Don't Worry, America. You're Still Paying to Bail Out Second Mortgages.

I recently gave a hopeful thumb up to Calculated Risk's evidence that the Treasury Department's $75 billion Housing Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) had abandoned its ill-advised scheme to guarantee modifications on second-lien mortgages.

HousingWire quotes Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly as saying, "That rumor is wrong."

And in an email to Calculated Risk, Reilly also says that the progress ramp-up to systematization will soon lead to finalizement:

The Second Lien program is moving forward. Treasury has been working to create program infrastructure and technology, including a new platform that matches second liens to first liens modified under HAMP. Because there has not been a systematic method of notification to second lien holders when a first lien on the same property is modified, ramp up has taken some time. We have made enormous progress and continue to move forward with innovative technological development and program implementation and expect to finalize servicer contracts soon.

Sorry for the bum steer. For many reasons why the second-lien program makes, in Fluffy's words, "beyond no sense," dig the comments on my original post.

Comments

[BeesInTheBrain]

I'm just wondering if it is too late to take out a second on my house.

[Suki]

Sad news:
Gumby creator and Los Osos resident Art Clokey dies at 89

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Sad news indeed. Gumby and David and Goliath are American icons. And he was also responsible for this brilliance. I'll also give Clokey credit for inspiring individuals such as Nick Park.

[Suki]

Good Morning APOG! Sorry for the bad news 🙁

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Good morning! We mourn not Art Clokey's death, but celebrate his life.

[hmm]

Reilly also says that the progress ramp-up to systematization will soon lead to finalizement...

retardation, bubblecontinuation, constipation, and rectal bleeding.

[Ron L]

"We have made enormous progress and continue to move forward with innovative technological development and program implementation and expect to finalize servicer contracts soon."

Translation:
"We haven't done a damn thing except pay a lot of bureaucrats and don't expect to do much more other than publish self-congratulatory press releases. Thank you"

[Jeffersonian]

And isn't a good, high-paying job what it's all about, Ron?

[Jeffersonian]

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to fill this hole and dig a new one to qualify for my stimulus check.

[Ron L]

Write the PR; it pays more.

[Suki]

You are working too hard.

[Jeffersonian]

But...the job was shovel-ready!

[Some Guy]

If all they do is pay bureaucrats to do nothing, this will have been the most successful program they've had. We can only hope that that's all they'll do.

[Bingo]

I've been reading some Rothbard lately and I love this quote -

Another tried and true method for bending subjects to the State's will is inducing guilt. Any increase in private well-being can be attacked as "unconscionable greed," "materialism," or "excessive affluence," profit-making can be attacked as "exploitation" and "usury," mutually beneficial exchanges denounced as "selfishness," and somehow with the conclusion always being drawn that more resources should be siphoned from the private to the "public sector." The induced guilt makes the public more ready to do just that. For while individual persons tend to indulge in "selfish greed," the failure of the State's rulers to engage in exchanges is supposed to signify their devotion to higher and nobler causes ? parasitic predation being apparently morally and esthetically lofty as compared to peaceful and productive work.

[Slut Bunwalla]

"We haven't done a damn thing except pay a lot of bureaucrats and don't expect to do much more other than publish self-congratulatory press releases. Thank you Fuck you"

FTFY

[Rich]

The Treasury's task of creating a system that mediates between first and second lien holders, servicers and borrowers represents not only new waters for mortgage servicing, but an entirely new body of underwater mortgage liens.

The basic functions of the Department of the Treasury include:
Managing Federal finances;
Collecting taxes, duties and monies paid to and due to the U.S. and paying all bills of the U.S.;
Currency and coinage;
Managing Government accounts and the public debt;
Supervising national banks and thrift institutions;
Advising on domestic and international financial, monetary, economic, trade and tax policy;
Enforcing Federal finance and tax laws;
Investigating and prosecuting tax evaders, counterfeiters, and forgers.

So, yeah, it seems creating a mediation "system"*is* the Treasury's task. 8-(

[qwerty]

Only second-lien mortgages? What wimps! Why not third-lien mortgages? Fourth? Why doesn't the government just pay all mortgages up to infinite-lien? That way, we can all have houses for free!

[Two unicorns]

Hey Charlie! Look, it's Candy Mountain! Candy Mountain, Charlie!

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I loved that freaking cartoon.

[edna]

"finalizement?" oh, man, my head hurts. kicked me right in the language center.

[Doss Mon WOods]

LOL, the more things change, the more they stay the same!

RT
http://www.anonymity-tools.ru.tc

[Mad Max]

How about the Housing for Everyone Modification Program?

[P Brooks]

"Git 'cher free money here!"

[Matthew Lesko]

Hey! That's MY line!

[P Brooks]

For the second time this week, fighter jets were scrambled to escort a commercial flight that needed to divert from its destination because of an unruly passenger.

About 11 a.m. Friday, two F-16s were ordered by North American Aerospace Defense Command to escort an AirTran flight en route to San Francisco from Atlanta as it landed at the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport.
Denver Post

I feel safer.

[hmm]

You mean to tell me someone couldn't have torn the crapper door off and commenced an old fashioned beat down on this fucker? They really needed 2 f16s?

We've become a nation of fucking wimps waiting for everyone but ourselves to solve our problems.

We should arm stewardesses with tasers!

[TP]

No. The Kid From Brooklyn has the answer.

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

No no, they were only going to shoot down the toilet with the unruly passenger. The rest of the plane they were going to leave alone.

[Tulpa]

The tactic of sending F-16's to intercept a plane was supposed to be a response to a hijacked plane being used as a missile, not a passenger who may be trying to blow the plane up. I'm not sure what F-16's can do to prevent the plane from blowing up.

[Janet Napolitano]

They shoot it down before it can be blown up.

Duh.

[USAF spokesman]

We had to destroy the plane in order to save it

[Johnny Longtorso]

We should arm stewardesses with tasers!

For use on crying babies!

[NickM]

     We should arm stewardesses with tasers!

For use on crying babies!

And Congressmen.

[Chuck Schumer]

Don't tase me, bitch!