The Oklahoma City-based company founded in 1960 has been on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list for the past eight years straight, expanding its business through 49 states in the country.

The awards and recognition don’t stop there, with the company placing on the Ward’s Top 50 list of life-insurance providers and the Weiss rating system determined the company ranks in the top 2.8% of companies in its field.  (The list continues).

American Fidelity Assurance has the track record to prove its dominance, consistently competing with companies like Aflac, Hartford Life and the Unum Group, managing to still insure over one million customers worldwide.

American Fidelity specializes in prominent and crucial forms of personal insurance including life, health and disability.  They offer a wide variety of services, including cancer coverage, flexible spending accounts, health reimbursement plans (which are increasing in popularity in the present day, due to their lower cost) and health savings accounts.

Although the company’s services are popular among individuals, it also offers employer group plans. Their services are used most frequently in the fields of Education, Municipality, Auto Retail and in the Health Care Industry.  As any group plan does, theirs works in a tax deductible fashion towards the employer (while many companies are soon to be required to delve out insurance to employees).

The company also boasts a wide variety of supplemental insurance, which is also growing in popularity given the large number of people reaching Medicare status.  Think of it as insurance for your insurance:  if the plan you have doesn’t cover something, you can purchase an American Fidelity plan to step up to the plate.

This is growing enormously in popularity as benefits have been cut or otherwise reduced during the recent recession.  Companies are offering smaller and less inclusive plans leaving a lot of workers on their own to face certain struggles.

As mentioned, there’s also a large number of Baby Boomers reaching retirement age and turning to Medicare, which is known to leave issues out of its coverage.

As a result, supplemental insurance plans are becoming more and more common.

Even so, the company wasn’t immune to the economic downturn seen from 2000-2009, but their annual report outlines that they’re strong, on track and more-than-prepared for the new decade.

That said, the overwhelming response regarding employment at Fidelity comes from their IT department.

Former employees frequently site that department as the strongest.  According to sources, the company’s IT department hires most frequently and offers reasonable (although not great) pay, along with benefits.  Employers say that moving up takes time (likely a result of the present economy and lack of professional opportunity) but positions are secure.

Like with any personal insurance corporation, consumer reviews can be mixed.  Insurance is and always has been a tricky industry.  When people aren’t given the treatment they believe they’re entitled to, they’re rightfully unhappy.

For example, the company gets low rankings on health insurance review site, HealthInsuranceProviders.com. Complaints span from unclear date of insurance coverage, not receiving proof of insurance cards and simple lack of coverage for prescriptions to poor customer service—likely things that could happen for any reason or at any company (which isn’t to say it’s forgivable).

On the other hand, the company holds good standing with the Better Business Bureau, who has no record of any substantial government action being taken against the company.  Specifically, they have only ever received a small handful of complaints, most of which center around customer service issues.

In summary, American Fidelity mostly exhibits strength in the current market.  It’s high in demand, as its numbers show.  It holds its own in a strong market with fierce competitors, and there are no notable complaints or lawsuits surrounding the company.  And as far as employment goes, there’s a glimpse of opportunity, which is more than can be said for many companies these days.

As the Federal Reserve has lowered the Federal funds rate down to almost zero, the banks have enjoyed the low rates at which they can borrow overnight from other banks. The consumers have been able to get 30-year fixed rate mortgages at rates that have enticed virtually every mortgage holder out there to refinance. With that the yield curve for mortgage backed securities has changed. It still has the typical shape of diminishing increases as the length of time of the investment increases but the yields overall have decreased.

With the turmoil in the housing market many investors have shied away from mortgage backed securities. Those are the bonds which are backed by portfolios of mortgages. The only government agency that can issue mortgage backed securities is Ginnie Mae. Ginnie Mae does not originate loans but they do guarantee loans issued by the Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Rural Housing Service and the Office of Public and Indian Housing. Ginnie Mae is supposed to insure that low and middle income households have access to mortgages.

Ginnie Mae is the only agency that can offer mortgage backed securities that have the full faith and credit of the government behind them. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lend money to mortgage bankers so they can provide loans to low income and middle income home buyers. With the recent problems in the housing market, large portfolios of non performing mortgages were taken over and sold cheaply or refinanced.

