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Banks 'use credit crunch to milk borrowers of £3bn'
Banks were accused of 'milking' nearly £3billion extra cash from homeowners and blaming the credit crunch.
High Street lenders have made the money by raising their mortgage rates and fees over the past year, even though interest rate cuts have made it cheaper for some of them to borrow money.
A new study calculates that the country's five biggest banks - Halifax, HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland - are raking in £2.8billion more from mortgage borrowers compared to last year. Banks were accused of 'milking' nearly £3billion extra cash from homeowners and blaming the credit crunch. ... more -
The 2008 student loan blues
Back to school, kids, if you can scrape up the tuition. By some estimates as many as 200,000 college students may not find anyone willing to lend them money for school this year.
The 2008 Student Loan Blues Higher Education
Nicholas von Hoffman: Some 200,000 college students won't qualify for loans in September, and millions more will pay higher interest rates. Can they count on Obama to help them out?
Millions of others are going to have to jump through more hoops, pay higher interest rates and/or get their parents to co-sign their loans. This last expedient depends on the parents having a credit rating good enough to satisfy the money-lenders.
When students get loans this year, they will pay more for them. In at least some cases students are looking at rates of 23 percent. With those numbers a young person might be better off borrowing from the mafia.
Students shopping around trying to get themselves lower interest rates had best be careful. They can inadvertently get stung with higher rates as a result of trying to get lower ones.
In few other areas of consumer life are you at risk of being penalized for seeking out the best deal.... To quote a rate, lenders check an applicants credit history. And every time a shopper asks a lender for a rate quote, it can show up as another inquiry on a credit report. Lots of inquiries send the wrong signals to the formulas that create the popular FICO credit score. The lower the FICO score the higher the interest rate a student will have to pay for tuition money.
Cashing in on the kids is no small business. Last year it amounted to more than $17 billion. The interest on that is a lot of cabbage for private, government-subsidized loan companies, which explains why some college loan officers have taken bribes to steer students to favored lenders.
They have been lining up to screw unworldly 18-year-old freshmen and their parents who may not understand that there is a government student loan program at 6.8 percent interest--which is no bargain for someone about to start out in life, but better than getting the money from a guy with a baseball bat down on the docks. Since there is a cap on how much a student is allowed to borrow at the government rate, millions are also forced to sign up with the sharks.
No one can say how many students who take on these loans appreciate what a bad deal they have signed up for. Regardless of what bad luck may hit them in later life--unemployment, sickness, being run over by a beer truck--they must discharge that loan. There is no forgiveness. Unlike other debts, the law says not even bankruptcy will wipe out a student loan obligation.
It's a neat system. The colleges and universities run up tuition without stint or limit in a society in which you either go to college or live on the verge of poverty. You must go to school and incur the costs.
No tuition restraints were included in the just-enacted higher education law. But there are more costs than tuition. Higher education is better than the airlines at tacking on fees and special charges. And the publishers of textbooks costing more than $100 are exempt from prosecution under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Young people have no representation powerful enough and well enough bankrolled to go up against the higher ed lobby. Barack Obama is their best hope.
He and the Democrats are counting on the youth vote to put them over the top this November. Lets hope that, if the young people win it for Obama, the new President will ignore the rich, academic liberal types who swarm about him and repay his youthful followers by getting them something approaching an even break. Back to school, kids, if you can scrape up the tuition. By some estimates as many as 200,000 college students may not find anyone will... more -
Solar power loan program brings clean light to India: TreeHugger
Affordable loans to low income people so that they can access cleaner energy to replace kerosene.
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Gary Coleman loses his mind plugging Cashcall
Everyone's favorite little Arnold from Diff'rent Strokes is back again. Gary Coleman has several commercials of himplugging the quick cash benifits of a Unsecured Loan at Cashcall. But in this cut Gray loses his mind. Everyone's favorite little Arnold from Diff'rent Strokes is back again. Gary Coleman has several commercials of himplugging... more
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"Extreme Makeover" Home Faces Foreclosure
Extreme Makeover' house faces foreclosure
Mon Jul 28, 11:32 AM PDT
More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC's "Extreme Makeover" team demolish a family's decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.
Three years later, the reality TV show's most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.
After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.
