Privacy Invasion

"Here to Help"

Ever heard of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)?  Or the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)?  Probably not.  But if you have a mortgage on your home then chances are these groups have heard of you.  And they want to get to know you better, much better. 

According to a notice posted on April 16, 2014 in the Federal Register, the FHFA will be gathering and maintaining personal information as part of the “National Mortgage Database Project”.  Sounds harmless. Whose data will be collected?  According to the notice, “individuals who have records in… credit bureaus or consumer reporting agencies”, which includes just about anyone with a wallet or a purse. Estimates are that 227 million Americans will be effected.  The justification for compiling this information is to facilitate the FHFA / CFPB’s ability to comply with reporting requirements under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA), legislation brought in response to the sub-prime mess of 2008.  

The database will include mortgage information, such as loan amount, monthly payment, delinquency information.  But that’s not all.  It also includes information of a more personal nature.  What sort of personal information?  Generally speaking, everything.  Info you don’t tell your mama. 

Altogether the Database Project includes about eighty-five fields of information (the entire list is included below).  Here are some of the more troubling items:  “race, ethnicity, language, religion.”  What?  How does being a Presbyterian or an Animist affect a person’s credit?  Further overreach, “household composition (i.e. single female), number of children and their ages, marital status.”  Is this the government or a dating site?  More,  household income, credit score, number of bedrooms and baths.”  And my personal favorite, “latitude and longitude”, which I guess is a big help if someone needs to dial up a drone strike. 

The information will be obtained from "individuals who respond to the National Survey of Mortgage Borrowers" as well as FHFA system records, Federal government systems of records (IRS?), credit repository files and "commercial data aggregators".

Who will have access to all this information?  No worries – all of the information is protected under the Privacy Act.  According to the notice, only the Federal Housing Finance Administration, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and their advisory committees have access.  Oh, and perhaps a contractor, volunteer or intern working for those agencies.  And a Congressional office in response to an inquiry.  Or a court, magistrate or administrative tribunal in the course of an investigation.  And possibly the Department of Justice, which would include the US Attorney, FBI, DEA, etc.  And of course, the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or “other Federal agencies”.      

In George Orwell’s “1984”,  Big Brother's fascist regime referred to its propaganda and history revision bureau as the “Ministry of Truth”.  Similarly, in 2010 under Dodd-Frank, the CFBP was created ostensibly to “protect consumers”.  Call me paranoid, but why exactly does the federal government need to know how many bathrooms I have?  Or what the credit limit is on my MasterCard?  The longitude and latitude of my home?  My employment records?  A list of my assets?  Or my religious affiliation?  

The legal definition of invasion of privacy is the intrusion into the personal life of another without cause.  If that's the standard of invasion, then this action against 277 million Americans constitutes a Normandy-style frontal assault.  How does this new database protect the consumer?  Ronald Reagan put it this way, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”      

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The following is the full list of the data points included in the federal notice for the National Mortgage Database Project:

Borrower/co-borrower information

name

address

zip code

telephone numbers

date of birth

race/ethnicity

gender

language

religion

social security number

education records

military status/records

employment status/records

Financial Information

account number

financial events in the last few years

life events in the last few years

other assets/wealth

Mortgage Information

current balance

current monthly payment

delinquency grid

monthly payment

refinanced amount

bankruptcy information

Credit card/other loan information

account type

credit amount

account balance amount

account past due amount

account minimum payment amount

account actual payment amount

account high balance amount

account charge off amount

second mortgage

Household composition

single male / single female, etc.

presence of children by various age categories

number of wage earners in household

household income

credit score

deceased indicator

marital status

Property Attributes

property type

number of bedrooms and bathrooms

square footage

lot size

year built/age of structure

units in structure

most recent assessed value (per tax roll)

year of most recent assessed value

effective age of structure

assessor's parcel number

neighborhood name

project name

Real Estate Transaction Attributes

sales price

down payment

occupancy status (own, rent)

new versus existing home

county

census tract/block

latitude/longitude

date purchased

Mortgage Characteristics

mortgage product and purpose

origination date

acquisition date

amount of mortgage

refinanced amount

amount of down payment

term of mortgage

interest rate of mortgage

source of mortgage/mortgage channel

mortgage insurance type

loan to value at origination

origination amount/credit limit

originator

current servicer

debt to income ratio at origination

number of borrowers

number of units in mortgage

presence of prepayment penalty

origination points paid by borrower

discount points paid by borrower

balloon payment date/amount

percent of down payment

secondary market indicator

Information collected from consumers as part of

surveys

randomized controlled trials

or through other mechanisms.