The traditional relationship between mortgage rates and U.S. Treasury bonds has become less strong. The events in the housing market have been too severe to not have an impact. Bond prices do fluctuate with supply and demand. Risk of any kind affects the rates on bonds and their prices. With the length of the average mortgage lying closer to 10 years rather than 30 years, it would make sense to try to relate mortgage rates to 10 year U.S. Treasuries. It has also been suggested that the markets are so short term that the 90 day treasuries are actually the better indicator of where mortgage rates are headed.

Either way, mortgage rates have been very low for a number of years now. When the Federal Reserve adjusts the Federal Funds Rate, you can expect to see the impact on mortgage rates within days if not within hours. With the increased speed in communication, we have also seen faster reactions. The mortgage rates do not always go in the same direction as the Federal Funds Rate although they usually do. What really matters is the state of the economy. That is why you will see investors waiting with baited breath for the content of the Federal Reserve’s statements. That is where they announce their predictions of where they think the economy is headed.

However, as an astute observer of the world around you, you may be able to notice where the economy is headed on your own provided you don’t live in some part of the country that is moving counter to the general economy. If you do, you have probably figured that out by now.

Watching the economy is quickly becoming a national pastime. Things have been bad for long enough, there aren’t many people left who haven’t been affected in some way. If you are one of the lucky ones who still has a stable job, you probably were able to refinance your mortgage at a nice low rate. When the economy is slow, interest rates are usually low. The Federal Reserve does not want to push the economy into a depression so they keep the rate at which banks lend money to other banks low in order to stimulate the economy by giving the banks incentives to lend money.

Mortgage rates tend to track U.S. Treasury bonds, lately it seems the 90 day U.S. Treasury bonds may be a good indicator. Rate changes happen very quickly once the bond rates change. So if you want to predict mortgage rates, you will have to study the same data the people on the Federal Reserve look at. Or alternatively, read the analysts’ predictions as to what the Federal Reserve will do at their next meeting. You can find out more information about the Federal Reserve at www.federalreserve.gov.

You can also look at mortgage rates as a function of supply and demand. If the economy is doing well, people feel inclined to purchase a home or a bigger home, so the demand for mortgages goes up and along with that the interest rates. The banks can afford to be greedier during these times.

This is when banks thrive.

Mortgage rates also take into account the length of the loan, the risk assessment of the borrower,   the type of building the loan is on, and the location. I still remember the difficulties I had obtaining my first real estate mortgage. It wasn’t that I wasn’t qualified, I was. It was that the building had some rather unique features which we had to remove in order for a bank to be willing to lend money for the property. We had to put money in escrow until the features were changed. If you are wondering what it was, you will be surprised to hear that it was a trapdoor in the living room leading to the basement. We changed it to a nice open staircase with  walls and half walls surrounding it. Can you imagine that? I mean who wouldn’t want a trap door in the middle of their living room?

Interest rates are at all time lows. With the 90 day U.S. Treasury rate at only 0.16 %, 30 year fixed mortgage rates are a mere 4.2% higher. I believe this is a linear relationship since people would not have a chance at affording mortgages otherwise when the 90 day U.S. Treasury rates are much higher. Does anyone remember 17% interest rates? It seems like the distant past yet it was only in the 1980s. So if you are currently in the market for a mortgage and your parents are telling you how lucky you are, believe them.

Compared to that, obtaining a mortgage anytime in the next few years should appear like a bargain. Should the economy start recovering dramatically and at a rapid pace, lock in a mortgage rate as quickly as you can.

Lost in all of that conversation is the fact that many people don’t really understand what foreclosure is.

Definitionally, it’s not hard to understand.   You can find dozens of definitions of “foreclosure” and almost all of them will look very similar to this one, offered by the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center:

Foreclosure – The legal process by which a lien against property is enforced through the taking and selling of the property.

Put into the sense we usually use the term, it refers to what happens when someone fails to meet their agreed upon mortgage payment and the lender attempts to satisfy the remainder of the obligation by taking possession of the home.

Definitions, however, will only get us so far.  Foreclosure is a process.  That means you need to have some sense of what happens during the process to truly understand it.

