Grand Chase Ph Trading System

Prosesskontroll Instrumentasjon Prosess Måling, styring og opptak Instrumenter Vi kan kalibrere eller reparere alle produsenter skrive prosessinstrumenter for enhver type applikasjon. Vi har erfaring med et bredt utvalg av instrumentering som brukes i x02026 Les mer. Analytiske og laboratorieinstrumenter Moyer Instruments, Inc. tilbyr reparasjon eller kalibrering av analytiske laboratorieinstrumenter som Spektrofotometre, GC, AA, TGA, TOC, HPLC, pH-måler, Analysatorer, etc. Instrumentasjon kan sendes inn for reparasjon, eller vi kan reise til din x02026 Les mer. Laboratoriekalibreringer og reparasjon av benkivå Vi kan levere NIST-sporbare kalibreringer for variablene og parametrene som er oppført nedenfor. Disse tjenestene kan utføres på stedet på ditt sted eller i anlegget vårt. Alle sporbare, analytiske eller prosesskalibreringer inkluderer som x02026 Les mer. Gun-trening Hvor mange amerikanere har egne våpen, og hva bruker de dem til? En nylig Gallup-avstemning viser at 3 av 10 amerikanere personlig eier en pistol de fleste pistoleiere sier at de bruker sine våpen for å beskytte seg mot kriminalitet, jakt og mål skyting. Over 80 millioner mennesker eier dem, og du trenger noen som er seriøse og du kan stole på å lære deg. Colts Guns har erfaring med å gi deg informasjonen. Som en familieeid bedrift med over 52 års erfaring, her på Colt8217s, tilbyr vi ekte kvalitetssalg og er her for å møte dine behov, enten vi kjøper, selger, handler, eller låner, gjør vi det i våre kunders interesse. Visste du at over 25 millioner amerikanere ikke har en kontrollkonto. PantelånerBrokers gir et fellesskap drevet mulighet til å gi et korttidslån til lokalbefolkningen. Det er over 12 000 butikker bare i USA. Mellom sytti til åtti prosent av pantsatte gjenstander er innløst. Tilbake i 1988 gjorde pantelager over 35 millioner i utlån. JPMorgan Chase 151 For stor for ikke å mislykkes Chase, Wells Fargo, USA Bancorp fortsatt ute av samsvar De mislykkes fortsatt i 2011 serviceretningslinjer i juni 2015 Fire år etter pantsetting å rydde opp Omfattende foreclosure misbruk, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, USA Bancorp og tre andre banker fortsatt arent i samsvar med samtykke ordrer pålagt av en føderal regulator, rapporterte Los Angeles Times (17. juni 2015). Som følge derav har Kontoret av Valutakontrolløren begrenset lånebetjeningsoperasjoner ved Wells Fargo, Chase, US Bancorp, Santander Bank, EverBank Financial Corp og HSBC Holdings. Bankregulatorer mottok samtykkeordrene i 2011 som svar på skandaler som involverte robo-signering av foreclosure-dokumenter av token tjenestemenn uten kjennskap til fakta, tapte papirarbeid, ulovlige avgifter og andre juridiske snarveier som ble vanlige etter boliglånsmeltingen. Velkommen til krigen mot fattigdom Fra 2009 til 2012 økte de reelle inntektene til de øverste prosentene av amerikanske familier 31 prosent, mens de reelle inntektene på bunnen 99 prosent knapt knapt (opp mindre enn et halvt prosentpoeng). Robert D. Putnam, våre barn: den amerikanske drømmen i krise (10. mars 2015) USA har den høyeste fattigdomsfrekvensen, den største ulikheten i inntektene og størst ulikhet i formue av enhver større utviklet økonomi i verden. Edward Kleinbard, vi er bedre enn dette: Hvordan regjeringen skal bruke pengene våre (2014) Hvis det amerikanske folket noen gang tillater private banker å kontrollere spørsmålet om deres valuta, først ved inflasjon, da deflasjon, bankene og selskapene som vil vokse oppe rundt dem vil frata folket av all eiendom til barna deres våkner hjemløse på kontinentet deres fedre erobret. Jeg tror at bankinstitusjoner er farligere for våre friheter enn stående hærer. Utstedelsesstyrken skal tas fra bankene og gjenopprettes til folket, som den tilhører riktig. Thomas Jefferson 151 Debatten over regjeringen av bankregningen (1809) Yvanova v. New Century Mortgage 151 Cal. Høyesterett 62 Cal.4th 919 (18 februar, 2016) I en avgjørelse om vannkvalitet besluttet California høyesterett at huseiere har rett til å utfordre myndigheten til en foreclosing enhet for å selge huset - etter foreclosure salg. Deretter hevdet retten andre saker til Court of Appeals å bryte med pre-foreclosure problemer. California Attorney General Kamala Harris arkivert en amicus kort til støtte for huseiere som konkluderte, Retten bør holde at huseiere kan bringe en urettmessig foreclosure handling på grunnlag av at festen avskrekkende på dem mangler makten til å avskaffe fordi de ikke eier gjelden, enten på grunn av en angivelig ugyldig oppgave eller for noen annen juridisk forståelig grunn. Se Yvanovas Høyesteretts avgjørelse og trusser i Saker som er forpliktet To tredjedeler som mistet hjem til foreclosure, vil ikke komme tilbake. - National Assn. av eiendomsmeglere, 17. april 2015 Mindre enn en tredjedel av familier som mistet sine hjem til avskærmning eller andre nødhendelser i løpet av det siste tiåret, vil trolig bli villaeiere igjen, ifølge en analyse fra National Association of Realtors. Mer enn 9,3 millioner huseiere gikk gjennom en foreclosure, overgav sitt hjem til en utlåner eller solgte sitt hjem via et nødsalg mellom 2006 og 2014. Fest dine setebelter, bankabillier George Soros Dumps Alle aksjer av Chase, BofA og Citibank George Soros solgte sine innsatser i banker og gikk for tech og gullminer i første kvartal 2014, ifølge en arkivering med Securities and Exchange Commission. Soros solgte sine beholdninger i Citigroup, Chase og Bank of America i 2014. Soros sa på en Columbia University-konferanse i 2009 at verdens finanssystem effektivt hadde blitt oppløst, og at det ikke var noen mulighet for en kortsiktig løsning på krisen. Vi oppdaget sammenbruddet av det finansielle systemet. Det ble plassert på livsstøtte, og det er fortsatt på livsstøtte. Det er ingen tegn på at vi er hvor som helst i nærheten av bunnen. (Reuters) Er avskrekkingsaksjer rettet Mange dommere ikke avslører økonomiske bånd til banker East Bay Express rapporterte 13. mai 2014 at justis Elizabeth Grimes, Appellate District Court of Appeal (Los Angeles), har stemt for Bank of Amerika mot huseiere i foreclosures saker selv om hun eier mellom 100.000 og 1 million verdt av aksjer i Bank of America, ifølge offentlige registre vedlikeholdt av staten Fair Political Practices Commission. Cal. Kode for rettsetikk Canon 3E (3) (b) krever at dommere diskvaliderer seg fra ethvert tilfelle der de eier aksjer eller obligasjoner utstedt av en part med en rettferdig markedsverdi på over 1 500 151 dersom utfallet av prosedyren kan vesentlig påvirke verdien av dommerne obligasjon. Grimes eier også mellom 100.000 og 1 million aksjer i Wells Fargo og US Bank, og mellom 10.000 og 100.000 i Citibank, noe som gir henne potensielt en multimillion-dollarandel i rentabiliteten til boliglånsindustrien. I 2012 styrte Second Appellate District (Ventura) til fordel for Bank of America i et urettferdig foreclosure-tilfelle brakt av Daniel og Yvette Shuster. En av rettferdighetene i saken, Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert. beholdt aksje i fire forskjellige finansielle selskaper som opprinnelse eller service hjem boliglån, inkludert aksjer verdt så mye som 10.000 i Bank of America og aksjer mellom 10.000 og 100.000 i JPMorgan Chase. Gilbert styrte til fordel for Chase i en foreclosure saken arkivert av Susan Lange som ble argued i desember 2012, og skrev en upublisert mening til fordel for Chase i en annen foreclosure saken besluttet i april 2011. Justice Gilbert avsatt sine aksjer i Chase i mai 2014 . To og to av californias 105 appellate court justices (40) egne betydelige mengder av aksjer i minst ett finansielt selskap. Advokat Patricia Rodriguez sa at så mange dommere har betydelige økonomiske investeringer i bank - og boliglånsindustrien, betyr at de er tilbøyelige til å herske mot villaeiere fordi en rekke beslutninger mot bankene kan redusere lønnsomheten i hele sektoren. De vil ikke være dommeren som lar førti millioner boliglån gå tilbake til låntakerne, fortsatte Rodriguez. De vil ikke muligens sette presedens. En rekke saker som ble avgjort til fordel for huseiere mot bankene, kunne etablere et presedens som ville gjøre det lettere for låntakere å få lovsaker mot bankene sine. Banker som mister oftere i retten, kan få omfattende innvirkning på lønnsomheten deres i California. (East Bay Express). Chase bosetter seg med USA for 13 milliarder 4 milliarder kroner går til huseiere JPMorgan Chase enige om at en 13 milliarder oppgjøret med regjeringen over å selge uhyggelige boliglånsinvesteringer, og avsluttes med en lovlig kamp som signalerer en tøffere holdning mot Wall Street feil. Nasjonens største bank innrømmet å bevisst spytte de giftige verdipapirene som bidro til å føre boligboblen og den verste økonomiske nedsmeltingen siden den store depresjonen. California, slått av 1 million foreclosures under boliglånsmeltdown, vil være en stor mottaker av avtalen. Avtalen inkluderer 4 milliarder kroner for å hjelpe huseiere over hele landet som ble utestengt eller som sliter med lånene sine. Seneren Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Sa at han var fornøyd med tjenestemenn. Det amerikanske folk forstår er at vi fortsetter å være midt i en forferdelig, forferdelig økonomisk nedgang på grunn av grådighet og hensynsløshet og ulovlig oppførsel av Wall Street, sa Sanders. Og jeg tror folk vil ha rettferdighet til å bli gjort. Det var uklart tirsdag hvordan 4 milliarder lettelse program ville bli fordelt til å slite huseiere. Chase sa at det ville distribuere bistanden de neste fire årene. Halvparten av programmet vil gå mot å skrive ned balansen i boliglån og frafalle visse utbetalinger på boliglån. Det meste av dette ville bli oppnådd gjennom direkte tilgivelse av første boliglånsgjeld. Investorer i Chase syntes å være lettet, banken var i stand til å komme fram til det største bosetningen som ble gjort av et enkelt amerikansk selskap i historien. Bankens aksjer steg 41 cent, eller 0,7, til 56,15 i tirsdag, mens store amerikanske aksjeindekser kantet seg ned. Så synes Wall St. at den største banken har slukket lyset. Fabrice Tourre tar fallet Små gutter spretter høyere enn konsernsjef En føderal jury fant handelsmannen Fabrice Tourre ansvarlig på seks teller av sivile verdipapirbedrager etter en tre ukers prøve i Nedre Manhattan. Fem år etter at risikostyringen i Wall Street nesten topplet økonomien, sankte S. E.C. har tatt bare en håndfull medarbeidere til retten i forbindelse med krisen de fleste tilfeller er blitt avgjort. Byrået har ikke nivellert bedrageribeskatning mot en toppleder hos en stor bank. Noen kritikere har stilt spørsmålstegn ved hvorfor byrået valgte å gjøre Mr. Tourre til en midlevel-ansatt som var stasjonert i Goldmans boliglånsmaskin i møte med krisen. Snarere enn å sikte på en høyflygende leder, foreslo byrået noen knapt kjent på Wall Street. Den 30. september arkiverte hans advokater et forslag til en ny rettssak i føderal domstol. Samtidig studerer Fab for doktorgrad i økonomi ved University of Chicago, hvor Barack Obama var jurist i 12 år. Et ødelagt system Douglas Gillies Kontraktsloven ble kastet ut av vinduet da Wall Street slått tittelen på eiendommen i konfetti. Jamie Dimon møter med Obama i dag, vil du ikke finne den i Wall Street Journal Hvis president Obama prøver å gjøre det klart at han rapporterer til 1 prosent, ikke de gjennomsnittlige amerikanerne som valgte ham, han tjente en A på sitt rapportkort. Klokka 6:46 p. m. I kveld sendte det hvite hus presidentens tidsplan for i dag. Et punkt på dagsordenen lyder som følger: Senere om morgenen møter presidenten med medlemmer av Financial Services Forum som en del av organisasjonens daglige vårmøte. Dette møtet i Roosevelt-rommet er lukket. Det er ikke nevnt i denne pressemeldingen at presidenten skal møte med konsernsjefene i de bankene som er for stor til å mislykkes, absolutt en detalj som er verdt publikums oppmerksomhet. Tidlig i morges forteller Wall Street Journal-linken på forsiden av sitt nettsted til sin historie om presidenterne sammen med medlemmer av Financial Services Forum oss følgende: PAGE UNAVAILIG Dokumentet du forespurte enten ikke lenger eksisterer eller er ikke tilgjengelig for øyeblikket. Heldigvis har Google cached artikkelen, og fra det lærer vi at Jamie Dimon, styreformann og administrerende direktør i JPMorgan Chase (hvis firma er under en FBI-undersøkelse for å miste 6,2 milliarder kroner av innskytere i en derivathandelsordning) forventes å møte presidenten på Det hvite hus i dag som en del av Financial Services Forum. Også forventet å delta er Brian Moynihan, administrerende direktør i Bank of America. Kapitalismens korrupsjon i Amerika av David Stockman, New York Times, 30. mars 2013 De siste 13 årene har aksjemarkedet to ganger krasjet og rørt av en lavkonjunktur: Amerikanske husholdninger mistet 5 billioner i 2000-dot-com-busten og mer enn 7 billioner i 2007-boligulykken. Før eller senere - innen noen få år forutsier jeg - denne siste Wall Street-boblen, oppblåst av en ekstreme oversvømmelse av falske penger fra Federal Reserve i stedet for ekte økonomiske gevinster, vil også eksplodere. Så hovedgaten økonomien svikter mens Washington henter en svevende gjeldsbyrde på våre etterkommere, ikke i stand til å tåle i enten krigsføringsstaten eller velferdsstaten eller heve skatter som trengs for å betale nasjonalregningene. Fed har som standard benyttet seg av en radikal, ukjent spree av pengeprint. Men likviditetsflommen, i stedet for å spore banker for å låne og selskaper å tilbringe, har holdt seg fanget i Wall Street-kløftene, hvor det blåser enda en uholdbar boble. David A. Stockman er en tidligere republikansk kongresmedlem fra Michigan, president Ronald Reagans budsjettdirektør fra 1981 til 1985 og forfatteren sist, The Great Deformation: Kapitalismens korrupsjon i Amerika. Hemmeligheter og Lies of the Bailout av Matt Taibbi Det har vært fire lange vintre siden den føderale regjeringen, i hulking, barbert-skulled, Alien Nation-esque form av finansminister Hank Paulson, forpliktet 700 milliarder kroner i skattebetalers penger for å redde Wall Street fra sin egen chicanery og grådighet. For å lytte til bankfolkene og deres allierte i Washington, fortell det, tror du at redningen var den beste tingen å slå den amerikanske økonomien etter oppfinnelsen av forsamlingslinjen. Ikke bare forhindret det en annen stor depresjon, vi har blitt fortalt, men pengene har alle blitt betalt tilbake, og regjeringen har selv gjort en fortjeneste. Ingen skade, ingen feil - riktig Det var all løgn - en av de største og mest utførlige løgnene som noen gang ble solgt til det amerikanske folket. Vi ble fortalt at skattyteren gikk inn - bare midlertidig, tenk deg - for å sette opp økonomien og redde verden fra økonomisk katastrofe. Det vi faktisk hadde gjort, var det motsatte: å forplikte amerikanske skatteytere til permanent, blind støtte av et ugjennomtrengelig, uregulerbart, hyperkoncentrert nytt finansielt system som forverrer grådigheten og ulikheten som forårsaket krasj, og styrker Wall Street-banker som Goldman Sachs og Citigroup å øke risikoen i stedet for å redusere