• Debtor’s prison 2.0: Jail for delinquent homeowners?

    Updated: 2012-02-10 16:44:14
    Readers of Victorian novels know what debtor’s prison is–a scabrous place where distressed maidens, handsome heroes and pitiable children who owe as little as 60 cents are locked up until their debts are paid. The U.S. abolished federal imprisonment for unpaid debts in 1833, and today, most of us are pretty sure that we can’t [...]

  • “A Lawyer’s Advice for Evaluating Your Cyber Coverage”

    Updated: 2012-02-10 13:45:46
    I recently wrote an article titled, “A Lawyer’s Advice for Evaluating Your Cyber Coverage:  Policies vary significantly from carrier to carrier—and even within the various forms of one company.”  It has been published on the Property Casualty 360° website, republished from the February 6, 2012 issue of National Underwriter. In the article, I discuss insurance coverage for data breaches, cyber [...]

  • ‘Robo’ settlement finalized—does the government owe you cash?

    Updated: 2012-02-09 19:30:47
    After a year of back-and-forth negotiations, five of the nation’s largest banks have settled on a $26 billion deal with 49 states over alleged foreclosure abuses by the banks. According to Les Christie of CNNMoney, “In addition, nine other unnamed loan servicers may join the settlement later, and that would bring its value to $30 [...]

  • Record low mortgage rates roll on as ‘robo’ settlement nears

    Updated: 2012-02-08 17:17:26
    As of last Friday, HSH.com reported that mortgage rates had once again dipped back to new record lows. The streak has continued into this week. According to HSH.com’s latest Weekly Mortgage Rate Radar, rates on two of the most popular types of mortgages eased back even more, breaking new record low territory. The average rate for conforming [...]

  • Speaker Boehner is wrong: Don’t delay new housing plan

    Updated: 2012-02-07 21:50:11
    The White House is out with a new housing plan, but not everyone is thrilled. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) thinks the program is history, bad history. “We’ve done this at least four times where there’s a new government program to help homeowners who have trouble with their mortgages,” said Boehner. “None of these programs have worked,” he [...]

  • Michael P. Voelker quotes me in his Property Casualty 360 article, “After ‘Year of the Data Breach,’ Carriers Increase Capacity, Competition for Cyber Risks.”

    Updated: 2012-02-07 13:45:16
    In his article, After ‘Year of the Data Breach,’ Carriers Increase Capacity, Competition for Cyber Risks, Property Casualty 360°author Michael P. Voelker writes about cyber risks and cyber insurance. The article opens: There’s a good reason why 2011 is known among security professionals as the Year of the Data Breach. The antics began in April, with [...]

  • The economy sends mortgage rates to new record low

    Updated: 2012-02-06 16:26:45
    The economic seesaw brought mortgage rates down to new record lows last week. Two weeks ago, mortgage rates flared higher thanks to a warmer set of economic data. Last week, that increase “was cut off at the knees” by a softer-than-expected fourth quarter GDP report and a Federal Reserve outlook that left a lot to be [...]

  • Here’s what the jobs report means for mortgage rates

    Updated: 2012-02-03 17:07:04
    In what was a surprise to market observers, the economy added 243,000 jobs in January, the most in nine months. The unemployment rate had an impressive showing of its own, falling to 8.3 percent. Estimates for the January report varied. While a group of economists surveyed by MarketWatch predicted 121,000 new hires last month, HSH.com expected [...]

  • Obama’s latest refinance effort: I’ve seen this movie before

    Updated: 2012-02-01 18:51:10
    The president addressed the nation today from Falls Church, Va., to announce a widespread housing effort that tackles everything from refinancing non-Fannie and Freddie borrowers to a homeowners “bill of rights.” Is this proposed refinance plan–that can potentially save you $3,000 a year–a game changer or a pipe dream? At the moment, I—along with many others—am [...]

  • Can we restart the housing market with down-payment insurance?

    Updated: 2012-01-31 20:10:50
    That’s the idea economist James A. Wilcox, a professor of business at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote about recently in the New York Times. “Homebuyers could purchase protection from the government for a one-time fee, say 1 percent of the house purchase price, or $2,000 on a house selling for $200,000,” wrote Wilcox. “The fee [...]

  • Fed intentions revealed. Here’s what they mean to you

    Updated: 2012-01-30 17:24:28
    The Federal Reserve kicked off its new strategy of clearer communications at the close of January’s Open Market Committee meeting last Wednesday afternoon. With just a few words, plus some charts (page 3), the Fed now expects to keep interest rates “extraordinarily low” for a period up to 18 months longer than the mid-2013 estimate [...]

  • 10 things I learned from my evacuation

    Updated: 2012-01-27 21:24:21
    If you live in an area prone to natural disasters, you’ll probably have to evacuate your home someday. Last year, 2.5 million folks were ordered out when Hurricane Irene neared the East Coast. Thousands were told to leave Texas in 2011 as 180 wildfires broke out across the state. And even the White House evacuated [...]

  • Judy Greenwald quotes me in her Business Insurance article, “Cloud computing risks generally covered by cyber insurance.”

    Updated: 2012-01-17 18:12:13
    In her article, Cloud computing risks generally covered by cyber insurance, Business Insurance author Judy Greenwald writes about cloud computing and whether risks associated with the cloud might be covered by cyber insurance. The article opens: Insurance coverage for cloud users generally falls under firms’ cyber risk policies, observers say. That’s because cyber policy language generally is broad enough to cover [...]

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