Who here thinks that a stern talking to from the President about renegotiating loans will send all those duly chastened financial giants out to be scrupulously honest? 

Or that they’ll find redemption in being fair and decent because now they have a "verbal agreement" to be good little lenders?

*crickets*

Not when there’s money to be made, right?  To wit:

…many mortgage companies are reluctant to give strapped homeowners a break because the companies collect lucrative fees on delinquent loans.

Even when borrowers stop paying, mortgage companies that service the loans collect fees out of the proceeds when homes are ultimately sold in foreclosure. So the longer borrowers remain delinquent, the greater the opportunities for these mortgage companies to extract revenue — fees for insurance, appraisals, title searches and legal services.

“It frustrates me when I see the government looking to the servicer for the solution, because it will never ever happen,” said Margery Golant, a Florida lawyer who defends homeowners against foreclosure and who worked in the law department of a major mortgage company, Ocwen Financial. “I don’t think they’re motivated to do modifications at all. They keep hitting the loan all the way through for junk fees. It’s a license to do whatever they want.”

But these companies wouldn’t jack up delinquency proceedings against good ole Americans just to collect more and more of these fees instead of renegotiating terms, now would they?

Not after asking those self-same Americans for bail-out money with the promise of renegotiating those loans and helping out the hurting public, now would they?

Nope, nothing to see here in the Fed’s first quarter sharp rise in delinquencies.

Just regular Americans watching everything they have worked their entire lives for sluice down the drain of lost jobs and inflexible financial giants.

But, in the short term?  Woo hoo — extra fees to inflate the bottom line!  We’ll leave the long-term financial drain to the next guy after cashing out the golden parachute! 

The fact that more and more middle class families are desperately seeking help at homeless shelters, food banks and job fairs? Who cares so long as your company’s financial bottom line stays solid. Innovation at all costs and full steam ahead, right?

More profits, and not having to lift a finger to help the little guy? Dude! It’s win-win!

Cornered mouse via Sean Drelinger.

Why is it in this country that it feels like we continually back people into a corner.  Sometimes of our own making, sometimes of theirs, but oft times a combination of both.

And then we bitch about them being in that damned corner.

But we never really bother contemplating how they got there in the first place.  Or really and truly stopping to think about what measures might be taken to ensure that no one else gets backed into that selfsame overcrowded corner.  To wit:

– For children living in poverty in America? Things aren’t getting much better:

In an ominous harbinger of the future, states that were roiled by economic difficulties early in the decade saw the dramatic effect a worsening economy has on children.

In Michigan, for example, the rate of children living in poverty rose by more than a third, from 14 percent in 2000 to 19 percent in 2007. In Ohio, the number went up by almost a fifth in the same period, from 16 percent to 19 percent.

"They’re like a canary in a coal mine," said Beavers. "We’re likely to see this pattern repeated in many states."

The most recent Kids Count information can be found here. Be forewarned, it’s a sobering read.

– Demand at food banks around the country is still increasing:

The economic crisis has resulted in many Americans unable to provide adequate amounts of nutritious food to their families. According to a survey by Feeding America, demand at food banks across the country increased by 30 percent in 2008.

Some non-profit organizations that offer food assistance are also reporting a sharp increase in demand, especially from middle-class professionals who have lost their jobs.

Food banks around the country are in dire need of donations.

– And all those middle class professionals who no longer have jobs? A lot of them also lost their health insurance coverage with that job.

So, what’s the answer? It sure as hell isn’t going to come from folks like Rep. Virginia "Health Care Reform Will Kill Yer Grandma" Foxx, now is it?  The stupid. It burns.

But it burns all the rest of us, too. 

Shrouded in fog, Xian, China via **Maurice**. Lovely.

Thought some folks might be interested in this, considering that the Chinese economy and ours are so intertwined at this point.  Lots of nuance here, as usual with anything dealing with the Chinese, diplomacy and the economy. 

But it’s especially touchy at the moment given the worldwide recession issues and how much US debt the Chinese are currently holding — which, in my mind anyway, diminishes our ability to leverage them on any concessions on trade imbalance, human rights or otherwise.  (Especially given our own recent track record on the same.) 

Thoughts?

btw, this transcript comes directly from the WH — this is their transcription, not mine. Just fyi.

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE U.S./CHINA STRATEGIC AND ECONOMIC DIALOGUE
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Washington, D.C.
9:35 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Good morning. It is a great honor to welcome you to the first meeting of the Strategic Economic Dialogue between the United States and China. This is an essential step in advancing a positive, constructive, and comprehensive relationship between our countries. I’m pleased that President Hu shares my commitment to a sustained dialogue to enhance our shared interests.

President Hu and I both felt that it was important to get our relationship off to a good start. Of course, as a new President and also as a basketball fan, I have learned from the words of Yao Ming, who said, "No matter whether you are new or an old team member, you need time to adjust to one another." Well, through the constructive meetings that we’ve already had, and through this dialogue, I’m confident that we will meet Yao’s standard. (more…)

It’s been a long, lean summer for children in poverty already. Without the free breakfast and lunch of the school year, a lot of these kids scramble to scrape together one meal a day. And, as the recession deepens for a lot of folks? It’s getting worse for these kids and their desperately poor families.

Everywhere I look the last few weeks, it’s budget and jobs nightmare central in the news.  As Calculated Risk explains: …as of June, almost 4.4 million people were unemployed and had exhausted their regular unemployment benefits. Most are now receiving extended benefits, but – at the least – it might be prudent to have additional extended benefits ready to go later this year. Folks are hurting still.

Last week, Reuters speculated on potential nominees for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a sort of successor to the famed Pecora Commission. The planted list of CW-approved possibilities was underwhelming:

A short list of names has emerged for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that includes former Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson; former Democratic head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Brooksley Born; and Alex Pollock, a fellow at the conservative

Digby points to a Catherine Rampel piece at NYTimes. In it, Rampel underscores a universal political truth: According to two recent polls from The New York Times/CBS News and The Wall Street Journal/NBC News, Americans appear very worried about controlling the federal deficit….

Did everyone send out their Fox Fans Fox News Anti-Tax Tea Party post cards for today? No Fox News branding intended, of course. Just good, clean American original fun with no astroturfing help from corporate lobbying groups and big money donors involved whatsoever. Nothing foxy here. Nope.