Liz I left and haven't seen all the comments after our crepes/omellette discussion, but I made good on my end and went to the local Waffle House. Smothered, covered, chunked and diced my double order of hash browns to complement the main course. Cheap coffee and cream, too. Quintessential American experience, Waffle House is.
Also around these parts, water/sewage rates just went up 14.5% to pay for improvements; houses assessed at around 15-20% higher than the most recent comps in same hoods; electric just went up 6 or 7% for maintenance and expansion upgrades - they aren't stealing directly from our paychecks, just in the reach-around way.
I've got a colony of "Black soldier flies" in my compost now. Black soldier flies are large, burrowing grubs that mature in a month or so into a tiny black fly with no mouth, which lives for three days before dying. They also keep away common house flies.
The interesting, and awesome thing about black soldier flies, is that they eat a lot, they eat fast, and most importantly, they eat MEAT CHEESE AND FATS. I could poop right into my compost pile, cover it in steak, and these little guys would take care of it for me.
Was struck by Glen Gray's general take on lending, banking, credit in general. Not a bankster in the mold we love to hate. When he said hope isn't a strategy, couldn't help wondering which one of us he is.
burnside, yes - his comments are interesting. Stopped lending for spec RE in 2005. For CRE, only made loans based on actual rents. Sounds like a solid banker - and I hope he does well.
we were gonna go to the fireworks and concert at Cocoa, but it has been raining heavily on
and off. Lawn starting to look almost like it does with a near miss hurricane. Waterlogged
with part of neighbor's yard flooded.
As per prior thread:
In Fla, you only have a short time to challenge your assessments and it ends by the end of September. So you have to have a really good excuse for filing late. And in Dade County
the tax assessor is not very sympathetic.
But yeah, the amounts assessed have got to go drastically down.
Very. I spent the day planting trees around my town, though my beginning chemistry classes at a junior college are like a living recreation of my back-to-school nightmare.
TJ and The Bear (profile) wrote on Sat, 7/4/2009 - 2:56 pm
Damn celebrity deaths are rampant these days.
You thought the mortal coil only applied to the underclasses? [Actually, I saw JFK arguing the very same thing with Elvis at the last Trilateral Luncheon.]
dont clarify your butter please. total waste of good milk solids. jusy be gentle with it, and add a little olive oil.
also, when the recipe tells you to reduce wine, then add water- throw that recipe away.
After all these years, I still have dreams that I've registered for a course,
never went and now have an exam which I can't even find the room too.
Holy crap, I have the same dream, except it's like the last day of class, i don't even know what room it is in and have to go to the Admin building to find out.
the grill is nice- but i like my steaks seared in a hot hot hot hot cast iron, and finished in the oven with about a quarter stick of butter. now to have a decent smoker....that would be heavenly
Actually , upon consideration I take that back. Not barbequeing is its own punishment. There's a whole world of cuisine denied you. Neighborhoods have been torn asunder over questions of the ages like "red wine vinegar?" or the real bone of contention "how fine a grind on the poupon?"
Ruths Chris was ruined for me when i learned the concept of a 30% food cost. the culinary degree buried under my stack of IT certs has ruined a lot of restaurants for me. tho it is nice to let somebody else was dishes
ripoff might be a strong word. it is hard for me to swallow a dish at many places knowing that i can do it at home for a third the cost. at least when i am served something that i KNOW i can do better myself. Ruth Chris is a prime example- no imagination involved in the entrees. just meat.
Ok, so they pay 30% or so for the food ingrediants. They must pay for the ambiance,
pay the staff, all the other stuff, so why is this a surprise. We all know what chicken costs,
right?
I used to go to Ruth's Chris a lot (Michaelson in Irvine, I am sure CR knows it). But then I found Bristol Farms (in Newport Beach, managed apparently by someone who has a brother posting here) stocked prime ribeye. By picking the right one, I found that home-broiled prime ribeye beat Ruth's Chris, and for half the price. Plus, I can pair my own wine and choose my own, and better, dessert. I prefer broiling the ribeye to grilling. I don't like the burned grilled parts.
I guess it would be cheaper to hire somebody to come to the house
and just clean up. But who does that?
