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579 days ago
Homebuyers, homeowners, real estate agents, and mortgage brokers have all been awaiting, with high expectation, details on the new "jumbo light" loan limits and lending standards. Everyone had hoped these new loans, authorized by the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, would provide lower interest rates for folks trying to buy or refinance homes in high-cost markets. Well, the lending limits and standards are finally here, and (drumroll please) it looks like these new loans will do... nothing. That's right. Due to heavy restrictions on the loans, most people won't qualify for one. And even if they do, the interest rates are still much higher than those for traditional conforming loans. What does this mean? For starters, people living in high-cost real estate markets that are having trouble meeting their mortgage obligations, or are already behind in payments, won't get relief from a jumbo light loan. Those folks will (1) continue to struggle, or (2) join the large ...
617 days ago
[The following is an op-ed piece by James Turner (Executive Director of HALT), published in the Madison Capitol Times on March 13, 2008.] The Wisconsin Supreme Court is considering a new definition of the practice of law that could force consumers to hire a lawyer to deal with even the most routine legal needs. If the court approves this State Bar proposal, instead of being able to use an affordable legal document assistant, an income tax preparer, or a real estate agent, Wisconsinites would have to shell out the hundreds of dollars an hour that lawyers charge. HALT (Help Abolish Legal Tyranny), the nation's largest and oldest legal reform organization, is urging the court to reject the lawyers' naked power grab and, instead, encourage the development of innovative ways to expand the availability of affordable legal help. Our view is supported by the U.S. Justice Department, which also opposes the proposed rule. After complaints about their original proposal were filed ...
630 days ago
Many blogs and articles dealing with the foreclosure crisis advocate that the government should act to prevent a further decline in property values. To the contrary, I think the government should let property values continue their decline so that nonprofit community housing organizations such as Habitat can afford to purchase foreclosed properties, and provide the community housing organizations with grants or low-interest loans to purchase the properties and convert them to affordable housing, whether that be in the form of condos, apartments, or multi-family houses. Robert Shiller, Yale finance professor and author of Irrational Exuberance , a book about asset bubbles, appears to share this viewpoint. In a February 19, 2008 article by Karen Jacobs in Reuters entitled "Habitat says affordability gap persists", Professor Shiller is quoted as saying: "Most of us care about our children and grandchildren, and these people have to buy houses, so why would we want ...
640 days ago
Much to-do is being made of the Bush administration's push for legislative authority under a recently enacted provision of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), known as the Protect America Act (PAA). Under FISA, he must obtain a warrant (one which can be obtained up to 72 hours after surveillance has begun), whereas under the PAA, the president has the authority to eavesdrop on terrorist conversations without a warrant or court permission. While the PAA has only been on the books for approximately six months, the controversy is not over the president's new authority to spy on anyone without accountability -- most senators and many members of congress seem willing to grant this executive request. The real hang-up is whether the telecom industry can be held liable for past cooperation in the government's warrantless surveillance -- the very thing FISA was enacted to combat. However, for reasons of my own -- soon to be explained -- I think the very idea that we have ...642 days ago
[Here is the text of an email circulated by HALT, the nation's leading law reform organization, announcing a new website and blog featuring the works of Fred Rodell, a Yale Professor who debunked the legal profession and accompanying myths.] Sixty-nine years ago, a young Yale law professor rocked the legal establishment with a scathing indictment of the American civil justice system entitled Woe unto You, Lawyers! Almost overnight, Fred Rodell became the nation's leading debunker of legal myths, and the target of untold ire from thin-skinned lawyers. And his provocative observations are as accurate today as they were seven decades ago. Here is just a sampling. Rodell's 1936 article Goodbye to Law Reviews opens by explaining: "There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content. That, I think, about covers the ground." The article proceeds to take on the entire profession: "[I]t is pretty hard to find a group ...
