Nathan Andrada – Fourth Estate Cooperative Contributor
Washington, DC, United States (4E) – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has completed the rules that require financial firms to exhaust all available options to prevent delinquent borrowers from losing their homes, a move seen as a significant step in fixing the country’s mortgage market. The rules are intended to help investors of mortgage securities by requiring better transparency from mortgage servicers on loan performance and assistance by servicers to distressed borrowers. Lack of transparency has been a major complaint by institutional investors in recent years. The consumer bureau [...] Continue Reading…
Consumer protection agency finalizes new rules for U.S. mortgages
January 17th, 2013 
davidguide Aid agencies tread gingerly in the West Bank’s Area C
January 15th, 2013 davidguide Ramallah, Palestinian Territory (IRIN) – As night descends in the Jordan Valley in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), a family in the village of Ras Al-Ahmar lights a small paraffin lamp in the tent they call home. There is no electricity here and the nearby Palestinian villages are enveloped in darkness. The only visible cluster of light is from a nearby Israeli settlement. Humanitarian agencies are well aware of the needs in this part of the West Bank but they face a challenge: play by the rules established by Israel or face the risk of having projects [...] Continue Reading…
Tunnel closures exacerbate Gaza housing crisis
November 12th, 2012 davidguide Gaza, Palestinian Territory (IRIN) – Ayman Subhi, like the other 1.6 million residents of the Gaza Strip, is often a victim of international developments beyond his control. When he graduated from college two years ago, he planned to build a home large enough for the family of six he supports (including his grandfather, parents and siblings) who currently share 90 square metres on the ground floor of a three-story home split among seven families. But in August, an attack on an Egyptian army outpost in Sinai, a few kilometres from the Gaza border, put his plans on [...] Continue Reading…
How Financial Aid Letters Often Leave Students Confused and Misinformed
October 19th, 2012 davidguide ProPublica Staff
Washington, DC, United States (ProPublica) – by Marian Wang The financial aid award letters that colleges send to prospective students can be confusing: Many mix grants, scholarships and loans all under the heading of “Award,” “Financial Assistance,” or “Offered Financial Aid.” Some schools also suggest loans in amounts that families can’t afford. Take Parent Plus loans, a federal program that allows families to take out as much as they need, after other aid is applied, to pay for their children’s college costs. As we recently reported with the Chronicle of Higher Education, Plus loans are remarkably [...] Continue Reading…
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon says U.S. housing market turning the corner
October 19th, 2012 davidguide Nathan Andrada – Fourth Estate Cooperative Contributor
New York, NY, United States (4E) – JP Morgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon on Friday that the U.S. housing market “has turned the corner”. Dimon’s remarks came after he announced his company’s third quarter earnings rose by 34 per cent to $5.7bn. He added that he expects interest rates to rise some time next year as the economy improves further, even though the Federal Reserve has said that it is keeping near-zero interest rates through 2015. Earlier this week, a Fed survey found signs of improving housing market across the [...] Continue Reading…
Vegetable farmers face lack of government support in Sri Lanka
August 20th, 2012 davidguide Kotte, Sri Lanka (IRIN) – While the government focuses on boosting rice production in Sri Lanka, the fresh produce industry, with its contribution of essential nutrients and potential for providing livelihoods, needs more support, say farmers. “Take what we are faced with now – the [impact of] lack of water on paddy is being highlighted, [but] there is no such attention on vegetable cultivators because there is very limited focus from the government,” said W A Premadasa, a vegetable farmer in Moneragala District in the southeast. There are a number of support mechanisms in place for rice [...] Continue Reading…
Food for refugees in Mali will run out in September
August 16th, 2012 davidguide OUAGADOUGOU, Mali (IRIN) – Agencies cannot cope with the scale of refugee needs in camps across Mali, as their funding shortfalls are too great: 36 percent at the World Food Programme (WFP) 66 percent in UN refugee agency (UNHCR), and 58 percent for the overall response. If additional funding does not come soon, food will run out in September. Longer-term planning for refugee needs in 2013 is “unthinkable”, say aid workers. Just 20 percent of the US$153 million needed by UNHCR to help the approximately 249,000 Malian refugees in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and other neighbouring states, has [...] Continue Reading…
World Bank offers $85 million grant to help Myanmar clear its debt
August 10th, 2012 davidguide Fourth Estate Cooperative Staff
Yangon, Myanmar (4E) – In an attempt to support Myanmar’s economical and political reforms, the World Bank (WB) on Wednesday offered a grant of $85 million to help the debt-ridden Southeast Asian country. WB President Jim Yong Kim, in a statement, said that the world lending body is committed at eradicating poverty in the former military-ruled nation. With the opening of a new office in Myanmar, Kim hoped that the some of poorest people in East Asia would now be able to access aid. “They have been cut off from the global economy for [...] Continue Reading…
