Stay Calm, Remain in Your Homes
This is standard advice in times of emergency. The principle is simple and logical. Authorities are dealing with limited resources in a critical environment where every second counts. The fewer events and people they need to deal with, the more effective they can be.
If you know me, you know that I am upbeat and positive by temperament and challenges don’t faze me. I’m pretty level-headed, and I do my own thinking. Though curious by nature, I don’t give much credence to conspiracy theories and usually can explain away most government ineffectiveness by mind boggling stacks of stupidity heaped upon layers of incompetence.
Lately, however, I have been starting to wonder just who is involved in shaping the events of our time. Is there really a plan to swap our prosperity and independence in favor of global profiteering and the new world order?
First, we exported manufacturing so that other nations, even our enemies, wound up with our jobs. Ross Perot warned us of the plot behind NAFTA. We have allowed all of the power to fall to a handful of global elitists who profit from failure and misery.
Consider the implications of this; there are fewer Americans with jobs than in 2000 but there are eleven million more workers. Nearly fourteen million are officially unemployed and the number of people who have given up looking for work, the self-employed owners of failed businesses don’t even show up in that.
According to Stars and Stripes, “In January, the unemployment rate among vets between the ages of 20 and 24 was 24.1 percent, compared with 17.7 percent for the same age group in the general population.
Recent college grads are entering the workforce at a time when employers project they will be hiring 22% fewer college graduates this year.
And now, with increasing frequency, the unintended consequences of a global asset bubble are coming home to roost. And, there is no stopping them.
The convergence of numerous events is creating what I fear will be emergency type conditions that will become routine for many Americans. Think post Katrina, soon playing in cities everywhere.
According to The National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association, 8.9 million households are expected to qualify for financial help to heat their homes this winter, up from 8.3 million last winter. It’s the third year in a row the number of households needing assistance has set a new high. Nearly nine million people are having difficulty just staying warm.
By now, if you haven’t felt it directly, someone close to you has; a dramatic downturn in the quality of life, for many, a complete reversal of fortune. Whether we feel bad for them or are happy to see their decline instead of ours, their loss of prosperity erodes the prosperity of everyone. They go from contributor to the community to a drain on the community. Many are boomers who worked all of their lives and are now seeing their golden years turn to rust.
The pension funds they contributed to have been looted by financial intermediaries, and although many of the funds are going to court, there isn’t enough money on the planet to pay back the shortfall. The institutions they are seeking relief from are technically insolvent. And, the device intended to protect pensions, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, is upside down and sinking.
According to the Washington Post, “During fiscal year 2010, the PBGC paid $5.6 billion in benefits to participants of failed pension plans. That year, 147 pension plans failed, and the PBGC’s deficit increased 4.5 percent to $23 billion. The PBGC has a total of $102.5 billion in obligations and $79.5 billion in assets.”
And, it’s only starting. It will get worse every year until there will be no way to bridge the gap. The PBGC only insures one in seven pensions; the rest may have no recourse whatsoever.
We must remind ourselves that we aren’t talking about the effects of just mortgage securitization, but a massive global Ponzi scheme that leveraged bad and even nonexistent debt instruments into the biggest transfer of wealth in history.
And, it goes on.
The money, a lot of American household net worth combined with an amount equivalent to the national debt, is stashed in off shore accounts and beyond the reach of recovery.
Equity in boomers’ real estate holdings has been systematically stripped by the leveraging up of appraisals followed by the pushing down to affect more strategic defaults. And, it’s working. One quarter of all homes are worth less than is owed on them. That didn’t happen by accident, it was part of a business plan.
Where will these boomers go to live when they have no money? What choice do they have? They will be in tax payer funded shelters and tent cities with communities struggling to pay the medical costs of this aging poverty class. It will be expensive and unpleasant.
Nationwide, six million families have lost their homes as a result of an international Ponzi scheme. The myth is that after that they “rented an apartment that they could afford” and lived happily ever after…within their means.
The major impediments to this rosy scenario are lack of income, bad credit, kids and pets. Fortunately, government has been working on a large part of the housing problem with a mind-boggling prison construction program.
All of this will have a negative trickle-down effect on everyone. Note how life changing emergencies may have recently resulted from a lack of resources for mental health care and probation follow-up. We knew the individuals had problems, but there is no funding to treat them.
Predictions of State and Cities financial collapse are being forewarned by layoffs in the most protected jobs, teachers and emergency responders.
