Jesse White – 3/6/12

This page was last updated on March 8, 2012.

What The “Robo-Signing” Mortgage Settlement Means For PA; State Rep. Jesse White (D-46); Beaver Countian; March 6, 2012.

Mr. White lost the very small part of his district in Beaver County in both 2006 and 2010. According to Mr. White’s campaign website, at one time “He worked … in the Legal Department for the United Steelworkers of America in Pittsburgh.” Mr. White was convicted of defamation and invasion of privacy in April 2011.

Previous White pieces I critiqued are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Mr. White usually posts his comments on both the Beaver Countian website and his own, but when I posted this critique the article was only on the Beaver Countian website. I’ve also seen Mr. White’s pieces on Canon-MacMillan Patch.

Below are some comments about parts of the subject opinion piece.

Mr. White wrote, “A primary focus of the settlement included robo-signing, an illegal mortgage practice in which employees forged documents or signed document [sic] without having read them.” What Mr. White failed to note is this was mostly a process issue. That is, the foreclosures were justified (I’m sure there were exceptions.) but the offending lenders didn’t follow all the required steps to file the paperwork. That doesn’t excuse the actions but it provides a more accurate picture of what happened. Had the foreclosures been for people keeping up with their mortgage payments, there would have been a much bigger stink made about the problem.

Mr. White wants us to believe lenders are under some obligation to “provide their borrowers with the option to refinance their mortgages.” They are not unless it’s a provision of the specific mortgage.

Mr. White wrote, “Unfortunately, the settlement will not affect those whose loans are owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.” Mr. White failed to remind us Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are GOVERNMENT-sponsored enterprises and were at the center of the subprime mortgage mess.

Mr. White blustered, “Personally, I think we should lock up the executives of the mortgage companies who defrauded honest homeowners and throw away the key, but that’s just me.” I don’t know if Mr. White is referring to the robo-signing or the issuing of mortgages, but he’s wrong in either case. I discussed robo-signing above. If Mr. White is referring to the issuing of mortgages, what was the fraud? As I noted in a previous critique, the feds encouraged subprime mortgages and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were happy to buy them up from the originating lenders. (Subprime is a euphemism for mortgages issued with a higher risk of homeowner default.) Finally, no one forced anyone to take out a mortgage they knew they could not afford. Folks like Mr. White like to dump all the blame on the lenders while ignoring the role of the feds and the borrowers. Unfortunately there is more than enough blame to go around.