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"We are looking to work through problems with our customers on a case-by-case basis. Where appropriate, we will offer payment holidays, reduced monthly repayments and conversion to interest-only mortgages," said Jemma Rundle, a spokeswoman for Northern Rock. In addition, Rock debt advisers will call people who are in arrears to see what extra help can be offered, rather than simply writing letters to them. This follows the spirit of a new mortgage-industry protocol which comes into force on Wednesday, setting better standards for how homeowners facing repossession should be treated by lenders.
It is believed that the Rock management could be feeling the political heat after a barrage of negative headlines over its attitude to people facing repossession. Despite Treasury ministers insisting that the Government only has an "arm's length" relationship with the Rock, the bank's new chief executive, Gary Hoffman, may be keen to stop the negative publicity and so please his new political masters.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news...
My son helped lay tile in 2 Wachovia (you know, almost bankrupt until bought by Wells Fargo) branches in the last week, replacing carpet with expensive brick-style stuff...and they're still on track with their new high rise headquarters in Charlotte. How much longer he'll be employed is questionable, even though Charlotte is supposed to be a "boom town." It has its share of foreclosures, though, and I saw a new neighborhood just built a couple of years ago there that already has houses boarded up. Only the well off are surviving in that town since emergency aid applications have risen 30% and a lot of those people were regularly employed until recently.
My father, who I'm not close to, could still be counted on to be my financial safety net of last resort. Guess who bought a house in Sarasota, Florida, in January? This is the third time he's moved in 10 years. He said it was such a deal. Maybe; it needed some work and he was able to purchase to do that before moving out of his other place. But I'm sure what's left of his retirement money is really in the tank.
In the early speculation on the bailout, the idea was floated of making retirement funds more easily available. Anyone know? That would be a joke; I'm sure what I have is surely in the tank, and have been afraid to look..
About the only consolation I can take is that my social security check is bigger than Jon McCains's.. Nyah, nyah! Of course, I don't have Cindy...
Unsettling times, but what can WE do? My business needs shoppers with discretionary income,
I don't want to sell a Star Wars toy for one third its 'true' value. But then again....
All those unemployed adult children will be moving back in...with their kids. (Hint: it's already been happening with the more unfortunate.)
Must mean a worldwide recession, right?
sure enough, i noticed a late 20 early 30 something male get out of the back camper bed section... i wanted to offer him some money as he didnt appear to have been on the street that long.. the longer and further people fall into homelessness, the harder it is to get out of it...
but i decided not to as i didnt want him to start playing on my sympathy's and coming around asking for more... but as he pulled away i thought about how i could have offered him some help ...
i suppose i could have given him a $20 bill with a comment that maybe if things get better for him, he might return the favor to someone else some day...
i look at some of the new homeless and wonder how deep could this economic problem go and could i be that person that needs help some day..... strange times we live in...
Long story short, I went to Colorado to work with her Minister so she wouldn't have her meager belonging sold from a storage unit. I had planned tp physically move her precious items and the Minister was aiding her finding a temp home.
Story shorter. I found out the hard way she was evidently a functional mentally ill person with high intellect.
Sad to say, that trip was remarkable in many ways, it ran the emotional gamut from great joy to perceiving danger.
On the topic of begging: Several years ago I was vacationing in Key West. A street beggar came up asking for "spare change" but I was in a WSJ mood, huffed and puffed and walked on. "Hey, buddy," he called out, "C'mon! It's not like I'm going to spend it on food, all I want is beer!"
I gave him a 5 for the comedy of it all.
One reason for the casual support for letting GM fail is the assumption that bankruptcy would be no big deal: As USA Today editorialized recently, "Bankruptcy need not mean that the company disappears." But, while it's worked out that way for the airlines, among others, it's unlikely a GM business failure would play out in the same fashion. In order to seek so-called Chapter 11 status, a distressed company must find some way to operate while the bankruptcy court keeps creditors at bay. But GM can't build cars without parts, and it can't get parts without credit. Chapter 11 companies typically get that sort of credit from something called Debtor-in-Possession (DIP) loans. But the same Wall Street meltdown that has dragged down the economy and GM sales has also dried up the DIP money GM would need to operate.
That's why many analysts and scholars believe GM would likely end up in Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would entail total liquidation. The company would close its doors, immediately throwing more than 100,000 people out of work. And, according to experts, the damage would spread quickly. Automobile parts suppliers in the United States rely disproportionately on GM's business to stay afloat. If GM shut down, many if not all of the suppliers would soon follow. Without parts, Chrysler, Ford, and eventually foreign-owned factories in the United States would have to cease operations. From Toledo to Tuscaloosa, the nation's?assembly lines could go silent, sending a chill through their local economies as the idled workers stopped spending money.
Restaurants, gas stations, hospitals, and then cities, counties, and states--all of them would feel pressure on their bottom lines. A study just published by the Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research (CAR) predicted that three million people would lose their jobs in the first year after such a Big Three meltdown, swelling the ranks of the unemployed by nearly one-third nationally and leading to hundreds of billions of dollars in lost income. The Midwest would feel the effects disproportionately, but the effect would reach into every community with a parts supplier or factory--and, to a lesser extent, into every town and city with a dealership. In short, virtually every community in the country would be touched.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=a4893...
Yesterday, I think on the nyt, the estimated cost of not bailing them out was about 200 billion, mostly to be borne by state govts....who are not in a position to bear anything more!
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/...
luckily, I'm a survivor - but I have a feeling
that some day my luck is going to run out
and that'll be it for yours truly.
so glad we got that bail out yall thought was going to help. it did NOTHING. the "bail out" was just one of the last scorched earth actions by this criminal government, dem and repug alike.
SERIOUS insomnia.
chalk up another "mission accomplished"
for George W. Bush and his Congress of
enablers.
Are you an idiot to keep paying your mortgage?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/...