The house was built in January 2005, after Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and ABC's "Extreme Makeover" demolished their old home and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the television program had yet built.
The finished product was a four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage that towered over ranch and split-level homes in their Clayton County neighborhood. The home's door opened into a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office.
Materials and labor were donated for the home, which would have cost about $450,000 to build. Beazer Homes' employees and company partners also raised $250,000 in contributions for the family, including scholarships for the couple's three children and a home maintenance fund.
ABC said in a statement that it advises each family to consult a financial planner after they get their new home. "Ultimately, financial matters are personal, and we work to respect the privacy of the families," the network said.
Some of the volunteers who helped build the home were less than thrilled about the family's financial decisions.
"It's aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it," Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt, who helped vault a massive beam into place in the Harper's living room, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Extreme Makeover' house faces foreclosure Mon Jul 28, 11:32 AM PDT ... more -
Economic Depression Then and Now
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Federal reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, a scholar of the epic financial meltdown of the Great Depression, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a survivor of more recent Wall Street crises, told Congress of their latest efforts to rescue the financial sector. If Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and his deputy Lawrence Summers were known as the Committee to Save the World during the financial crises of the 1990s, today's duo may go down as the Committee to Save Wall Street From Itself. For the past several months, the Fed and the Treasury Department have pulled all-nighters dealing with three-alarm fires, from the demise of Bear Stearns in March to the rising concerns over the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Fannie and Freddie play a huge role in the mortgage business by lending cash and guaranteeing loans made by others. But with the spread of the mortgage crises their stocks have plummeted in recent weeks, and questions have been raised as to whether the government would do what it implied it would all along when it established the two government sponsored organizations: stand behind their debt. Bernanke and Paulson gave an emphatic "yes," as they described to occasionally hostile Congress members their plans to allow Fannie and Freddie to borrow money from the Federal Reserve, and to empower the Treasury Department to buy (and buoy) the companies' stock and stand behind their $5.2 trillion in debt. The prospective moves, along with some slightly better-than-expected earnings reports from banks last week, calmed the markets. The price for this desperately needed action is likely to be more regulation and oversight. Will the crisis inspire a fundamental restructuring of the vital, symbiotic relationship between Washington and Wall Street, as happened during the New Deal? Or will these responses prove a temporary blip, as when the government bailed out the savings and loan industry in the late 1980s? In short, is this 1933 or 1989? On Tuesday and Wednesday, Federal reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, a scholar of the epic financial meltdown of the Great Depression, and... more -
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2007
Neither Honest Nor Trustworthy: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2007
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
The U.S. public holds Big Business in shockingly low regard.
A November 2007 Harris poll found that less than 15 percent of the population believes each of the following industries to be "generally honest and trustworthy:" tobacco companies (3 percent); oil companies (3 percent); managed care companies such as HMOs (5 percent); health insurance companies (7 percent); telephone companies (10 percent); life insurance companies (10 percent); online retailers (10 percent); pharmaceutical and drug companies (11 percent); car manufacturers (11 percent); airlines (11 percent); packaged food companies (12 percent); electric and gas utilities (15 percent). Only 32 percent of adults said they trusted the best-rated industry about which Harris surveyed, supermarkets.
With the 10 Worst Corporations of 2007, we aim to show - again - that Big Business is out of control and to connect comparable abuses to the failure of government overseers, regulators and enforcers.
Presented alphabetically, here are the 10 Worst Corporations of 2007:
http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2007/112007/mokhi... Neither Honest Nor Trustworthy: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2007 by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman ... more -
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US foreclosure filings surge 65 percent in April
One in every 519 U.S, households received a foreclosure filing in April.
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Changing the World with Kiva.org
Kiva is changing the world through microfinancing. Kiva allows people to lend as little as $25 directly to the poor. They use that money to start a busiess that helps them get out of poverty. 99.9% of the loans have been paid back. Kiva is changing the world through microfinancing. Kiva allows people to lend as little as $25 directly to the poor. They use that mon... more
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Tax Loans Can Hurt
Tax Refund Anticipation Loans - huge help or huge farce?