den. Resultatet er en av de avtalene hvor en feil beslutning tidlig blomstrer inn i et frodig mareritt av utilsiktede konsekvenser. Vi trodde vi bare lot en vennskrasj i huset for et par dager endte vi med en familie av hillbillies som flyttet inn for alltid, sov ni til en seng og bygde et meth lab på forsiden av plenen. Hvordan Wall Street drepte finansiell reform Men den mest forferdelige delen er løgnen. Publikum har blitt løyet så sjamløst og så ofte i løpet av de siste fire årene at mangelen på å fortelle sannheten til befolkningen i befolkningen, har blitt en slags innsatt, offisiell funksjon av den økonomiske redningen. Penger var ikke det eneste regjeringen ga Wall Street - det tillot også rett til å skjule sannheten fra resten av oss. Og det var alt gjort for å hjelpe vanlige folk og skape jobber. Det er, sier tidligere bailout Inspector General Neil Barofsky, den ultimate agn-og-bryteren. Bailout deceptions kom tidlig, sent og i mellom. Det ble løgner fortalt i de første øyeblikkene da de ble opprettet, og andre blir fortalt fire år senere. Løgnene var faktisk de viktigste mekanismene i bailout. Den eneste grunnen til at investorer ikke har lyst til å skrike fra en åpenbart korrupte finansmarkedsplass, er at regjeringen har gått på slike ekstraordinære lengder for å selge fortellingen at problemene i 2008 er blitt løst. Investorer kan ikke faktisk tro på løgnen, men de er imponert over hvor helt engasjert regjeringen har vært fra begynnelsen å selge den. Les mer: Rollingstonepoliticsnewssecret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-20130104ixzz2JyBGoqwY Det første vi gjør, kan drepe alle advokatene Henry VI av William Shakespeare Du har kanskje hørt at ikke en eneste banker har blitt belastet med en forbrytelse for deres raseri mot verdensøkonomien de siste årene, men California Bar Association har et annet perspektiv på problemet. Ikke nok advokater har blitt avskåret for å prøve å representere huseiere i foreclosure. Rage Among the Ruins er en feature-historie av Eric Berkowitz i februar 2013-utgaven av California Lawyer. et gratis månedlig magasin sendt til 170.000 California advokater. California State Bar CEO Joe Dunn kaller foreclosure lettelse nummer 1 disiplinær utfordring hans organisasjon står overfor. Fra februar 2009 til desember 2012 behandlet statsbåten om lag 12 000 klager mot advokater som angivelig solgte klienter verdiløse foreclosure relief tjenester av en eller annen type. Av disse resulterte 396 tilfeller i disbarments, og ved denne skrivelsen var det 284 saker under aktiv etterforskning. De fleste tilfellene våre kommer fra sint klienter, sier etterforsker Tom Layton, som jobbet på Statens Barneforvaltningsbistand. Vi var ikke klar for denne typen volum. For å beskytte intetanende huseiere har State Bar, Statens advokatfirmaer, Institutt for eiendomsmegling, forskjellige distriktsadvokater og amerikanske advokatkontorer, og nå har det nye føderale forbrukerfinansieringsbyrå vært å styrke håndhevelsesarbeidet mot avskrekkende svindel. Opprettelse av oppgavestyrker, utstedelse av forbrukervarsler og innlevering av søksmål, har disse ulike byråene brakt ned operasjoner over hele California. Men så lenge bekymrede huseiere har håper på å holde et tak over hodet, vil skruppelløse folk prøve å tjene på deres nød. Advokater er involvert på et eller annet nivå i de fleste svindel, sier staten Bars Dunn. Så neste gang finner du en advokat som er villig til å investere 500 timer for å hjelpe deg med å kjempe mot bankene og redde hjemmet ditt fra foreclosure, ta råd fra William Shakespeare og California Lawyer. Bare skyt em. Foreclosures haunting Obama av Ginyamin Appelbaum WASHINGTON - Etter å ha arvet den verste økonomiske nedgangen siden den store depresjonen, hente president Obama store mengder penger i arbeidet med å stabilisere det finansielle systemet, redde bilindustrien og gjenopplive økonomien. Men han forsøkte å finesse opprydningen av boligkrasj, avvise upopulære forslag til en bred redning av villaeiere som står overfor foreclosure til fordel for et begrenset hjelpeprogram - og et veddemål om at en gjenopprettingsøkonomi ville ta vare på resten. I løpet av de to første årene i kontoret bekreftet Obama og hans rådgivere gjentatte ganger denne nøye kalibrerte strategien, og etterlot ubemannet hundrevis av milliarder dollar som kongressen hadde tildelt for å kjøpe boliglån, selv om millioner av mennesker mistet sine hjem og det økonomiske utvinningen stanset et sted mellom krise og velstand. Nasjonene smertefullt sakte tempoet i vekst er nå den primære trusselen mot Mr. Obamas bud for en annen periode, og noen økonomer og politiske allierte sier den forsiktige reaksjonen på boligkrisen var forvaltningen mest signifikante feil. Bailouts av banker og bilprodusenter er nå allment ansett som avgjørende skritt for å arrestere lavkonjunkturen, mens det deprimerte boligmarkedet forblir en møllesten. De var ikke aggressive i å ta de skrittene som kunne ha blitt tatt, sa representant Zoe Lofgren, leder av California Democratic caucus. Og som en konsekvens de ikke forstyrrer den katastrofale spiralen nedover i vår økonomi. Mr. Obama insisterte på at regjeringen burde hjelpe bare ansvarlige låntakere, og hans administrasjon tilbudte hjelp til færre enn halvparten av de som står overfor avskærmning, unntatt utleiere, eiere av big-ticket hjem og de som dømmes å ha overdreven gjeld. Han bestemte seg for å stole på realkreditforetakene for å endre uoverkommelige lån i stedet for å få regjeringen til å ta kontroll ved å kjøpe lånene, tilnærmingen tiltalte av hans sjefspolitiske rivaler i 2008 presidentvalget, Hillary Rodham Clinton og John McCain. Unrepentant og unreformed Bankers av Phil Angelides At for mye av Wall Street forblir uendret er ikke overraskende. Enkelt sagt, bankene og deres ledere har ikke betalt noen reell økonomisk, juridisk eller politisk pris for deres feil, og har dermed ikke følt seg tvunget til å forandre seg. På den økonomiske siden har finanssektoren kommet godt tilbake fra sin pensel med døden, takket være en enorm skattebetalers bailout. Innen 2010 hadde kompensasjon på børsnoterte Wall Street-firmaer rammet 135 milliarder kroner. I fjor var overskuddene til nasjonene fem største banker over 51 milliarder kroner, og deres ledere har alle nytte av lønnsøkninger. I 2011 hadde de 10 største amerikanske bankene 77 prosent av nasjonene bankinnskudd. På juridisk front har håndhevelsen vært voldsomt utilstrekkelig. Føderale kriminelle økonomiske svindelforfølgelser har falt til en to-tiår lav. Krenkelser avgjøres for pennies på dollaren - den eneste kostnaden ved å drive forretning, uten innrømmelse av forseelse og med regningen blir alltid hentet av forsikringsselskaper eller aksjonærer. (Når sine aksjonærer, det er ikke noen andre langt unna, det er din 401 (k), pensjonskasse eller fond.) Må Gud hjelpe oss alle av Mark Stopa, advokat i Florida. Vil du kjøpe en regjeringskort? Bare ta med 10 000 000,00 Skrevet 29. juni 2012 av Mark Stopa Ive uttrykte ofte min disgust på hvordan Fannie Mae og Freddie Mac ofte betaler banker 100 av dommen deres i foreclosure saker. Det er en forferdelig dynamikk i foreclosure-verden, en hvor bankene ofte ikke har noe incitament til å endre boliglån fordi vår regjering vil betale bankene i sin helhet når foreclosure er over (og alle bankene må gjøre er å formidle tittel til Fannie og Freddie). Utrolig, akkurat da jeg trodde jeg ikke kunne bli mer rystet, kom min avsky med regjeringen på et nytt nivå i dag. Jeg har det på god informasjon (direkte fra noen personelt involvert) at Fannie og Freddie selger avskårne boliger i bulk til tredjeparts investorer. Ikke en om gangen, ikke flere - dusinvis - til sterkt nedsatte priser. Med andre ord, mange boliger i Florida og andre steder som er blitt avskåret, med lavere og middelklasse huseiere kastet på gatene og tittelen overført til Fannie eller Freddie, blir solgt til tredjeparts investorer i bulk. Hvis du tror det høres ut som en interessant investerings mulighet, la meg stoppe en sjanse til å kjøpe et nytt hjem etter at du ble avskåret. Fannie og Freddie Arent gjør disse investeringene tilgjengelige for bare noen. For å kvalifisere seg til å komme inn i døren til auksjonsrommet, må du ha minst 10.000.000,00 i eiendeler, og du må kunne bevise eksistensen av disse eiendelene via bankkontoer og lignende. Ti millioner dollar, bare for å komme inn i døren. Er dette hva Amerika har blitt å kaste amerikanere på gatene, slik at vår regjering betaler bankene å avskaffe og vår regjering selger disse husene i bulk til nedsatte priser til tredjepartsinvestorer med en åttefalls nettoverdi. Du vet hva som er uten tvil enda verre. Ingen er selv snakker om dette. Ingen nyhetshistorier. Ingen mediedekning. Ingenting. Ville du ha kjent om dette hvis Mark Stopa - i utgangspunktet ingen i omfanget av nasjonale nyheter og politikk - hadde ikke blogget om det Hvorfor en slik hemmelighold Hvor er mediedekningen Hvor er forferden Hvem driver vår regjering, akkurat Dette er like stort et problem som Obamacare - tusenvis av huseiere blir utelukket og deres hjem blir solgt i bulk til mega-velstående. Hvorfor er det ingen som snakker om det Er Amerika virkelig et land hvor vår regjering tar hus fra fattige og middelklassen og selger dem i bulk til nedsatte priser til mega-velstående - og det gjør det helt i hemmelighet Er det noen som bryr meg? Det er derfor Jeg anser dette som det største innlegget jeg har skrevet. Dette er det som driver hele foreclosure krisen, og ingen vet om det. Nobodys snakker selv om det. Endring er ikke mulig uten bevissthet, og akkurat nå er alle amerikanere helt i mørket om denne dynamikken. Vel, alle amerikanere unntatt de som har 10.000.000.00. Måtte Gud hjelpe oss alle. Mark Stopa Leadership Vaccuum Geithner mot å redusere boliglånsansvarlig president Obama lovet å bruke 50 milliarder kroner fra den 700 milliarder banken bailout godkjent av kongressen i 2008 for å hjelpe huseiere. Bare om lag 3,7 milliarder av det har blitt brukt. Uncle Sams Underwater Foreclosure Policy sink, baby, sink 11. april 2012. Massachusetts advokat Martha Coakley ledet en koalisjon av elleve stater oppfordrer Fannie Mae og Freddie Mac til å reversere sin posisjon og implementere prinsippet reduksjon i sitt lån modifikasjon program. Hennes brev til FHFA 11. april ble tilsluttet av Advokater General fra California, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon og Vermont. AG Coakley sa: Vi vil snart se resultatene av landets største banker som implementerer hovedstolsreduksjon som nødvendig i henhold til den nye Multistate Servicing Settlement. Det er nå tid for FHFA å akseptere det faktum at de viktigste tilgivelsesprogrammene hjelper låntakere, hjelpe fellesskap og kan forbedre kreditorens bunnlinje. 18. april 2012. En uke senere oppfordret New York Daily News til nyhetsadvokat Eric Schneiderman til å slutte president Obamas boliglånsenhet. Løftene til presidenten har ført til liten eller ingen konkret handling, skrev Mike Gecan og Arnie Graf fra Metro Industrial Areas Foundation i en opinionsdel for Daily News. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman bør avstå fra denne kyniske arrangementet, sa de. Arbeidsgruppen for boliglånsbaserte verdipapirer ble fremtredende fremtredende i unionsstemmen for 85 dager siden. Det har ikke gjort noe, ifølge Daily News. Schneiderman har ingen kontor, ingen telefoner, ingen ansatte, og ingen administrerende direktør. Daily News-artikkelen fortsetter: Oppgjøret og arbeidsgruppen - samlet sett - var et kupp: et PR-kupp for Det hvite hus og bankene. Mediene hilste oppløsningen for noen dager, og viste seg deretter på andre emner og kontroverser. Men for 12 millioner amerikanske huseiere, samlet 700 milliarder kroner under vann, var dette bare en annen i en lang rekke sham-transaksjoner. Faktisk var den nye boliglånsobligerte arbeidsgruppen den sjette som ble etablert siden begynnelsen av finanskrisen i 2009. Det samlede antall ansatte som jobbet for alle de fem foregående gruppene var en, ifølge en overrasket Schneiderman. I Washington, hvor staber vokser som kirsebærblomstrer, er dette en bemerkelsesverdig forekomst. The Huffington Post rapportert 19. april, i politiet, tre måneder er ikke veldig lenge - undersøkelser tar vanligvis måneder eller år. Men skeptismen er neppe overraskende, gitt at Obama-administrasjonene sprer seg og i stor grad er overveldende rettshåndhevelse på finanskrisen. Det har vært fem år siden subprime-markedet krasjet, og føderale myndigheter har for det meste ikke påtalte enkeltpersoner og institusjoner som opprettet, markedsført og vurdert de finansielle produktene som nesten brakte ned den amerikanske økonomien. En fersk New York TimesCBS-undersøkelse fant at 36 prosent av respondentene godkjente presidentens håndtering av boliglånskrisen, mens 49 prosent avviste. USA rapporterer i dag at nesten 1 av 5 barn i Nevada bodde eller bodde i eiere som var tapt for avskærmning eller er i fare for å gå seg vill. Prosentandelene er 15 i Florida, 14 for Arizona og 12 for California. Det er omtrent en av åtte barn i California. Fem år i foreclosure krisen, har anslagsvis 2,3 millioner barn levd i hjem tapt for foreclosure. Chase er større enn Wells Fargo, BoA, Citi. For stor til frøken Chasing Chase er vanskelig å savne. JPMorgan er landets største kommersielle bank av eiendeler, med 2.416 billioner i eiendeler. et tall som har økt med en halv milliard dollar siden 2007, 757 milliarder kroner av lån, 1,4 milliarder i innskudd, 260.000 ansatte over hele verden. Det er den største investeringsbanken i verden, og det blir stadig større. For det andre på listen Goldman We-Break-Our-Clients-for-Entertainment Sachs. Huffington Post Et hundre år Tittel Turmoil MERS Madness vil forgifte USA godt i et århundre Når du får lommen plukket av en ekte proff, er det noen ganger alt du kan gjøre verdsatt av kunstverket. Slike, tilsynelatende, er tilfellet med MERS, en nasjonal elektronisk database med boliglån som effektivt svekket millioner av dollar fra lokale myndigheter akkurat når de kunne ha brukt inntektene mest. Thomas Brom, I MERS Vi stoler på, California advokat (mars 2013). Hvorvidt MERS Inc. kan opprettholde et privat, kun medlemskapsregister for boliglån, er fortsatt å se. Det kan ikke være noen nasjonal løsning - hver stat styrer sitt eget opptakssystem, opprettholder David E. Woolley, leder av Harbinger Analytics Group i Tustin og en lisensiert landmåler. Woolley forutslo at en bølge av grensedrakter til slutt ville slå tittelforsikringsselskaper. Tusenvis av titler har gått tapt eller fortynnet i et hav av MERS-transaksjoner, og kan ta hundre år å fikse, han og Manhattan Beach-advokaten Lisa D. Herzog skrev i 8 HASTINGS BUS. L. J. 365, 367 (2012). I 2010 introduserte rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) et lovforslag om å forby Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac og Ginnie Mae fra å eie eller garantere noe boliglån tildelt MERS eller som MERS er panthaver på posten. Den døde i komiteen i 2011 og igjen i fjor i januar 2013, innførte Kaptur regningen som H. 189. Fra 4. juli 2013 gir