Orphan: January 2011

Monday, January 24, 2011

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foreclosure defense

This is starting to get interesting. Having achieved the creation of special courts to whittle down a backlog of foreclosures, called the “rocket docket” due to the propensity of many of its judges to operate on an accelerated timetable that too often led to a refusal to hear borrower objections and evidence, servicers are now withdrawing foreclosure cases in Southwest Florida en masse.

It is not yet clear whether these cases are being abandoned or whether the banks will refile once they find a way to argue their action is valid. However, reading between the lines, one has to question whether they will succeed. From the Fort Myers News-Press:

Banks in recent weeks have been dropping hundreds of their Southwest Florida foreclosure lawsuits instead of facing defendants at trial, according to local attorneys and court records….

Some foreclosures at large law firms were never actually read by the attorneys who filed them here and elsewhere, and some of the mortgages that ended up in mortgage-backed securities sold to investors were never legally transferred by the banks, defense attorneys have alleged.

“We think they’re going to come back and refile,” Lee County Clerk of Court Charlie Green said.

That’s an expensive proposition, he said, noting foreclosure suits carry a hefty filing fee: about $1,900 for a $250,000 house, for example…

But eight voluntary dismissals were filed Tuesday alone by seven different banks including Bank of America, one of the largest filers of foreclosures in this area. Bank of America did not reply to a request for comment Tuesday.

At one court hearing alone, attorney Kevin Jursinski said, one of his associates watched as “50 in a row” were withdrawn.

“Can they re-litigate?” Fort Myers-based attorney Carmen Dellutri asked. “I don’t think so.”

To be blunt, whether these cases resurface will in large measure depend on the servicer or foreclosure mill’s willingness to create bogus documents. I’ve seen this happen even in my limited direct contact with foreclosure cases. The bank’s law firm presented an allonge an attachment to the borrower’s note to allow space for additional signatures which magically showed that the note had indeed gone through all the parties as stipulated in the pooling & servicing agreement for that deal. Per the Uniform Commercial Code, an allonge is supposed to be so firmly attached to the original note as to be inseparable, yet the bank’s team claimed to have miraculously found it. In addition, it bore signs of being a forgery (pixtillated signatures on a “wet ink” document; signatures reproportioned to fit signature lines).

But the use of this sort of forgery raises the bar to consumer challenges. They are fairly easy to creates, and to challenge them, a homeowner would need to hire a document expert to challenge its validity. And despite the growing skepticism among judges of documentation submitted by banks, to side with a borrower on the grounds of document forgery might be a bridge some judges are not willing to cross.

Either way, this development signals that banks are coming to recognize that the pushback in the court system against poor securitization practices is only going to become more concerted.

Obama is history!

Obama was always a one term show!

any political strategist knows few black candidates win statewide re-elections, no black candidates wins re-election win he or she pisses off their liberal base.

Obama was always a Clarence Thomas Clone, Obama knew that a black conservatives never would win the White House, so he done a Reagan, “ACTED” like he was a Democrat. (Reagan acted like he was a President, History will say Reagan started the decline of the USA)

The MSM final act with OBAMA is to make sure no real Democrats primary this clown! (the games have already begun, listen closely, Obama always beats Palin, does Obama beat Romney? NO!!!)

the target of the intelligent left should be the 23 democrat senators up for re-election in 2012! Why? it is very simple, these Senators want to win re-election, (the intelligent left must get ahead of the KABUKI game, Obama is old news, attack the 23 Dems up for re-election in 2012! and you may force them to dump OBAMA)

The left must tie OBAMA around the necks of all these Senators up for re-election! Obama is already TOXIC, make him NUCLEAR WASTE and the Dem Senators will force a primary of OBAMA!

