Have you ever asked yourself this question? Knowing the answer would be good for you.
For me I pray for the joy of communing with the one who has loved me so well. It is where I can hear the sweet voice of fellowship. Prayer for me is easy to initiate but difficult to complete. It is easy to approach someone who loves you but the difficulty arrives when you stay for the relationship. Like Forrest Gump would say “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get.” This is a prayer life. What most call a prayer is a wish. Prayer has a life because it is the language of relationship between two personalities. Not everything is known which makes the experience tentative. Not tentative like an abusive relationship where one never knows what causes the explosion but one where one cannot presume oneself on the other. Removing the presumption with a desire to please leaves you in a state of trust. Prayer naturally creates faith in the prayer.
The hope of prayer is that God exists and that He will answer. Why pray if you have no interest in the answer? Why engage a personality if you do not want to fellowship with them? What makes prayer a unique form of communication is that one personality is God. All is the potential in prayer because of the extent of God covers All in all. Prayer takes you outside any comfort zones of your personality because you must always be in a stretch to comprehend superiority.
Prayer gives voice to the moves of the spirit. It has an assignment desk, a consolation, fellowship, and all your hopes. Have you ever found any one thing that assures your faith better than an answered prayer? I think of the Sampson story. Sampson gets the answer to prayer when he uses the jawbone of an ass to destroy a thousand of his enemy. Before that victory is even appreciated his exhaustion and thirst has driven him desperately to prayer. What if God left him to die after his victory? Would that not be strange for God to lovingly dispense victory in one breath only to destroy you in silence by the next? Prayer is able to find the consistency of love that is inherent in the personality known as God. For this reason water comes from the hollow of this very same jawbone to refresh. I know from fasting without water for 10 days what maddening thirst can be. Only those who have experienced the strength of thirst can understand the refreshing of the first drink. This had to be the satisfaction of Sampson in two ways. In the healing of his flesh his spirit learned again by the answer to prayer that the relationship with God is real. Do you want to have a relationship that is real with God? Well, prayer is the only method.
Prayer is the only way I can find the evidence that the retards are liars. Since one discovers through prayer that the personality God is not a liar when His words and the retards are in opposition you have measured truth. They have circumstances as fact. I have fact as a friend. Through prayer fact even if it be a future look can capture it and bring it back to the present. That is the benefit of relating to God. The ultimate fact is your reality. Though there is an uncertainty about what’s inside the chocolates created by our inferiority the fact that God has given us the gift of the box that with all certainty has chocolate. That is the sweetness of prayer; it has the consistency of chocolate.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
32 comments:
Article from the San Francisco Chronicle
For those interested in what really is causing our economic
crisis this is a great article published by the San Francisco
Chronicle. I cannot believe that such an extremely liberal
newspaper in the most liberal town in our nation had it in them
to publish this within 40 days of the election.
The article IS factually accurate a-n-d worth the read.....
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --- -
Quote:
>>> "The average American listening to all the news of bank
>>> failures, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (who?) being taken over
>>> by the government, and now a "bail-out" of large, privately
>>> owned and well known companies, is at first bewildered, and then
>>> angry.
>>>
>>> The average American should be furious.
>>>
>>> But at whom should Americans be furious? That seems to be the
>>> big question as political fingers are pointing in every
>>> direction. Was it greedy CEO's with their "golden parachutes?"
>>> Was it the Democrats? Was it the Republicans? Was it Wall
>>> Street? (Who, exactly IS "Wall Street?")
>>>
>>> The simple answer is that it is all of the above.
>>>
>>> Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Jr., and Federal Reserve
>>> Chairman Ben S. Bernanke were on Capital Hill taking a verbal
>>> beating from some of the very people who should not be asking
>>> the questions, but answering them and answering those questions
>>> under oath.
>>>
>>> Senator Chris Dodd, (D-Conn.) and Congressman Barney Frank,
>>> (D-Mass.) are the first two who should be grilled, not by fellow
>>> politicians, but by an independent and hopefully very clever,
>>> angry, and mean attorney hired by the American people.
>>>
>>> No one from the present Justice Department need apply. Both
>>> should be asked how much money they have taken from lobbyists
>>> hired by the CEO's of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Since that is
>>> public record, they should then be asked what Fannie and Freddie
>>> got in return for that money.