govtrack. us regningen en 3 sjanse til å komme forbi komiteen og 1 sjanse til å bli vedtatt. Land er Americas mest verdifulle ressurs. MERS kan ha satt vår nasjonal sikkerhet i fare, da eiendomsverdier smuldrer og insolvens er det varige resultatet av MERS-mytologi. Lykkelig fjerde juli, MERS maniacs. Rachael Maddow rapporterer om Meltdown Intervju med Jeff Thigpen, County Recorder Rachael Maddow beskriver hvordan bankene ødela eiendomsverdier i Unites States ved å handle tittel på eiendom som kasino chips. Hun rapporterer at Occupy Greensboro i North Carolina trener frivillige til å gjennomgå dokumenter i nye foreclosures for å finne bevis på svindel, inkludert robosigning. Hun intervjuer Jeff Thigpen, Register of Deeds for Guilford County NC, som sier at han ikke lenger kan fortelle hvem som eier hva. Thigpens-staben gjennomførte en undersøkelse av 6.100 boliglånsdokumenter og oppdaget at 74 prosent, omtrent 4500 transaksjoner, hadde problemer med forfalsket signaturer og falske dokumenter. Hans undersøkelse om robo-signering er blitt sitert i en rekke avventede rettssaker, samt i Associated Press, Business Week og andre nasjonale publikasjoner. I mars 2012 tok Thigpens kontor mer enn to dusin store banker og kredittforetak til retten, inkludert JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup og MERSCorp. og belaste dem med å ødelegge 250 års rettferdig handel i hans fylke. The lawsuit begins, This lawsuit seeks to have defendants clean up the mess they created. Until the banks do that, he said, the people in his county cannot buy and sell property with any real confidence about who owns it. MERS Foreclosure Fraud Wisconsin State Journal Friday, March 5, 2012 It used to be that if you wanted to find out who owned your mortgage, you could go to the office of your local register of deeds, the final authority on questions of property ownership. But when banks set up their own private registration system to help them bundle and resell mortgages in a whirlwind of securities exchanges, the land offices of record had no hope of keeping up. And when some banks later foreclosed on many of those properties, often cutting corners or worse - creating phony documents - it left register of deeds offices across Wisconsin awash in forged and fraudulent documents. Thats a serious problem for registrars charged with maintaining property records, said Brown County Register of Deeds Cathy Williquette Lindsay, who heads a committee studying foreclosure fraud on behalf of the Wisconsin Register of Deeds Association. Its troubling to know that in each of our offices, are thousands - and I mean thousands - of fraudulent documents, Williquette Lindsay said. Registrars offices across Wisconsin are littered with paperwork signed and sworn to by fictitious people, including Linda Green, a handle commonly used by robo-signers - workers who signed off on foreclosure documents without verifying them. Not only did Linda Green not sign it, Williquette Lindsay said, but somebody fraudulently notorized it. Across the country, officials tasked with keeping track of property ownership are increasingly alarmed about the prevalence of forged signatures and fraudulent affidavits among their records. Last month, five major banks agreed to pay 25 billion to compensate homeowners and states for the fraudulent activity and to halt abusive practices, although they have admitted no wrongdoing. In separate legal actions, several local governments and three states - Massachusetts, New York and Delaware - have sued the major banks and the private record-keeping service they employ, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), alleging they have flooded the courts and registrars offices with inaccurate, fraudulent and forged documents. John OBrien, head of the Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds in Massachusetts, was among the first to raise the alarm about potential foreclosure fraud in November 2010. Last year, OBriens office commissioned a study of 473 mortgages issued to and from JP Morgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America during 2010. The review found just 16 percent of the records in the Essex County office assigning ownership of the mortgages were valid. The rest had been back-dated, robo-signed or had other problems, including broken chains of title. Kevin Harvey, the countys first assistant register, said OBriens office has asked 80 financial institutions to file affidavits verifying that the records they have previously submitted were legitimate. Guess how many banks have signed the affidavit Harvey asked. Ingen. At the heart of the controversy is MERS, founded about 15 years ago by the large banks and now used by roughly 3,000 mortgage-related entities. MERS was to be a central storehouse that streamlined the process of registering and transferring loans secured by property, which previously had been the exclusive purview of county registrars offices. But the private registration system has also created chaos, uncertainty and injected fraud into the nations property records, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman charged in a lawsuit against MERS on Feb. 3. The lawsuit alleges the system effectively eliminated the publics ability to track property transactions by registering properties in the name of MERS rather than the bank that owns the mortgage. That allows member institutions to move loans quickly and multiple times without having to record each move with the local registrars office. The lawsuit claims the MERS system has led to a loss of 2 billion in fees nationally from local registrars offices. And some of the information MERS does have, the lawsuit alleges, is unreliable and inaccurate. The Reston, Va.-based company said it is following the law and has become an important part of the mortgage industry. MERS does not hide ownership or undermine the integrity of land records, the company said in response to Schneidermans suit. Any mortgage holder registered in the MERS System can easily access information related to their mortgage on our website or through a toll-free number. The company added that federal law already requires that consumers be notified when the owner or servicer of their loan changes. County land records were not intended to identify the servicer of a mortgage or the current note holder, the company said, they are intended to provide notice to purchasers of property that there is a lien on the property and when that lien was perfected. But Williquette Lindsay said very little information is made available to homeowners by MERS. Property owners visiting their local register of deeds offices to find out who owns their mortgage to prepare for a bankruptcy or defend against foreclosure often leave empty-handed, she said. They want to know who is their lender of record, and we cant tell them, Williquette Lindsay said. When Nevada began requiring transfers of mortgage ownership be recorded in the local recorders office in October, foreclosures in that state dropped sharply. Bizarre and complex Schneidermans suit described MERS as a bizarre and complex entity that has few employees but which has designated at least 20,000 people working for its member institutions to sign documents on its behalf. In some cases, MERS-designated officials sign documents assigning mortgages from MERS - which actually is only a registration system and owns no mortgages at all - to their own companies or clients to prove ownership in foreclosure actions, Schneiderman said. Madison attorney Briane Pagel said he has been unable to get any information out of MERS to help his clients fighting foreclosure. We have a property recording system that dates back to the Middle Ages, he said, and MERS has just about destroyed it. Capitalism is Out of Whack The President Sends Bank Lawyers after the Banks U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Departments criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Whos Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters investigation shows. While Holder and Breuer were partners at Covington, the firms clients included the four largest U. S. banks - Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. The traffic between the Justice Department and Covington Burling has been non-stop. In 2010, Holders deputy chief of staff, John Garland, returned to Covington. So did Steven Fagell, who was Breuers deputy chief of staff in the criminal division. The revolving door between the Obama administration and Big Banks never stops turning. President Obama announced in his State of the Union address on January 24, 2012, that he was creating a special unit within the Financial Fraud Enforcement Taskforce to deal with mortgage origination and securitization abuses: And tonight, I am asking my Attorney General to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general to expand our investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans. The members of the new Mortgage Securitization Abuses Unit were identified as New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Assistant U. S. Attorney General Lanny Breuer Robert Khuzami, Director of Enforcement at the SEC John Walsh, U. S. Attorney, District of Colorado and Tony West, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, Department of Justice. AG Eric Holder, sitting near the podium, was blinking so fast as Obama said he would rein in the banks that I could only assume he was on LSD - but the kinder interpretation would be that people often blink more rapidly when they are feeling distressed or uncomfortable. New York Attorney General Schneiderman and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden have been among the most outspoken regarding the prosecution of crimes relating to mortgage securitization. Schneiderman released a statement after the Presidents address: In coordination with our federal partners, our office will continue its steadfast commitment to holding those responsible for the economic crisis accountable, providing meaningful relief for homeowners commensurate with the scale of the misconduct, and getting our economy moving again. The American people deserve a robust and comprehensive investigation into the global financial meltdown to ensure nothing like it ever happens again, and todays announcement is a major step in the right direction. Abigail Caplovitz Field wrote in Reality Check on January 24, 2012, Schneiderman isnt chairing anything. Hes Co-Chairing. Thats a huge difference. If hes Chair hes in charge. If hes Co-Chair he needs consensus. And who is he Co-Chairing with Four people, starting with Lanny Breuer. Thats unacceptable. Why has Breuer failed to go after the people who committed misconduct and illegalities that contributed to both the financial collapse and the mortgage crisis Is it because hes an ex - (and likely future) Covington Burling partner Doesnt matter. His track record speaks for itself. There is only one reason to have him co-chair with Schneiderman, and thats to rein Schneiderman in. On January 31, Bill Black wrote, The federal government does not intend to prosecute criminally the large financial firms and their senior officers who committed hundreds of billions of dollars in fraudulent mortgage originations. That figure only counts the fraudulent liars loans the five large banks made. The total amount of mortgage origination fraud through liars loans exceeds 1 trillion. The five banks civil liability for mortgage origination fraud is vastly larger than their civil liability for their endemic foreclosure fraud. Capitalism is out of whack, said Klaus Schwab, founder and president of the World Economic Forum. We have sinned, he said, adding that this years forum in Davos, Switzerland, will place particular emphasis on ethics and resetting the moral compass of the worlds business and political community. New Zealand Herald 1262012. The Amazing Disappearing Bank Chase Halts Lawsuits to Collect Credit Card Debt JPMorgan Chase Co. has quietly ceased filing lawsuits to collect consumer debts around the nation, dismissing in-house attorneys and virtually shutting down a collections machine that as recently as nine months ago was racking up hundreds of millions of dollars in monthly judgments. Jerry Salzberg, a lawyer who represents debt collectors and banks in the Chicago area, was familiar with Chases dismissed Illinois collections attorneys, whom he describes as experienced, productive and profitable. Someone from New York brought in the three lawyers, kicked them out with no warning and dismissed all their cases, Salzberg says. These were people who were by the book. If they werent the most profitable of Chases regional collection teams, they sure as hell were making a lot of money for the bank. Obviously something happened. Chase collections cases have dropped off sharply in Illinois in recent months, in addition to disappearing in five other states, an American Banker review indicates. The review focused on California, Florida Maryland, New York and Washington, where local court records are electronically searchable. After recouping 405 million in the first quarter of 2011, Chases recoveries fell to 321 million in the second quarter and 266 million in the third quarter. It is not clear why Chase is walking away from billions of dollars of claims, but the number is likely to climb as word gets out that Chase is climbing out of the ring. Here We Go Again 2012 was another stunning year The system continues to crumble. House prices have fallen an average of 33 percent from their 2006 peak, resulting in about 7 trillion in household wealth losses and an associated ratcheting down of aggregate consumption, according to a Federal Reserve White Paper that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke provided to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate banking committees on January 4, 2012. It states: . the large inventory of foreclosed or surrendered properties is contributing to excess supply in the for-sale market, placing downward pressure on house prices and exacerbating the loss in aggregate housing wealth. At the same time, rental markets are strengthening in some areas of the country, reflecting in part a decline in the homeownership rate. Reducing some of the barriers to converting foreclosed properties to rental units will help redeploy the existing stock of houses in a more efficient way. Such conversions might also increase lenders eventual recoveries on foreclosed and surrendered properties. Thank you, Chairman Bernanke, for those snappy remarks. Deploy means to move troops into position for action. Maybe your troops can establish base camps filled with barracks to deploy the millions of families who were marched out of the existing stock of houses. Bank of Americas CEO Brian Moynihan earned 2.26 million in 2011, while his banks market value dropped 60. Chase CEO Jamie Dimon took home 41.9 million 151 the most among bank CEOs 151 for steering a bank that lost 23 of its stock value in 2011. Goldmans Lloyd Blankfein pocketed nearly 22 million, while his investment bank lost