by Calculated Risk on 10/01/2010 11:59:00 PM

From David Streitfeld at the NY Times: Bank of America to Freeze Foreclosure Cases

Bank of America, the country’s largest mortgage lender by assets, said on Friday that it was reviewing documents in all foreclosure cases now in court to evaluate if there were errors.

It is the third major lender in the last two weeks to freeze foreclosures in the 23 states where the process is controlled by courts.
...
Bank of America, in an e-mailed statement, said it would “amend all affidavits in foreclosure cases that have not yet gone to judgment.”

And from Jacob Gaffney at Housing Wire: Wells Fargo standing by accuracy of foreclosure affidavits

The second largest servicer in the United States, Wells Fargo is not planning to review foreclosure affidavits in light of the robo-signer allegations at many of its competitors.

In an email to HousingWire, Wells Fargo spokesman Jason Menke said, "Wells Fargo policies, procedures and practices satisfy us that the affidavits we sign are accurate. We audit, monitor and review our affidavits under controlled standards on a daily basis. We will stand by our affidavits and, if we find an error, we will take the appropriate corrective action."

I've corresponded with two servicers and they both believe their procedures are adequate (no "robo-signers"). However for GMAC - and apparently for JPMorgan and BofA - there is no excuse.

by Calculated Risk on 10/01/2010 09:14:00 PM

Surging sea of debt
Shoreline swiftly eroded
Solvency soon sunk
by Soylent Green is People
From the FDIC: GBC International Bank, Los Angeles, California, Assumes All of the Deposits of Shoreline Bank, Shoreline, Washington

As of June 30, 2010, Shoreline Bank had approximately $104.2 million in total assets and $100.2 million in total deposits. ... The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $41.4 million. ... Shoreline Bank is the 129th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the tenth in Washington.

Two down today ...

by Calculated Risk on 10/01/2010 06:08:00 PM

Ten One Twenty Ten
Some day these failures will end
Today's not that day
by Soylent Green is People
From the FDIC: Centennial Bank, Conway, Arkansas, Assumes All of the Deposits of Wakulla Bank, Crawfordville, Florida

As of June 30, 2010, Wakulla Bank had approximately $424.1 million in total assets and $386.3 million in total deposits. ... The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $113.4 million. ... Wakulla Bank is the 128th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the twenty-fifth in Florida.

Twenty five in Florida alone this year ...

by Calculated Risk on 10/01/2010 06:04:00 PM

From the WaPo: Connecticut halts all foreclosures for all banks

From Business Insider: Bank Of America Joins JPMorgan In Suspending Foreclosures

From MarketWatch: Title insurers dented by ‘robo-signer’ concern

by Calculated Risk on 10/01/2010 04:00:00 PM

Based on an estimate from Autodata Corp, light vehicle sales were at a 11.76 million SAAR in Setpember. That is up 25.8% from September 2009 (the dip following cash-for-clunkers), and up 2.8% from the August 2010 sales rate.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the historical light vehicle sales (seasonally adjusted annual rate) from the BEA (blue) and an estimate for August (red, light vehicle sales of 11.76 million SAAR from Autodata Corp).

This is the high for the year - slightly higher than in March.

The second graph shows light vehicle sales since the BEA started keeping data in 1967.

Note: dashed line is current month sales rate. The current sales rate is about at the bottom of the '90/'91 recession - when there were fewer registered drivers and a smaller population.

This was above most forecasts of around 11.6 million SAAR.

by Calculated Risk on 10/01/2010 01:50:00 PM

From New York Fed President William Dudley: The Outlook, Policy Choices and Our Mandate

Currently, my assessment is that both the current levels of unemployment and inflation and the timeframe over which they are likely to return to levels consistent with our mandate are unacceptable. In addition, the longer this situation prevails and the U.S. economy is stuck with the current level of slack and disinflationary pressure, the greater the likelihood that a further shock could push us still further from our dual mandate objectives and closer to outright deflation.

We have tools that can provide additional stimulus at costs that do not appear to be prohibitive. Thus, I conclude that further action is likely to be warranted unless the economic outlook evolves in a way that makes me more confident that we will see better outcomes for both employment and inflation before too long.

And from Chicago Fed President Charles Evans: A Perspective on the Future of U.S. Monetary Policy

The modern economic theory of liquidity traps indicates that the optimal policy response at zero-bound is to lower the real interest rate, almost surely by employing unconventional policy tools. Theory also indicates that, in the absence of such policy stimulus, the factors that generate high risk aversion could very well stifle a meaningful recovery, keep unemployment high and reinforce disinflationary pressures – clearly an undesirable equilibrium.

So, in the coming weeks and months, as I assess the incoming data, update my forecast and deliberate on the best monetary policy approach, I will be pondering two key issues: How much more should monetary policy do to reduce the shortfalls in meeting our dual mandate responsibilities for employment and price stability; and what tools should we use?

Dudley is on the FOMC (NY is a permanent member) and Evans is an alternate member. The Fed presidents are signaling that barring an upside surprise - and the personal income report this morning suggests Q3 GDP will show sluggish growth - QE2 will arrive on November 3rd.