For over two decades, I have maintained my personal and business banking with a financial institution branch in a rural village of approximately 1200 souls. The branch is now a two hour drive from where I live but the people are special- they make a difference with their customers, fellow employees and especially their community. This Christmas, like those past, the team of eight have been busy raising food and gift donations to provide a better Christmas to a dozen families in the immediate area. Each families' requirements, e.g. sizes, gender, etc are available on small, handout inventory cards for potential donors. Throughout the year, the team does other charitable acts to make their community a better place to live, work and play. Visits to branches are not necessary today with all the virtual channels available but for myself and many others it is a priority to be there periodically to be an extended member of the special spirit that abides there.
Just think of all the possible teams across other communities, counties, countries and continents that are, or could be, doing similar charitable acts quietly and effectively in the Christmas Spirit 365 days a year.
That's what Christmas is all about.
With a vision, leadership and teamwork, many charitable opportunities can be contributed to by all who are committed and willing.
I remember one very special Christmas event where I worked in a large city years ago with a department of approximately sixty people in the head office location. Normally, the traditional Christmas lunch was scheduled at a local facility for everyone to get together for food and fellowship. This one year was different! Everyone was asked to wear casual clothes to work on the "lunch date" and at 9:00AM two school buses arrived to pick everyone up. Shoe box lunches were waiting on the buses as the unsuspecting staff headed out to the suburbs with various expressions on their faces. Finally, we arrived at this large warehouse; picked up our lunch boxes and headed inside. As the door opened a salvation army officer welcomed everyone to the central "Christmas hamper facility". After a brief tour and instructions, the team went to work for five hours non-stop packing a variety of family Christmases . There were tears of joy, laughs of happiness and an unbelievable out-flowing of love. They were living the Christmas Spirit.
Hopefully, this year around the world and at home there will be excess of that spirit to go around for everyone as more suffered from recessionary fallout and despair everywhere.
Have a blessed Christmas.
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Periodically, I have blogged concerning the various mortgage types that led to foreclosure problems over the past two years, especially in the USA. As we enter 2010, there will be thousands of "orphaned mortgages" coming out of the wood work in North America and elsewhere where secondary mortgage companies accepted customers with poor credit ratings during the previous boom (or bust!). People who couldn't acquire mortgages through the traditional, regulated financial institutions due to credit scores and/or downpayment resources, were enticed by last resort options from mortgage companies. These transactions were generally handled by aggressive mortgage brokers. To obtain the mortgages consumers had to pay considerably higher rates of interest than those quoted by the primary lenders, plus hefty upfront fees. In the boom period the mortgage companies could securitize any amount of these mortgages at enticing rates for investors and sizeable placement fees to investment bankers.
The people who obtained these mortgages in hopes to have a home before the market was totally out of reach, may have maintained their weekly, bi-weekly or monthly mortgage payments and residential taxes
from the beginning but are now at risk of foreclosure because the mortgage companies do not have the previous sources available to raise the funds on the market or through primary lenders. Also,the home owners will no doubt find that the outstanding balances are similar to the original amount or even higher. The question is simple,"who will now hold these mortgages in their present state and with the borrowers historical credit scores?" Will they all forfeit their homes by the thousands in the months ahead?
Governments and the financial industry have a socioeconomic challenge that must be resolved correctly.
A "Buyer beware" defense holds little reality when brokers and the mortgage companies where aggressively promoting that everyone could have a home regardless of their credit rating and then failed to educate their clients on future financial dangers. We can not hide behind, "we are studying the situation". The conditions have been in inventories for sometime, especially once the ABCP market dried -up. The time to respond is now before it is too late for thousands of hardworking families who did not default on their obligations but could be faced with foreclosures.
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