. >> so heather asked her bank, gmac, to modify her mortgage, which then cost about $2,600 a month. >> i said, listen, we can resolve this, just drop my interest rate. >> the response was a barrage of letters and collection calls. >> i am a hard-working single mother, taking care of my 80-year-old mother, and i'm just trying to get by. and survive. no, i want to thrive. i'm sick of just surviving. i want to thrive. i want to have a good life. >> and they can help you do that. >> they can. by just doing what needs to be done to modify my mortgage. because i'll be able to afford it. i don't know why they done want to help me. >> no, here, you're broke, aren't you? >> there's no george bailey's left in the world, you know what i mean? >> no, that's a loan, that's my business. >> but maybe there are. meet bruce. a man with a gift for getting mortgages modified. >> americans own their homes. this is my spot on earth. i've done everything right. this is being threatened. >> the 54-year-old doesn't look like george bailey but he knows banks. he's actually a former management consultant who w

after we called gmac, they agreed to postpone heather's auction date until march. in a statement, they say they are committed to working with borrowers like heather. this is all great news, a special gift from a special man, especially around the holidays. do you think that it is a good omen that the man helping you looks like a baby santa? >> you know, it can only help. >> what's christmas going to be like? >> it's going to be tough. i'm lucky i have only one child. my mother's very understanding. >> also brings home what really matters anyway, right? >> exactly. i live in this country. i have a home. and i want to live the dream, you know, that's all i want to do, is i want to live the dream. >> just ahead, a family who worked the line for generations and watched the jobs go away. the tough choices the workers and their bosses made to save an american automobile. christmas morning with craftsman tools. another holiday, done right. give a craftsman tool. and give with confidence. guys' favorites guaranteed. craftsman. 's's's's's new baked pasta romanas. these warm

elsewhere, massachusetts attorney general sued bank of america, jpmorgan chase, citigroup, wells fargo and gmac mortgage for deceptive business practices with mortgages. clearwire cut a deal with majority owner and biggest customer sprint nextel. resolving a battle that threatened clearwire with bankruptcy. and finally, just a month after rolling out classic coke in a holiday white can, coke is switching back to red. seems white cans had drinkers seeing red. some confused it with diet coke while others actually complained coke tastes different in a white can. amazing what the mind can do to you. >>> coming up, a new coach can't help the caps. the vikings start house cleaning and a last-second thriller in college football. and thursday night nfl football proves eagles are no match for seahawks. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >>> and with it being friday we'll get you set for the beginning of the coming weekend. you're watching "early today." spots again.3q detergent alone doesn't fully dry your dishes. it leaves spots and residue behind. add finish jet-dry and they dry t

in the current system to answer that question, and in retaliation, and this is where it gets fun, gmac and parent company allied financial, get this, have pulled the majority of their lending out of massachusetts in response to the attorney general's actions, and, remember, your money and mine, 74% of it, of that company, is owned by the american taxpayer thanks to a $17 billion bailout of that company in '0 will 8, so our money is being used to fund a business that is now trying to deprive the people of massachusetts of mortgage support because they don't want to be investigated. talk about a screwed-up situation. coakley now calling for congressional hearings and attorney general martha coakley is our first guest today. if you were to walk us through in brief, the intent of your suit, what do we have to understand about what it is you are trying to achieve in. >> well, we have two clear goals here. first, we do want accountability on the part of the banks. now we haven't had it yet, even though over a year ago, dylan, they admitted they were involved in robo signing. the second thing

morgan chase, wells fargo, citigroup, gmac mortgage, and foreclosure processing firm mers corp. >> tom: in response, the banks said they believe a broader, coordinated settlement is better for consumers. wells thinks today's suit would do little to help massachusetts homeowners, while j.p. morgan chase believes a broader settlement could "bring immediate relief to massachusetts borrowers." >> susie: this suit surprised real estate experts, including our guest, susan wachter, professor of real estate at the wharton school at the university of pennsylvania. >> susie: thanks for joining us tonight. >> my pleasure. >> susie: put it in perspective. why is this lawsuit so important? >> this was going to be a blanket agreement that would help put behind us the robo signing controversy, the delays that are blowing up, and what is going to be a long road to recovery in any case. so this raises the uncertainty across the board. >> susie: and is there any indication that other states will follow the massachusetts lead and also sue the banks? >> it's possible. there are also state that is stepped

i started out with private student loans from gmac and have $42,000 in total and they are now up to $60,000 with interest. can we do something? just adjust the interest would be great. guest: the thing about private loans they're very different than when you are working with the federal government, so the federal government has a guaranteed student loan program and i strongly encourage individuals to use up the funds available through the federal government's program first before dealing with the private agencies, because when you're dealing with the private loan agencies, you're dealing with bankers and they have a very different standard for how they will deal with your loans than the government, so they are governed by a different set of regulations so my best advice to you would be to go to the bank and sit down with a financial advisor at the bank and see if they can help you do something to account for that loan. host: let's go to sean from texas. good morning, sean. caller: good morning. i want to know with the current rate of unemployment if it continues what the rate of increase on

a spokesman for gmac's parent company said the firm would honor all commitments made through today, butble. >> barney, what do you think about martha's lawsuit? >> i think she did the right thing. i think that the banks have refused to recognize their culpability. we made a mistake, there's an important political science point. when we did the t.a.r.p. and advanced the money to the banks, all of which has been paid back, we made this mistake. we should've asked them for more of a equipment with regard to averting foreclosure. and we have this political problem. people have paid their mortgages on time, they get resentful if they think other people are getting help. but it's a macroeconomic issue. the people who will benefit people who are probably irresponsible is a consequence in the fact we need to deal with this economically. the problem is this -- and this really needs -- should be examined even by the political scientists. the decisions about how to implement that bank lending program called t.a.r.p. happened during a presidential transition. it was all being done after obama was e

continued his strong record of standing up for homeowners when he represented the people of ohio against gmac mortgage for signing thousands and thousands of affidavits allowing foreclosures to proceed, despite the fact that nobody at the company had any knowledge of these cases. so i want rich cordray at cfpb putting his previous expertise to work. during his tenure as attorney general, he also took on the credit rating agencies on behalf of ohio's pensioners. because of the rating agency's reckless behavior, hardworking ohioans lost over $450 million from their pensions. rich cordray is exactly the kind of strong consumer advocate that cfpb needs. further compounding the bad news is that most of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have vowed to oppose any nominee until the cfpb is substantially altered. literally any nominee. they claim that changes to the cfpb need to be made before they'll even look at a nominee. the proposed changes supposedly rectify the -- quote -- "unprecedented authority" -- unprecedented authority granted to the cfpb and impose -- quote -- "real checks on t