Actually, I did that once--for my son's wedding rehearsal dinner. She served,
washed dishes as necessary, cleaned plates, etc. Cleaned up somewhat afterwards.
Said she had a real good
time too. I made some stuff, catered some stuff, etc. Had a chocolate fountain.
It was a lot of work. If I'd have know the marriage would have lasted such a
short time, don't know that I would have bothered.
I bought some extra ice and stuck it in the freezer. The marriage is long over, but
the ice is still there.
As for clean-up, when I broil my ribeye steak, I use aluminum foil so I just toss it out afterwards. Thick paper plates. All that has to be washed is the knife and fork and wine glass. I broil onions in the meat juice on the aluminum foil with the meat. Very good.
Nicaraguan restaurants have pretty good meat, but they have this parsley-oil-garlic
sauce to die for. I've actually made myself sick eating too much of it. Lord only knows what my
breath smells like.
Ever had homemade fresh pita. To die for. My pita cookbook got destroyed
in hurricane Andrew, so haven't made it for many years. It's good even when
it doesn't puff up like it should.
Does the Ethiopean restaurant make anything from teff?
LOL so that would be the extent of my cooking. At least better than I do now.
And hubby would be telling me how long to cook the item.
Then he would take my fork and do it for me. LOL
"An interesting food fact. If you put a little olive oil in the pot, you can add
butter and it raises the butter scorching heat point."
We fry with light olive oil, because it has a higher scorch point. But it doesn't much give that olive oil taste, which you might want with sauteed vegetables. So in that case I usually spike it with a little extra virgin olive oil. Brings the taste but doesn't lower the smoke point much. That's my favorite oil mix for, say, battered cauliflower.
I'm in a pesto mood these days. We bought a share of from the CSA/organic farm program, and the greens are piling up the 'fridge. I'm making pesto out of basil, cilantro, and dill with a variety of nuts and, of course, lots of good olive oil.
Ok, back to the article, what if a potential acquirer bank goes to FDIC and suggests that maybe, in the regrettable event of further bank failures, that they could perhaps, for a consideration, be willing after due dilly and thorough consultation with relevant parties to, y'know, eat that sh!tpile carrion on the side of the road. And FDIC says no? Or better, says you're not on that side of the trade fellas... Or says BWAHAHAHAHA!
What happens when they run out of qualified buyers? Just add more govt guarantees, and new govt entities to buy the worst crap at inflated.. er, excuse me, fair.. market value.
Qualified? I'm frankly puzzled by the "buys" rather than running the assets off. Okay, I'm not really puzzled but you get the idea. Changing the name on the lentil doesn't address the real problem of too many banks running too many branches. We aren't going to get out of this until the plywood starts going up all across the country.
Think about it, though -- there's not much middle ground here. Either you're the predator or the prey, and IMHO there's way too much prey. You don't go selling Downey to Corus, you know.
I hate it when I'm the only one here. Guess I'll return to vol III of Eduardo Galeano's Mmory of Fire, the book that Hugo Chavez gave to Obama. Presently all is quiet, too early, but the peculiar custom of firing weapons can be murderous later. What goes up come down hard.
Just got the 4-plane fly-by over the Boston Pops out my front window. Noisy. Lots of boats on the Charles River, with patrol boats circling the fireworks barge. Happy 4th July, all!
It's funny to think they get 2 days of due diligence before making a bid. At first I thought "that's it?" But then I remembered some of weekends last fall.
"Well, it is an article by poor Gretchen, so we need to highlight a funny...
Loan modifications occur when a lender agrees to change terms of a troubled borrower’s mortgage; the most common approach is to reduce the loan’s interest rate. ... Lenders and their representatives, however, don’t like to modify loans through interest rate cuts ...
I guess they don't like doing the most common approach!"
First, you completel misquote the article by slicing and dicing sentences. In fact it reads:
"Loan modifications occur when a lender agrees to change terms of a troubled borrower’s mortgage; the most common approach is to reduce the loan’s interest rate. Cutting the amount of principal owed — an option that could be of more help to a borrower — is rare because it means homeowners pay less money back to the bank over time.
