The last several years have hit many homeowners who have little to no ability to repay their mortgages. Fourteen million of these homeowners have no equity in their homes and owe the lender more than the property’s appraised value.
Foreclosures may be up, however the foreclosure process varies from state to state. In some states short notice is given by lenders. In others, homeowners have 9 months to 18 months before a foreclosure is posted.
What can lenders and homeowners do to work together? Is it at all possible for both the lender to profit and the homeowner to keep their home?
Joining Dennis McCuistion to discuss the various options to foreclosure and how to work with a lender to keep from being foreclosed are the following panelists:
- Richard Bitner – Author of: Confessions of a Subprime Lender
- Linda Davis – Housing Director: Consumer Credit Counseling Service
- George Roddy – CEO of The Roddy Report
Join us as always as we talk about things that matter… with people who care.
Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/ Producer
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04.24.2011 – 1904
Gerald O’Driscoll, Jr., Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and former Vice President at the Federal Reserve of Dallas, joined us last year for a McCuistion TV program: What Is the True State of the Economy?
He and our other guests addressed the Fed’s role in the current economic situation and whether or not the present and anticipated government policies have a possibility of working.
Gerald O’Driscoll, featured in an August 16, 2010 Wall Street Journal article entitled: The Fed Can’t Solve Our Government Woes, addresses the policy of low interest rates, why this policy is sometimes justified, and he comments, “While these effects are theoretically plausible, this textbook policy does not apply to our present situation.”
He states, “Markets are resilient, but their recovery can be impeded by bad policies. At present, both monetary and fiscal policies are on the wrong track.” The article is thought provoking and well worth a full read. And you may want to click on the program link, to see what he had to say on the McCuistion Program.
Joining him on the program were:
- Stan Liebowitz, PhD – Author: Anatomy of a Train Wreck, Director for the Analysis of Property Rights and Settlement, University of Texas School of Management
- Richard Bitner – Author: Confessions of a Subprime Lender, Associate Publisher: Housing Wire Magazine
- Ira Silver PhD – Texas Christian University, Neeley School of Business
As always thanks for joining us as we talk about things that matter with people who care…
Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer
Dr. Ron Anderson, President/CEO of Parkland Hospital System in Dallas, and Dr. John Goodman, President/CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis, recently debated the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Dr. Anderson opened his comments by mentioning the McCuistion Program, on which he and John Goodman have taken have expressed very divergent views on health care. According to Dr. Anderson, “we need a safety net institution; the market doesn’t always work. We need a bias toward value not volume and to be involved in shifting the paradigm toward preventive care.”
Dr. Goodman comments on how surprisingly they agreed more than disagreed on many issues: “I had a lively discussion about how health reform will affect the nation’s health care system. Ron is a nationally known advocate of national health insurance. I am at the other end of the spectrum. This may have been the first formal debate over the bill since its passage. What was remarkable was not how much we disagreed, but how much we agreed. In particular, we both think:
Emergency room traffic will increase rather than decrease. Access to care for seniors and the disabled will be so impaired that they are at risk of becoming like Medicaid enrollees -forced to seek care at community health centers and safety-net hospitals. And extraordinary discretionary power is being given to one federal agency to make decisions that will affect everyone.”
You can also view the entire discussion by going here.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Goldman Sachs will pay $550 million to settle the SEC’s charges against the firm. According to Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, “Half a billion dollars is the largest penalty ever assessed against a financial services firm in the history of the SEC. This settlement is a stark lesson to Wall Street firms that no product is too complex, and no investor too sophisticated, to avoid a heavy price if a firm violates the fundamental principles of honest treatment and fair dealing.”
In April, The SEC sued Goldman Sachs and one of its employees for civil fraud, alleging they defrauded investors in 2007, in selling a financial product tied to sub prime mortgages. While Goldman acknowledged that its marketing materials for the sub prime product contained incomplete information; Goldman agreed to settle the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying the allegations by consenting to the entry of a final judgment that enjoins them from violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933.
In its complaint, the SEC alleged that Goldman misstated and omitted key facts regarding a synthetic collateralized debt obligation it marketed. In particular, the SEC alleged that Goldman failed to disclose the role that hedge fund, Paulson & Co. Inc., played in interests that were adverse to CDO investors. Of the $550 million to be paid by Goldman in the settlement, $250 million would be returned to harmed investors through a Fair Fund distribution and $300 million would be paid to the U.S. Treasury.
In January of this year, Bill George, former Chairman & CEO of Medtronic’s, Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School and author of True North, joined us on the McCuistion program. Dennis asked Bill George, “There are people watching this program who will ask, how is it that you can be so focused on character and values and yet be on the board of Goldman Sachs?”
Bill George’s answer, “Here’s a firm that for 140 years focused on their clients. They paid their people well. They paid for performance… not stars. They were the first execs on Wall Street that didn’t take bonuses. And when they saw the problem with sub prime mortgages, they got out 18 months ahead of everyone else.” Tune in for more of the story…and the values of true leadership from Bill George’s perspective.
Click here for full episode on Character and Leadership.
Additional links about the settlement:
- Analysts Cheer Goldman’s Settlement
- Weighing the Trade Offs in the Goldman Settlement
- Russia Stocks Advance on $76 Oil, Goldman Sachs U.S. Settlement
As always, thank you for watching as we talk about things that matter… with people who care.
Niki N. McCuistion
Executive Producer