Foreclosures operate under different rules in different jurisdictions.  As such, this overview of the foreclosure process shouldn’t be considered the way the process works.  It’s one way.  And it’s kept sufficiently vague so as not to mislead the reader.  If you’re dealing with a foreclosure situation, you should seek qualified advice and resources specific to where you live.  For instance, the State of Michigan (which has been hit very hard by foreclosures) has an informative guide to the process for residents of the state.  There are specific resources for those who live outside of the US in Canada, as well.

Foreclosures start with a missed payment.  Your lender will notice that you didn’t get your check in on time and will send you a letter and/or call you on the phone to “gently” remind you to pay up.

If you fail to make the payment and then miss a second consecutive payment, your lender will become more interested in what’s happening.  They’ll want to find out about your situation and your ability to catch up on the loan and to make future payments.  If you haven’t been working with your lender and/or a trusted adviser already to find a solution to your situation, this is a good time to get started.

If you miss a third consecutive payment, the lender will send you a letter known as a “Notice to Accelerate” or a “Demand Letter”.  This correspondence will advise you that you have 30 days to pay all past due amounts or to make a mutually agreed upon arrangement.  It will also let you know that if you don’t follow through, that the lender will start foreclosing on your property when the deadline hits.

If you then miss a fourth consecutive payment, you’ll be right on the verge of the Demand Letter date.  When that hits, your lender will direct all of your future interactions about the matter to their attorney or legal department.  From here on out, those attorney fees will be going on your bill, so to speak.  If you later move to resolve the outstanding obligation, that amount will also include the cost of the lender’s representation.

The next step in the foreclosure process is the Sheriff’s Sale (sometimes referred to a Trustee’s Sale or Public Trustee’s Sale).  This is what happens when the lender’s legal representatives schedule the sale of your home.  In a sense, this is the moment of true foreclosure.  The law requires that you be notified of the sale, but the standards for that will vary based on your location.  The amount of time between the receipt of your Demand Letter and the sale date will also vary.  That’s why it is so important to understand how foreclosure works in your state if you’re involved in one of these situations.  You don’t need to pack up your stuff and leave on the day of the sale, in most cases.  It’s the foreclosure date, but it isn’t the moving out date.

That doesn’t happen until the period of redemption passes.  The period of redemption is a legislatively mandated block of time following foreclosure during which you can pay all outstanding obligations, fees and penalties in order to recapture legal possession and an ownership interest in the property.  The length of the period of redemption will vary based on jurisdiction.

That’s how a foreclosure works.  When you understand the process, it’s that much easier to understand the term, the repercussions of foreclosure and the options you may have if you’re in a difficult situation.

Embedded within the dense legislation were provisions changing the Roth IRA rules.  You may not have noticed at the time.  That’s understandable, because some of the actual changes mandated within the Act weren’t schedule to kick in for years.

Now, 2010 is right around the corner.  We’re preoccupied with H1N1 and the bird flu has joined SARS on the list of “really bad things that didn’t really materialize.”  President Bush is splitting time between his ranch and the motivational speaking circuit.  The Yankees didn’t re-sign Williams and now he’s off playing guitar somewhere.  Oh, and those TIPRA changes are about to kick in–and it’s a good idea to start paying attention.

That’s because the law is making the retirement account option more accessible.  Previous limitations on Roth IRA participation are being cast away.  That’s important news if you’ve been unable to take advantage of the Roth option and now can.  Why?  Because they are one of the best deals around.  The Entrust New Direction Blog explains:

The Roth IRA is quite possibly the best deal the federal government has ever offered tax payers.  But until 2010, this fabulous deal was only offered to people earning less than (approximately) $100,000.  Not so in 2010.  The federal government has announced a suspension of the rules for 2010.

The Roth IRA is like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You can rollover any amount of money from a traditional IRA or 401(k) into a Roth IRA, and every dollar you earn with that money is TAX FREE.

SeacoastOnline outlines an even longer list of benefits associated with a Roth account:

No required minimum distributions for those 70½ or older.

No limit on the amount that can be converted.

No limit on the number of conversions.

Ability to re-characterize if desired.

Potential tax-free compounding.

Potential tax-free income distributions for the Roth owner and named beneficiaries.

Potential tax-free wealth accumulation for heirs.