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Afghan "Loan Brides"
Afghan Farmers Forced to Sell Daughters to Pay Loans
The practice began with the dowry a bridegroom's family traditionally pays to the bride's father in tribal Pashtun society. These days the amount ranges from $3,000 or so in poorer places like Laghman and Nangarhar to $8,000 or more in Helmand, Afghanistan's No. 1 opium-growing province.
Local farmers say a man can get killed for failing to repay a loan. No one knows how many debt weddings take place in Afghanistan, where 93 percent of the world's heroin and other opiates originate. But Afghans say the number of loan brides keeps rising as poppy-eradication efforts push more farmers into default. "This will be our darkest year since 2000," says Baz Mohammad, 65, a white-bearded former opium farmer in Nangarhar. "Even more daughters will be sold this year." The old man lives with the anguish of selling his own 13-year-old daughter in 2000, after Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar banned poppy growing. "Lenders never show any mercy," the old man says. Local farmers say more than one debtor has been bound hand and foot, then locked into a small windowless room with a smoldering fire, slowly choking to death. Afghan Farmers Forced to Sell Daughters to Pay Loans ... more -
Individual bankruptcy filings up 27%
The American Bankruptcy Institute said that consumer bankruptcy filings increased 27% nationwide in the first three months of the year, compared with the same period last year.
In March alone, 86,165 individuals filed for consumer bankruptcy - a 13% increase over the 76,120 cases filed in February.
... is this where this debt culture is leading all of us?
Seems debt is the slavery of the New Medieval Era.
How much should we blame debt inducing advertising?
How much should we blame debt inducing politics?
... and how much should we blame ourselves for falling into the trap? The American Bankruptcy Institute said that consumer bankruptcy filings increased 27% nationwide in the first three months of the year... more -
Is an International Financial Conspiracy Driving World Events?
I always liked big conspiracy theories.
Why?
First of all, i think that everything that usual medias try to cover is always good to show.
Nowadays media always try to put on first page just what attracts attention, distracts people from real issues, do not disturb any power or corporate interest and anything that can make you a dumb passive media-user.
So ... if official information is just disinformation, better search into disinformation for real information ;-) I always liked big conspiracy theories. Why? ... more -
The Big Fat Tax Break - Discussion
Don't try running from the IRS, because you'll just die tired. VC2 producer Bookworm Brown and his crack team of multimedia misfits bust open a common question about calculating the fatter tax refund. If your idea of getting more tax deductions on your income is birthing 6 or 7 kids, then Ed McMahon says you may already be a winner. Don't want to change diapers? In this latest project, you'll find out which is the better way to keep more of your income incoming.
Let us know what works for you? Please share. Don't try running from the IRS, because you'll just die tired. VC2 producer Bookworm Brown and his crack team of multimedia... more -
“Abolish the Fed”
CNBC allowed Jim Rogers, investor and buddy to George Soros, to get on and slam the Federal Reserve.
Not only slam the Fed, but call for it to be abolished.
“I will ask you this,” one of CNBC’s talking heads asks Mr. Rogers, “what would be the first two things you would do if you were in Mr. Bernanke’s seat tomorrow morning?”
“I would abolish the Federal Reserve,” avers Rogers, “and I would resign,” a response that brings nervous laughter all around at the CNBC studios. CNBC allowed Jim Rogers, investor and buddy to George Soros, to get on and slam the Federal Reserve. ... more -
Can't pay your car note?
If you entered into a subprime auto contract in the past few years and can't pay now, get in touch with me! I'm making a pod on the subject send me a message so I can possibly feature you in a pod for Current. If you entered into a subprime auto contract in the past few years and can't pay now, get in touch with me! I'm making a po... more
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Debt for Diploma
College costs are soaring but most students don't receive enough financial aid to cover it. Many are going into deep debt to make up the difference. Jodie Wilken is one semester away from graduating and is worried about how she'll pay it all back. College costs are soaring but most students don't receive enough financial aid to cover it. Many are going into deep debt to make... more
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Real Estate Can Kill You.
Take a risk or steer clear of the bursting bubble? What we learned buying a home could save you a headache. Heres our Real Estate 101. Take a risk or steer clear of the bursting bubble? What we learned buying a home could save you a headache. Heres our Real Estate 1... more
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Sub-Prime Primer
Explains the sub-prime lending crisis currently affecting the stock market in under two minutes.
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