>>>
>>> Barney Frank should be questioned about his House Bill, H.R.
>>> 3838, that is clearly designed to keep Fannie and Freddie afloat
>>> as long as possible despite all the signs that there was serious
>>> trouble ahead. But all his bill did was make the hole bigger in
>>> the side of the Titanic.
>>>
>>> Basically all H. R. 3838 did was: "To temporarily increase the
>>> portfolio caps applicable to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, to
>>> provide the necessary financing to curb foreclosures by
>>> facilitating the refinancing of at-risk subprime borrowers into
>>> safe, affordable loans, and for other purposes."
>>>
>>> Barney Frank and his counterpart in the Senate, Chuck Schumer,
>>> (D-N.Y.) did everything they could to delay and cover-up the
>>> outright fraud and book-cooking that was going on within Freddie
>>> and Fannie.
>>>
>>> As far back as 2003, Freddie and Fannie were $9 billion dollars
>>> in debt because of bad loans that continued to be accepted on a
>>> daily basis. Pressure from liberals in Congress to continue
>>> giving out bad loans was relentless and for years it continued
>>> with CEO's, who happen to be friends of Dodd, Frank, Schumer,
>>> and Clinton , leaving with millions in their bank accounts as the
>>> companies they ran went under.
>>>
>>> The truth is that this financial disaster for the American
>>> taxpayer didn't begin under George Bush, or Bill Clinton, or
>>> George Herbert Walker Bush, or Ronald Reagan. It started under
>>> Jimmy Carter. It started with the passing of The Community
>>> Reinvestment Act in 1977.
>>>
>>> Basically, this act pushed local community banks and lenders, to
>>> "bend" the rules a little and give loans to low-income families.
>>> Like many liberal schemes, it seemed like a good idea at the
>>> time. There was a provision that protected the nervous lender in
>>> the clause that stated that loans should be given "in a safe and
>>> sound manner." This gave the bank some leeway and choice in the
>>> loans that were given out.
>>>
>>> Under Bill Clinton, The Community Reinvestment Act was revised.
>>> Basically, the revision started to put pressure on lenders to
>>> take more financial risks. It was felt that lenders were not
>>> being "fair" to minorities and the poor who only wanted to share
>>> in the American dream of owning their own home. Janet Reno began
>>> to outwardly threaten banks and mortgage lenders with
>>> prosecution if home loans were not approved for those who wanted
>>> to purchase homes that, in truth, they could not afford.
>>>
>>> Fearing federal retribution, loans started being approved for
>>> people who had no down-payment, no jobs, no collateral, and
>>> absolutely no hope of ever being able to meet any mortgage
>>> payment after the grace period of low interest ran out.
>>>
>>> Then, the greed took over. Banks would "bundle" up loans, good
>>> and bad, and sell them to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, making all
>>> their money up front for loans they knew would default
>>> eventually. As these loans did default, in larger and larger
>>> numbers, even Fannie and Freddie could no longer stand up under
>>> the hemorrhage of money loss. Wall Street panicked and so did
>>> the federal government.
>>>
>>> Were there warning signs that a disaster was looming? Of course,
>>> there were!
>>>
>>> But there was money to be made and politicians and CEO's alike
>>> were not about to give up the gravy train of money being crammed
>>> in their pockets.
>>>
>>> The CEO's of Freddie and Fannie would hire lobbyists to slip
>>> money into the pockets of Senator Chris Dodd, (D-Conn.),
>>> chairman of the Senate banking committee, who was supposed to be
>>> overseeing the banking industry, to the tune of $133,900 since
>>> 1989. Barack Obama was number two at the trough with over
>>> $120,000 which was no small feat since he has only been in the
>>> Senate for three years. Dodd and Obama were closely followed by
>>> the last Democratic nominee, John Kerry, (D-Mass.) and then
>>> Senator Hillary Clinton, (D-N.Y.)
>>>
>>> What were these lobbyists buying for the millions they sprinkled
>>> around the Senate and House of Representatives? They were buying
>>> a blind eye. They were buying little or no oversight into the
>>> juggernaut that has finally crashed on the heads of the American
>>> taxpayer. CEO's got rich, politicians got rich and they got
>>> votes, being able to tell minorities and the poor, "See what we
>>> are doing for you?" For years, the red flags were stuffed under
>>> the desk and ignored.