Listed below is the OBAMA necklace that all Dems Senator must wear in 2012

1st Obama endorses the Bush agenda of spying on and killing americans

2nd Obama attacks Unions (the F! the UAW moment screams republican)

3rd Obama double downs on Bush Wars, (now they are Obama wars)

4th Obama attacks Teacher Unions (teacher unions now hate OBAMA)

5th Obama does not attack the Banks? he bails them out? (sorta like what the GOP does)

6th Obama passes the Bob Dole Health Care Bill (Bob Dole is a republican)

7th Obama kills the Public Option

8Th Obama kills Drug Importation

9Th Obama APPOINTS an insurance executive to manage his health care Bill

10th Obama does not APPOINT Dawn Johnsen

11th Obama hand picks the cat food commission to destroy Social Security

12th Obama supports Blanche Lincoln, a candidate who hates Unions, and has no chance of winning

13 Guantanomo still open for business

14.Patriot Act renewed

15. renditions continue

16. Bernanke reappointed

17. Americans targeted for assassination

18 Obama is all for sending more USA jobs off shore

19 Obama is for tax cuts for the RICH!

20. Obama and the TSA porno Scandal

21 Obama freezes federal wages for 2 years

22. OBAMA TARP Funds for Legal Services for Foreclosure Victims Blocked By Treasury

23. Obama lowers estate tax for the rich

24. Obama tax bill of 2010 GUTS Social Security

25. Obama wants WikiLeaks Assange charged with espionage.

26 Obama Fake Net Neutrality Caves to AT&T,Comcast

Coming in 2012

Gas prices above $4.00 close to $5.00 a gallon (this will end OBAMA)

Mass un-employment!

99ers living on main street (Homeless at an all time high)

social security cuts

the MSM will scream how Obama is un-beatable, if you believe that garbage, go visit Santa Clause in the North Pole and telling him hello from all of us! :)

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Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

A tetralogy of science news

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Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

A tetralogy of science news

Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on ...

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Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

A tetralogy of science news

Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

A tetralogy of science news

Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

A tetralogy of science news

Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

A tetralogy of science news

Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

A tetralogy of science news

Four more picks from the latest science news by David Bradley Tales of the unexpected: a night with Tim ...

Tucson Hero to Sit With Michelle Obama at State of the Union on ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

A tetralogy of science news

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

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A tetralogy of science news

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bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Transfer news Football Spy video: Latest on Liverpool's chase for ...

Darren Lewis is back with the best round-up of transfer news and gossip on the web.

A tetralogy of science news

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

foreclosure law

We’ll analyze a proposal to fix the foreclosure mess put out by a DC think tank known as Third Way. Normally this blog steers clear of delving into random policy documents. In this case, though, it is likely that Third Way is speaking for the administration.

Third Way is an influential think tank whose board is composed of a special Wall Street-type – the Rubin Democrat. These people sit at the nexus of politics and finance, and are conduits for big bank friendly information flow into the administration and Congress. The President of the think tank, Jonathan Cowan, was the Chief of Staff for Andrew Cuomo at HUD in the 1990s, and Third Way is well known in policy circles for delivering ‘politically safe’ and well-packaged conventional wisdom. Oh, and one more thing – the new White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, who just left the most senior operating committee of JP Morgan, was on their Board of Directors.

So by looking at this proposal, we are looking at the state of play among high level policy makers in DC, particularly of the New Dem bent. This is how the administration will probably try to play foreclosure-gate.

Their proposal, not surprisingly, is yet another bailout.

The big difference between the original and the new, improved version of the bailout model is that the payouts to the banks were at least in part visible the first time around. This is an effort yet again to spare the banks any pain, not only at the cost of the rule of law but also of investor rights.

This proposal guts state control of their own real estate law when the Supreme Court has repeatedly found that “dirt law” is not a Federal matter. It strips homeowners of their right to their day in court to preserve their contractual rights, namely, that only the proven mortgagee, and not a gangster, or in this case, bankster, can take possession of their home.

This sort of protection is fundamental to the operation of capitalism, so it’s astonishing to see neoliberals so willing to throw it under the bus to preserve the balance sheets of the TBTF banks. Readers may recall how we came to have this sort of legal protection in the first place. England learned the hard way in the 17th century what happens with low documentation requirements: abuse of court procedures, perjury and corruption become the norm. Parliament enacted the 1677 Statute of Fraudsto establish higher standards for contracts, such as witnessing by a third party, to stop the widespread theft of property that was underway.

The memo completely ignores the harm to investors from the bank mistakes and lacks any provisions for damage to investors to be remedied. Moreover, denying borrower rights removes their leverage to obtain deep principal mortgage modifications, which for viable borrowers produces lower losses than costly foreclosures and sales of distressed property. Thus this shredding of contractual protections in mortgages not only hurts borrowers but also harms investors.