more than 46 of its market value. You gotta pay top dollare to lose money at that rate. Compensation pools at seven of the biggest U. S. banks totalled about 156 billion (including salaries, benefits and bonuses) in 2011, which is 3.7 higher than the record breaking number set in 2010. Truthout January 2, 2012. Bankruptcy attorney Max Gardners prediction for 2012: The number of homes in foreclosure will double or triple from 2011 levels and home values will drop by another 15 to 20 by the end of year. I do not expect to see any real recovery in the housing market until at least 2022. A massive number of bank-owned homes (Real Estate Owned or REO property) will be turned into rental properties by the banks andor mortgage servicers and many more foreclosed on homes will be sold in bulk sales to investors for the same purpose. Bank of America will be forced into liquidation under the too big to fail provisions of the Dodd Frank Act. The FHFA as conservator of BoA may impose the Chapter 13 principal reduction program for all loans owned and serviced by the Bank. On November 26, 2012, Foreclosure Radar recorded its millionth California foreclosure sale since January 2007. On average, more than 500 California families have lost their homes every day since 4Q 2007. California foreclosure activity remains elevated, with more than 30,000 completed foreclosures each quarter, compared to less than 3,500 foreclosures in 3Q 2006. Cumulative Foreclosure Totals Have Devastated California Communities: Since 4Q 2007 - the unofficial beginning of the economic crisis - through 4Q 2011, more than 1.5 million Californians received notices of default on their homes. More than 785,000 California families actually lost their homes to foreclosure during the same period. Ten of the top 20 metro foreclosure areas nationwide for 2011 were in California. For mortgages originated between 2004 and 2008, Latino and African-American homeowners in California experienced foreclosure rates 2.1 and 1.7 times that of non-Hispanic White homeowners through February 2011. Latinos accounted for 22 percent of all loans made between 2004 and 2008, but 37 of California foreclosures for the same time period. In 2011 Santa Barbarians received 2307 notices of trustee sales and 1799 notices in 2012. Currently, one in three California owners with a mortgage is underwater. Santa Barbara has not escaped the housing collapse. Consider the Old Masini Adobe in Montecito. Almost 200 years old, this vintage piece of history is considered to be the oldest 2-story adobe. Built in 1820, this Monterey Colonial is a historical landmark situated on 34 acre on 129 Sheffield Drive. Originally listed at 3 million, then reduced to 2.5 million, it sold at the end of 2011 for 791,000. Notices of Trustees Sale recorded in Santa Barbara County: 2007-2011: 10,946 2002-2006: 880 Foreclosures in Santa Barbara increased 12-fold in the most recent five years compared to the previous five years. KillingerRotella Settle for 64 Million Insurance will pay most of the FDICs latest joke New York Times Dec. 14, 2011 The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has settled their 900 million lawsuit against three former top executives of Washington Mutual for 64 million (7 cents on the dollar). The FDIC in March 2011 sued WaMu CEO Kerry Killinger, COO Steven Rotella, and home-loans President David Schneider, accusing them of gross mismanagement of WaMus mortgage business that ultimately led to the lenders failure in September 2008. The FDIC accused the executives of pushing Washington Mutual to the brink by making risky bets to reap short-term profits for themselves. Most of the settlement will be paid by WaMus directors and officers (DO) insurance. Only 400,000 in total will be paid by the executives. Killingers 133,000 share of the settlement will be a tiny drop in the bucket 151 he collected 103 million between 2003 and 2008 as his compensation for steering WaMu into the ground. The systems broken - Rich Sharga, Sr. Vice President, RealtyTrac With the nations foreclosure system all but paralyzed after an avalanche of loan failures and robo-signing scandals, many delinquent homeowners are defying lenders and staying put. Instead of packing up and slinking away, theyre living for free, sometimes for years. Theyre hiring lawyers to challenge their cases, and many are winning reprieves or causing the process to stall even further. They go into a perpetual state of limbo where nothing happens or the case goes very slowly, says attorney, Mark Stopa. The extraordinary delays are hampering hope of a housing market recovery and pushing this years troubles into next year, says Rich Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosure data. The logjam also has kept thousands of new cases from being filed. The systems broken, he says. The AARP article continues, Often, banks are not pushing to go to foreclosure. They seem to be in no hurry to add to their swollen inventory of repossessed homes, which now stands at a near record 862,000 nationwide. Also contributing to the gridlock is intense scrutiny by regulators stemming from the scandals in which banks cut corners and falsified documents to rush homeowners to foreclosure. Until their cases are resolved, owners can legally remain in homes they wouldve lost long ago in normal times. The banks paperwork was so messed up in so many cases that its mind-boggling, says Florida lawyer Peter Ticktin. The delay is huge. Realty Tracs Top 10 College Towns for Buying Foreclosures Its the time of year when proud parents are sending their kids off to college while booster clubs are revving up for the impending college football season. What better time to consider the best college towns in the nation for investing in foreclosures Read about the Top 10 college towns for smart investors. FHFA sues Chase for 33 billion 17 banks sued for 196 billion on September 2, 2011 The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, filed lawsuits against 17 financial institutions, certain of their officers and various lead underwriters. The suits allege violations of federal securities laws in the sale of residential private-label mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Complaints have been filed against the following lead defendants: JPMorgan Chase Co. - 33 billion The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC - 30.4 billion Countrywide Financial Corporation - 26.6 billion Merrill Lynch Co. - 24.8 billion Deutsche Bank AG - 14.2 billion Credit Suisse Holdings (USA), Inc. - 14.1 billion Goldman Sachs Co. - 11.1 billion Morgan Stanley - 10.6 billion HSBC North America Holdings, Inc. - 6.2 billion Ally Financial Inc. fka GMAC, LLC - 6 billion Bank of America Corporation - 6 billion Barclays Bank PLC - 4.9 billion Citigroup, Inc. - 3.5 billion Nomura Holding America Inc. - 2 billion Societe Generale - 1.3 billion First Horizon National Corporation - 883 million General Electric Company - 549 million The complaints are available on the FHFA website. The SEC Systematically Destroyed Evidence Crooks in all the wrong places - the heat rises. From Matt Taibbis article in Rolling Stone August 17, 2011 Much has been made in recent months of the governments glaring failure to police Wall Street to date, federal and state prosecutors have yet to put a single senior Wall Street executive behind bars for any of the many well-documented crimes related to the financial crisis. Indeed, Flynns accusations dovetail with a recent series of damaging critiques of the SEC made by reporters, watchdog groups and members of Congress, all of which seem to indicate that top federal regulators spend more time lunching, schmoozing and job-interviewing with Wall Street crooks than they do catching them. As one former SEC staffer describes it, the agency is now filled with so many Wall Street hotshots from oft-investigated banks that it has been infected with the Goldman mindset from within. The destruction of records by the SEC, as outlined by Flynn, is something far more than an administrative accident or bureaucratic fuck-up. Its a symptom of the agencys terminal brain damage. Somewhere along the line, those at the SEC responsible for policing Americas banks fell and hit their head on a big pile of Wall Streets money - a blow from which the agency has never recovered. From what Ive seen, it looks as if the SEC might have sanctioned some level of case-related document destruction, says Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose staff has interviewed Flynn. It doesnt make sense that an agency responsible for investigations would want to get rid of potential evidence. If these charges are true, the agency needs to explain why it destroyed documents, how many documents it destroyed over what time frame and to what extent its actions were consistent with the law. The system is broken. Its Been an Unmitigated Disaster - Jamie Dimon, July 14, 2011 BLOOMBERG - JPMorgan Chase Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said clashes over faulty mortgages may drag on as investors and regulators demand compensation for soured loans issued at the peak of the housing market. There have been so many flaws in mortgages that its been an unmitigated disaster, Dimon said during a conference call on July 14. We just really need to clean it up for the sake of everybody. And everybody is going to sue everybody else, and its going to go on for a long time. How can anybody not like Jamie Dimon He shows the resilience and common sense of a captain who can weather the storm. JPMorgan disclosed about 2.5 billion in second-quarter costs tied to faulty mortgages and foreclosures. The bank added 1.27 billion to litigation reserves, mostly for mortgage matters, and incurred 1 billion of expenses tied to foreclosures. While millions of families are being thrown out on the streets, lawyers working for the banks are making billions . Maybe all that money will trickle down as the lawyers buy cocktails, and golf clubs, and thousand-dollar suits. Banks Cant Prove They Own The Loan The Wall Street Journal Picks Up the Scent An article by Nick Timiraos appeared in The Wall Street Journal on June 1, 2011 - Banks Hit Hurdle to Foreclosures. Banks trying to foreclose on homeowners are hitting another roadblock, Timiraos writes, as some delinquent borrowers are successfully arguing that their mortgage companies cant prove they own the loans and therefore dont have the right to foreclose. If you (or I) try to boot a homeowner into the street without any proof that were entitled to the property, the cops will lock us up. Stealing is stealing, whether it is somebodys wallet or their 3-bedroom 2-bath in the suburbs with two dogs and a kid. When a bank tries to steal the bungalow without proof that they have a right to foreclose, its a hurdle or another roadblock. Semantics aside, this is good news for all people holding grant deeds. This year, the Journal reports, cases in California, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts and other states have raised questions about whether banks properly demonstrated ownership. In some cases, borrowers are showing courts that banks failed to properly assign ownership of mortgages after they were pooled into mortgage-backed securities. In other cases, borrowers say that lenders backdated or fabricated documents to fix those errors. Flawed mortgage-banking processes have potentially infected millions of foreclosures, and the damages against these operations could be significant and take years to materialize, said Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in testimony to a Senate committee last month. In March, an Alabama court said J. P. Morgan Chase Co. couldnt foreclose on Phyllis Horace, a delinquent homeowner in Phenix City, Ala. because her loan hadnt been properly assigned to its owners - a trust that represents investors - when it was securitized by Bear Stearns Cos. The mortgage assignment showed that the loan hadnt been transferred to the trust from the subprime lender that originated it. This WSJ story represents a seismic shift in the foreclosure meltdown. Judges read The Wall Street Journal. So does Jamie Dimon. These hurdles . these roadblocks . are early warning signs that the bridges are washed out151proceed with caution. The People vs. Goldman Sachs Sen. Carl Levins Report Indicts the Goldman Crown On April 13, 2011, the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, alongside Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, released a 650-page bipartisan report, Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse. Goldman seemed to count on the unwillingness or inability of federal regulators to stop them - and when called to Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing crime - a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history. Goldman was like a car dealership that realized it had a whole lot full of cars with faulty brakes. Instead of announcing a recall, it surged ahead with a two-fold plan to make a fortune: first, by dumping the dangerous products on other people, and second, by taking out life insurance against the fools who bought the deadly cars. Goldman Sachs was President Obamas number-one private campaign contributor. Hank Paulson, U. S. Treasury Secretary (2006-2009) was CEO of Goldman Sachs and was worth 700 million when George W. Bush appointed him to his Cabinet. Paulson then put Edward M. Liddy, a Goldman Sachs director, in charge of AIG and gave AIG 85 billion. For more names of Goldman troopers in the Executive Branch, see The Guys from Government Sachs NY Times, Oct. 17, 2008. In January 2011, Obama named William Daley, vice chairman at JPMorgan Chase, to be his new chief of staff 151 the man who controls who sees the President. An SEC filing shows that Daley owns 7.7 million worth of stock (175,678 shares) in Chase, a 2.1 trillion behemoth and the nations second-largest bank. Daley headed Chases Corporate Responsibility division, which included oversight of the firms lobbyists and relations with government officials. With Wall Street lobbyists patrolling the Oval Office, we rest assured that the President is in good company. Obama photo: Douglas Gillies The 639-page Subcommittee report devoted 183 pages to WaMu, which was acquired by Chase in Sept. 2008: Internal emails at Moodys and Standard Poor demonstrate that senior management and ratings personnel were aware of the deteriorating mortgage market and increasing credit risk. In June 2005, for example, an outside mortgage broker who had seen the head of SPs RMBS Group, Susan Barnes, on a television program sent her an email warning about the seeds of destruction in the financial markets. He noted that no one at the time seemed interested in fixing the looming problems. I have contacted the OTS, FDIC and others and my concerns are not addressed. I have been a mortgage broker for the past 13 years and I have never seen such a lack of attention to loan risk. I am confident our present housing bubble is not from supply and demand of housing, but from money supply. In my professional opinion the biggest perpetrator is Washington Mutual. 