>>>
>>> Early in his administration, George Bush sounded an alarm over
>>> the small amount of working capital Fannie and Freddie had on
>>> hand. He urged them to sell more shares to increase their
>>> reserve in funding and put them on more stable ground. He urged
>>> them to be more selective in the loans they bought. This
>>> suggestion was declined because the current stockholders would
>>> not make as much profit.
>>>
>>> Franklin Raines, the Fannie Mae CEO from 1999 to 2004, decided
>>> to retire early, taking millions with him, under a cloud of
>>> accusations that he had cooked the books to make it appear the
>>> company was making money instead of going head-long into debt.
>>>
>>> Another player in this financial kabuki dance is Jamie Gorelick.
>>> That name should ring a bell with every American. She seems to
>>> surface right at the heart of every American disaster in the
>>> last 15 years. Ms. Gorelick was vice-chair of Fannie Mae from
>>> 1997 to 2003. Like all the others, she left with millions in her
>>> pocket while declaring that Fannie Mae "is among the handful of
>>> top-quality institutions."
>>>
>>> The next year it was found that Fannie was $9 billion dollars in
>>> the red. Oddly, this $9 billion had been overlooked in the books
>>> Ms. Gorelick and Mr. Raines kept.
>>>
>>> Let's put Mr. Raines and Ms. Gorelick on the stand. The American
>>> people deserve to hear how much they gave lobbyists to pass on
>>> to their friends in Congress to keep the blinders on. That
>>> number is a staggering $16.2 million dollars since 1997. That
>>> amount bought very large blinders. And, it bought time. It
>>> bought time for the likes of Raines and Gorelick to make their
>>> millions and bow out before the bottom fell out.
>>>
>>>Republican nominee John McCain raised the alarm two years ago
>>> but his plan for more oversight was killed in the
>>> Democrat-controlled committee. Over 20-year span, McCain took
>>> $20,000 but this did not stop him from voicing his concerns. The
>>> problem was that Democrats didn't want to hear about it.
>>> President Bush's warnings were also ignored. Should Bush have
>>> done more?
>>>
>>> Yes. Unfortunately, Bush was distracted by the 9/11 attack and
>>> wars in Afghanistan and Iraq . So now, nearly every hour
>>> Americans watch as a pompous Chris Dodd or Barney Frank struts
>>> to a microphone to declare the "failed economic policies of the
>>> Bush administration are responsible for this mess."
>>>
>>> No, Senator, he is not. YOU and your greedy friends are
>>> responsible. It took three decades to reach the point of no
>>> return and some were there with their hands out nearly all of
>>> those years.
>>>
>>> The Federal Bureau of Investigation is launching a full
>>> investigation into all of this. This investigation will abruptly
>>> end should Barack Obama win in November. The last thing
>>> Democrats want is the American people learning how complicit so
>>> many of the are in the illegal practice at Fannie and Freddie
>>> that led to the taxpayers bearing the brunt of the their
>>> unbridled greed.
>>>
>>> While politicians want oversight over the "bail-out," there has
>>> been little outcry for an investigation into how all this
>>> evolved.
>>>
>>> It's time for Americans to go to their windows and throw them
>>> open and yell, "We are mad as hell and we aren't going to take
>>> it anymore!"
>>>
>>> Then, in November, vote the lot of them out of office."
>>>
NEW DEFINITIONS: CEO = Chief Embezzlement Officer; CFO = Corporate Fraud Officer; CIO = Corrupt Information Organizer.The Wall Street firms who are responsible for the corrupt destruction of the US banking system have been redeemed on their balance sheets. It is no wonder that the USEconomy fails to respond. Relatively little assistance and relief has come to the US public. Assurances continue for the people to realize the benefits of bailouts for the elite well lodged in the crime syndicates. A CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE AND TRUST HAS ERODED THE BANK SYSTEM, WITH GOOD REASON. IT IS INVALID, CORRUPT, FRAUDULENT, AND WITHOUT BASIS IN LEGITIMATE COLLATERAL. A NEW GLOBAL FINANCIAL FOUNDATION IS SOON TO ARRIVE.