So to save the banks from their own, colossal abuses of contracts that they devised, the Third Way document advocates Congressional intervention into well established, well functioning state law. This is a case where these matters can and should be left to the courts and ultimately state AGs to coordinate the template of a more broadbased solution.

But this proposal is this memo is a direct result of the banks losing in court and the fear that they will continue to lose. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Ibanez decision is clearly the trigger for the release of this plan. The SJC said its decision was merely articulating well established law. Consistent application of these principles will mean more losses for the banks. This memo is clearly an attempt to stop this as soon as possible. The real message of this document is clear: we can’t permit justice to prevail if it will hurt bank profits and balance sheets.

Let’s parse key sections of the document. Predictably, it chooses to divert attention away from the real issue, that of the greed and errors made by securitization industry participants, and the huge costs already imposed on innocent bystanders by the financial crisis.

Start with the first page:

While consumer advocates are hailing the decision as a victory for borrowers, homeowners are more likely to suffer the downsides—not the benefits—from the Massachusetts ruling. This case is certain to set off a massive wave of litigation by borrowers and lawyers eager to challenge a pending foreclosure. This in turn will create tremendous uncertainty in the still-wobbly housing market: Will homebuyers who bought a home out of foreclosure worry that their purchase will be invalidated? Will prospective homebuyers get too nervous to come off the sidelines, thereby driving up inventory and driving down home values? Will some homeowners be encouraged to “strategically default” in the hopes of winning a “free house” from technically faulty paperwork?

This is scare-mongering, pure and simple. It isn’t credible that a decision in one state with some idiosyncrasies in its real estate law will trigger a “massive wave of litigation”, particularly since anti-foreclosure lawyers often have trouble getting paid. Broke clients do not make for a great target market.

As to the “tremendous uncertainty” claim, where exactly has Third Way been? If they are only waking up now to the magnitude of the foreclosure mess, that alone disqualifies them from being competent to opine on this topic (note that this seems to reflect the advanced state of denial we’ve seen among securitization industry types; the result has been that parties further removed have been slow to wake up to the seriousness of this problem, despite ample evidence in local courts all over the US).

The homebuyer worry about foreclosure sales being invalidated argument is spurious; as we’ve remarked before, foreclosure sales are final. I can’t recall an instance of a public policy measure being implemented to pander to the neuroses of uninformed consumers.

Possible REO buyers sitting on the sidelines? That’s already true, and it’s due to doubts over validity of title thanks to MERS, not Mass., as well as the concern that housing has not bottomed in many markets. Since Third Way appears remarkably uninformed about housing market conditions outside the Beltway, namely, that there’s a huge inventory of homes yet to be foreclosed upon, largely due to servicers keeping borrowers in homes. That’s partly the result of a fee-maximizing “sweatbox” strategy, partly to save the costs of property maintenance and real estate taxes since they already have more real estate than they can unload in many local markets, and partly due court backlogs.

Third Way manages to accomplish the neat rhetorical trick of linking the urban-legend of “strategic defaults” (see Mike Konczal for details) with the jealousy-inciting “get a free house” meme.

Let’s get this straight: not a single lawyer I’ve come across want his client to get a free house. They fight foreclosures to get a mod. So when you see banks losing these cases, it’s because everyone involved on the servicer side has incentives to foreclose, not to modify loans.

In addition, vIrtually no decision, including Ibanez, have been “with prejudice”. That means the banks can foreclose if they get their act in gear. But the dirty secret is that the party that probably can foreclose is not the securitization trust, but an entity earlier in the securitization chain. Having someone other than the trust foreclose is a disaster for the securitization industry. There is no way to get the sale proceeds into the trust. The end result of having someone other than the securitization trust foreclose is to expose, as Georgetown Law professor has put it, that some if not most RMBS might actually be “non-mortgage-backed securities.”

We’ll largely skip over a heated and heavily spun section on the paper trail; it of course focuses on robosigning and overlooks numerous other abuses such as failure to convey notes properly and all too common document fabrications. However, we must note it too often gets the background and law wrong, again raising questions of basic competence. For instance:

Under the UCC, physical possession of the note and the mortgage are not required to enforce the loan.