The total neglect of our infrastructure during our false prosperity is now colliding with our ability to even make emergency repairs, as evidenced by the collapse of a relatively new bridge in Minneapolis. Things are starting to get that third world feel. Parks are being closed or ignored, codes aren’t being enforced, pot-holes don’t get filled, and trash blows through the weedy parking lots of long ago whitewashed shops.
In Vista, California, where years of financial mismanagement have led to a severe budget shortfall, emergency workers are telling the public to expect longer response times due to a reduction in the number of ambulances. We have them; we just can’t afford to use them.
In March, the city will turn out the street lights. So, at a time when we have fewer resources to respond, life will be getting a lot more dangerous for residents and visitors. Not that it matters, I recently dialed 911 to report an accident to which I was the only witness. According to the call timer on my cell phone, it was nine minutes until they answered.
Cities are primarily dependent on property and sales taxes, and when property values were rising and consumers were spending, Vista administration went on a spending spree and hired all of their friends, built new buildings, and put tax payer’s money into an ill-advised, redevelopment scheme.
Some of the jobs have survived despite the fact that the city no longer performs the function the individual carries out.
The first step was to eliminate the services that all of those people were hired to deliver. A perfect example was Vista’s sign compliance program. Several staff were hired, and for two years they photographed and cataloged commercial signage that was out of compliance with the code.
But, now that all of the preliminary work is done and paid for, the compliance part of the program was scrapped because there was no money to pay for it.
Given the size of the budget shortfall in Vista, the only alternative is a massive reduction in wages and benefits. Cuts in senior administration aren’t likely so that means that city workers, the people who actually do anything, the lowest paid and most vulnerable, will be let go first.
Most communities are facing these same problems, but some are better prepared than others. Those that failed to prepare for a decline in revenue will soon be switching to crisis mode. The numbers tell the tale. And, until we come up with 11 million jobs and stop evicting families from their homes, things won’t get better.
We are facing a crisis that is already tearing at the principals on which this country was founded. Due process is routinely being denied in cases where borrowers have proof that documents were forged.
Stay calm, remain in your home. The last thing that any of us needs is to have these unlawful foreclosures continue. Even if you have been foreclosed on, do everything you can to stay in your home. You do not want to be out on the street, and we don’t need any more vacant houses. In San Bernardino, Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago the banks aren’t bothering to take title to the property.
What should you do? Do what authorities always advise in terms of emergency. Remain calm, stay in your home…no matter what. Do not let them take your home. Every day you can remain in your home is another day to get closer to long term relief.
The unlawful foreclosures taking place in America’s communities are compounding an already dire situation. It doesn’t need to continue. We must all resist the efforts by unknown foreign entities to steal our homes.
You must fight your own fight, but you needn’t fight alone. You must learn everything you can about your own situation, but the information you need is all available on my blog.
If you won’t join the movement in the streets, join it here, at Protect Americas Dream http://www.gwmantor.hersid.com/. If you will not draw a line in the sand, draw one at your front door.
Never give up. The very worst thing anyone can do is surrender their home without resistance. Stay calm, remain in your home.
George W. Mantor
The Real Estate Professor
Founder, American Foreclosure Resistance Movement
http://www.realtown.com/gwmantor/blog
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hi mariea and everyone else. we are all comletely devisted over this fraud. i am not even in foreclosure yet am preparing my sef as to why i am not able afford my mortgage. there are many reasons. the down turn has cost me and my husband jobs a few times and an illness was all we needed. we are so sad and so stresses. i found the web site foreclsourehamlet and and have been finding answers. i found appraisal fraud, i have found failure of the owner of my not to have an assignment with my county. the list goes on. thank you for understanding our plight.