Moogs, are you SURE the SF Chronicle ran this article? I can't imagine them taking a shot at the Dems like this with the election so close. I browsed their web-page briefly but couldn't find this.
Curiously I seem to be able to find that material everywhere but where it was supposedly printed, curious that.
F.B.I. Struggles to Handle Financial Fraud Cases
October 19, 2008, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/washington/19fbi.html
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is struggling to find enough agents and resources to investigate criminal wrongdoing tied to the country’s economic crisis, according to current and former bureau officials. The bureau slashed its criminal investigative work force to expand its national security role after the Sept. 11 attacks, shifting more than 1,800 agents, or nearly one-third of all agents in criminal programs, to terrorism and intelligence duties. The cutbacks have left the bureau seriously exposed in investigating areas like white-collar crime, which has taken on urgent importance in recent weeks because of the nation’s economic woes. So depleted are the ranks of the F.B.I.’s white-collar investigators that executives in the private sector say they have had difficulty attracting the bureau’s attention in cases involving possible frauds of millions of dollars. Since 2004, F.B.I. officials have warned that mortgage fraud posed a looming threat, and the bureau has repeatedly asked the Bush administration for more money to replenish the ranks of agents handling nonterrorism investigations. But each year, the requests have been denied, with no new agents approved for financial crimes, as policy makers focused on counterterrorism. According to previously undisclosed internal F.B.I. data, the cutbacks have been particularly severe in staffing for investigations into white-collar crimes like mortgage fraud, with a loss of 625 agents, or 36 percent of its 2001 levels.
Note: How fortunate for the financial fraudsters that the FBI doesn't have the resources to investigate them! Was it just a coincidence that first the "war on terror" and then the Wall Street bailout both have resulted in trillions of dollars going to a few well-positioned corporations?
Federal Reserve cuts federal funds rate by 1/2% down to 1% as predicted:
http://news.yahoo.com/
s/ap/20081029/ap_on
_bi_ge/fed_
interest_rates
I suspect the prime rate at banks will follow with the same interest rate cut soon.
Talk of further cuts in December 2008 if economy worsens. Might be a good time to get your HELOC or variable rate loans changed to a fixed installment rate by December 2008 or even buy a home by the end of the year with such low interest rates. They won't say this low for an extended long time.
Scott said: "I can't imagine them taking a shot at the Dems like this with the election so close."
________________________________
The article said the financial crisis was caused by both parties ineptness & lack of foresight. Course, curiously enough, Obama, had more financial contributions in this regard to hush up the problem than almost anyone else. Course it's par for the course for politicians to have skeletons in their closets irregardless of their party affiliations.
The bureau slashed its criminal investigative work force to expand its national security role
in utter worse, they cahnged they portries to 'spEYE' on inncent amricans.....
but den agin, wha yo expeck from a crimnal enterprize???
but den agin, wha yo expeck from a crimnal enterprize???
an one dats DUM AS F*KCING ROCKS TOO!!
LOOLLLOL!!!!!!!!
mogel007 said...
Note: How fortunate for the financial fraudsters that the FBI doesn't have the resources to investigate them!
___________________________________
Moogs, while I am sure you want very badly to believe that "financial fraudsters" equals "lenders" in this story, I can assure you that it's not likely the case. I have attended enough fraud seminars with speakers from the FBI and US Attorney's office to know which side of the fence they're on. When the FBI says "Mortgage Fraud", they're talking inflated appraisals, straw buyers, fraudulant property flips and other various scams perpatrated AGAINST lenders, not BY lenders. Sorry...
mogel007 said...
Federal Reserve cuts federal funds rate by 1/2% down to 1% as predicted:
I suspect the prime rate at banks will follow with the same interest rate cut soon.
___________________________________
Do ya think?
mogel007 said...
Talk of further cuts in December 2008 if economy worsens. Might be a good time to get your HELOC or variable rate loans changed to a fixed installment rate by December 2008 or even buy a home by the end of the year with such low interest rates.
___________________________________
Good advice there, Moogs. It is a great time to buy a home. But it almost sounds like you're recommending that people take out a mortgage... what's up with that?
mogel007 said...
The article said the financial crisis was caused by both parties ineptness & lack of foresight.