The problem for many people was the fact that the Roth IRA rules restricted use of the account to those who had a MAGI (modified adjusted gross income) of over $100,000.  That limitation is now history, thanks to those TIPRA changes.  As a result, as many as 13 million Americans now have a chance to convert their traditional IRA to a Roth or to open a new Roth account.

If you’re part of that 13 million, it’s time to get a Roth Started.  Not only are the accounts a strong option, they’re even more attractive due to the current economic situation.  GoodFinancialSense notes that, “The market is still in a recovery phase and you could benefit from converting when your account balances are lower and pay less income tax.”  As an article in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance argued:

“Roth IRA conversions are the silver lining to the economic crisis,” says IRA expert Ed Slott, a CPA in Rockville Centre, NY.  “The may be the lowest tax rates you’ll see for the rest of your life.  And with account values down, it’s a double sale.”

If you don’t have a Roth IRA, you need to consult with your adviser and/or investigate the Roth IRA rules to see if you can make use of this powerful retirement savings options.  The 2010 conversion and the elimination of the MAGI-based restriction aren’t the only Roth IRA rules to have changed and you’ll want to know all of the gory details before making any changes.  However, overall these changes appear to make Roths more accessible and more attractive than ever.

It’s not a positive environment.  It’s not the kind of situation that inspires a great  deal of confidence when one is struggling to make ends meet and to avoid foreclosure.  It can make you feel like you’re just caught up in a gruesome part of a giant cruel world and that you’re doomed to lose your property.

That sense of helplessness leads many people to do very little other than to let those notices from the bank pile up and to wait for the inevitable, praying for its delay.  When the reality of an imminent foreclosure emerges, they make an effort to find something–anything–to save the day.  That rarely works.

If you want to avoid foreclosure, you need to start with the right mindset.

Ostriches Don’t Own Homes. If you stick your head in the sand until the sheriff comes knocking on your door, you’re going to lose your house.  You can only avoid foreclosure by being aware, involved and proactive.  Don’t willfully ignore the situation or the correspondence that shows up as its consequence.  And don’t put your faith in luck.  Be involved and be aggressive in resolving the matter.

The tough situation we’ve noted could be a lot less grim if those in a tough situation would always become more active and involved, as Cold French Fries notes, “As the number of Americans facing foreclosure of their homes, many could be saved if only they understood the process more.”

The Bank Can Be Your Friend. When people are dealing with foreclosure situations, they often see it as a fight against the bank for their home.  In a sense, that’s true.  However, the bank only becomes your opponent when it becomes clear that the two of you can’t really work together in a meaningful way.

Your lender does not want your home.  It really doesn’t.  It’s in the banking business, not the real estate business and with the property market where it is right now, they aren’t excited about increasing their residential property portfolio.

Your bank wants you to pay.  You may not be able to do that in the way originally planned, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to work with your lender.  As Freddie Mac points out:

If you are having difficulty paying your mortgage … call your lender! It’s important to act now before you get so far behind in your payments you end up facing foreclosure.

There are options available that may allow you to save your home. But the longer you wait the fewer options are available. Remember, your biggest ally if you encounter difficulty paying your mortgage on time is often your lender.

Your lender – also called the servicer – has a variety of options to help you stay in or sell your home. These options include:

* The President’s Making Home Affordable Plan
* Refinance
* Forbearance
* Repayment plans
* Loan modifications

Don’t Believe in Magic. If you start searching for foreclosure avoidance advice online, you’ll find tons of “counselors,” ” representatives,” “advocates” and other organizations who claim to have the remarkable ability to stop foreclosures dead in their tracks, in the blink of an eye.

Take those claims with more than a few grains of salt.  While there are undoubtedly some very helpful people in this market space, there are also many scam offers ran by those who are simply interested in turning a buck based on the desperation of their target demographic.  They realize that desperation creates bad decision making and they hope to fill their coffers because of it.

If you can’t make things work with your bank and the options that might be available there and you feel like it’s time to seek some outside assistance, the Federal Reserve Board recommends working with HUD-approved counselors.  It also notes:

If you feel you may be the target or victim of foreclosure fraud, trust your instincts and seek help. For tips on spotting scam artists, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s webpage on foreclosure rescue scams. Report suspicious schemes to your state and local consumer protection agencies, which you can find on the Federal Citizen Information Center’s Consumer Action Website.

