A lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court today accuses former executives of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, including former CEOs of both firms, of misleading investors about their exposure to subprime mortgages, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Former Freddie CEO Richard Syron and former Fannie CEO Daniel Mudd, are among the six executives named in the suit, the Journal said. Earlier this year, the SEC had informed the executives it planned to pursue actions against them.
Jonathan Miller with his first-ever lobsterFrom the November issue: Most New Yorkers know appraiser Jonathan Miller as the statistics guru who produces quarterly market reports for Prudential Douglas Elliman. Few realize that he’s also a lobster fisherman.
But Miller, the CEO of Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers, says the two vastly different specialties sometimes go hand in hand — or claw to claw, as it were.
It all started in 2005, when Miller decided lobster fishing would be a fun activity for his four sons while aboard the family boat, which is anchored on Long Island Sound near their home in Darien, Conn. So he got his lobstering license. [more]
[more]
Investors are increasingly pulling money out of their retirement and safe, but low-yielding, savings accounts in order to take on the risk of becoming “hard-money” mortgage lenders, which charge high interest rates to borrowers who have been rejected by traditional banks. According to the Wall Street Journal, hard-money mortgage lending still represents just a tiny slice of the mortgage market, but the activity is growing rapidly. Some critics compare hard-money lenders to predatory subprime lenders — the lightly-regulated operations which cater to people desperate for money and which were blamed for the housing market’s initial collapse. But others say these private lenders fill an important void. [more]
Federal Reserve officials met last night with New York City residents to learn how the subprime mortgage crisis has affected city homeowners. Of particular concern during the meeting was the Community Reinvestment Act, which residents say does not adequately protect borrowers from predatory lenders. Residents told the visiting Fed members that an overhaul of the program is necessary to protect borrowers, particularly in low-income regions, where the rate of home foreclosures is particularly high. Like other homeowner advocates, James Lewis, program director at Changer, a non-profit group aimed at helping homeowners, said that predatory lenders often target low-income regions, especially in New York City.
