| Genuine help eludes homeowners facing foreclosure
The rallying cry to help stem the foreclosure fallout from subprime and other bad loans is getting louder.
Last week, three of the country's biggest banks - Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America - announced plans for an investment vehicle that could help prevent problems in mortgage-backed securities from hurting other parts of the credit and stock markets.
Because of losses from bad loans, the credit markets have already tightened, making it tougher for some people to get mortgages or refinance. .
Lenders' pitches aiming higher
Despite the mortgage meltdown, the blizzard of advertising for home loans continues.
With the subprime market in tatters in the wake of record defaults and foreclosures, fewer pitches scream "Bad credit? No problem!" Instead, lenders struggling to remain profitable are targeting people who have good credit and plenty of home equity.
With fewer homes being sold -- and, therefore, fewer loans taken out to finance purchases -- mortgage firms that have survived the subprime shakeout are focusing their marketing on persuading homeowners to refinance.
.
Murder, pure and simple
The few that survive female foeticide and infanticide may very well fall a victim to honour killings as 24-year-old Rajbir Kaur of Amritsar did the other day. Her fault? She wanted to marry a boy of her choice who happened to be from a lower caste. Come to think of it, her father is a Sikh, ostensibly a committed follower of the Great Gurus who ordained a casteless society. Spectre of Pak nukes
A worried world looks for an answer
PAKISTANS nuclear arsenal, comprising about 40 warheads, has been a subject of intense discussion for some time. The world community began to feel uneasy about the security of these weapons of mass destruction after the terrorist and extremist threat to Pakistans political stability assumed alarming proportions with the suicide bombings last year.
|
