Outraged homeowners detail HOA fines, foreclosure threats to Austin lawmakers | Denton Record Chronicle | News for Denton County, Texas | Texas Southwest

Outraged homeowners detail HOA fines, foreclosure threats to Austin lawmakers | Denton Record Chronicle | News for Denton County, Texas | Texas Southwest: "A Houston couple may wind up having to pay more than $20,000 after a feud over a $50 ticket for having gray – instead of black – tape on exterior water lines, leaders of a property owners' rights group told the House Business and Industry Committee.

'That was clearly, if it's true, the most egregious thing we heard today,' said Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, the panel's vice chairman.

The issue of how much power homeowners associations should have so they can collect past-due assessments and enforce architectural uniformity has simmered in the Legislature since the 1990s, said Rep. Helen Giddings, D-Dallas.

Giddings said she was dismayed by recent stories in The Dallas Morning News about a Colleyville developer who, with his wife and business partner, used five neighborhood associations to dictate everything from how many day lilies to plant in a flower bed to the precise size of coach lamps at entrances.

'Some of these things are just downright, absolutely, totally ridiculous,' she said."
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Yes, they are. I like that: downright, absolutely, totally ridiculous.

IG Report: Obama Homeowner Bailout Program a Bust - HUMAN EVENTS

IG Report: Obama Homeowner Bailout Program a Bust - HUMAN EVENTS: "The $75 billion HAMP program was created with a promise to bailout 3 to 4 million homeowners in foreclosure, paying lenders to modify troubled mortgages. Foreclosures reached 2.8 million in 2009 and are on track to exceed that total with over 932,000 foreclosures filed in the first three months of 2010, the report found.

The inspector general found the program “has made very little progress in stemming this onslaught” in a year with only 230,000 loans permanently modified."
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Well, it's only...75 BILLION DOLLARS.

IMF Survey: Government Borrowing Is Rising Risk to World Financial System

IMF Survey: Government Borrowing Is Rising Risk to World Financial System: "But the biggest threats have moved from the private to the public sectors in advanced economies. Governments not only took on many of the bad assets from private institutions but due to the recession face continuing heavy borrowing needs for the next few years. Slow growth in the real economy and high unemployment will retard tax revenues and require higher government spending—such as on unemployment benefits and job creation activities."
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That's the way it looks to me.