Things may not have gone the way you originally planned them to go.  Times may be tough.  That doesn’t mean you should just give up and watch the economy beat up on you.  Those who start with the right mindset can often avoid foreclosure.

It’s Dave Ramsey vs. Suze Orman.

Who do you love?

In all seriousness, the question of which media-friendly financial guru offers the best wisdom is an ongoing debate.  If you doubt that, do a Google search for “Dave Ramsey vs. Suze Orman”.  You’ll find MORE THAN 400 RESULTS for that exact expression.

It’s not surprising.  It’s a hard-to-beat little contest.  You’ve got a conservative Christian male against a lesbian in this contest, for goodness’ sake!  Plus, they’re clearly #1 and #2 (or is that #2 and #1?) on the list when it comes to being a media-friendly personal finance know-it-all.  They both sell books like crazy, too.  It’s a natural competition.

And to make things even better, they actually disagree on a few things!

That’s what makes the “Dave Ramsey vs. Suze Orman” thing so interesting.

Money management is, in the starkest sense, a numbers game.  It’s like algebra.  There’s a right answer and there’s a wrong answer.  Yes, the predictions about certain numbers can be different, but the basic rules to the game are the same.  All other things being equal, getting an 8% return on your investment is better than making 5%.  End of story.

So, we’d expect the two gurus to tell the same stories.  The question of preference would come down to a question of baldness vs. giant white teeth or something under those circumstances.  But that’s not what’s happening.  There’s a very real difference between them.

That difference is their competing positions on a critical personal finance matter–getting out from under debt.

Dave Ramsey advocates his “snowball” method.  You pay minimums on all of your debts, throwing whatever extra dough you have in your budget at the account with the smallest balance.  Once it’s paid, you continue the process, targeting the next debt on your list.

Eventually, you’re making very big payments on your remaining accounts, wiping them out quickl and earning the right to call Dave’s show to scream “I’m debt free” like a complete nutjob.

Suze Orman preaches a different technique.  She says you should pay your minimums plust $10 on each account, tossing any spare cash at the one with the highest interest rate.

Ramsey tells people to start their snowball right after they sock away $1,000 in cash as an emergency fund.  Orman used to have a similar perspective, but she’s changed her tune in 2009.  Now she tells everyone to pay minimums until they’ve saved up eight months worth of living expenses.  She’s trying to insulate people from the possibility of unemployment during this current economic mess.

So, who wins?  Putting the “how much do you really need to save before you start attacking your debt” question aside, neither Dave Ramsey or Suze Orman win if you know how to run a calculator.  From a pure dollars and cents perspective, the best thing to do is to pay minimums on all of your accounts, except for the one with the highest interest rate and to pay that baby down first.  That’s how the math works.

However, the Dave Ramsey approach recognizes the psychological relationship with have with money.  He knows that getting out of debt can seem overwhelming and that building on small gains by paying off those smaller debts first, can have a significant morale-boosting impact that can get people hooked on paying off their bills.

The Suze Orman approach, on the other hand, is closer to being mathematically sound because it does put emphasis on the highest interest rate after those additional $10 bumps are applied to the bills.  If you test the two methods against one another, Suze’s wins.

So, does that mean we should call the Dave Ramsey vs. Suze Orman superfight a TKO for Orman?

Not necessarily.  I think we can call it a draw.  Orman’s math is better, but Ramsey’s plan has a better chance of motivating its users to see it through to completion.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that much if you follow Orman’s or Ramsey’s advice.  They’ll both help you beat debt.  It’s all a matter of doing what really works for you and your personality.

(By the way, in a straight up “who do you like more” online poll, Ramsey whips Orman by a huge margin!)

Now, I long for them.

That’s because the chat choice d’jour is now the economy. You can’t stand in line at the supermarket or the DMV for more than a few minutes before someone will start talking about just how lousy things are right now. A few short years ago, people seemed to take some kind of perverse satisfaction in predicting blizzards, hurricanes and droughts based on a week’s worth of weather. Today, they get that same look in their eye when confronting strangers with tales of escalating unemployment and a looming Depression.