Lenders and their representatives, however, don’t like to modify loans through interest rate cuts or principal reductions because, of course, it reduces the income they receive from borrowers. No surprise, then, that loan modifications have been a trickle amid the recent foreclosure flood. "
Misciting and selectively editing material is beneathyou.
Second, now what is so "funny" about an accurate statment of attitudes ?
Serivcers do NOT like to modify through rate reductions or, especially, principal reductions. They first try to get the borrower to agree to catch up the missed payments by amortizing them over 6 - 18 months - thus increasing the payments. (And that is assuming that you get them to do anything aside from passing the buck and not returning calls.
They are very stubborn about that and only reluctantly agree to discuss an alteration in the interest rate - even with the munificent $1000 bribe from the Feds. Since, at best, less than 1 out of 7 loans is modified by a rate reduction, it is obvious that they do NOT want to do that. It is hardly the "most common approach" to dealing with a defaulting laon or troubled borrower.
And it ranks right up there with a bona fide miracle if they will even discuss a principal reduction. That occurs only between 1-2% of the time.
A reduction in the fees is actually the most common if they can con the borrow into making up the missed payments by increasing the payment.
In fact the most "common approach" on defaulting or troubled loans is NOT to modify the interest rate but simply to ignore the borrower requesting help. The most "common approach" is to (a) go to foreclosure (b) take a deed in lieu of foreclosure or (c) aagree to a short sale in that order.
I have done some work with counseling borrowers and have tried to negotiate with the lenders. GFL! I had more success years ago when I was still practicing law in getting the Teamster to stop throwing molotov cocktails during a labor dispute!
Talk about catching a falling knife...
Nemo!
Talk about catching a falling knife...
It's ok, the knife's blade is solidly lodged in a side of pork, compliments of the United States Government/Banking Consortium.
BTW, Happy Fourth Everyone!!!
Guess we better celebrate whatever's left of our independence while we still have it, right?
Yeah ... Happy 4th to Everyone!
best wishes
Well, yes, that fits our profile: community banks in Orange County or North San Diego.
Must_resist_obvious_comment.
Liz I left and haven't seen all the comments after our crepes/omellette discussion, but I made good on my end and went to the local Waffle House. Smothered, covered, chunked and diced my double order of hash browns to complement the main course. Cheap coffee and cream, too. Quintessential American experience, Waffle House is.
Also around these parts, water/sewage rates just went up 14.5% to pay for improvements; houses assessed at around 15-20% higher than the most recent comps in same hoods; electric just went up 6 or 7% for maintenance and expansion upgrades - they aren't stealing directly from our paychecks, just in the reach-around way.
We need new leaders, fast.
I've got a composting update for you guys.
I've got a colony of "Black soldier flies" in my compost now. Black soldier flies are large, burrowing grubs that mature in a month or so into a tiny black fly with no mouth, which lives for three days before dying. They also keep away common house flies.
The interesting, and awesome thing about black soldier flies, is that they eat a lot, they eat fast, and most importantly, they eat MEAT CHEESE AND FATS. I could poop right into my compost pile, cover it in steak, and these little guys would take care of it for me.
Hoopster,
Thanks for that visual.
How much area are you gardening?
I was fine with the flies - up until the end. YUK!!
water/sewage rates just went up 14.5% to pay for improvements;
That's one (among many) things I will not miss about my house, now that I'm renting: the summer month's $200+ water bills.
Was struck by Glen Gray's general take on lending, banking, credit in general. Not a bankster in the mold we love to hate. When he said hope isn't a strategy, couldn't help wondering which one of us he is.
Confess, I first read the name as "Glen Gary".
Hoopster,
Thanks for that visual.
Think of it like an analogy for the American economy.
How much area are you gardening
Ten by ten, but I am not gardening it yet -- I need a critical mass of compost for soil amendment before I can even begin.
OT - I got my Mortgage Pig T-Shirt yesterday!! Been wearing it out and about all day but so far no comments.
Happy Independence Day to all!!
burnside, yes - his comments are interesting. Stopped lending for spec RE in 2005. For CRE, only made loans based on actual rents. Sounds like a solid banker - and I hope he does well.
I read it as "Glen Gary" too!
best to all.
Congrats, Hoops!
I've never pooped in my compost pile, doubt that I will.
Seems the FDIC is though.
