affairs | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
AWOL mortgage payers – strategy or selfish?
A follow up to our entry about mortgage modifications: Roger Lowenstein’s report in the NYTimes has caused a great stir in the blogosphere and among radio pundits. We (rightly) have a moral expectation of those who borrow wealth (be it money, our cars, or our favorite tool in the shed). Yet many folks are simply walking away from their underwater homes, even though they have the means to pay. (more…)
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Living in & loving Baltimore!
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
The Baltimore Media website has just released its latest e-dition, with stories about how jealous Pittsburgh is of Charm City and how many great restaurants one can enjoy after a day’s community gardening. (more…)
Popularity: 1% | Category Banking & Finance, Client Roster, Community, Grants and Funding, Greening, Local/Maryland, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Mortgage modifications can create more debt/risk
With the collapse of the housing market, we all relearned a concept usually associated with kids, summers at the pool, and vacations at the beach: underwater. The term now stirs feelings of unease, if not panic, as we feel ourselves pulled down by an undertow of debt payments and rising interest rates – especially as they pertain to our houses. (more…)
Popularity: 1% | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, National/International, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
NHS Baltimore & Baltimore Sun report on extra-legal debt collection
We are all too aware of how the debts in this country have grown beyond manageability over the last 15-plus years. Democratic and Republican administrations have allowed banks and financial services to write and rewrite their own terms almost at will, and too many customers accepted too-good-to-be-true terms without the necessary due diligence. (more…)
Popularity: 1% | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, Community, Local/Maryland, Nonprofit, Sustainability | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D