Inflation: TILA-based Foreclosure Defense Key to Staunching the Bloodflow

Despite all efforts to conceal the pernicious effects of inflation and the rising tide of credit warning signals, it is now crystal clear that the underlying inflation rate in the United States is over 15% while the dollar declines in value at about the same rate. This double whammy is showing up in our pocketbooks, the gas pumps, the grocery stores and other retail stores. Americans are no loner the consumer of last resort for the world because they are out of money and out of credit. 

The cause was triggered by the Mortgage Meltdown. But the ripple effects are far more reaching than the housing sector. $500 trillion in derivatives have been planted in the marketplace and many of them are at risk. Even the ones that are not at conventional risk are still at risk because of currency exchange values. The articles written about turning the corner are way too premature.

With a fairly good-looking bill to help the housing sector meandering its way through congress, and the likelihood that the stuff will hit the fan before anything meaningful is done out of Washington, it is up to individuals to find their own ways to game the system, stop the foreclosures, sales and evictions and pivot back on the lenders, mortgage brokers, appraisers, investment bankers et al to get the money that was promised to them through fraudulent closings using hyper-inflated “market” values. 

The existing laws on the books are enough to help you if you use them. Start with the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and get a TILA audit from people who know what they are doing. TILA is very heavily weighted in favor of consumers and borrowers. It just has not been used much until now. It can be used with mortgage loans, student loans, credit cards and all kinds of other debt, secured and unsecured. One little mistake by the lender either in assessing your ability to pay or in the disclosures made to you entitles you to relief beyond your imagination. It’s already there — USE IT!

And your efforts, combined with millions of other people (like the 9 million who now have negative equity in their homes) will force both government and the financial sector to come to the table, hat in hand, pleading for mercy. But you have to be resolute and willing to go after them. And you have to change your perception of them as the the big guys who cannot be defeated. They can be and in fact they already are defeated. All you have to do is pick up the pieces, which means reducing the mortgage on your home, getting refunds of all the interest you paid, getting refunds on the closing points and closing costs, etc. It means receiving payment for damages caused by the fraud and quite possibly a recovery or partial recovery of the expenses you pay to lawyers and experts to get you there. 

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Wholesale prices rose a smaller-than-expected 0.2% in April after seasonable adjustments, with food prices flat and energy prices falling, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The producer price index has risen 6.5% in the past year, the government said.

The core PPI – which excludes food and energy prices – rose 0.4% in April, more than expected. Core prices are up 3% in the past year, the biggest year-over-year rise since late 1991.

The PPI had risen 1.1% in March. Read the full report.

Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected a 0.4% rise in the headline PPI and a 0.2% gain in the core rate.See Economic Calendar.

The PPI figures are likely to have a muted effect on markets, because they came in after the consumer price index was released last week. And, to be blunt, markets don’t seem to trust the government’s inflation figures that show falling energy prices in a world of record crude oil prices.

The government’s data are seasonally adjusted to hide the impact of normal seasonal variations to focus on fundamental changes in prices that are not driven by the ebbs and flows of the seasons. Because energy prices typically rise more in April than they did this year, the seasonally adjusted figures showed a 0.2% decline. In unadjusted terms, energy prices rose 2.9%.

Wholesale gasoline prices fell 4.6% in seasonally adjusted terms, but rose 3.2% in unadjusted terms.

The opposite case was seen in food prices. In seasonally adjusted terms, food prices were flat. But in unadjusted terms, prices fell 0.3%.

Over the course of a year, the seasonal issues balance out.

In April, core prices at the finished level were pushed higher by a 1.3% increase in wholesale light truck prices and a 0.4% increase in wholesale car prices. Commercial furniture prices rose 1.8%, the most in 27 years. Drug prices rose 0.7%. Alcohol prices rose 1%. Capital goods prices rose 0.4%.

Higher seasonally adjusted prices were seen further back in the production pipeline as well.

Prices of intermediate goods destined for further processing rose 0.9%, led by energy goods, chemicals and steel. Intermediate food prices fell 0.6%, including the biggest drop in flour prices in 33 years.

The core intermediate PPI — a key leading indicator of inflation — rose 1.2% in April and is up 5.8% in the past year, the biggest rise in nearly two years.

Prices of crude materials rose 3.2%, including a 4.1% rise in crude energy goods. Crude petroleum prices rose 4.5% and natural gas prices rose 4.3%. The core crude PPI rose 7.9%, behind a 32% rise in iron and steel scrap prices.

Crude food prices fell 0.9%, including a record 23% drop in wheat prices. 

Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch

Tags: borrowers, credit, damages, derivatives, housing, inflation, lenders, mortgage meltdown, refunds, TILA
Posted in bubble, Corruption, Eviction, securities fraud |