Down in the south, we used to call those outhouses.
Hoops
Remind me not to eat at your house.
we were gonna go to the fireworks and concert at Cocoa, but it has been raining heavily on
and off. Lawn starting to look almost like it does with a near miss hurricane. Waterlogged
with part of neighbor's yard flooded.
No fireworks but lots of thunder & lightning.
Waffle house!!! You ate at a Waffle House? Aarrggh.
My culinary posts are for naught.
might leave a loaf in the neighbor's though
"Remind me not to eat at your house."
In many places in the world, if you eat with your left hand you eat alone.
Cool. Kinda spy movie-ish.
Bond. Sheila Bond
As per prior thread:
In Fla, you only have a short time to challenge your assessments and it ends by the end of September. So you have to have a really good excuse for filing late. And in Dade County
the tax assessor is not very sympathetic.
But yeah, the amounts assessed have got to go drastically down.
Are you happy to be out of the law, hoops?
Steve McNair found shot dead with woman in Nashville... not MJ big, but NFL news big. Wow.
Who is Steve McNair?
Damn celebrity deaths are rampant these days.
liz: I may need to report you to the sports police
McNair is the hubby of the founder of the female hair remover product.
lawyerliz,
Please carry on with food pr0n! Since I almost never do any baking, I'd miss the impulse to try it a little!
By the way, Meryl Streep just filmed a life of Julia Child. Wonder how they made her a six-footer.
lawyerliz,
Very. I spent the day planting trees around my town, though my beginning chemistry classes at a junior college are like a living recreation of my back-to-school nightmare.
"we were gonna go to the fireworks and concert at Cocoa, but it has been raining heavily"
Liz, on the radar it's drifting south. You should be okay.
If not. the Boston Pops fireworks comes on at 10:00 on CBS. Best show in the country.
TJ and The Bear (profile) wrote on Sat, 7/4/2009 - 2:56 pm
Damn celebrity deaths are rampant these days.
You thought the mortal coil only applied to the underclasses? [Actually, I saw JFK arguing the very same thing with Elvis at the last Trilateral Luncheon.]
volker, now that i know you're a woman, i officially love you.
unless that was disinformation, of course. not that there's anything wrong with that...
Thanx Terry, but it looks like there is another line coming--a small one.
And it will be very damp. Very very damp.
I think Volker said s/he was a boy.
After all these years, I still have dreams that I've registered for a course,
never went and now have an exam which I can't even find the room too.
An interesting food fact. If you put a little olive oil in the pot, you can add
butter and it raises the butter scorching heat point.
I just knew you all wanted to know that.
Liz, are there any foods that are not better cooked in some olive oil or butter? I can't think of any!
"An interesting food fact. If you put a little olive oil in the pot, you can add
butter and it raises the butter scorching heat point."
You can also clarify the butter...
Walnut oil is good too.
Butter & good olive oil are good on anything.
We collected small bottles of olive oil in Italy. Great flavors and I was suprised to find so many diffrences.
Not ice cream.
Butter & good olive oil are good on anything.
Are we straying into sex talk again?
Pumpkin pie.
I am getting the urge to make pumpkin pie.
I make it with a cookie type crust.
Well we weren't until you mentioned it, TJ.
I think I will eat some water
melon.
dont clarify your butter please. total waste of good milk solids. jusy be gentle with it, and add a little olive oil.
also, when the recipe tells you to reduce wine, then add water- throw that recipe away.
Just kiddin', Liz.
Hey, with all that precipitation at least you don't have any fire danger from the fireworks.
LL try some white pepper on that ice cream. vanilla, or strawberry are my faves.
I never clarify my butter; seems like work for nothing.
Butter and olive oil should not be reduced, and neither should anything else too much.
That's why French cuisine sucks - they take a pound of food and reduce it to an ounce of eating.
No thanks. I'll grill my pounds of flesh on hot charcoal long enough to kill the germies and have a nice center temp, thanks!
I never grill or barbeque.
That's what you have a husband for.
Liz, that is blasphemy, I tell you. Some things were born to be smoked/grilled. Denial is futile.
Oh, man, I couldn't live without a BBQ.
He doesn't grill or barbeque. He can't even carve.