Oh, God! When I read these posts I had “frozen” bumps on my spine…. . All of you are very right! I heard now radio station: it was told that SOME (I didn’t caught its name) BANK WILL NOT WORK TOMORROW (Valentine’s Day!) DUE TO GOING TO BE PROTESTER’S MARCH! I do not know where it will be – in Egypt or our Country, but it is GOOD IDEA: THE PEACEFUL PICKETING IS ALLOWED BY OUR CONSTITUTION; IT IS TECHNICALLY NOT BANK ROBBERY, BUT THEY CANNOT OPERATE AND TO ROB US!!! THEY WILL LOOSE THE CLIENTS WHO WAS GOING TO PLACE THEIR MONEY INTO THESE BANKS’ BLACK HOLES!!! EVERYONE MUST TAKE MONEY FROM their “Sweet Heart” BANKS and place them in the Community Credit Unions (none-government!) And we will see what happened! I do not want if even one life will be lost at streets! PEACEFULLY walk around Banks, Courts and FBI Offices with your SIGNS. MAKE THEM UNCOMFORTABLE TO ROB US. WE ARE DEFINETELY LOOSING OUR BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY, EVERYONE understands this: The White House and Congress entirely consist of LAWYERS who understand what going on and DO NOTHING. You even cannot read about massive FRAUD in Foreclosure in the news papers or hear on Radio or see on TV! We just see and hear Commercials who invite us to take their products “ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!” just for small shipping. But when they got your Credit Card number they will charge you in full and several times: month after month…. . Be careful! Absolutely free is only cheese in the mouse trap! This is probably the ONE and ONLY HONEST blog and, it seems, the government is UNFAMILIAR WITH IT. Every gov. office has some E-mails. Please send them these articles and blogs! Thank you all of you for your time.
Mr. George W. Mantor, I congratulate you in your comments post, I just wish 360 million people would read it and get inform, One question only How someone in CA can stay in their home after foreclosed and notice of evict? not that easy but I agree with fight it
This is a powerful message. So why are we not all out in the streets protesting like the Egyptians? Guess we Americans have been lulled into complacency by our comforts. And what is Comfort, ” that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master. Ay, and it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires. Though its hands are silken, its heart is of iron. It lulls you to sleep only to stand by your bed and jeer at the dignity of the flesh. It makes mock of your sound senses … verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.” – “The Prophet”, Kahlil Gibran
We should have a NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST against the Big Five banks. Where is our outrage? Where is our Spirit? Do we not care that we are now living in a Third World country? Although, we are certainly not paying Third World prices. Our cost of living is out of control. The public utility companies are raping us. We have been robbed of our jobs, our homes, our dignity, and our justice. How much more abuse is it going to take before we rise up, take to the streets, and truly take our country back? It’s not going to happen by sitting in front of the big screen TV.
thank you all so much for your posts. everything you guys are posting I new but was ubable to prove it from my littel place in the world. when property taxes in my new home were more than double then what the builder told us and the home owners insurance was more than 3x whatthe builder told us we sold and moved hoping in a different part o florida we could move on and accept we had been scr**ed. here we are 300 miles north the thing i most feared is happening. i had lost my job and unable to survice on unemployment used up my credit card balances. when i finally did get a job you can neever get caught up. then again we find avarsary wells fargo modifies our loan and raises our mortgage, i guess with the ploy for us leave the home. i held on for the ride. my husband getting ill mid 2010 caused us unable again to afford the steep mortgage payment and again approached wells fargo. waiting now months for a hamp loan i tried to find answers to why this is happening to us. i was guided to find my morgtage papers and county records. i found discrepencies every where. mortage appraisal fraud, no assignment after wells fargo. the constant loss of my finacial paper work. i have been through so much. the big banks would love us all to leave these homes so they canb just res ell them. i am sick to my stomach. i was taught to own a home for the mortgage intrest deduction so we can itemize. because i owned instead of rented i lost my entire life savings and retirement plan. how fair is that. how can that have been purpertrated on us. FDIC only guaranteed if i left my money ion my savings account. who would have thought by putting it to my home i would lose in 5 years. this has bput an incredible strain on my family. my 22 yr marriage is feeling pain, my kids are stressed of not knowing what is going to happen. where did this all start. the builders, the appraisers, the tax collectors and assessors allowing the bogus increases, who is to blame and then how do they fix our lives. this has caused countless people to become homleless. broken up families. why should they have so much power to ruin lives like this. please alll help please join us on http://www.foreclosurehamlet.com we are learning. if i did not find this web site i to would have left myhouse already.. thank you guys so much wish you were my frinds close by i would hug you.
This is very difficult when you are dealing with unethical Judges as we did in MA. They take an oath to apply the facts of law. Our case is probably the worst case you have ever seen.
However much limited resources they are dealing with they seem to find the resources to take care of themselves at the same time we are getting the shaft in court.
Thank you for great comfort! The situation often feels like the proverbial “David and Goliath”, but with GOD and folks like you to help and encourage we can and will prevail according to HIS plan! Thank you again.
