Full scale Wall Street freak out.
Five years after Wall Street criminals destroyed our economy there are still millions of underwater homeowners and millions more foreclosures in the pipeline.
The good news is that Home Defenders and local elected officials have figured out an innovative way – called Local Principal Reduction – to deal with this problem. The bad news is that Wall Street criminals are in in full attack mode fighting as hard as they can to stop us.
Tell Wall Street bankers: Stop bullying communities advancing local principal reduction and cooperate in keeping struggling families in their homes.
Here’s what’s happening. We have figured out a way to purchase certain underwater loans, reset them to fair market value, and then get the homeowners into new, sustainable mortgages. The costs of the program are borne by the private funders who the cities are partnering with and the beneficiaries are the homeowners, with affordable mortgages and new equity, and our communities, with greater economic activity.
The key to making this program work for everyone is the use of eminent domain – the ability of a government to take property for the public benefit – to acquire the underwater mortgages if the Wall Street investors refuse to make a fair deal. And that’s what’s freaking Wall Street out.[3]
Tell Wall Street: End your outrageous efforts to block local principal reduction programs that will keep families in their homes and rebuild local economies.
We are facing a stark choice. Either we and our elected officials control our economic future, or Wall Street criminals and their banks do. It’s clear where Wall Street bankers stand. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), made up same old Wall Street bankers that brought you the foreclosure crisis, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, etc., is bullying and threatening cities that are exploring local principal reduction programs including El Monte, La Puente, and Richmond, CA; and North Las Vegas, NV. [4]
But that’s not stopping us. Stand up and tell Wall Street criminals to keep their hands off of Main Street and help struggling homeowners rebuild their lives and their wealth.
This fight is just starting; Wall Street and SIFMA are committed to fighting as dirty as they can to keep this from happening. With your help Home Defenders and our cities will take bold and courageous action to build a future that works for all of us, starting with the struggling underwater homeowners in our own back yards.
In solidarity, Brian, Campaign for a Fair Settlement
http://www.campaignforfairsettlement.org/
[1] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/underwater-mortgage-percentage-falls-below-20-2013-06-12
[2] http://www.newbottomline.com/underwater_mortgages_and_1_million_jobs
[3] Robert Kuttner “Seize the mortgages, save the neighborhood” Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/29/opinion/la-oe-kuttner-eminent-domain-mortgages-20130630
[4] Peter Dreier “To Rescue Local Economies, Cities Seize Underwater Mortgages Through Eminent Domain” Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/to-rescue-local-economies_b_3614326.html
Putting an End to the Foreclosure Crisis in Seattle and King County.
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