one city s controversial plan to take over the under the water mortgages in richmond, california. the city voted to use imminent domain to buy mortgages from struggling homeowners to prevent foreclosures. there are fores of ripple affects. melissa francis is the host, and how does this work? it is a disaster. i talked to former folks in the congressional budget from fannie mae and freddie mac. they upon seize mortgages from banks for homes that are under water. and using imminent domain for the social good. we are going to take the mortgages from the banks at a deep discount and then they will immediately profit by reselling the mortgages to mortgage resolution partners.
able to sit down with president obama to talk about the budget impasse. so his emergence as a deal maker for this early second term for president obama has been a very interesting story to watch. all right. mark murray, thanks so much for that. we appreciate your time. thanks. right now stocks barely holding on to modest gains after fed chairman ben bernanke s mid-year economic report to congress. the fed chairman appeared before the house financial services is committee today to report the employment and housing picture is improving. rising housing construction and home sales are adding to job growth and substantial increases in home prices are bolstering household finances and consumer spending while reducing the number of homeowners with under water mortgages. despite these gains, the job situation is far from satisfactory, as the unemployment rate remains well above its normal level and rates of unemployment are still much too high. joining me now here in our studio, reut
pakistani prison. he has been denied access to his family and legal team. his court date was pushed back to june. family members fear a treaty is running out of hope he will be freed. renting inseed of honing a home is supposed to be affordable but not any more. that s because across the country renters are shelling out big big bucks these days. what s up? what s going on? 1 in four renters with jobs devour half of their paycheck in 2011 according to the latest reports. much of that strain from the housing crisis as homeowners fled the under water mortgages and flooded the rental market. it drove demand up and supply down. meanwhile a smaller 1 in 5 working homeowners are experiencing severe housing affordability. that s kind of reason behind the severe increase.
he was bailed out almost immediately. they continued an investigation. what police discovered was disturbing. you mentioned the suicide of his son, his 14-year-old son which occurred back in march and followed some relatively minor disciplinary action at the school. following that suicide police say it really set off the father and changed things. they discovered these e-mails that he sent to himself an his wife that describes some very, very disturbing plots at the high school. he appeared to be very serious about all this. he was clearly starting fires and working on burning the school down. that was the beginning of his threat. he said he was going to, in his e-mails to his wife, he indicated he wanted to acquire some firearms and go to the school and just do a great deal of violence at the school including sexual assaults and random violents against the kids. he s being held without bail. we have reached out to his attorney. he has not returned our calls. i want to po
responsible homeowners refinance their mortgages. i want to give every home owner a chance to save $3,000 a year, take advantage of historically low rates. that s an example of the difference in this election. an msnbc contributor and former chief economic adviser to vice president biden. good to see you. in the first quarter of this year, you were telling us over 700,000 homes with mortgages under water are now above water due to price appreciation. the question has to be asked when you re sitting from the president s seat here, would that have been possible had foreclosures been allowed to bottom out as mitt romney has been recommending. and if you were to take that tack now you still have lots of underwater mortgages, you d be very unlikely to see more of that. it s a very impressive statistic, 700,000 formerly under water mortgages broke the surface. that is their homes are now