It is indeed a failing, but he puts up with mine.
After all these years, I still have dreams that I've registered for a course,
never went and now have an exam which I can't even find the room too.
Holy crap, I have the same dream, except it's like the last day of class, i don't even know what room it is in and have to go to the Admin building to find out.
My son will grill or barbeque. He likes to cook. Meats. He likes
to cook meats. With every spice known to man.
The hubs idea of cooking is to throw a frozen pizza in the oven
or make a cheese sandwich. He is also good at buying chinese
takeout or subs.
the grill is nice- but i like my steaks seared in a hot hot hot hot cast iron, and finished in the oven with about a quarter stick of butter. now to have a decent smoker....that would be heavenly
LawyerLiz.
-1
Actually , upon consideration I take that back. Not barbequeing is its own punishment. There's a whole world of cuisine denied you. Neighborhoods have been torn asunder over questions of the ages like "red wine vinegar?" or the real bone of contention "how fine a grind on the poupon?"
Cake,
You sound like a Ruth's Chris fan.
I like cast iron pots also. The momster washes them too hard, gets the patina off
and then they start to rust.
I will eat barbeque, I just don't wanna do the cooking.
I don't remember that many of my neighbors barbeque-ing either.
Ruths Chris was ruined for me when i learned the concept of a 30% food cost. the culinary degree buried under my stack of IT certs has ruined a lot of restaurants for me. tho it is nice to let somebody else was dishes
30% food cost?
I don't remember that many of my neighbors barbeque-ing either.
How could anybody stand next to a hot grill in Florida in July?
Ruth's Chris... hahaha suckers. They'll be going BK soon enough.
Do it at home. Just takes the right amount of time, attention, and ingredients (including loaded sticks of butter for the saute part).
Yum yum!
30% food cost?
C'mon Liz, don't ruin it for the rest of us.
Just admit you have the tastebuds of a child.
Shall I google it?
you can if you like, but is it enough to assure you that at most restaurants, you are getting ripped off?
Elaborate stuff is nice once in a while, but I like to cook stuff that is very
simple and very perfect. Good ingrediants.
Rip off, profit?
30% + "ruth's chris" + "horrible realization"
I don't think we have thst Steak chain here.
Short ruths, again.
C
Would that make us ruthless?
Damn
Any news from the Swedish bank that went negative interest rate on reserves?
Bjorn on the 4th of July?
ripoff might be a strong word. it is hard for me to swallow a dish at many places knowing that i can do it at home for a third the cost. at least when i am served something that i KNOW i can do better myself. Ruth Chris is a prime example- no imagination involved in the entrees. just meat.
prime. swallow. heh
Ok, so they pay 30% or so for the food ingrediants. They must pay for the ambiance,
pay the staff, all the other stuff, so why is this a surprise. We all know what chicken costs,
right?
Ruth's Chris for special occasions is great. No problem with the highish prices. It's not like 5-star prices.
I only partake of non-profit restaurants.
Ruth's Chris is great because it doesn't require dressing. That's it and that's all.
I used to go to Ruth's Chris a lot (Michaelson in Irvine, I am sure CR knows it). But then I found Bristol Farms (in Newport Beach, managed apparently by someone who has a brother posting here) stocked prime ribeye. By picking the right one, I found that home-broiled prime ribeye beat Ruth's Chris, and for half the price. Plus, I can pair my own wine and choose my own, and better, dessert. I prefer broiling the ribeye to grilling. I don't like the burned grilled parts.
ambiance,
pay the staff, all the other stuff,
thats the part that is missing at RC and places like it. its the perception of value that is missing. kinda like houses in the IE these days
I guess it would be cheaper to hire somebody to come to the house
and just clean up. But who does that?
Actually, I did that once--for my son's wedding rehearsal dinner. She served,
washed dishes as necessary, cleaned plates, etc. Cleaned up somewhat afterwards.
Said she had a real good
time too. I made some stuff, catered some stuff, etc. Had a chocolate fountain.
It was a lot of work. If I'd have know the marriage would have lasted such a
short time, don't know that I would have bothered.
I bought some extra ice and stuck it in the freezer. The marriage is long over, but
the ice is still there.
