CHESSNOID

The economy is still in the tank.  The stimulus package did NOT work and the bailouts didn’t bail us out.  We know this because we are at a national 9.8% unemployment rate with many individual states in the double digits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has the U-6 unemployment rate at 17%, which is a more accurate count of the unemployed just shy of 30 million unemployed.

This weekend starts off a foreclosure event at the  Las Vegas convention center.  Surprisingly, up to six thousand people lined up before the event actually opened.  Check out the news footage.

Thousands line up to get help with mortgages

This problem with foreclosures isn’t going away and will to continue to get worse. We have spent trillions on corrupt bailouts and wasteful stimulus packages and now working on spending another trillion dollars on healthcare that will see the drug and insurance companies benefit the most.

The New York Times highlights the real numbers that the Obama administration have succeeded in helping with foreclosures are much less than they claim.

New York Times:

When the Obama administration began its $75 billion Making Home Affordable program in March, it said the plan would spare as many as four million households from foreclosure. On Thursday, Treasury announced that 500,000 homeowners had since had their payments lowered on a trial basis, celebrating this as a milestone.

But the report from the oversight panel directly challenged the administration’s characterizations.

Most prominently, the panel had grave uncertainty about whether large numbers of the trial loan modifications — which typically run for three months — would successfully be converted to permanent terms.

As of the beginning of September, only 1.26 percent of trial modifications that had made it through the three-month trial period had become permanent, the report found. Of course, very few of those trial loans had reached their three-month expiration because the program only recently began processing large numbers of applications. As of Sept. 1, the Obama plan had produced 1,711 permanent loan modifications.

Some homeowners complain they have received trial modifications only to have them canceled for what seem dubious reasons — checks sent but supposedly never received, documents once in the file but suddenly missing.

By the way this report is from a Congressional Oversight Panel — a watchdog created last year to keep tabs on taxpayer bailout funds. Their observation is much different from the claim made yesterday that there will be 500,000 modifications done by next month vs the actual permanent modification of 1,711.  It is much better to face a problem than to pretend to have solved it.

The report rebuked the administration for failing to shape a program that addressed the most significant engines of the foreclosure crisis — soaring joblessness and exotic mortgages with low introductory interest rates that give way to sharply higher payments over the next three years. Many of those mortgages are too large to qualify for modification under the administration’s plan. People who lose their jobs often lack enough income to qualify for relief.

The administration’s plan appears “targeted at the housing crisis as it existed six months ago, rather than as it exists now,” asserted the oversight panel in its report. “The panel urges Treasury to reconsider the scope, scalability and permanence of the programs designed to minimize the economic impact of foreclosures and consider whether new programs or program enhancements could be adopted.”

In a telephone briefing with reporters, the oversight panel’s chairwoman, Elizabeth Warren, said the administration’s housing program was so limited that it was unlikely to keep pace with the growing wave of foreclosures.

“Even when Treasury’s programs are running at full speed, foreclosures are estimated to outpace modifications by about two to one,” Ms. Warren said. “It simply isn’t clear that the programs in place will do enough to tame the crisis and have a significant impact on the broader economy.”

The media and Obama administration can put reports out there that paint a positive picture of how the economy is recovering, but it won’t be able to hide the simple fact that these foreclosures will continue to sink the US economy. Obama needs to put in a new economic team and new advisers to help create more jobs for the economy. They need to treat this issue as the most important. They need to end the wars, balance the budget, and keep his campaign promises.

There is a reason why the comedic community is putting on skits in regards to his performance. The regular news media is too meek to report the truth.  This Saturday Night Live video did get the attention of the Obama administration.  It is a wake up call for REAL change and REAL action.  We can not continue to spend trillions of dollars without seeing REAL measurable results.