It is hard to respect a President that doesn't even command the respect of those within his own Administration. In the midst of the first wave of foreclosures, President Obama introduced America to a bold new plan to save the homes of struggling Americans who were vicitms of the economic crash caused by the very loans they could no longer afford to pay. Much was said about the Banks misdeeds including robosigning, lost paperwork, foreclosing on paid for homes, giving loans to people they knew couldn't afford them, and many other such things which shined a long over-due light on their deceptive practices. Calls were made for investigations and prosecutions for which there has been very little done to date. But I digress.
In steps the President who calls for reforms which will enable the struggling home owners to refinance their loans to make the notes affordable. The goal of course was to keep the homeowners in their homes and off of the public welfare rolls. This brought forth the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). Both are worthy programs and both are designed to meet the needs of different victims. HARP is designed to help homeowners by not only getting them a reduced interest rate, but also by lowering the principal owed on homes that are seriously underwater (the loan principal is more than what they are worth). Needless to say, the banks are resistant to following these guidelines to begin with as they will affect their long-term profits from these loans. Their record for loan modifications is almost criminal as they do everything in their power to avoid compliance to protect their profit margins. Currently on a normal loan, a bank will double or triple the amount they lend a homeowner over the life of the loan. Usury anyone?
Well it appears that it isn't only the Banks that dislike the idea of lowering their potential profits; so didthe then acting head of the FHFA where a majority of these sub-prime loans originated. He openly and publicly refused to allow any of the Banks to write down the principal due on ANY FHFA-backed loans (FHA and FreddieMac loans) regardless of the homeowners situation. This policy is a veritable slap in the face to the very President who appointed him to this position. This gave the Banks the excuse they needed to deny the majority of their victims the chance to refinance their homes to an affordable note pushing many out into the streets resulting in a higher number of homeless people with children living under overpass bridges. What a wonderful human being! Apparently he is worried that a possible strategic default by a few thousand homeowners to save themselves some money is worth throwing 4.6 million other homeowners under the Banksters bus. Great job Edward Demarco.
It appears though that President Obama may not be able to fire this jerk. In order for him to be replaced, a permanent Director must be nominated and confirmed by Congress. Guess who won't allow this to happen? Good guess; the Senate Republicans! Obama should have taken care of this prior to the 2010 re-election but since he didn't, there is little chance it will be corrected before November. So what options does President Obama have? How about the much maligned Executive Order? Why hasn't one been issued to address this problem? Could it be that he lacks the heart to actually go against his Bankster Wall Street backers and that all of his public displays of dissatifaction is nothing more than political posturing? This certainly seems to be the case. What Obama forgets as he stumps the campaign trail is the millions of homeowners still waiting for some kind of REAL foreclosure relief and the millions more who have already been tossed to the curb. His continued lack of action in the case of DeMarco will continue to be viewed by at least this writer, as a defacto approval of DeMarco's policies. If he doesn't support DeMarco's policies, then what we have here is a Civil Servant publicly giving his boss "The Finger"!