This is embarrassing. The UCC is not relevant to this issue. As we have argued, the UCC (Article 1) specifically allows parties to contract out of the UCC and enter into more restrictive arrangements, which means the terms of the pooling and servicing agreement govern. But the UCC has nothing to do with the legal requirements for foreclosure; that’s governed by state-based real estate law, not the UCC. And in lien theory states, it means that the party foreclosing can be any of 1) “holder” of the note (meaning have possession AND be the proper party (or an agent of the proper party), 2) produce a lost note affidavit, 3) be subrogated to a holder or 4) be a purchaser from a holder who doesn’t yet have the note. Effectively, the foreclosing party either has to have the note or prove that it bought it from someone who actually has the note. That generally means you’ve got to produce the note.

The next section, on remedies, again contains distortions. For instance:

….if a foreclosure proceeding is otherwise justified (i.e. the borrower isn’t paying the loan), documentary failures don’t nullify a lender’s underlying right to a remedy.

Calling these “documentary failures” greatly understates the magnitude of the bank recklessness. A note is a negotiable instrument, like a check. Losing track of notes, each worth on average hundreds of thousands of dollars, is so deficient that that alone ought to justify all the major banks being seized and put through operational audits.

And despite this level of incompetence (or malfeasance), the banks have not been denied the ability to foreclose. Unless banks make repeated misrepresentations to the judge, the cases are dismissed without prejudice. The plaintiffs are free to come back and try again once they sort matters out. But they seldom bother. And again, it’s often because if they do find the note, it’s likely to be outside the trust, which as discussed above, creates a heap of other problems.

Next, in typical think tank style, the paper summarizes goals, then later offers remedies organized around those points; we’ll address both shortly.

The first goal is “Protecting injured homeowners“.

The discussion in the summary takes the view that the only “injured” homeowners that get any consideration are those “genuinely damaged by paperwork failures”. Thus the only problems that are addressed are screw-ups in the mod/short sale process and wrongful foreclosures. We see nary a mention of origination fraud or servicing abuses and errors. Yet foreclosure defense attorneys have said in 50% to 70% of the cases they represent, the borrower got in serious arrears as a result of servicing errors and compounding fees; a single late or misapplied payment can quickly compound into a multi thousand dollar deficiency before the borrower even finds out something is amiss.

Now let’s turn to the summary of section 2, “Keeping the housing market moving“:

The Massachusetts decision shouldn’t justify the creation of a cottage legal

industry aimed at stalling inevitable foreclosures. Creating a limited safe harbor from

paperwork-related litigation for pending foreclosures on abandoned or severely

delinquent properties would provide more certainty to the housing market and help

triage potentially successful modifications from inevitable foreclosures. In addition, a

one-year statute of limitations on paperwork-related lawsuits would ensure litigation

doesn’t drag on for years.

This is a doozy. “Cottage legal industry”? This is a more sophisticated, drive by version of the tactic used in a widely deplored first page Wall Street Journalstory which demonized foreclosure defense lawyers for being competent at court procedure.

Is there any other instance where an entire set of parties to a broad class of contract have gotten a free waiver for their own enormous, costly, and purely elective errors? The normal arrangement is that to obtain a waiver or a change in contract terms that has economic value, consideration must be paid. Remember the JP Morgan purchase of Bear: the reason the price went from $2 per share to $10 was that JPM had made a drafting error that left it exposed to more risk than it had bargained for and it needed to reopen the deal.

But I see no proposal here to have borrowers receive compensation from servicers and trustees for having their rights compromised. Aha, that’s the reason for all the expatiating about the Ibanez decision being bad for borrowers. They should give a major concession for free because it’s really good for them! Stockholm syndrome in action!

If the Third Way types were truly concerned about protecting homeowners rather than banks, they’d at the very least give homeowners something in return for the rights they are being asked to sacrifice, such as allowing courts to write down mortgages to current market value in bankruptcy (a well established practice for virtually every other type of secured lending).

Per the Third Way logic, the new reality of contracts is not the libertarian model of an agreement between equals, but of raw might makes right. A contract is treated as an ironclad, rigid arrangement if you are a small guy, but compliance is optional if you are powerful and well connected. Rubinites clearly benefit from promoting this world view.