______________________________________
Still, the article I read was mostly about Repubs warning of the impending danger and Dems protecting Fannie & Freddie at every turn.
I know neither party has a monopoly on corruption and greed but at least the Republicans allow for some individual achievement. Democrats discourage achievement with all their wonderful social programs that reward laziness and failure.
The decision has apparently been made by a consortium of powerful foreign financial entities, a collection of bankers and industrial firms, that the USEconomy and US population cannot be separated practically from the syndicates lodged like parasites within the body American. A cancer has spread across the globe at the same time. Consequently, the only practical response for the foreigners is to cut off the United States from the global financial system, to pull the rug from under it, and to kill the parasites and cancers by whatever means. The American public has been unsuccessful in properly ridding itself of the vermin, in the majority unaware even of the abusive treatment from hegemony practiced routinely decade after decade. Hence, a decision has been made to inflict heavy damage upon the US population in order to subdue the American crime syndicates. The risk to the rest of the world is too great in permitting the vile syndicates to continue. They must cut off the cancer and dislodge the parasite, or risk destruction to their own nations. They must stop the great American criminal enterprises. The USCongress itself is grotesquely compromised by lobbyists, deep campaign contributions, regular defense contractor payoffs, even hefty Fannie Mae loans as favors. The USGovt has become host to deeply compromised regulators like the Securities & Exchange Commission, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, even as the Debt Rating Agencies and Bond Insurers have been subverted. The law enforcement bodies like the Attorney General, the FBI, and Drug Enforcement Agency are also used as active agents to protect the syndicate, to harass opponents, and more. Then lastly the US press networks seem to be force fed by the USGovt, and heavily influenced by a certain Mideast slant.
These foreign financial entities, led by USTreasury creditors (investors), have decided on a new global reserve currency. It will effectively render the USTreasury Bond to the dustbin, chopping block, and cemetery. They intend to launch this new currency, so as to undercut the US Machine, powered by the USDollar. This is how they pull the rug from under the many syndicates operating under the protection of the United States Govt, that is the banker gangster (i.e. bankster) thieves, bond conmen, banking assassins (IMF, World Bank), drug merchants, and weapons dealers. Late in the first week of October, in Berlin Germany, a consortium of finance officials met to hammer out an agreement to form a new global reserve currency. They did so in secrecy. The new global reserve currency mentioned will potentially be weighted by an undetermined formula of the new Nordic Euro, Russian ruble, Japanese yen, and new Arab Gulf dinar. One profound aspect in common among these four currencies is their association with economies commanding export surplus. This is a total reversal of the USDollar, tied to deep deficits, more recent insolvency, and economic implosion. The new global currency is ready to be launched with a push of a button. They are waiting for the right moment to deliver the deathblow to the US financial structure. The US will be shown its rightful place on the debtor bench, earned by a crescendo of celebrated debt abuse. The timing will likely be in synch with a climax of US disintegration, fully assured.
The USGovt has become host to deeply compromised regulators like the....
CORRECTION: "The USGovt has become (always was??) A BIG FAT CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE."
but da good noose is dat its all cumming down...yep...da jig is up....
corse, theys gonna bee sum suffernin'....peeples like crap jug beans, he ain gonna be to happy bout dis "good noose"....he gettin' hisself all 'hung up over it" LOLOOL!!!
he better hope dat the reglar peeplse has sum mercy, lest he may really fine hisself all hung up over it, an they may use a bad hangman ho never done that beefo, an dun no ho to measure da rope....he may string jug beans up too high like sadlam was, an den when da tap door open, the force too strong an take his hole head off...go rollin' down da street.....
└∩┴....o))))).....o)))))).....see.....there it go.......
└∩┴ ←uhhh....an dun foget....when yo dun ta close the tap do....coss they will be others ho will meet da same fate.....
Scott said: When the FBI says "Mortgage Fraud", they're talking inflated appraisals, straw buyers, fraudulant property flips and other various scams perpatrated AGAINST lenders, not BY lenders.