The marriage is long over, but
the ice is still there.
Perfect to serve with de beers.
Fogo de Chao doesn't have much more than meat, but it's awesome.
C
As for clean-up, when I broil my ribeye steak, I use aluminum foil so I just toss it out afterwards. Thick paper plates. All that has to be washed is the knife and fork and wine glass. I broil onions in the meat juice on the aluminum foil with the meat. Very good.
Nicaraguan restaurants have pretty good meat, but they have this parsley-oil-garlic
sauce to die for. I've actually made myself sick eating too much of it. Lord only knows what my
breath smells like.
mmm brazilian.
theres an ethiopian place on Hawthorn in Portland that serves on an edible tablecloth. points for the novelty
What are the tablecloths made of?
Second the Brazilian.
And even if they are edible, do they taste edible?
its a big flatbread. you use it like mexicans use tortillas- tear off a bit and pinch up some meat, rice etc. tastes like pita
OK, souncx good to me. I like pita and I really do enjoy eatting food with my hands. Forks are over rated.
Tastes like chicken... lol.
Just kidding. Gotta love some Brazilian/Argentinian meathouses. They pile it on good.
Juxtapositon of the day goes to TJ and josap...
C
LOL!!!
Ever had homemade fresh pita. To die for. My pita cookbook got destroyed
in hurricane Andrew, so haven't made it for many years. It's good even when
it doesn't puff up like it should.
Does the Ethiopean restaurant make anything from teff?
Hubby has made pita a couple of times. Fresh, hot and yummy. Guess I should ask him to make more.
However he is in the kitchen making stuffed mushrooms for snack and has ribs in the oven for dinner.
Lucky lucky Josap.
There's a restaurant called the melting pot, where they put the raw
food in from of you--fondue--and you cook it yourself in oil or broth.
And then dessert is dipping into chocolate various fruits, cakes.
Ummm, ummm, very easy. Impresses the hell out of guests, and
very easy.
I guess we weren't too interested in FDIC takeovers.
For today, anyhow.
That sounds fun Liz.
Hubby would cook everything of course. LOL
So for me, just like home.
Oh, except I wouldn't have to do any clean up.
That is our deal. he cooks and I clean up.
No you have to dip your own morsel into the boiling oil/broth with your
own fondue fork.
FDIC take over are every week. Fresh pita bread, maybe twice a year.
LOL so that would be the extent of my cooking. At least better than I do now.
And hubby would be telling me how long to cook the item.
Then he would take my fork and do it for me. LOL
Would you dip your own chunk of bread or apple into the hot cheese
fondue they put before you?
"An interesting food fact. If you put a little olive oil in the pot, you can add
butter and it raises the butter scorching heat point."
We fry with light olive oil, because it has a higher scorch point. But it doesn't much give that olive oil taste, which you might want with sauteed vegetables. So in that case I usually spike it with a little extra virgin olive oil. Brings the taste but doesn't lower the smoke point much. That's my favorite oil mix for, say, battered cauliflower.
I'm in a pesto mood these days. We bought a share of from the CSA/organic farm program, and the greens are piling up the 'fridge. I'm making pesto out of basil, cilantro, and dill with a variety of nuts and, of course, lots of good olive oil.
Ok, back to the article, what if a potential acquirer bank goes to FDIC and suggests that maybe, in the regrettable event of further bank failures, that they could perhaps, for a consideration, be willing after due dilly and thorough consultation with relevant parties to, y'know, eat that sh!tpile carrion on the side of the road. And FDIC says no? Or better, says you're not on that side of the trade fellas... Or says BWAHAHAHAHA!
Who gets to hear about it?
C
Why would they want the crap, if they could get rid of it? Oh, I see, for enough money. . .
Sure Liz.
But hubby just KNOWS he can do it better. And I let him think that so he will keep doing all the cooking.
Ah, creative incompetence, the best kind.
My hub doesn't like the way I do the wash.
Poor, sad me.
LOL, I have a list of things he always does well. And I say thank you Mr. Hero every time.
Oh the article.
I think that if the prospective buyer doesn't play by the FDIC rules they won't get a chance to bid on any other banks.
Question going forward is what happens when they run out of qualified buyers?