And standing is NOT a matter of “paperwork”. This is a bedrock legal principle. Abandon the concept of legal standing, which is what this document calls for, and anyone can show up in court and say he has a right to your house once the statute of limitations has expired. Given that the initial foreclosure notice often lead to payment catch-up plans, combined with servicer incentives to keep borrowers in a delinquency “sweat box”, it isn’t hard to see servicers gaming a one-year statute of limitations (look how good a job they did of gaming the far more complicated HAMP).

In the detailed remedies section later in the document, Third Way picks up on a Shiela Bair proposal, that of a safe harbor against lawsuits if the house is vacant or the servicer has offered a deep payment mod, at least 25%. The vacancy provision looks like a red herring. How many cases are there where the house has been vacated, yet the borrower is suing? The only one I know of is not one that does not hew to the proposal’s assumptions about the motives of borrowers who do vacate property yet sue to get it back. The borrower left because she had previously been wrongly evicted from a rental, and everything in her apartment was dumped on the curb. By the time she got home from work, all her possessions, including her baby’s crib, had been stolen or hopelessly damaged. Economically and emotionally she could not afford to go through that again and moved out when the foreclosure became final (her attorney later filed a wrongful foreclosure suit).

More broadly, this element of the proposal appears unnecessary, and may give banks too much latitude in defining what is subject to this safe harbor.

As for Bair’s proposal for payment mods, the problem is that research shows again and again that what is called for is deep principal mods. Why should a borrower work to keep a deeply negative equity home only to face a shortfall upon sale?

Note that these provisions would also presumably have the effect of sheltering servicers and trustees from litigation, when the trustees made multiple certifications that they had all the loans and everything was in order. Remember, if the trustees had done what they repeatedly said in writing, in SEC filings, that they had done, none of this would be an issue.

Thus the Third Way plan also destroys contractual agreements without approval of the parties. Investors were entitled to get collateral with good title and, in the absence of that, to put back defective collateral to the seller. This would undo such contractual provisions for the sole benefit of one side, those on the originating/servicing end of the deal.

The next section, “Preventing future failures“, is motherhood and apple pie. The work is fobbed off to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which in turn has to get approval from the members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Effectively, all the document calls for is for the CFPB to make sure banks live up to their contractual commitments. What a concept!

An ironic aspect of this proposal is that it is depicted as a way to reduce uncertainty. In fact, any Congressional intervention into well-settled state based real estate law is very likely to generate Constitutional challenges, particularly since Federal bank regulators have acknowledged that state law still applies to securitization assets. That in turn will increase, not reduce, uncertainty, and put the real estate market in an greater pall than it is now.

Finally, yet more “appease the banks” is a politically fraught strategy. The Administration seems unable to learn the real lesson of the midterm elections and is redoubling its efforts to pursue a failed course of action. Bank-friendly Blue Dog Democrats lost, progressives for the most part stayed in place, and Tea Partiers became a Congressional force for the first time. The unifying element is that this was a “vote out the corporatist incumbents” move above all else.

Establishment Republicans would also be wise to give this proposal a wide berth. If you want to recruit for the Tea Party, you could hardly find a better tool that to have the Federal government interfere with local courts on a matter as important to most Americans as their homes.

Proponents of the rule of law were cheered last week by the Massachusetts Supreme Court's decision that banks had to prove they held a mortgage to foreclose on it, one of the niceties that has seemed to have gone by the wayside in the housing crisis.

Never fear, banksters, the Third Way has jumped in with a proposal [pdf] in response to the US Bank v. Ibanez decision in Massachusetts. Yves Smith takes a comprehensive look at the proposal.

Their proposal, not surprisingly, is yet another bailout.

The big difference between the original and the new, improved version of the bailout model is that the payouts to the banks were at least in part visible the first time around. This is an effort yet again to spare the banks any pain, not only at the cost of the rule of law but also of investor rights.

This proposal guts state control of their own real estate law when the Supreme Court has repeatedly found that "dirt law" is not a Federal matter. It strips homeowners of their right to their day in court to preserve their contractual rights, namely, that only the proven mortgagee, and not a gangster, or in this case, bankster, can take possession of their home.