We can play chicken and egg with this. Is the constant chit-chat about the falling economic sky persuading media outlets to focus more and more on grim economic news, or is the media’s obsession with any negative economic indicator and its horrific potential consequences feeding the conversation?

It really doesn’t matter. The result is the same. Everyone seems convinced that our economy is on death’s door and that soup lines will soon be forming in front of abandoned auto dealerships. The swollen ranks of the homeless will be stacked like cordwood in the shells of emptied shopping malls. Economic Armegeddon is upon us.

The disproportionate negativity is annoying. It might also be dangerous because it influences the way we assess real risks in our every day life.

I recently came across an interesting article about risk analysis in the IT field. It mentioned that people are prone to overestimating a risk when they’re too close to an issue. They lose the necessary objectivity to reasonably assess the likelihood of events because they’re so wrapped up in the analysis of every shred of risk-related information about a topic. When you get too close, you make poor decisions.

It’s very likely that many people are getting a little too close to the doom and gloom reports about our economy and it really makes one wonder if that’s not leading to some very poor decisionmaking. All of this chit-chat from our neighbors, co-workers and evening news anchors may be negatively influencing our personal ability to conduct reasonable risk analysis.

Before the faltering economy became a focus of attention, expert recommended that one should save about six months worth of salary as a cushion before quitting a job to start something new. That seemed like a reasonable buffer for those who wanted to flex a litte entrepreneurial muscle.

Today, if you talk about intentionally quitting your job to do create a new business, people look at you as if you’re insane. They can’t believe that anyone would give up steady work “at a time like this”. Experts recommend holding onto unrewarding jobs if they’re bearable until things get better.

How many entrepreneurs with great ideas and the potential to help energize the economy have we lost due to the fear of a cruel economic fate reserved for those willing to walk away from employment?

When the markets began to fall, people began cutting back on 401k contributions. Some even pulled their money out completely, regardless of the tax implications.

How much did they lose in the process relative to where they might be five years from now had they held things together? How much did those panic withdrawals encourage a further drop in the markets?

I won’t argue that everything is right in the world. Nor will I maintain that recent legislative actions have a strong likelihood of rejuvenating an economy in recession. However, I also won’t join in announcing the death of the U.S. economy and I certainly don’t plan to start hoarding canned goods and ammunition any time soon.

I’m just trying to dodge a constant stream of negative information and I’m working a little harder to get to the truth about our economic future. It doesn’t necessarily look rosy, but I don’t think we’ll be wearing barrels and eating dirt by July, either.

I guess you could say I’m trying to stay just far enough away from the details of your sister’s friend’s layoff and the news about how they’re cutting part-time hours at the big box store that it all doesn’t overwhelm me or my ability to assess real risks and probabilities. I don’t want to get too close because I don’t want to overreact, even though overreaciton seems to be replacing baseball as our national pastime.

That’s what I’m doing.  Oh, I’m also talking about the weather.

My preferred response?  A wise man would opt to rehydrate himself and to swear off the booze.  I, however, subscribed to the “hair of the dog that bit you” theory of hangover elimination.  I fought fire with fire, hangovers with Wild Turkey.

In time, I learned the wonders of moderation and of maturity.  I avoided the hangovers in the first place and certainly wouldn’t respond to their occasional returns with a series of shots.

Why am I writing about my own history with alcohol in a post about Chase Home Finance?  Well, it isn’t part of a twelve step program, if that’s what you’re wondering.   I bring up the old “hair of the dog” colloquialism because it seems a fitting description of Chase’s strategy for dealing with mortgage crisis.  Instead of backing away from lending, they’re doing more of it.  A lot more.

By now, we all know the basic outline of how the housing market went down faster than Jager shots at a frat party.  The banks made generous loans to folks who were ill-prepared to handle them.  As these sub-prime loans began to go bad, it set off a chain reaction that has encouraged our current yucky economic state.

One of the lenders who made more than a handful of those doomed mortgage loans was Chase Home Finance.  They managed to put themselves in enough trouble that they’re now slated to receive a huge chunk of change from Uncle Sam just to insure that they don’t fail.

So, what do you think Chase Home Finance has been doing lately?

