Peter A Diamond, who just won the Nobel Prize for Economics has been called unqualified to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Diamond was an Obama nominee, and there are those who feel his winning of the Nobel constitutes a bit of politicizing by the Nobel Committee. It’s hard to say, the criteria for winning is never discussed. Diamond is considered an expert on taxation, social security, pensions, Medicare, labor markets and behavioral economics. Ben Bernanke was one of his students. Republican senator Richard Shelby of Alabama is his primary opponent. www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/Nobel_Prize_ Earlier this year, Shelby held up the nominations of 70 prospective appointees trying to convince the Obama administration to award a $35 billion defense contract to his state. Rarely at a loss for words, I find I don’t even know what to say about that.
By Myron Gushlak
Monday, October 18, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Mediation
Mortgage mediation sounds like such a good idea, particularly in a state like Nevada where one out of every 84 households in the state received a foreclosure notice in August, four and a half times the national average. www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/business/19gret.html
The mortgage mediation bill passed in Nevada is forward thinking and more effective than the Federal government’s home mortgage modification program. The trouble is, after a promising beginning, it doesn’t really work. Lenders are coming to mediation hearings without the necessary documentation or without fulfilling other requirements spelled out in the program. It is their version of simply saying, “No! We don’t want to.” Lawyers who protest the banker’s ability to bargain in good faith find themselves outside of the process. In the words of New York columnist Don Marquis, “The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.”
By Myron Gushlak
The mortgage mediation bill passed in Nevada is forward thinking and more effective than the Federal government’s home mortgage modification program. The trouble is, after a promising beginning, it doesn’t really work. Lenders are coming to mediation hearings without the necessary documentation or without fulfilling other requirements spelled out in the program. It is their version of simply saying, “No! We don’t want to.” Lawyers who protest the banker’s ability to bargain in good faith find themselves outside of the process. In the words of New York columnist Don Marquis, “The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.”
By Myron Gushlak
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