This sort of protection is fundamental to the operation of capitalism, so it’s astonishing to see neoliberals so willing to throw it under the bus to preserve the balance sheets of the TBTF banks. Readers may recall how we came to have this sort of legal protection in the first place. England learned the hard way in the 17th century what happens with low documentation requirements: abuse of court procedures, perjury and corruption become the norm. Parliament enacted the 1677 Statute of Fraudsto establish higher standards for contracts, such as witnessing by a third party, to stop the widespread theft of property that was underway.

The memo completely ignores the harm to investors from the bank mistakes and lacks any provisions for damage to investors to be remedied. Moreover, denying borrower rights removes their leverage to obtain deep principal mortgage modifications, which for viable borrowers produces lower losses than costly foreclosures and sales of distressed property. Thus this shredding of contractual protections in mortgages not only hurts borrowers but also harms investors.

So to save the banks from their own, colossal abuses of contracts that they devised, the Third Way document advocates Congressional intervention into well established, well functioning state law. This is a case where these matters can and should be left to the courts and ultimately state AGs to coordinate the template of a more broadbased solution.

But this proposal is this memo is a direct result of the banks losing in court and the fear that they will continue to lose. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Ibanez decision is clearly the trigger for the release of this plan. The SJC said its decision was merely articulating well established law. Consistent application of these principles will mean more losses for the banks. This memo is clearly an attempt to stop this as soon as possible. The real message of this document is clear: we can’t permit justice to prevail if it will hurt bank profits and balance sheets.

Why worry about what a bunch of wankers at Third Way propose? Because those wankers have emerged, particularly now with Third Way board of trustees member Bill Daley on his way to the White House (once he sells his $7.6 million worth of JP Morgan Chase stock). Yves writes, "These people sit at the nexus of politics and finance, and are conduits for big bank friendly information flow into the administration and Congress." When it comes to economic policy, they are frighteningly influential.

And as Marcy convincingly argues, they think there should not be any consequences for the banksters who have been illegally seizing people's homes. For the Third Way, the rule of law just doesn't apply to everybody.

Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

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Friday, January 14, 2011

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Thursday, January 13, 2011

personal finance and budgeting

Sean Park is so excited about Betterment that he bought a stake in the company:

Betterment allows anyone to quickly, easily and without mystery manage asset allocation and risk budgeting using a simple, multi-asset class portfolio. No hassle, no time wasted, no blizzard of trade confirmations. The first time I saw it, I immediately wanted to be able to manage all my cash balances using their platform.

Except Sean Park is a sophisticated venture capitalist, and Betterment doesn’t manage cash balances. Instead, it manages investments. Basically, it provides an easy way of sweeping money out of your checking account and into your Betterment account, where it’s then invested across eight different ETFs. Betterment does most of the asset allocation; you just tell the company how much you want invested in Treasuries and how much in stocks, and they will do the rest.

This is a handy little service — but the amount that Betterment charges — 0.9% per year — is way too much, especially since it comes on top of the expense ratios of the underlying ETFs, which net out at 18.2bp for stocks and 17.5bp for bonds. In these days of ultra-low interest rates, buying a bond fund and then paying out 107.5bp per year in expenses is likely to leave you with a negative real return, and quite possibly could leave you with a negative nominal return as well. Or, to put it another way, right now it makes very little sense to have Betterment manage your bond funds and charge you a 90bp fee for the privilege: you might well be better off just keeping your money in a savings account, where there’s no risk of a nominal decline.

The idea behind Betterment — that investing should be very easy and simple at the front end, even if there’s lots of complicated stuff going on at the back end — is a good one. And I look forward to the time when banks offer Betterment-style services to their depositors, making it easy and painless to save money. I’m sure those banks could learn a lot from what Betterment is doing, and even maybe license some of their technology. But it only really becomes attractive when it’s free. And when, at the very least, it gives some kind of an option to invest internationally and in credit — two enormous asset classes that Betterment completely ignores. I’m pretty sure that Sean Park, for one, would never find it genuinely attractive in its current incarnation.

Update: Betterment’s CEO, Jon Stein, responds in the comments, and he sure knows the way to a blogger’s heart — by referencing an old blog entry which even I’d forgotten about:

I agree with you that we should offer our customers exposure to international stocks. Our users are all US-based, and so are naturally overweight US. We plan to add international exposure soon, and perhaps a real-estate component or credit component, as well. All of these asset classes are components of the “market portfolio” – and would be represented in the “everything bagel” that you talked about in a previous post. It’s that everything bagel that we’re working toward – it takes time to make it just right.

