Tonight, like many Americans, I’m going to be watching the State of the Union speech. While I have many concerns as a citizen, as a bankruptcy and insolvency professional my concerns continue to be on the economy, and the government’s efforts in moving the country through the current economic mess it is in.
I’m not sensing any real effort from the White House, Capital Hill or even Beacon Hill in giving any meaningful solutions to distressed homeowners. Perhaps better said, all I am hearing is double-speak and mish-mash emanating from our elected officials who talk about programs like HAMP, while at the same time, skirt around the statistics that suggest that the program is an abysmal failure. Remember, Obama says HAMP is for “responsible homeowners” but we don’t really know how the term “responsible homeowner” is actually defined. And in no uncertain terms, what I am hearing from my clients, and what I am hearing from my colleagues all fuels my sense that things are not getting better, and Washington appears impotent to do anything about it.
Since tonight is the State of the Union speech, I’m going to hold off – for now – from telling my readers what my view of where things are and where I think things may be going. I do have some idea of what I think we need to do to make things better. And in the coming days, I’ll be sharing what I and McLeod Law Offices is going to do for our clients…and why. But first, tonight I will listen to what our President has to say.
And I’ll also be tweeting – so be sure and follow me on Twitter.
Credit Fueled Drunken Debauchery
Come on, you had to know I was going to write about this: Her no longer royal highness Sarah Ferguson is blaming booze (and her debt) for her lapse in judgment in seeking money in exchange for access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew. I’m still not entirely clear what “access” really meant… that alone could be another blog, on another website.
Oddly, this reminded me of among the many colorful jobs I had when I was going through school was that of a bartender. In the movie “Cocktail”, Tom Cruise made bartending look sort of cool. And to an extent it is… but for the smells of dirty bar rags that still sometimes haunt me in my dreams. It also helps to have the physical stamina of a 20-something and be able to be cheerful and attentive past midnight. Or 4am.
Then there’s another aspect of being a bartender that isn’t so fun: having to shut someone off. That’s when a bartender has to make the call that a patron has had a wee-too-much and can be served no more alcohol. Any bartender will tell you – this aspect of the job stinks. But I see this emerging attitude about lenders and their reckless credit underwriting standards that resembles the same often righteous indignation I see when I would tell people they were on their last drink of the night.
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Tags: Commentary - Legal, Credit and Debt, HAFA, HAMP
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