1) No income documentation loans. 2) Option ARMS (negative amortization). 5) 100 financing loans. I have seen instances where WAMU approved buyers for purchase loans where the fully indexed interest only payments represented 100 of borrowers gross monthly income. We need to stop this madness. (Levin Report p. 269) At the same time that WaMu was implementing its high risk lending strategy, WaMu and Long Beach engaged in a host of shoddy lending practices that produced billions of dollars in high risk, poor quality mortgages and mortgage backed securities. Those practices included qualifying high risk borrowers for larger loans than they could afford steering borrowers from conventional mortgages to higher risk loan products accepting loan applications without verifying the borrowers income using loans with low, short term teaser rates that could lead to payment shock when higher interest rates took effect later on promoting negatively amortizing loans in which many borrowers increased rather than paid down their debt and authorizing loans with multiple layers of risk. (Levin Report p. 2) Federal Reserve Consent Orders Big Banks Promise to be Better Bandits The Wall Street Journal reported that U. S. regulators hit the nations largest banks with sweeping penalties for improper home-foreclosure practices, issuing detailed orders to revamp the way they deal with troubled borrowers. The orders issued on Wednesday, April 13, 2011, to 14 financial institutions didnt include fines. Officials said they are coming. The orders were issued by the Federal Reserve, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and the Comptroller of the Currency. Update: On February 9, 2012, the OCC announced the fines, totalling 394 million, including: 164 million for Bank of America 34 million for Citibank 113 million for JPMorgan Chase 83 million for Wells Fargo This announcement came on the same day that the U. S. government announced a 25 billion settlement with five of the nations largest banks over charges of systemic and widespread mortgage fraud. Thursday, February 9, 2012, may one day be memorialized as the day everything changed, as with the Magna Charta and the Declaration of Independence. Let the festivities begin. Under the orders, banks have 60 days to establish plans to clean up their mortgage-servicing processes to prevent documentation errors. The orders also direct banks to take steps to ensure they have enough staff to handle the flood of foreclosures, that foreclosures dont happen when a borrower is receiving a loan modification, and that borrowers have a single point of contact throughout the loan-modification and foreclosure process. Banks must hire an independent consultant to conduct a look back of all foreclosure proceedings from 2009 and 2010 to evaluate whether they improperly foreclosed on any homeowners and require each company to establish its own process to consider whether to compensate borrowers who have been harmed. The OCC, which has been the target of most criticism, defended the enforcement orders. Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh said, The banks are going to have to do substantial work, bear substantial expense to fix the problems that we identified as well as to identify and compensate homeowners that suffered financial harm. It is the latest effort to cobble together a broken system with duct tape. President Obama launched HAMP in March 2009 and offered loan mods as a solution to the foreclosure meltdown. Fewer than 2 million trial modifications were started in the first two years of the program, and fewer than 800,000 converted to permanent modifications. Here are links to the Consent Orders signed by the Federal Reserve on April 13, 2011. You be the judge whether they will stop the abuse. Better yet, ask your trial judge to take judicial notice of the consent order. Meanwhile, the soaring U. S. National Debt (below) is now half a trillion dollars greater than the combined assets of the nations thirty largest banks (based on figures provided by InfoPlease ). How much of that debt was assumed to bail out the banks The U. S. National Debt Government Gone Wild The U. S. government debt on May 15, 2012 was 15.7 trillion 151 50,152 for every man, woman, and child residing in the U. S. (the current total is 312,820,593). The interest on the national debt in 2011 was 454 billion151more than the combined budgets of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Energy, Transportation, Health Human Services, Agriculture, Treasury, Labor, Commerce, plus HUD and the Small Business Administration. So Americans pay more to the bankers than to all of those departments combined. Since 1988, the U. S. has paid 8 trillion in interest. The New York Times reported on Aug. 16, 2010, that the United States economy was valued at 4 trillion. China was number two at 1.33 trillion. Forecasts predict that China will surpass the United States as the worlds biggest economy in twenty years - and Americas interest payments to China will put China on top. If the United States were to make daily payments of 100 million, it would take 422 years to pay off the national debt. Just nine months ago, it was going to take 389 years, so the U. S. has gone into debt for another 33 years - if it makes payments of 100 million per day for 422 years without missing a payment. Were only 235 years old as a country. We may be a deadbeat nation, but since the U. S. spends half of its budget on defense (stuff that kills people), what are they going to do about it They cant touch US with a ten-foot pole. Chases profits jump 67 in Q1 2011 There is a lot of money washing around the world and obviously we are the beneficiary of that - Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase, April 13, 2011 Senator Carl Levin, chair of the Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, releasing the findings of a two-year inquiry yesterday, said he wants the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to examine whether Goldman Sachs violated the law by misleading clients who bought collateralized debt obligations without knowing the firm would benefit if they fell in value. The Michigan Democrat also said federal prosecutors should review whether to bring perjury charges against Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein and other current and former employees who testified in Congress last year. Levin said they denied under oath that Goldman Sachs took a financial position against the mortgage market solely for its own profit, statements the senator said were untrue. In my judgment, Goldman clearly misled their clients and they misled the Congress, Levin said at a press briefing yesterday where he and Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, discussed the 640-page report from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Blame for this mess lies everywhere - from federal regulators who cast a blind eye, Wall Street bankers who let greed run wild, and members of Congress who failed to provide oversight, said Republican Senator Tom Coburn, the subcommittees top Republican. Washington Mutual - which became the largest failed bank in U. S. history in 2008 - embraced a high-risk home loan strategy in 2005 while its own top executives were warning of a bubble that will come back to haunt us. The report said a runaway mortgage securitization machine churned out abusive loans, toxic securities, and big fees for lenders and Wall Street. It cited internal emails by Wall Street executives that described mortgage-backed securities underlying many collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, as crap and pigs. It said Washington Mutual - which became the largest failed bank in U. S. history in 2008 - embraced a high-risk home loan strategy in 2005 while its own top executives were warning of a bubble that will come back to haunt us. Investment banks, it said, charged 1 million to 8 million in fees to construct, underwrite and sell a mortgage-backed security in the bubble, and 5 million to 10 million per CDO. In the case of one CDO, Hudson Mezzanine Funding 2006-1, Goldman Sachs told investors its interests were aligned with theirs while the firm held 100 percent of the short side, according to the report. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase Co. posted a 67 jump in first-quarter profit thanks to an improving U. S. economy. There is a lot of money washing around the world, and obviously we are the beneficiary of that, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgans chief executive, said during a call with analysts after releasing the earnings Wednesday. JPMorgan earned 5.6 billion, or 1.28 a share, in the first three months of 2011, up from 3.3 billion, or 74 cents, in the first quarter of 2010. The Baltimore Sun ran a mug shot of JPMorgan Chase: Lawless Lawyers Lead to Outlaw Banks 1.New York Attorney General Issues Subpoenas The New York Times reported on April 8, 2011, that the New York attorney general has issued subpoenas against the states largest foreclosure law firm. Representing JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and other large banks, the Steven Baum law firm has handled an estimated 40 percent of foreclosure cases in the state. Since the end of 2007, Baum has filed more than 50,000 foreclosure cases in New York, according to data compiled by the New York State Unified Court System. The firm employs approximately 70 lawyers. Judges in courts across New York state have rejected scores of cases filed by the Baum firm, saying it has failed to provide the documentation necessary to commence foreclosure. The firm might do better in California, where judges routinely dismiss lawsuits filed by homeowners without requiring that the foreclosing banks produce anything but a Trustees Deed Upon Sale. In California, as in many states, non judicial means no judge. 2. Judges crack down on Florida lawyers Fifty thousand families on the street is by no means a record for bare-fisted law firms. Florida attorney David J. Stern prosecuted 70,400 foreclosures in 2009 with a staff of 1,200. Stern purchased a 130-foot yacht, The Misunderstood, as his fortunes rose. He bought the house adjacent to his 15 million mansion in The Harborage, Fort Lauderdale, and tore it down to build a waterfront tennis court. The Palm Beach Post reported that Stern laid off 70 percent of his staff one day last November. The Misunderstood was offered for sale for 18 million at the Miami Yacht Show last month. Stern is selling his 7 million cabin near Vail and two ocean-front properties in Hillsboro Beach, Florida, with a combined value of 17 million. Stern is now under investigation by the Florida Attorney General, and he stopped repossessing houses in March. Stern sent letters to the chief judges of Floridas 20 circuit courts announcing that he intended to violate court rules and dump 100,000 foreclosure cases without a judges order. We no longer have the financial or personnel resources to continue to file Motions to Withdraw in tens of thousands of cases that we still remain as counsel of record, Stern wrote, suggesting that the judges treat the pending cases as you deem appropriate. The Sun-Sentinel reported on April 4, 2011, that judges throughout Florida are increasingly dismissing cases and accusing lawyers of fraud upon the court. A Palm Beach Post review of cases in state and appellate courts found judges are routinely dismissing cases for questionable paperwork. Although in most cases the bank is allowed to refile the case with the appropriate documents, in a growing number of cases judges are awarding homeowners their homes free and clear after finding fraud upon the court. In February, Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Maxine Cohen Lando took one of the largest foreclosure law firms in the state to task. She called Marc A. Ben-Ezra, founding partner of Ben-Ezra Katz P. A. before her to explain discrepancies in a case handled by an attorney in his Fort Lauderdale-based firm. This case should have never been filed, said Lando, who referred to the firms work on the case as shoddy and grossly incompetent. She called Ben-Ezra a robot who filed whatever the banks sent him, and held him in contempt of court. She then gave the homeowner the home - free and clear - and barred the lender from refiling the foreclosure. Fannie Mae fired the Ben-Ezra law firm in February and then sued the firm on February 11 to recover 15,000 foreclosure case files, according to Courthouse News . JPMorgan Chase fired the Ben-Ezra law firm on March 8, 2011, and then sued them to recover thousands of foreclosure case files, promissory notes, and mortgages that Chase alleges are being held hostage by its former foreclosure attorneys to collect outstanding legal bills. The case was filed in federal district court (SDFL) on March 25, 2011, Case No. 11-60655. Chase alleges that the files are worth 400 million. 3. Follow the Heat to Beat the Bank Much of the fraudulent paperwork was manufactured by the banks. So the banks are providing paperwork to their lawyers and then suing the lawyers to get their felonious files back while the lawyers take the fall for the banks. The cases are being reported by the press in stories that fail to mention the names of the banks. The judges shoot the messengers, putting law firms out of business, and tap the banksters on the wrist. Wading through a tsunami of foreclosures, how well does it punish the bank to lose one house in foreclosure when banks are foreclosing on 12 million homes Could all of this be happening because bankers broke the system when they went off the deep end and caused the mortgage meltdown When will judges look for the cause of the calamity How many illegal foreclosures put families in the streets because judges were too busy managing their caseload to read the files. Gaddafis Bank Received 28 Billion Bail-out Your Tax Dollars at Work After he ordered that hundreds of Scud missles be launched into Libya, Barack Obama issued an executive order freezing Libyan assets and barring Americans from having business dealings with Libyan banks. A week later, Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the U. S. Treasury Department, issued an order exempting Libyan-owned banks so that they could continue operating without sanction. Matt Taibbi reports that he is working on a story for the April 15 issue of Rolling Stone that will describe how the United States extended billions of dollars in aid to Muammar Gaddafi and the Central Bank of Libya through Arab Banking Corporation (ABC), a Libyan-owned subsidiary bank operating out of Bahrain. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont sponsored an amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill forcing the Federal Reserve to open its books for the first time and make public the names of individuals and corporations who received emergency loans and bailout monies during the two year period between the crash of 2008 and the passage of the Dodd-Frank bill. In his upcoming Rolling Stone article, Taibbi describes how the Federal Reserve gave 26 billion to Gaddafis ABC Bank in near-zero interest loans. The ABC loans are just one example of the Feds bailout madness, Taibbi writes. There are 21,000 transactions on the Feds list of released names. Every one of these is outrageous, according to one of Sanders aides. Killinger and Rotella Sued by FDIC Government asks for 900 million How does it feel to be sued by the U. S. government for almost a billion dollars Ask Kerry Killinger, former CEO of Washington Mutual, or Stephen Rotella, former WaMu COO. The FDIC filed a 63-page complaint in Federal District Court on March 17 against Killinger, Rotella and their wives. It also names David Schneider, former head of WaMus home loans division, who is now working for JPMorgan Chase. The complaint alleges that Killinger, Rotella, and Schneider caused WaMu to take extreme and historically unprecedented risks with WaMus home loans portfolio. They focused on short term gains to increase their own compensation, with reckless disregard for WaMus longer term safety and soundness. Linda Killinger and Esther Rotella were accused of receiving millions of dollars of property from their husbands with intent to defraud creditors while the largest bank failure in history was underway and lawsuits were piling up. On the day the lawsuit was filed, Killinger released a prepared statement describing the lawsuit as baseless and unworthy of the government. The factual allegations are fiction. The legal conclusions are political theater. Trial in a courtroom that honors the rule of law - and not the will of Washington, D. C. - will confirm that Kerry Killingers management, diligence and commitment to Washington Mutual responsibly and consistently served the interests of its depositors, customers and shareholders. The presence and prominence of the federal bank regulators at Washington Mutual cannot be overstated. First, they had offices on premises 247. Second, they had unfettered access to the books, records, accounts, committee minutes, and personnel of the Bank. They roamed freely and paid particular attention to the quality of the assets - i. e. the mortgages - and the liquidity of the Bank. The September 25, 2008 seizure and sale of Washington Mutual was demonstrably premature and unjustified. Had the benefits extended to Wall Street institutions within weeks of the seizure - e. g. increases in insurance limits, guarantees of bank debt, TARP purchases and capital injections, and added liquidity by the Federal Reserve - been extended to Washington Mutual, it too would have weathered the global financial crisis. Stephen Rotella added, I am angered at this abuse of power by the FDIC. More than anything, I am angered that my wife and children may be subjected to the public attention this lawsuit may generate, even if it is for a short period of time. And, of course, I am angered that my good name, built over a career of three decades, is at risk as a result of this callous action. It is almost beyond belief that the FDIC would take action against an effective, hard working bank manager who performed well under extraordinary conditions in an effort to save an important financial institution. So, it was the governments fault that WaMu failed because: (1) They didnt tell us to stop (2) They could have bailed us out and, (3) We were effective, hard working, diligent, and committed. This wasnt something that came out unexpectedly when the Summons and Complaint were served. The FDIC gave Killinger and Rotella a heads up three weeks earlier that the lawsuit was in the pipelined. Their prepared statements were the result of strategy sessions with Killingers lawyers - Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati in Seattle and Williams Connolly in Washington D. C. Having collected hundreds of millions in salary and bonuses, the defendants have worked out a strategy - it wasnt our fault. New Proposed Legislation in California California takes a Trillon-Dollar Hit While Wall Street bankers snorted cocaine and frolicked with hookers (see the Academy Award winning documentary, Inside Job) California was hit with an economic tsunami of one trillion dollars, according to Home Wreckers , a report released on March 16, 2011. New state legislation is pending in Sacramento, including: The Homeowner Protection Act (SB 729): requires lenders to finish attempting a loan modification with each borrower before continuing with the foreclosure process. The Title Transparency bill (AB 1321): requires that all deeds and transfers of mortgage loans be recorded with the County, so that borrowers can confirm in public records who actually holds their mortgage. The Foreclosure Fee bill (AB 935): encourages loan modifications by adding a disincentive to foreclosing - a 20,000 fee. This fee begins to allow California cities and state to recoup some of the fiscal costs that result from each foreclosure. Judges in California still insist that banks can foreclose on homes without producing any papers to show they own the mortgage. The courts may still be operating in the Dark Ages, but not for long. 10,000 Lawsuits Against Chase 10K Filing Discloses 10K Lawsuits Chase is defending more than 10,000 legal proceedings, the bank revealed in its 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28, 2011. It may be 4.5 billion short in reserves to cover the costs in a worst-case scenario, the bank said. The lawsuits range from individual actions against JPMorgan Chase to class actions with potentially millions of litigants to regulatorygovt investigations. The suits include common law tort and contract claims, statutory antitrust claims, securities claims and consumer protection claims, the bank reported. If Houdini could conjure one lawyer to represent all the plaintiffs in each case and persuade all the lawyers to attend one humongous settlement conference, heres how the line would look on the courthouse lawn: Chase reported, In view of the inherent difficulty of predicting the outcome of legal proceedings, particularly where the claimants seek very large or indeterminate damages, or where the matters present novel legal theories, involve a large number of parties or are in early stages of discovery, the Firm cannot state with confidence what the eventual outcome of the currently pending matters will be, what the timing of the ultimate resolution of these pending matters will be or what the eventual loss, fines, penalties or impact related to each pending matter may be. FDIC may sue Killinger and Rotella Monday, February 21, 2011. The FDIC sent letters to several former executives of Washington Mutual warning that it was considering taking legal action tied to their role in the collapse of WaMu. News of the letters was reported Monday by the online edition of The Wall Street Journal. Former president and chief operating officer Steve Rotella and David Schneider, former president of the failed banks home-loan division, also received the letters. FDIC officials have discussed seeking damages of up to 1 billion. The FDIC has filed civil lawsuits against former directors and officers at hundreds of banks that were closed during the financial crisis. Deleware Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath refused to confirm WaMus reorganization plan in January, finding that the protections from future legal liabilities the plan granted to the companys directors, officers and professionals were either unwarranted or too broad. Why Isnt Wall Street in Jail Matt Taibi writes in Rolling Stone March 3, 2011 Not a single executive who ran the companies that cooked up and cashed in on the phony financial boom - an industrywide scam that involved the mass sale of mismarked, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities - has ever been convicted. Their names by now are familiar to even the most casual Middle American news consumer: companies like AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Most of these firms were directly involved in elaborate fraud and theft. You put Lloyd Blankfein in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for one six-month term, and all this bullshit would stop, all over Wall Street, says a former congressional aide. Thats all it would take. Just once. The shocking pattern of nonenforcement with regard to Wall Street is so deeply ingrained in Washington that it raises a profound and difficult question about the very nature of our society: whether we have created a class of people whose misdeeds are no longer perceived as crimes, almost no matter what those misdeeds are. The SEC and the Justice Department have evolved into a bizarre species of social surgeon serving this nonjailable class, expert not at administering punishment and justice, but at finding and removing criminal responsibility from the bodies of the accused. The systematic lack of regulation has left even the countrys top regulators frustrated. Lynn Turner, a former chief accountant for the SEC, laughs darkly at the idea that the criminal justice system is broken when it comes to Wall Street. I think youve got a wrong assumption - that we even have a law-enforcement agency when it comes to Wall Street, he says. Over and over, even the most obvious cases of fraud and insider dealing got gummed up in the works, and high-ranking executives were almost never prosecuted for their crimes. In 2003, Freddie Mac coughed up 125 million after it was caught misreporting its earnings by 5 billion nobody went to jail. In 2006, Fannie Mae was fined 400 million, but executives who had overseen phony accounting techniques to jack up their bonuses faced no criminal charges. That same year, AIG paid 1.6 billion after it was caught in a major accounting scandal that would indirectly lead to its collapse two years later, but no executives at the insurance giant were prosecuted. it wasnt just the executives of Lehman and AIGFP who got passes. Virtually every one of the major players on Wall Street was similarly embroiled in scandal, yet their executives skated off into the sunset, uncharged and unfined. Goldman Sachs paid 550 million last year when it was caught defrauding investors with crappy mortgages, but no executive has been fined or jailed - not even Fabrice Fabulous Fab Tourre, Goldmans outrageous Euro-douche who gleefully e-mailed a pal about the surreal transactions in the middle of a meeting with the firms victims. In a similar case, a sales executive at the German powerhouse Deutsche Bank got off on charges of insider trading its general counsel at the time of the questionable deals, Robert Khuzami, now serves as director of enforcement for the SEC. As for President Obama, what is there to be said Goldman Sachs was his number-one private campaign contributor. He put a Citigroup executive in charge of his economic transition team, and he just named an executive of JP Morgan Chase, the proud owner of 7.7 million in Chase stock, his new chief of staff. The mental stumbling block, for most Americans, is that financial crimes dont feel real you dont see the culprits waving guns in liquor stores or dragging coeds into bushes. But these frauds are worse than common robberies. Theyre crimes of intellectual choice, made by people who are already rich and who have every conceivable social advantage, acting on a simple, cynical calculation: Lets steal whatever we can, then dare the victims to find the juice to reclaim their money through a captive bureaucracy. Theyre attacking the very definition of property - which, after all, depends in part on a legal system that defends everyones claims of ownership equally. When that definition becomes tenuous or conditional - when the state simply gives up on the notion of justice - this whole American Dream thing recedes even further from reality. Foreclosure Fraud in Florida Law Offices of David Stern Collapse Some employees of Floridas largest foreclosure mill were given jewelry, cars and houses in exchange for altering and forging key documents used to obtain foreclosures, according to a statement released in October 2010 by the Florida Attorney Generals Office and reported in the Tampa Tribune. The office released transcripts of interviews it conducted for its investigation into the law offices of David J. Stern. They painted a picture of a secret system designed to speed up the foreclosure process. Attorneys and staff members forged signatures, changed dates, passed around notary stamps. The office would move forward with cases even if they knew the homeowner had not been properly notified of the lawsuit. Two former Sterns employees described long tables where employees would sign as a witness and notarize documents without actually witnessing the signing. Twice a day, the companys chief operating officer, Cheryl Samons, would go into the office and sign 500 documents at a time - without reading them. As a perk of Samons job, Sterns office would routinely pay her personal mortgage, a car payment, her electric bills and her cell phone bill, according to Samons legal assistant, who told investigators Stern also bought Samons a new BMW sport utility vehicle every year and gave her and other employees jewelry. Additionally, Stern purchased employee David Vargas a house, a car and a cell phone. After the economy crashed in the fall of 2008, Florida, along with Nevada, Arizona and California, became foreclosure central. Sterns caseload rose from 15,000 foreclosures in 2006 to 70,400 in 2009. His staff tripled to more than 1,200. To keep up with demand, Stern set up offices in the Philippines. When the U. S. staff responsible for entering bank data in the foreclosure files logged off, the offshore workers logged on. Revenue swelled from 41 million in 2006 to 260 million in 2009, according to an SEC filing. The firm moved into a plush, marble-floored headquarters near Miami that was all glass and fountains. Stern was driving a Bugatti and had bought at least 60 million in property, including a 16,000-square-foot island compound that sits behind two security gates. In October, the megabanks started to withdraw their cases from Sterns firm. Fannie fired Stern on Oct. 22. Sterns staff of 1,200 has dwindled to 200. His companys stock, worth as much as 13 last April, now trades for pennies. The firms fall has spawned more chaos in Floridas circus-like foreclosure courts. Recently, even the most infamous rocket docket, in Lee County, where judges were reported to have signed off on a foreclosure every 30 seconds, ground to a virtual standstill as the Stern firm withdrew from case after case. Some of Sterns remaining lawyers show up court with greasy hair, fleece jackets and food-stained clothing. As for Stern, if federal and state prosecutors file criminal charges, he could end up in prison. Meanwhile, Sterns payment on his 12 million line of credit with Bank of America is late. So is the rent on his headquarters. Hes now in default. Banks have essentially sidestepped 400 years of property law in the United States, said Rebel A. Cole, a professor of finance and real estate at DePaul University. There are so many questionable aspects to