The theory is simple: "If you don't have the money, don't charge it. Try to leave your credit card at home and only use it to pay bills," advises April Lewis, director of education for Consolidated Credit Counseling Services. Then immediately pay off your credit-card balance. As for old credit-card debt, sit down and commit to paper a plan for paying them off. Go for a quick hit, like paying off the smallest balance first, or decide to take on the highest rate card first. Get the job done.

Here's a second tip: Be proactive about managing your credit. Call up your lender and ask it to lower your interest rate. Usually, lenders will lower callers' rates by 2% to 3%, says Scott Gamm, founder of HelpSaveMyDollars.com. Also check your credit report. You can check your credit for free at annualcreditreport.com, for example. If you see mistakes, contact the credit agencies and get those mistakes corrected. If errors are dragging down your score, eliminating them can boost it to where it belongs and make you eligible for better rates.

2. Think automation

Free online banking tools can make it easier to manage your finances with less work. To help grow your savings, for example, you can schedule regular transfers from your checking account. Manisha Thakor, author of Get Financially Naked: How to Talk Money With Your Honey, suggests setting up the transfer of a set amount of money into your savings account every pay day.

Also automate recurring bill payments so you never miss a due date or pay a late fee, which sends money down the drain. Even without late fees, timely payments are key: 35% of your credit score is based on your ability to make payments on time. If you sign up for automatic payments, however, make sure to check your monthly bills for errors. One other caveat: "Make sure you have enough cushion in your checking account to avoid any overdrafts" before setting up auto-payments, money coach Lora Sasiela says.
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Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

... McMurry, Schreiner, Sul Ross , Texas Lutheran, and HSU. The winner of the East Division is LeTourneau University of Longview, Texas. For more information, go to: http://www.ascsports.org/news/2010/12/16/GEN_1216105636.aspx ...

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

The first impressions in light of President Obama's speech at tonight's memorial for the victims of the Arizona shooting, and, at least on Fox News, the reviews are overwhelming positive. Charles Krauthammer, Chris Wallace, ...

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Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Small Business News: Twitter Tycoons

With just 140 characters, Twitter has changed what it means to communicate. And, in case you haven't noticed, the way we do business too. If you aren't using.

News Story Details

Tucson Memorial - Fox News Panel - Video | Mediaite

Monday, January 10, 2011

Help Making Money

Grab your popcorn and Twizzlers, because 2011 is already shaping up to be an exciting year to watch startups and giants do battle for market share and big ideas. If you’re not sure which companies to look out for in the coming year, our writers and editors have submitted their expert picks below.

What do you think? Did we miss any promising tech companies (new or established) that you see making a big splash in 2011? We want — nay, demand — your forecasts in the comments below.

1. Minimal, Inc.

This Chicago-based design firm finished off 2010 by completing the most successful funding campaign in Kickstarter history. Its TikTok+LunaTik iPod Nano watch conversion kits raised more than $940,000 from more than 13,500 backers and garnered the kind of attention that should help launch this company to new heights in 2011. The gadget accessories market has a new player.

~ Josh Catone, Features Editor

2. StumbleUpon

OK, so StumbleUpon has been around since 2001, so it’s not new to the scene. But with Digg’s fall this year and StumbleUpon’s planned release of premium features and publisher pages early this year, it has the potential to scale and be exposed to more users. And considering it’s a big source of traffic for many news sites, it may start investing its time into figuring out how to leverage the site further and connect with its community on the site.

~ Vadim Lavrusik, Community Manager

3. Amimon, Inc.

This Israeli company has perfected its wireless HDTV system over the past years. Imagine plugging a tiny USB device into a laptop, and then displaying its output in full 1080p HD resolution on a monitor 100 feet away, with no lag. Amimon has already introduced one of its own products, but the big deal is the presence of its superior wireless HD standard (known as WHDI, or Wireless Home Digital Interface) chips built inside numerous other products, such as laptops, projectors, TVs and set-top boxes.

