When Sen. Hillary Clinton gave her speech on the foreclosure crisis on Wall Street yesterday, she specifically mentioned a trip to Derry in August, during which she met Kristi Schofield | a mother of three whose house was foreclosed on six months after her husband lost his high-paying job.
“I just think of her so often,” Clinton said later in the day during a telephone interview.
Yesterday, Clinton called on Wall Street to act immediately by instating a 90-day moratorium of subprime, owner-occupied homes. Such a halt would ensure that people across the country, and here in New Hampshire, can stay in their homes through the winter months, regardless of how far behind they’ve fallen on payments.
“That’ll give us time to see if we can help people to work out a better solution with their banks than actually losing their home,” Clinton told The Eagle-Tribune yesterday.
She challenged Wall Street to freeze the monthly rate on subprime adjustable mortgage rates for at least five years, or until all mortgages can be converted into affordable, fixed-rate loans.
Lastly, Clinton wants status reports on the number of mortgages being modified.
If Wall Street doesn’t answer her challenge, Clinton promised to enact legislation that would require action when she’s in office. But, she said, she’s hopeful that a voluntary response will be more favorable to chief executives and business leaders in the arena.
Of course, with the moratorium and freeze on rate increases, somewhere, someone will feel the negative effects of helping to keep middle-class families in their homes. But Clinton doesn’t have any sympathy.
The whole problem began because businesses and investors made fraudulent claims, misleading advice and transferred high risk to people who didn’t know any better, Clinton said.
“Some of the investors won’t get a high return,” she said. “But they’ve been reaping the benefit high up the chain. I don’t think we should worry about them.”