_____________________________
So are you saying that lenders CAN'T COMMIT MORTGAGE FRAUD, by knowingly accepting false appraisals, pushing through loans that shouldn't be approved, ignoring underwriting requirements as if borrowers pass all things, violating the Truth in Lending Laws deliberately, or can't commit fraud by not disclosing all the terms of the loan to the detriment of the so called borrower, OR are you saying that the FBI isn't interested in fraud committed by lenders & are only protecting certain financial interests of certain parties, WHICH IS AN ADMISSION THAT THE FBI IS CORRUPT BY YOU? If lenders can commit mortgage fraud, & if the FBI doesn't prosecute these cases, than it's a sad commentary on this organization. Can't really tell what you are really trying to insinuate.
Actually, what I was trying to point out through insinuation, was that the naysayers have been saying for a long time that other dorean brokers or even some clients or dorean agents are complicit in the Dorean so called "fraud" or "mail fraud", through possible conspiracy, but if the FBI doesn't have the resources or the interest, such a scenario of "additional indictments" is extremely UNLIKELY to say the least about "additional charges" against others due to their participation in the Dorean process.
Course lenders never proved 'MORTGAGE FRAUD" or that the lenders lost any monies due to the dorean process & certainly provided no facts of record in the court proceedings either, so it's really difficult to fairly call the process a "scam", especially in light of financial settlements to clients that are forthcoming. Course the Dorean Group were listed on the government's "mortgage fraud" blog, by that attorney that lists all those fraud cases. Maybe that was a huge mistake in retrospect since no "mortgage fraud" was even proven & such charges were dropped. Maybe that's slander & libel by admission.
Maybe that will be the final nail in the coffin to show how stupid all of the indictments have been when the clients get paid 5 times the value of their homes & their upfront fees are reimbursed through credits.
mogel007 said...
So are you saying that lenders CAN'T COMMIT MORTGAGE FRAUD, by knowingly accepting false appraisals, yada, yada, yada.....
___________________________________
What could I possibly have been thinking, rattling your chain again, Byron? I guess when you made some rational observations about how our financial markets got into their current condition, I simply forgot who I was dealing with.
So tell me... how does a lender BENEFIT from KNOWINGLY accepting an inflated appraisal, hmmm?
intasting titbits.....
PRESS FACTS.....
African-American Presidents
Note: Several presidents were allegedly of mixed European and African ancestry, which by U.S. reckoning would designate them as African-American. See The Five Negro Presidents by J.A. Rogers and Six Black Presidents: Black Blood, White Masks by Auset Bakhufu.
* Thomas Jefferson
* Andrew Jackson
* Abraham Lincoln
* Warren Harding
* Dwight Eisenhower
Presidents who lost the popular vote but won the electoral college vote
* Rutherford Hayes - Samuel Tilden won the popular vote, and probably the electoral college vote, but the results were fixed to give Hayes the majority.
* Benjamin Harrison - incumbent president Grover Cleveland won the popular vote
* George W. Bush - Al Gore won the popular vote. The electoral college vote was thrown into doubt by peculiarities in Florida's election, and the election was decided by the Supreme Court when they stopped the recount.
Presidents who won neither the popular vote nor the electoral college vote, but still ended up as president
* John Quincy Adams - Andrew Jackson had more votes in both categories.
Presidential religions
Baptist presidents
* Warren Harding
* Harry Truman
* Jimmy Carter
* Bill Clinton (Southern Baptist)
Congregationalist presidents
* Calvin Coolidge
Deist presidents
* Thomas Jefferson
Presidents belonging to Disciples of Christ
* James Garfield
* Lyndon Johnson
* Ronald Reagan
Dutch Reformed presidents
* Martin Van Buren
* Theodore Roosevelt
Episcopalian presidents
* George Washington
* James Madison
* James Monroe
* William Henry Harrison
* John Tyler
* Zachary Taylor
* Franklin Pierce
* Chester Arthur
* Franklin Roosevelt
* Gerald Ford
* George Bush
Methodist presidents
* James Polk (originally Presbyterian)
* Ulysses Grant
* William McKinley
* George W. Bush
Presbyterian presidents
* Andrew Jackson
* James Polk (later Methodist)
* James Buchanan
* Rutherford Hayes (also attended Episcopal and Methodist services)
* Grover Cleveland
* Benjamin Harrison
* Woodrow Wilson
* Dwight Eisenhower
Quaker presidents
* Herbert Hoover
* Richard Nixon
Roman Catholic presidents
* John Kennedy
Unitarian presidents
* John Adams
* John Quincy Adams
* Millard Fillmore
* William Taft
Presidents without church affiliation
* Abraham Lincoln
* Andrew Johnson
more pres. trivia stuff here:
http://www.heptune.com/
preslist.html#Military
wheres da section on Pres. who cheeted an stoled da lections???
guss they dun haf dat secton?