~ Charlie White, Senior Editor

4. Bloom Energy

If there is any company poised to revolutionize the energy market, it’s Bloom Energy. The Bloom Energy Server (a.k.a. the “Bloom Box”) changes inputs like natural gas or oil into clean, reusable energy. It’s actually a dynamic fuel cell that creates energy through a chemical reaction. The company has raised more than $400 million to date and is testing its technology with Google, eBay, Wal-Mart and others.

~ Ben Parr, Co-Editor

5. Skype

Its recent outage notwithstanding, Skype has been on an impressive run since its breakup with eBay. Usage is at record levels, and features like group video chat and deep Facebook integration have reminded us that Skype is a top tier consumer and business web company. In 2011, the company is likely to go public, and with it, face a whole new level of scrutiny and expectations. Google will also continue to gun at Skype with enhancements to Google Voice (free U.S. calling for Gmail users through 2011 is an obvious sign of that), making the company all the more intriguing to watch.

~ Adam Ostrow, Editor-in-Chief

6. Tumblr

With $30 million in funding in its coffer and increasing content curation (not to mention 14 book deals born from its blogs), Tumblr could be shaping up into a much more organized — and ad-worthy — hub for entertainment. We’re interested to see if the company spends that money wisely — and how.

~ Brenna Ehrlich, News Editor

7. Clicker

The connected device ecosystem is still evolving, in large part because of the battle over control between content publishers, device makers and consumers. Clicker is managing to avoid the battle itself and is instead focusing on making it easy for users to find content, irrespective of what service that content might use. The company recently branched into recommendations and has mobile apps, supports Google TV and the Boxee Box and has a killer web app.

~ Christina Warren, Mobile & Apple Reporter

8. inDinero

As we get ready for John Boehner to take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, I find myself thinking back to the last time a Republican speaker took control of the House from a Democrat -- and reflecting on how far down the wrong road we have traveled since then.

It was January 1995, and Newt Gingrich, now considered a right-wing bomb thrower, was taking the gavel from Tom Foley. After taking the oath of office, he delivered a speech that praised FDR as "the greatest president of the 20th century" and presented concern for the least among us as a shared national objective. "The balanced budget is the right thing to do," he said. "But it does not in my mind have the moral urgency of coming to grips with what is happening to the poorest Americans."

For the incoming Republican speaker, reducing poverty and lifting the poor into the middle class was a moral imperative beyond the left vs. right battlefield -- not just the purview of lefties, socialists, and community organizers:

I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.

So now, with poverty higher than it was 16 years ago, with greater income inequality, and with the middle class struggling to hold on, what will Speaker Boehner make his number one priority? According to the Washington Post, it's "cutting spending," followed by repealing the healthcare law, and "helping get our economy moving" (no specifics on how he plans to do that).

Yet we saw on 60 Minutes that he's very aware of how fragile the American Dream has become, telling Lesley Stahl, "I can't go to a school anymore. I used to go to a lot of schools. And you see all these little kids running around. Can't talk about it." And he choked up when he did try to talk about "making sure these kids have a shot at the American Dream, like I did. It's important."

Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.

"I have seldom been more shaken," he said, "than I was after the election when I had breakfast with two members of the Black Caucus. One of them said to me, 'Can you imagine what it is like to visit a first-grade class and realize that every fourth or fifth young boy in that class may be dead or in jail within 15 years? And they are your constituents and you are helpless to change it?' For some reason, I do not know why, maybe because I visit a lot of schools, that got through. I mean, that personalized it. That made it real, not just statistics, but real people."

But the trajectory of our political discourse over the last decade and a half has meant that taking on poverty has gone from a moral imperative and shared national objective to an afterthought -- or no thought at all.

The question is, is there anything that can be done to help Boehner make the connection between the policies he supports and the effect those policies have on the kids who bring him to tears?

Newt Gingrich failed to follow through on the moral imperative he identified in his first speech as speaker, trading in his moral vision and replacing it 15 months later with an announcement that the Republican agenda could be reduced to six words: "Earn more, keep more, do more."

Will Boehner's take be "Earn more, keep more, cut more"? Or is there a chance he will surprise us? Maybe it's because it's close enough to Christmas that I still believe in miracles, but wouldn't it be great if the John Boehner who takes the gavel on Wednesday is the one who weeps at the thought of kids denied a shot at the American Dream?

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