this thing its scary. This is ultimately going to have to be resolved by the 50 state supreme courts who have jurisdiction for property law. - New York Times, October 20, 2010 The Big Boom in Foreclosures Bank of America Halts Foreclosures - Just Kidding The explosion is almost deafening. Bank of America, the nations largest bank, put foreclosures in 23 states on hold in order to review whether certain affidavits have followed the correct procedures, the company said. The bank was the third major lender to freeze foreclosures in those states due to flawed paperwork. J. P. Morgan and Ally Financial had announced similar measures. A Bank of America official acknowledged in a legal proceeding that she signed up to 8,000 foreclosure documents a month and typically didnt read them. The Bank of America executive said in a February deposition in a Massachusetts bankruptcy case that she signed 7,000 to 8,000 foreclosure documents a month. I typically dont read them because of the volume that we sign, the executive said. The official admitted to these acts of perjury in testimony under oath in February. Chase admitted the same thing in May. GMAC confessed in June. Why did the big banks wait until October to take action What high level executives were aware of the perjury and conspired to keep it under wraps Millions of felonies committed by banks went unreported for five to ten months. Apparently alarmed about such a possibility, one of the major title insurance companies, Old Republic National Title, has sent a bulletin to agents saying that until further notice it would not insure title to properties foreclosed upon by GMAC Mortgage, the countrys fourth-largest home lender and one of the two big lenders at the center of the current controversy. The federal government has been the majority owner of GMAC since supplying 17 billion to prevent the lenders failure during the financial crisis. Other lenders said Thursday, September 30, that their foreclosure filings, including the crucial affidavits, had been properly done. A Citigroup spokesman said the lender required annual training for our foreclosure employees on the proper execution of affidavits, including having personal knowledge of the information in the affidavit. A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said the affidavits we sign are accurate. A spokesman for Bank of America, Rick Simon, said to the New York Times. We do not have anything to tell you at this time. But the fuse was already lit. The way the banks lawyers have handled this has corrupted our legal system, said Thomas Cox, a Maine lawyer whose deposition of a GMAC executive in June helped prompt the current disclosures. They tried to manufacture foreclosures the way youd manufacture cars, on an assembly line. It cant be done that way. Mr. Cox is representing pro bono a rural woman who is in foreclosure on a 82,000 mortgage. The plaintiff in the case is Fannie Mae, the mortgage holding company that failed during the financial crisis and is now under government conservatorship. GMAC serviced the loan for Fannie Mae. The judge in the case set aside his summary judgment in favor of Fannie when he read Mr. Coxs deposition of a GMAC executive, Jeffrey Stephan, who said he never reviewed the file he had signed. The case will go to trial. Rep Alan Grayson (D-FL) explains the foreclosure crisis in a coherent summary on YouTube Law enforcement officials in several states, including Texas, Maryland and Connecticut, are demanding a suspension of foreclosures until lenders can prove they are using legal methods. While homeowners in those states and elsewhere must usually show damages to win a lawsuit, attorneys general can just sue over deceptive sales practices and get penalties, said Christopher Peterson, a University of Utah law professor who specializes in commercial and contract law, reported by Bloomberg. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley asked GMAC, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo to suspend foreclosures and evictions in that state. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said today he was expanding his investigation into questionable foreclosure tactics to include 14 more lenders. Cooper, who announced earlier he was looking into allegations about GMAC, also asked lenders to stop foreclosures in his state until they can confirm they are complying with laws. In addition to the investigation of Ally which began last month, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Oct. 4 asked 30 loan servicers operating in his state, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, to stop foreclosures pending a review of business practices. Abbott also asked lenders and servicers to halt all sales of properties previously foreclosed upon and stop all evictions. Lenders took possession of a record 95,364 U. S. homes in August and issued foreclosure filings to 338,836 homeowners, or one of every 381 U. S. households, according to RealtyTrac Inc. an Irvine, California-based data seller. Lenders, loan servicers and even title insurance companies are facing litigation on multiple fronts, said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and a former federal prosecutor who worked on cases involving bank fraud. This is going to become a hydra, he said in an interview. Youve got so many potential avenues of liability. You dont even know the parameters of this yet. Reviews of affidavits and other loan documents that may have been signed without personal examination by the signers should be completed in a few weeks, JPMorgan and Bank of America said last week. We believe the accuracy of the factual loan information contained in the affidavits was not affected by whether or not the signer had personal knowledge of the precise details, JPMorgan said in its statement. The affidavits were prepared by appropriate personnel with knowledge of the relevant facts. Uh huh. So perjury is okay so long as the facts turn out to be true. Thats a new twist to an old legal concept. Homeowners in multiple lawsuits claim lenders have been using falsified documents to foreclose on homes, at times when they dont even hold titles to the properties. Individuals who signed false affidavits or falsely claimed clear titles to properties can be subject to criminal prosecution, including perjury charges, Peterson said. Did they know about gaps in the system and lie about it Henning said, referring to companies. This is certainly a concern for MERS but it could be, too, for the banks. Any action of any employee can be looked at, but what theyre looking at is the volume of transactions and the involvement of senior level management. More civil litigation is a certainty, Henning said. The Center for Responsible Lending reports that California and the United States are in the midst of the worst foreclosure crisis since the Great Depression. Across the country, foreclosures have hit an all-time high, with nearly one in ten homes with a mortgage currently in some stage of foreclosure. In California, nearly one in eight151or approximately 702,000 homes151is currently in foreclosure, the economy is in ruins and unemployment remains at 12 percent. The Center posted a report in August 2010, Dreams Deferred , that paints a picture of the foreclosure crisis in California, examines the who, the where and the why of foreclosures in the Golden State and discusses what we should do to prevent as many avoidable foreclosures as possible. Over half (50.3 percent) of foreclosures resulted from refinance loans, challenging the notion that foreclosures are simply the result of people purchasing properties they could not afford. The median size of a foreclosed home in California is 1,494 square feet, with two-thirds (67 percent) of these homes having three or fewer bedrooms. The Center proposes the following steps be taken to prevent foreclosures: Require servicers to complete the review of any loan modification application before beginning the foreclosure process or referring the loan file to a foreclosure attorney. Incorporate principal reduction into loan modification programs, especially where housing prices have contributed to lack of affordability. Lift the ban on the modification of principal residence mortgages by bankruptcy judges. Expand funding and capacity of housing counseling agencies and legal aid providers. On September 30, California Attorney Jerry Brown sent a letter demanding that JP Morgan Chase halt foreclosures in California. Then two advocacy groups - the Los Angeles-based Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and the Greenlining Institute of Berkeley - called for a foreclosure moratorium. The L. A. group said it was forming a separate organization, the Home Defenders League. to help homeowners fight foreclosures. Both groups called on Brown to support a moratorium. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N. Y.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, on Thursday, October 7, called on lenders to voluntarily suspend foreclosures until they complete internal investigations. On Friday, October 8, Bank of America announced that it was placing a moratorium on all foreclosures across the U. S. Too good to be true A week later, on the Santa Barbara Courthouse steps, Bank of America was especially active in foreclosure sales. Meanwhile, Jerry Brown joined a coalition of state attorneys general from all 50 states and dozens of state banking regulators in a multi-state effort to demand that lenders find solutions to serious and potentially widespread problems in the foreclosure process across the country. In a unprecedented show of force, the states moved in to fill a void caused by years of inaction at the federal level. The bottom-up response to an economic crisis caused by federally regulated banks doesnt seem to embarrass the Obama administration as it continues to urge banks to foreclose as quickly as possible. The Federal Housing Finance Agency stressed that foreclosures on delinquent homeowners should proceed without delay. Delays in foreclosures add cost and other burdens for communities, investors and taxpayers, said the agency, which regulates seized mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Los Angeles Times reported on October 14, As all 50 states escalate efforts to quell a rising tide of foreclosures, one prominent figure is resisting calls for the federal government to do more: President Obama. Banks seized 102,134 homes in September, a record for any month, RealtyTrac reported Wednesday. California led the nation with 17,756, the Irvine company said. Even so, top White House officials worry that imposing a national moratorium on foreclosures would backfire by driving down prices even more. Chase Halts Foreclosures Chase joins GMACAlly in the fraudulent document scandal The unraveling of the foreclosure spectacle continued as JPMorgan Chase announced on September 29 that it was halting 56,000 foreclosures. Following the footsteps of Ally Financial (aka GMAC), Chase acknowledged that employees had signed foreclosure documents without reviewing them and without personal knowledge that the facts recited were true. The New York Times reported the story. In May, a Chase employee testified in a deposition that her team had signed affidavits in 18,000 foreclosures a month without checking to see if the facts they swore to under oath were true. Now that the all-time record for perjury has been reported in Bloomberg. after Chase kept it under wraps for four months, Beth Ann Cottrell has taken the place of Jeffrey Stephan, a document processor for Ally Financial, as the worst bankster in the world. Stephan made headlines last week when it was reported that he had signed off on 10,000 foreclosures per month without reading them. He was known by consumer advocates as the super robot signer. The Washington Post reported on October 1 that a top federal bank regulator has directed seven of the nations largest lenders to review their foreclosure processes after learning about the widespread mishandling of homeowner evictions by the industry. The banks contacted by regulators include J. P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC, PNC Bank, U. S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. John Walsh, acting director of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, told lawmakers during a hearing on Thursday, September 30, 2010, We both want to see that they fix the processing problems but also to look to see whether there is specific harm in individual cases. Walsh made the remarks in response to questions from Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate banking committee, about the spreading problem with foreclosure processing. OCC spokesman Kevin Murki said that in J. P. Morgans case, the bank determined that its affidavit procedures were non-compliant with foreclosure processing requirements in some states. He added that the negative impact or harm to customers has not been determined at this point. Mukri would not comment about other banks but said that the OCC has teams permanently stationed at each one and that those teams have been in close contact with senior management at the banks to ensure the reviews are completed in a timely manner. Referring to a front-page article in the Washington Post, Dodd called the news about lenders initiating improper foreclosures very troubling. He asked senior bank regulators at Thursdays hearing - including Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila C. Bair and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke - to comment on the matter. Bair, whose agency insures deposits at thousands of U. S. banks, called the issue of document processing errors troubling and said its just a further indication of how wrong we went with the mortgage origination process and securitization process. Bernanke said, its been a managerial challenge to the banks to deal with these foreclosure modifications and they havent always met that challenge. Review your foreclosure papers carefully if the bank is trying to steal your home. How many troubling affidavits or declarations did that company representative sign without personal knowledge The purpose of such documents is to commit the signator to swear under penalty of perjury that the facts recited are true. Weve all heard about perjury. Its how they impeached Bill Clinton. Its how they locked up Alger Hiss. Scooter Libby took the fall for Dick Cheney when he was convicted of two counts of perjury in the Valerie Plame scandal, and Mark Fuhrman pled guilty to perjury for his testimony in the OJ Simpson trial. In nonjudicial states like California, judges tend to look the other way. Theyre much too busy playing golf or granting probation to snorting movie stars to concern themselves with people losing their homes. So on September 24, 2010, California Attorney General Jerry Brown ordered that Ally Financial halt all foreclosure activity in California. Browns letter to Ally and press release left no doubt that California statutes cannot be trampled by hyperactive banks frothing at the mouth with