We give up…you dead beats really caught us this time. We can’t take any more punishment. You’re destroying our BONUSES!! We just want you ouuut…ouuut…OUT!

Us EMPERORS really don’t have any clothes.

Does any of this make sense? NO. Why don’t we just help you stay in your home? Why not give a principal reduction or anything else other but… like the price we would sell your home for at short sale?? Usually 50% or more of the amount owed.

According to secret spies (joke this has not been confirmed) rumor has it that the five largest US mortgage servicers were told this week at a confidential meeting with regulators  to consider paying delinquent borrowers up to $21,000 each as part of a broader settlement of the foreclosure quandary.

Just as Reuters reported today

The main regulator for the largest U.S. banks is preparing to break from state authorities and settle with lenders over their foreclosure practices, according to a source familiar with the process, dashing hopes for a comprehensive settlement

[SNIP]

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, impatient with infighting over the structure and shape of a coordinated settlement, is preparing to move on its own set of fines and business-practice fixes for banks, according to a source, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The OCC’s settlement could come in the next couple weeks, the source said.

That’s the segment I did with someone who walked away from his mortgage, his home, and his $120,000 down payment after wrestling with the bank for months.  It’s powerful, and it’s hopeful.

“It feels great,” Burton said without hesitation. “I’m starting again. I’ve still got my talent; I’ve got my intelligence. I’ve got my health. At least I’m free of the enormous amount of stress that I had and the frustration of doing the best I could and it wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t working. Ultimately, I made a decision that my physical and mental health was more valuable than this house and my investment in it.”

At this point in the housing crisis, if you’re having problems, it’s clear that no authority is coming to help you.  Not bank regulators.  Not Obama.  Not the Republicans or Democrats in Congress.  And especially not your bank.  But the good news is there is hope.  You have options.  Ryan Grim, Lucia Graves, and Arthur Delaney interviewed 50 people thinking of walking away from their mortgages, and then interviewed them a year later.  They wrote up what they found.  For those who were able to walk away, it was a profoundly liberating experience.