Rachel
“American Foreclosure Resistance Movement” is a really cool name, what does it do? If one were to “join the movements in the streets,” what street would that be?
What is the plan for the mortgages? The Gov. knew this was coming for a long time. Dylan Ratigan said on Mon. why is anyone paying their mortgage? I heard on Alex Jones that EVERYONE is soon going to be paying their mortgages to the FED. WE ALREADY ARE via the hyper-inflated property taxes we are all paying. The property is now worthless but my property taxes have doubled with no explanation. In my County we have had the largest property tax increase in County history. The mortgage game that they are playing with homeowner’s is just that, a game. This is all about BIG GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF EVERYTHING. Everyone is going to be here sooner or later. The Imperialist Oligarchy must be destroyed or they WILL destroy America and the world. Wake up America, the warning bells are ringing loud and clear. Our economy is heading where Egypt already is and WE MUST NOT allow them to take us there.
We need a REAL LEADER who is FOR THE PEOPLE and AMERICA and we need a plan. 2012 is next year. The cabal needs to be broken up or we are all doomed. I am not trying to fear monger, this is fact. Many Americans know about THEIR PLAN and they are UNAMERICAN and INHUMAN. NO ONE wants to live the way this Imperialist Oligarchy wants us to live. It truly is the revived Romand Empire. Check the facts. We need to declare our National Sovereignty from these animals. The states need to secede from this tyranny and opresssion they are imposing on America.
Obama’s hands are tied by these Oligarchs and this Government does not care about you or me. He was bought and paid for by all of them. America is rapidly becoming a facsist dictatorship.
The whole world is ripening for what’s happening in Egypt. There is unrest in Great Britain, French students protest getting screwed over (when will US students take on the for profit oligarchs who run our universities?), the Middle East rebellion will spread to the rest of the theocracies that crush human spirit and demean women, many Americans will finally take notice of the buttf*cking they’ve been getting from the Fed, Wall Street and corporate pissants like Blankfein, Lewis, Pangrit, etc. and start putting boots in asses.
About time.
Great post! This IS a PROVEN CONSPIRACY with FACTS to back it up. It IS STRATEGIC, DECISIVE CLASS WARFARE on not just America, but the whole world, It is GLOBAL in it’s scope. We have all been deceived and SET-UP TO FAIL and NEVER RETURN to a middle or upper middle class way of life again. I think it is more like trickle-up poverty, than trickle-down, since the most vulnerable, poorest people were the first to be destroyed and now it is moving up to the upper-middle class range of the economy with foreclosure filings and evictions on the rise there now. No one is safe. Many people do not even realize this if they did not lose their employment during the economic downturn. They are just one job loss away from all of us and the fraudclosure nightmare along with the fight for our very existance, A warning sign I did not recognize at the begining of the nightmare was the fact that we were robbing Peter to pay Paul. I hear some in Europe are paying their mortgages with a credit card. Though I never did that personally, this is a good example of this strategic type of class warfare. It is very deceptive and is setting people up for failure.
. When it seems there is never enough money to pay for everything for example you feel you can’t seem to get ahead no matter how hard you work, this is a sign that all is not well. I agree that we must continue to fight the fraudclosures but alot more truth must be revealed about how they covered-up the crimes at ORIGINATION in order for all of this nonsense to stop. Our homes are paid for. They were paid for BY US via a second bank for a nominal fee so as they could take that collateral up onto Wall Street and participate in the BIGGEST PONZI SCHEME HEIST OF OUR WEALTH IN HISTORY. It is still going on via the FED and Qe2 and hyper-taxation and goods and services inflation vs. a deflated currency. They are continuing to rob our wealth and create debt poverty for the world up on WALL STREET via MONEY PRINTING. FIAT CURRENCY.It is temporarily “propping-up” the Oligarchy but they are really just KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD. It is eventually going to cause a bigger catastrophe on a world wide scale such as what is happening now in Egypt. Some day we will all wake up and the entire country will be poor and homeless if THE OLIGARCHY ROBBER BARONS ARE NOT BROKEN UP. Thomas Jefferson and J.F.K warned us about SECRET SOCIETIES and what would happen to our Country if they got control. Teddy Roosevelt broke up the big banks. We need another Teddy Roosevelt or the world will be one of agony and poverty for most. The NWO plan is not only UNAMERICAN, it is not human. It is luciferian.