IMF Warns Markets Could Fall Further
October 11, 2008
The U.S. government pushed on Saturday to finalize a plan to buy direct stakes in American banks as the International Monetary Fund warned markets could drop another 20 percent in a worst-case scenario.
Global stocks plunged to five-year lows on Friday as panic gripped. The U.S. S&P index and European stocks suffered their worst week ever, losing around a fifth of their value.
“In a worst-case scenario, governments will need a few more weeks to take the correct measures and the markets could fall another 20 percent. Then, we’ll turn around,” the IMF’s chief economist Olivier Blanchard was quoted as saying in Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
The world’s rich nations vowed on Friday to take all necessary steps to unfreeze credit markets and ensure banks can raise money but they offered no collective course of action to avert a deep global recession.
In a surprisingly brief statement after a 3-1/2 hour meeting, the Group of Seven stopped short of backing a British plan to guarantee lending between banks, something many on Wall Street saw as vital to end growing market panic.
However, an emergency meeting of euro zone leaders on Sunday would discuss a bank rescue package taking Britain’s initiative as a reference point, a source close to the French presidency said, even though as a non-euro member Britain would not attend.
Reports say Germany is thinking along the same lines.
Britain’s rescue plan, launched last week, involved injecting 50 billion pounds ($86 billion) of taxpayers’ money into its banks and, crucially, to underwrite interbank lending which has all but frozen around the globe.
WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters)
Foreclosure Mortgage Scams
June 12, 2008
Be weary of any offer that sounds to good to be true. Predators love to prey on the weak, and unfortunately in these hard times, people are in desperate situations and are quick to pull the trigger, rather than looking into other options.
In most scenarios, the “rescuer” identifies a distressed homeowner from a list of foreclosures sold by county clerks’ offices to private companies, and approaches them with an offer to stop foreclosure by through refinance methods or by reinstating their mortgage. Older people, single women and minorities are the most aggressively targeted for these services.
The investor makes promises of a quick sale if the homeowner agrees to sign a lengthy contract, which often dubiously includes the deed to their home, a power of attorney, or a trust agreement. Unsophisticated owners sign up believing they won’t have to move, but don’t realize they have given the investor full authority to evict them, sell the house and profit.
Typically, the investor requires the homeowner to pay rent to the investor, money the investor says will go to pay the Florida home loan for a period while the owner’s credit is repaired enough to refinance. At the lease’s end, the owner must be ready to buy back the house at full market value or the agreed-upon price.
If they fall behind on rent, however, the deal is off and the investor can sell the property. Many times, homeowners lose their shirts and the homes they could otherwise have sold for a profit.
Celebrity Foreclosures
June 1, 2008
No one is immune to this failing economy. Don’t be ashamed if you fall behind on your mortgage payments, or if you are/or in Foreclosure. Even celebrities are affected.
The latest celebrity is former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield. A legal notice that appeared in a local newspaper shows his Fayette County, GA estate is under foreclosure. The 104-room, 54,000-square-foot home worth an estimated $10 million and is to be auctioned by a bank on July 1.
Evander is not the only celeb on the midst of losing his home to foreclosure, other celebrities include Ed McMahon, Jose Canseco, Aretha Franklin, Latrell Sprewell, Michael Jackson, and others. Who’s next?
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