Deist presidents
* Thomas Jefferson
is dat like...'there is a GOD, but i jus' dunno who it/he is????'
Scott from vineland posted:
"So tell me... how does a lender BENEFIT from KNOWINGLY accepting an inflated appraisal, hmmm?"
Scott, maybe you're too far into the forest to see the trees, but a far-too-large percentage of brokers and people on the sales desks at places like Countrywide, Ameriquest and New Century were in the game to pump as many through as they could to make that bonus, regardless of the future consequences.
"Lenders" (yes, the employees within them) without future recourse liability from their not only sloppy but outright devious and fraudulent originations tossed hundreds of thousands of borrowers into a sausage machine, and Washington was happy to keep the crank turning as long as K street money kept flowing.
Executives can't hide - they either knew about it and condoned or promoted it or they were so stupid and incompetent that they shouldn't be allowed to run a newstand, let alone a company with thousands of employees. Sorry, but the former is the case. Faced with overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing and hundreds of civil suits, the executives were content to play in the casino that could have made them billionaires if it hadn't collapsed before they jumped.
Just like Johnson, they kept the scheme going just a bit too long and it caught up with them.
Oct. 30, 2008
Banks losing billions in unpaid credit card bills urge government to forgive consumer debt
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With defaults on credit card debt spiraling amid a global financial downturn, banks already reeling from the mortgage crisis are losing billions more from unpaid credit card bills.
Big banks have formed an unusual alliance with consumer advocates to urge the government to allow huge portions of credit card debt to be forgiven, a turnabout from recent years when the banking industry lobbied strenuously to make it harder for consumers to erase their credit card debts in bankruptcy.
The new pilot program -- which the banks hope will become permanent -- could involve as many as 50,000 people struggling with credit card debt. On an individual basis, the amount of debt to be forgiven would rise according to the severity of the borrower's financial situation, up to a maximum of 40 percent.
"There's obviously a financial benefit to the financial institutions to step up to the plate right now," said Susan Keating, president and chief executive of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, which has 108 member organizations around the country. "We absolutely support the proposal."
In an increasingly tough economic climate, banks and other mortgage lenders already have been agreeing to modify loans of distressed homeowners to help them avoid foreclosure. Now, banks making credit card loans have reached a point where they can lose less by forgiving part of the debt than seeing the consumer walk away entirely.
Credit cards -- the ubiquitous plastic rectangles that have become an integral part of American life and the economy -- now look to be the latest domino to drop in a financial crisis that started with subprime mortgages and continually takes new twists.
Amid rising job losses, consumers -- even those with strong credit records -- have been defaulting at high levels on their credit cards. Banks already battered by the mortgage and credit crises are bleeding tens of billions in red ink from the losses. The largest credit-card banks each set aside between $1 billion and $3.5 billion in the third quarter for losses on card loans as their profits plummeted.
The biggest credit card lenders include Discover Financial Services LLC, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Capital One Financial Corp., American Express Co. and HSBC Holdings.
Credit card charge-off rates, balances written off as unpaid, rose to 6.8 percent in August, up 48 percent from a year earlier, according to Moody's Investors Service.
Americans are lumbering under about $900 billion in credit card debt, according to the latest available Federal Reserve figures. People who are in credit counseling, on average, carry seven cards.
Many of the people now having trouble making their credit card payments are in a double or triple whammy: their mortgages or car loans also may be under stress.
And for many, the torrent of envelopes bearing credit card offers at low initial rates -- much like the old "teaser" rates on subprime mortgages -- has recently been replaced by more somber notices of crimped credit lines, hikes in interest rates or even accounts being closed as lenders tighten the reins to reduce their risk.
The new proposal pitched to federal regulators by the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents more than 100 big banks and other financial companies, and the Consumer Federation of America, would allow lenders to reduce by as much as 40 percent the amount of credit card debt owed by deeply indebted consumers in a pilot program.
