Redstate

Posted at 8:26pm on Jul. 9, 2008 Complaint Filed Over Obama’s Sweetheart Mortgage Deal

Obama's mortgage may have violated the law and Senate ethics rules

By California Yankee

The Hill reports complaints were filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Senate Ethics Committee against the Democrats' presidential candidate over Obama's Countrywide-like sweetheart mortgage deal he received from Northern Trust:

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, filed the the complaints after The Washington Post reported that Obama received a discount on a mortgage for a Chicago home valued at $1.65 million:

The complaints said the Illinois senator received a loan at the interest rate of 5.625 percent, which Judicial Watch says is lower than the standard rate of between 5.93 and 6 percent indicated by surveys.

The complaint asks the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether the favorable rates constitute a prohibited “gift” under Senate rules.

“It appears that due to his position as a U.S. senator, Barack Obama received improper special treatment from Northern Trust resulting in an illicit ‘gift’ which has a value of almost $125,000 in interest savings,” wrote Judicial Watch President Thomas Fitton in a letter to the Ethics Committee.

The complaint also notes that Northern Trust employees have given $71,000 in donations to Obama’s campaigns.

As noted in the complaints, Northern Trust has supported Barack Obama's political campaigns for elected office since 1990. In addition to the $71,000 Northern Trust employees have donated to Obama, the Northern Trust political action committee gave $1,250 to Senator Obama's 2004 campaign for the United States Senate.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Countrywide | Ethics | mortgage — Comments (21)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:51am on Apr. 3, 2008 Mortgage Relief: Senate Republicans Blink

An FHA Expansion coming?

By blackhedd

Following up my story here on the movement in the Senate Banking Committee to come up with mortgage-relief (read, bailout) legislation: the Republicans blinked.

Under what appears to have been pressure from Republican leadership, Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking minority member on the banking panel, made a deal with Senator Dodd of Connecticut to accept preliminary steps in the direction of a legislated mortgage bailout.

Much more…

Posted in bailout | Dodd | Economy | FHA | mortgage | New Deal | senate | Shelby — Comments (20)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:01am on Mar. 10, 2008 Ominous Events in the Mortgage Markets This Past Week

Metastasis

By blackhedd

Several very important things happened in the market for mortgage-backed securities (MBS) this past week. They're technically arcane and hard to reduce to sound bites, so they didn't make a big ripple in the news. But the effects will be far-reaching.

Many published reports (here's one) at midweek had it that UBS (the Union Bank of Switzerland) had dumped a $24 billion portfolio of securities backed by Alt-A mortgages, which are intermediate in quality between prime and subprime.

According to the whispers, UBS received 70 cents on the dollar for the position. (The rumored buyer is interesting too. More on that in a moment.)

You know what happens when the guy down the block sells his house. The price he gets becomes a "comparable transaction" that affects the perceived market-value of your own house. Same thing happens with illiquid securities like MBS.

Read on...

Posted in credit crisis | Economy | federal reserve | Interest rates | mortgage — Comments (73)/ Email this page » / Read More »