I believe this is former Special Inspector General of TARP Neil Barofsky’s 206th media appearance in support of Bailout.
He has tirelessly criss-crossed the media landscape to tell the story
of his time in Washington and offer a warning about a government
captured by Wall Street. So instead of yet another review, let me tell a
personal story that I think will yield some insight on the human toll
of that government capture.
This is the first, and possibly the only, book about Washington where I can do the “Washington read,” aka flipping to the index and look for my name to find out what was said about me. Indeed, right below Andrew Cuomo, there I am, “Dayen, David 154-6.”
Let me tell you how that came about. Neil contacted me and asked if he could use an example from my Portrait of HAMP Failure series to illustrate the real-world consequences of the program, which all too often turned the loan modification process into a nightmare for homeowners. I gave him a number of suggestions, and he selected the story of Jeremy Fletcher, a Southern California swimming pool installer who bought a new home at the height of the bubble, right before the housing market crashed – and the market for installing pools along with it. Fletcher’s HAMP odyssey included a yearlong fight with Citi Mortgage, and just when he maneuvered to the point of getting a permanent modification, his loan was sold off to Saxon Mortgage, who then refused to honor any of his previous agreements. “It seemed like we had cornered Citi, got them to the point where they had to modify, and they just up and sold the loan,” Fletcher told me at the time.
Neil found this to be the perfect story for the book, and he agreed to use it. A few months before publication, he called me and asked me for contact information for Fletcher, to check for any developments in the story. I not only provided Neil with his email address and phone number, I tried to contact him myself. I had talked with Fletcher in the past with updates on his status (basically, he was in the same fight with Saxon Mortgage), and was curious about the current state of affairs.
And the truth is that Jeremy Fletcher could not be found. His email address was tied to his pool business, and it’s unclear whether that remains in operation. The phone number just went to voicemail. I never got back in touch with Jeremy Fletcher.
Read more: http://fdlbooksalon.com/2012/09/22/fdl-book-salon-welcomes-neil-barofsky/
This is the first, and possibly the only, book about Washington where I can do the “Washington read,” aka flipping to the index and look for my name to find out what was said about me. Indeed, right below Andrew Cuomo, there I am, “Dayen, David 154-6.”
Let me tell you how that came about. Neil contacted me and asked if he could use an example from my Portrait of HAMP Failure series to illustrate the real-world consequences of the program, which all too often turned the loan modification process into a nightmare for homeowners. I gave him a number of suggestions, and he selected the story of Jeremy Fletcher, a Southern California swimming pool installer who bought a new home at the height of the bubble, right before the housing market crashed – and the market for installing pools along with it. Fletcher’s HAMP odyssey included a yearlong fight with Citi Mortgage, and just when he maneuvered to the point of getting a permanent modification, his loan was sold off to Saxon Mortgage, who then refused to honor any of his previous agreements. “It seemed like we had cornered Citi, got them to the point where they had to modify, and they just up and sold the loan,” Fletcher told me at the time.
Neil found this to be the perfect story for the book, and he agreed to use it. A few months before publication, he called me and asked me for contact information for Fletcher, to check for any developments in the story. I not only provided Neil with his email address and phone number, I tried to contact him myself. I had talked with Fletcher in the past with updates on his status (basically, he was in the same fight with Saxon Mortgage), and was curious about the current state of affairs.
And the truth is that Jeremy Fletcher could not be found. His email address was tied to his pool business, and it’s unclear whether that remains in operation. The phone number just went to voicemail. I never got back in touch with Jeremy Fletcher.
Read more: http://fdlbooksalon.com/2012/09/22/fdl-book-salon-welcomes-neil-barofsky/
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