Well, they’ve been spending a great deal of time in courthouses, for one thing.  That’s because they’re filing suits left and right as they’re forced to foreclose on a city’s worth of defaulted mortgages.  If you do a Google News search for “Chase Home Finance, LLC“, you’ll find yourself staring at a seemingly neverending list of people Chase is dragging into court because of they’re inability to make payments.

A serious analysis of the data indicates that anecdotal evidence like that does give us a fairly clear picture of what’s happening, too.  Foreclosure numbers remain very significant–and that includes those with which Chase Home Finance is involved.

But that’s not all they’re doing.  They’re also making a point to take a healthy dose of the hair of the dog.  Woof!

You might think Chase would be reluctant to go after more and more home lending in the aftermath of the last few years.  You’d be wrong.  They’re strategy seems to be to solidify their place as one of the biggest home lenders out there.

A recent New York Times report explains that one of the reasons Chase’s first quarter numbers for ‘09 look a little better than one might expect is because they’ve been acquiring more notes:

As independent mortgage companies and brokers closed last fall, and major players like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo swallowed up troubled rivals, lending profit margins widened, doubling at big banks amid a refinancing wave during the first half of the year, analysts said.

Right now, Chase is picking up more mortgages and they’re playing the game on our dime.

So far, it’s working.   Their numbers are on an upward trajectory.  We can only hope that this means they’re cherry-picking the right assets from the mortgage companies that bit the dust and that Chase isn’ t picking up too many weak mortgages like the ones currently involved in all of those foreclosure suits.

Then again, if the folks at Chase Home Finance were capable of making those quality decisions while avoiding the urge to overextend, we might not be having this conversation in the first place.

It’s enough to drive you to drink.

Hopefully your personal budget at home isn’t seeing the kind of shortfalls the California budget is dealing with. At the Lampsen home, we’re getting by better than many I’ve talked to, but “doing well” in a downturned economy is not saying much. We’re still at the point where if unexpected money shows up, it’s greatly appreciated, and just that very thing happened the other day. An unexpected bonus came through at work — a couple American Express Gift Cards.

If you haven’t purchased or received these before, they’re basically like cash. You don’t have to redeem them at a specific coffee shop, bookstore, sporting goods outlet. You don’t even have to go to a chain restaurant and sit in a booth surrounded by historic memorabilia. No, these American Express Gift Cards can be used anywhere that American Express is accepted. Apparently this equates to over a million places.

Receiving unexpected cash flow is wonderful. I feel sorry for the vendors who provide the State of California with great service month in and month out, only to receive IOUs as payment. Controller John Chiang started sending them out July 2^nd, when the budget failed to pass. In the past, it was the employees who received the IOUs, which pay interest at somewhere between three and four percent–not bad, if you’re cash-rich and can wait until October (or whenever the budget eventually passes) to collect your money.

So far $355 million in IOUs have been sent out, mostly to 90,000 small businesses, and tax payers who are due a refund. The world’s eighth largest economy is in trouble. To make matters worse, three top national banks — Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase — all stopped accepting the IOUs as of last Friday.

I think there are a few business men and women out there hoping some American Express Gift Cards would show up in their mailbox, too. Available in amounts from $25-$3000, these little gift cards can buy everything from a used car to a tank of gas for that used car. I suppose that the high price of gas would make a $25 gift card more appropriate for a week’s worth of coffees as opposed to a tank of gas.

I suppose California State employees should be happy they actually still need to buy gasoline for their car, considering that they have a job and all. Though missing four days a month due to furloughs is probably hitting their pocketbooks in a rather unpleasant way. Surely if Governor Schwarzenegger and lawmakers can’t come to some agreement on how to close the budget gap within the next few months, there are employees who are going to be seeing pink slips in their inboxes. An even greater number will probably see IOUs.

At times like these, when the news is filled monetary doom in certain sectors of the government or financial market, I smile knowing that in the Lampsen home, we’re “doing well.” Still, the unexpected cash never hurts and certainly isn’t turned away. I’ll take a gift card over an IOU any day, and a card equal to cash is even better. Best of all is that unlike cash, if the American Express Gift Cards are lost or stolen, the unused portion can be replaced or refunded. That kind of financial protection is appreciated in a time like the present.