Change the definition of qualified, I guess... Or ramp it back up the line until they meet Citi, JPM and Glodmans.
C
What happens when they run out of qualified buyers? Just add more govt guarantees, and new govt entities to buy the worst crap at inflated.. er, excuse me, fair.. market value.
Agree, they just "make" them qualified.
More money down the rat hole.
Qualified? I'm frankly puzzled by the "buys" rather than running the assets off. Okay, I'm not really puzzled but you get the idea. Changing the name on the lentil doesn't address the real problem of too many banks running too many branches. We aren't going to get out of this until the plywood starts going up all across the country.
Think about it, though -- there's not much middle ground here. Either you're the predator or the prey, and IMHO there's way too much prey. You don't go selling Downey to Corus, you know.
Just finished James Galbraith's The Predator State. Great for July 4th!
!
C
I hate it when I'm the only one here. Guess I'll return to vol III of Eduardo Galeano's Mmory of Fire, the book that Hugo Chavez gave to Obama. Presently all is quiet, too early, but the peculiar custom of firing weapons can be murderous later. What goes up come down hard.
I'm just reading a trashy novel.
Haven't heard a single firework explosion today.
To wet to go out, and I'm not in the mood.
I couldn't work up any enthusiasm for Christmas, and my mom
was mugged, so I wasn't here anyway.
I never ordered any wedding pictures, and the marriage failed.
And now 4th of July is not inspiring me. I hope this is just
a stupid coincidence, and not my subconscious tapping into
the Great Unknown.
Just got the 4-plane fly-by over the Boston Pops out my front window. Noisy. Lots of boats on the Charles River, with patrol boats circling the fireworks barge. Happy 4th July, all!
I see you are there Luci.
Say something obnoxious, I'm bored.
It's funny to think they get 2 days of due diligence before making a bid. At first I thought "that's it?" But then I remembered some of weekends last fall.
Cool, Patient.
CR -
You write:
"Well, it is an article by poor Gretchen, so we need to highlight a funny...
Loan modifications occur when a lender agrees to change terms of a troubled borrower’s mortgage; the most common approach is to reduce the loan’s interest rate. ... Lenders and their representatives, however, don’t like to modify loans through interest rate cuts ...
I guess they don't like doing the most common approach!"
First, you completel misquote the article by slicing and dicing sentences. In fact it reads:
"Loan modifications occur when a lender agrees to change terms of a troubled borrower’s mortgage; the most common approach is to reduce the loan’s interest rate. Cutting the amount of principal owed — an option that could be of more help to a borrower — is rare because it means homeowners pay less money back to the bank over time.
Lenders and their representatives, however, don’t like to modify loans through interest rate cuts or principal reductions because, of course, it reduces the income they receive from borrowers. No surprise, then, that loan modifications have been a trickle amid the recent foreclosure flood. "
Misciting and selectively editing material is beneathyou.
Second, now what is so "funny" about an accurate statment of attitudes ?
Serivcers do NOT like to modify through rate reductions or, especially, principal reductions. They first try to get the borrower to agree to catch up the missed payments by amortizing them over 6 - 18 months - thus increasing the payments. (And that is assuming that you get them to do anything aside from passing the buck and not returning calls.
They are very stubborn about that and only reluctantly agree to discuss an alteration in the interest rate - even with the munificent $1000 bribe from the Feds. Since, at best, less than 1 out of 7 loans is modified by a rate reduction, it is obvious that they do NOT want to do that. It is hardly the "most common approach" to dealing with a defaulting laon or troubled borrower.
And it ranks right up there with a bona fide miracle if they will even discuss a principal reduction. That occurs only between 1-2% of the time.
A reduction in the fees is actually the most common if they can con the borrow into making up the missed payments by increasing the payment.
In fact the most "common approach" on defaulting or troubled loans is NOT to modify the interest rate but simply to ignore the borrower requesting help. The most "common approach" is to (a) go to foreclosure (b) take a deed in lieu of foreclosure or (c) aagree to a short sale in that order.
I have done some work with counseling borrowers and have tried to negotiate with the lenders. GFL! I had more success years ago when I was still practicing law in getting the Teamster to stop throwing molotov cocktails during a labor dispute!