It recognizes that "there are some critical problems with credit card debt," said Bert Ely, a banking industry consultant based in Alexandria, Va. "We're going to see more of these efforts to try to minimize the situation."
Under the groups' proposal to U.S. Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, whose Treasury Department agency oversees national banks, a pilot project would allow big credit card companies to sharply reduce the amounts owed by consumers in over their heads who don't qualify for the repayment plans now available.
Nearly all the biggest credit card banks have agreed to such a pilot program in which lenders would forgive as much as 40 percent of the amount consumers owe, allowing them to pay back the remainder over time.
The test program could reach as many as 50,000 borrowers, said Scott Talbott, senior vice president at the Roundtable. Borrowers would have to be in a counseling program for their credit card debt. The amount of debt to be forgiven would be determined case by case, depending on the borrower's financial condition; those receiving close to the maximum forgiveness level would be nearing a personal bankruptcy filing.
And there would be a tax benefit. Borrowers would be able to defer payment of income taxes they owe on the forgiven part of the debt until after the remainder was paid off. The lenders could wait until then to book their loss on the forgiven debt.
"Both parties win," Talbott said.
Current government rules don't allow lenders to offer repayment plans that reduce the amount of principal owed and borrowers to repay the balance over a period of several years. In cases where the principal can be reduced, under credit card settlements, borrowers normally are required to pay off the remainder over months rather than years.
Kevin Mukri, a spokesman for the comptroller's office, had no immediate comment on the new proposal Thursday. Peter Garuccio, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, also declined to comment.
June Selby, who nearly filed for bankruptcy three years ago when she was buried under nearly $32,000 in school loans, saw both sides but said she didn't like the idea of anyone getting a free ride.
Selby, 60, worked with credit counselors to pay off nearly half the balance and is on track to be debt free by 2011.
"If (the proposal) makes it possible to maintain a sense of integrity and pay back debt without going into bankruptcy, that's one thing," said Selby, a certified nurse in Lawrenceville, Ga.
But she said she was against the idea of a free handout for people who've simply been irresponsible.
"There just has to be some accountability. Nobody is bailing me out. I had to work very hard to keep from bankruptcy and foreclosure," she said.
AP Business Writer Candice Choi in New York contributed to this report.
biz.yahoo.com/ap/081030/meltdown_credit_cards.html
dr. ira gilac said...
African-American Presidents
Note: Several presidents were allegedly of mixed European and African ancestry, which by U.S. reckoning would designate them as African-American. See The Five Negro Presidents by J.A. Rogers and Six Black Presidents: Black Blood, White Masks by Auset Bakhufu.
* Thomas Jefferson
* Andrew Jackson
* Abraham Lincoln
* Warren Harding
* Dwight Eisenhower
I JUST GOT AN INTERESTING EMAIL ABOUT THIS...THEY YANKED A MAGAZINE ISSUE (I THINK TIME MAG)FROM THE SHELVES BECAUSE DWIGHT EISENHOWER'S MOM WAS SHOWN AND OBVIOUSLY NOT WHITE.
FYI - that article, which appears to have been snipped from a forwarded email by moogie, seems to have first appeared at http://www.chronwatch-america.com/articles/3623/1/The-Bailouts-Must-Stop/Page1.html
hth
Scott said: "I simply forgot who I was dealing with."
__________________________
Judging by Judge Bean's response to your question, I would say he KNOWS EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE & WHO HE IS DEALING WITH, AN EMPLOYEE OF A LENDER. LOL
Judge Roy,
Maybe part of my vision problem is that I work in an environment where the owner is an individual who is committed to sustaining his company. Yes, lenders certainly have some employees who will benefit from the higher commissions on bigger loans. But companies like mine make certain reps and warranties to our investors that obligate us to repurchase loans in default when there is proven fraud or misrep in the file. So bottom-feeding L.O.'s have never lasted long around here. My boss doesn't like buying loans back and we have a pretty good record in that regard. Probably why I still have a job today.
mogel007 said...
Judging by Judge Bean's response to your question, I would say he KNOWS EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE & WHO HE IS DEALING WITH, AN EMPLOYEE OF A LENDER. LOL
___________________________________
Moogs, all the wisdom you possess wouldn't fill one post-it note on JRB's desk. Step off, boy...
Post a Comment