Naming Money

When there’s trouble, bust-out nations and their central banks go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to pick up some walking around money.  Like a super-national quick-cash store, the IMF is the world’s lender of last resort.  When the IMF issues a loan it isn’t denominated in dollars, euros or yen, but in Special Drawing Rights, aka SDRs, the fiat currency issued by the IMF.  Economists say that the IMF has the cleanest balance sheet of all the world’s central banks.  Meanwhile, the IMF is known to have a longstanding desire to become the source of the world’s monetary supply, under a single, one-world currency.  With the major central banks in the US, the EU and Asia going broke, maybe now is time for the IMF to make its move.  If that happens the SDR would become the new global currency.

Politics and economics aside, does an “SDR” sound like money to you?  Maybe I’m too superficial, but frankly, I don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling from the term “SDR”.  If it’s going to be the new money, can’t the world come up with a better name for it?  As a good global citizen, I offer some suggestions to name our new cash.  

First, the Global.  Not too imaginative, but it creates a mental image that would dovetail nicely with the IMF’s branding efforts.  Clear.  Concise.  It has a nice, round sound to it.  But it’s bland.

How about the Gaia?  Working from a similar theme, but with more sophistication and international flair.  The Gaia sounds warm and lush, at least to me, as a northern-hemispherer.  Maybe to a Saharan it sounds hot and dry, I don’t know.   It will need to be tested marketed.  But the environmentalists should love it.  Unless they take exception to having "filthy lucre" named after their Mama. 

Speaking of mama, how about the Mother Earth?  Admittedly, this is an Anglicization of Gaia, which may be undesirable.  Empire building has that effect on people.  The Mother Earth does connote nurturing and care, with a planetary ring to it, which is good for the big picture.  But it may prove too unwieldy for day-to-day use.

Then how about this -- the Bling?  How often do you get to create a one-world currency?  Why not make it fun?  Besides, Hollywood glitz and glamor is popular worldwide.  Everybody wants to be a star.  Why not work with that?  Give it some street, yo!  You feelin’ me?  

But how would it sound in use?  For example, “that Rolex costs five thousand Bling.”  Or this, “the US economy posted a one-point-two-billion Bling deficit last quarter.”  I don’t know, kind of works, kind of doesn’t.   Better keep going.

The Kumbayah.  Isn’t this global peace-in-our-time, buy-the-world-a-Coke thing all about  getting along?  Then this name’s a winner.  How could I get ticked off at someone over a few hundred Kumbayah?  The spelling is a little tricky, but it has a friendly sound to it.  For ease in trade it could be shortened to the Yah.  “Yah” has a positive ring to it too.  Let’s try it, “the Big Mac is three Yah.”  Sounds agreeable, yes?

The Shizzle.  This one is fun to say.  It even sounds funny.  There’s a “shh” sound and a “zzz”.  It’s easy to shorten, “that shirt is on sale for fifteen Shizz.”  What’s not to like?  May sound slightly Yiddish, which could be an issue in some quarters, but all and all, a good solid choice.

How about the Illumibuck?  This name will appeal to the skeptics, who look for the story inside the story, or the man behind the curtain.  Could the whole one-world thing be nefarious?  Maybe so.  But give credit, or debt, as the case maybe, where it’s due.  If there are puppeteers leading us along, throw them a bone.  Put a name on it! 

Maybe all this naming stuff is over the top, too complicated, too many syllables.  Instead, I offer a last, simple, straight-forward name, the MF, short for Monetary Fund.  Easy to remember, easy to spell.  What’s the big deal?  Loss of state sovereignty, democratic control, regional accountability.  Why all the fuss?  It’s just currency, right?

Best of all, with a name like the MF, people can dress it up with nicknames on their own.  Names that encapsulate their feelings for the new currency and the people responsible for bringing it about.