unbridled greed. Chase will be next on Browns list. The tide is turning. A Florida lawyer, Matthew Weidner, said, The GMAC announcement was the mushroom cloud. The fallout will burn through the entire mortgage servicing industry. It Was A Ponzi Scheme on Steroids and they laughed all the way to the bank Driving up the 880 through Oakland in 1999, I was listening to The Mortgage Crisis, a seminar presented at the California State Bar Convention. The speakers were experts in mortgage and foreclosure law. They went on and on about how bad it was, and the only solution was loan modifications, but they werent working, and lawyers could be disbarred for taking a retainer to assist in a loan mod, according to Senate Bill 94151a measure that was endorsed by the California Bar Association. The speakers were not offering strategies or solutions. They didnt even sound like lawyers. They were whining. Then it hit me. The banks must have broken the system All that talk in the financial news about securitization, referring to mortgages as collateralized debt obligations, bundling them into bonds, getting fake AAA ratings from Moodys, selling them to pension funds through offshore tax shelters, then taking out credit default swaps so the banks could recover the unpaid balance on each loan when the borrower inevitably defaulted151that was the creaking sound of the Common Law losing its structural integrity as centuries of real estate principles were tossed out the window and the whole system came crashing down. The speakers sounded like shell-shocked casualties wandering through the smoldering ruins of the World Banking System searching for clues. This is a collection of stories and news reports about how the biggest banks committed systemic fraud on the American people, robbed them of their savings, and collected a trillion dollars from the U. S. Treasury under the disguise of insurance payments. Fifteen million American families face losing their homes to banks while the banksters pay themselves billions in bonuses and post record profits. Dick Fuld took home over half a billion dollars while he steered Lehman Bros. into the ground. Kerry Killinger walked out of the smoldering ruins of Washington Mutual with over a hundred million. Will they retreat behind their walls to tally their latest plunder, or will they trade their mansions and hideaways for a different set of walls, giving new meaning to Wall Street . Why did President Obama invite Chase CEO Jamie Dimon over for dinner on the eve of the Presidents speech introducing his financial reform package Why have none of the finance czars been fired or imprisoned for demolishing the global economy In Santa Barbara County, 12,745 Notices of Trustees Sale were recorded from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2012. By contrast, in the previous 6-year period, from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2006, there were 1,081 Notices of Trustees Sale. So Santa Barbara has suffered a twelve-fold increase in trustees sales. Meanwhile, California has 30,000 homes in foreclosure. Fifty thousand people have lost their homes in Santa Barbara in the past six years. Why isnt any local newspaper reporting this story Not one story in the News-Press, the Independent, Santa Maria Times, KEYT, KSBY, KCOY, or any of the local radio stations has described this tragedy, while the illusion of prosperity persists. Lookin good, Santa Barbara, lookin good Nationally, RealtyTrac reports 1,509,669 foreclosure listings in December 2012. Thats over 6 million people who expect to be escorted from their homes by armed people in uniforms. The only thing thats missing from this picture is the goose-step. How to Say No to Bank Fraud Homeowner Responds Boldly to Foreclosure Banks shouldnt mess with Margaret Carswell. She borrowed money from WaMu, made all her payments on time. Then Chase started sending her letters that said, Give me the money. WaMu is becoming Chase. Margaret said, Show me the papers. Chase said, Give me your money. Margaret Carswell sent Chase a Qualified Written Request. Chase said, Give me all your money. She filed a lawsuit in federal court. Chase said, Give me your house. Does Chase have a single document to show who owns the loan, who is entitled to the money, or even who holds the promissory note Apparently not. Fortsettelse følger. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported on 9212010 that GMAC, now Ally Financial, had one man signing all of their foreclosure documents, except for bankruptcies, to initiate foreclosures by a rather impressive roster of banks, including Fannie and Freddie. Jeffrey Stephan, a 41-year-old team leader of the execution unit151honest to God, that was his title151personally signed 10,000 foreclosure documents per month for five years. Then they were bundled and sent somewhere else to be notarized. Were talking jail time, and a lot of people can look forward to big damages in addition to getting their homes back. . and the beat goes on News from the battlefield September 5, 2010. Floridas Streamlined Foreclosure Process Todays NY Times reports on Floridas new judicial bullet train that speeds up the foreclosure process by establishing a special court system staffed by retired judges. Twenty percent of Floridas mortgages are delinquent or in foreclosure. Now you show up and you get whatever judge is on the schedule and they have not looked at the file - they dont even look at the motion, says April Charney, a lawyer who represents imperiled borrowers at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. You get a five-minute hearing. Its a factory. The article features the elusive David Stern, whose law firm in Plantation, Florida, employs more than 900 people. The firm filed 70,382 foreclosure cases last year. Mr. Stern recently sold the foreclosure support division of his foreclosure mill to China Acquisition Corporation for 146 million. September 4, 2010. Oakland Reports Health Effects of Foreclosure The Alameda County Public Health Department has posted a new report, Rebuilding Neighborhoods, Restoring Health . Here is a link to the Executive Summary. Last summer, representatives from Causa JustaJust Cause interviewed 388 residents in East and West Oakland, two of the harder-hit neighborhoods, to investigate the impact of the foreclosures on health. Here are some of the findings: 151 Residents going through foreclosure or those who had recently lost their homes were twice as likely as others to say their mental and physical health had become worse over the past two years. 151 More than 3 in 10 foreclosed residents reported forgoing medical care due to money concerns. 151 31 percent of tenants in foreclosed buildings said they were living with mold, rodents, cockroaches or other unhealthy conditions. Homeowners in Real Estate Limbo by Sue McALlister and Eve Mitchell An estimated 40,283 homeowners across a seven-county region spanning the South Bay, East Bay and the San Francisco metro area were at least three months behind on their mortgages but not yet in foreclosure as of April 2010, according to CoreLogic, which tracks mortgage performance data. Thats about 4.5 percent of total mortgages in those areas, an 18-fold increase from January 2007, when the rate was 0.25 percent. Nationwide, roughly 3.5 milloin loans are in this limbo land, and are not proceeding through very quickly. It could take years, said Sam Khater, an economist with CoreLogic, which tracks mortgage performance. Kenneth Rosen, chair of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at UC Berkeley, said banks and the government are being quite rational in stretching out the foreclosure process to avoid displacing homeowners and depressing prices. He estimated that fewer than 15 percent of Bay Area mortgage-holders who are 90 days overdue will get foreclosed on. Foreclosure is certainly taking longer than it used to. According to figures from ForeclosureRadar, for the California homes that were foreclosed on in June, it took an average of 234 days from the notice of default to the time the property was foreclosed. Thats nearly eight months on average - meaning some homeowners stay in their homes much longer. In January 2007, the average time to foreclose was a little more than four months. New research from consulting firm Oliver Wyman found that among borrowers nationwide who defaulted in the first half of 2009 and remained in default through the end of the year, 19 could have afforded to keep paying. In June, mortgage financing company Fannie Mae said, But we will punish those strategic defaulters by prohibiting them from getting a Fannie-backed loan for seven years after their foreclosure, instead of the typical five. A mortgage is a non-recourse loan, Fannie, you floozy. The borrower has a contractual right to walk away under the written agreement with the lender. So where does Fannie Mae. a private corporation, find the audacity to threaten homeowners who choose to exercise their contractual rights Are ye Gods Parsifal might ask them on his quest for the Grail, if he were to stumble upon Fannie Maes palatial headquarters in Washington, D. C. Nay, lad, theyre just bankers. And if they carry out their threat and punish millions of families for letting their houses go back to the bank when theyre six feet under water, that royal Fannie will be burn red hot when the lawyers are done with them. It behooves each of us, as we wander through the wasteland of a broken system, to set our sights on the abolition of tyranny and the restoration of honor in America. In fact, why not call Fannie right now at (202) 752-2078 and give em a holler and a royal hoot in the but Even Ben Bernanke Feels the Heat Too Many Problems Too Little Time The Center for Responsible Lending reports that 6.6 million foreclosures have been initiated since 2007. They project up to 12 million additional foreclosures in the next five years151a total of 18.6 million families kicked out of their homes. Federal and state judges keep shoveling homeowners into the streets. Have they volunteered as firemen on the runaway trains that are hurtling the United States towards an abyss The engineers are the bankers who report record profits while the nation sinks. Wells Fargos second quarter profit was 3.1 billion. The nations largest home lender, it reported loans on its books of 766 billion at the end of June 2010. Morgan Stanley profited 1.58 billion during the quarter. The LA Times reported on July 22 that banks stepped up their repossession of California homes in the second quarter. The number of trustees deeds - the last stage of foreclosure - increased 4.4 over the previous year. A total of 47,669 California houses were sold on the courthouse steps April - June, and almost all those sales were to the banks. Now that prices have bottomed, banks apparently feel comfortable putting more inventory on the market, according to LA Times. Isnt that cozy151comfortable banks are kicking more people out of their homes. Federal Reserve Chariman Ben Bernanke said the economic outlook was unusually uncertain. This is the worst labor market since the Great Depression. He told the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday that it would take a significant amount of time to reclaim the 8.5 million jobs lost during 2008 and 2009. Nearly 2.4 million homeowners purchased affordable homes at standard mortgage rates, but are now finding themselves unable to keep up with falling home values and factors such as unemployment, according to the Christian Science Monitor. They find themselves in a catch-22151they are unable to maintain payments due to prolonged unemployment but cant sell their house because they owe more than its worth. In the next 12 months its going to be tragic151most people are just starting to fall behind now, Boston attorney Avi Liss told the Monitor. Record profits for banks. Record foreclosures and unemployment. Things are heating up in the American Dream. Morgan Stanley To Pay Mass. 100M Californias AG Jerry Brown misses the boat Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Brandon Butler reported on June 25 that Morgan Stanley will pay Massachusetts and its residents more than 100 million as part of a settlement negotiated by Attorney General Martha Coakley related to financing for subprime mortgages. As part of the agreement, the bank will pay 58 million to 1,000 Massachusetts homeowners who were impacted by the securitization of subprime loans. Morgan Stanley will also pay 23 million to the states pension fund to cover losses and will give 19.5 million to the states general fund. The suit Coakley brought against Morgan Stanley alleges that the company provided money for retail loan outlets to target low-income borrowers and lure them into accepting loans they could not afford. Morgan Stanley backed loans for homeowners they knew or should have known were destined to fail, Coakley said on June 24. The Massachusetts attorney general reached a 60 million settlement last year with Goldman Sachs. However, Goldman Sachs collected 12.9 billion from U. S. taxpayers after AIGs 182.3 billion bailout by the federal government. The bundling of the riskiest type of mortgages into securities turned the U. S. housing slump into a global recession as foreclosures deflated bond values and toppled Wall Street firms such as Lehman Brothers, Bloomberg reported on June 25. The Ohio attorney general said July 16 that AIG agreed to a 725 million settlement to resolve claims of wide-ranging fraud laid out in a class-action suit led by three Ohio pension funds. S. E.C. reached a settlement with Goldman Sachs on July 15 to pay 550 million to settle civil fraud charges. The New York Times reported, the Goldman settlement - both its size and its legal implications - brought a palpable sense of relief on Wall Street. After two months of strident claims and equally strident denials, the matter was finally settled, and for a price Goldman could easily afford. The penalty amounted to about 15 days of profits. To put that in perspective, if we assume the median household income in the United States is 50,000, a penalty of 15 days income would be 2,054.00. You might feel the pinch, but it wouldnt slow you down. But wait - the Goldman will pay the U. S. 550 million and it paid Massachusettes 60 million, but it collected 12.9 billion from U. S. taxpayers in the AIG bailout. So it is still 12.3 billion ahead. Back to our average Joe, if he pays a fine of 2,054 after cashing a government bailout check for 43,437, he has been taught to go right out and do it again. He cant afford to go straight. California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, issued a press release cautioning homeowners to avoid forensic loan audits, branding them phony foreclosure-relief. Dont ignore letters from your lender or loan servicer. Responding to those letters is your best bet for saving your house. Maybe Jerry Brown could take a hint from Robert Lewis, AIGs chief risk officer, who said in prepared remarks submitted to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), We were wrong about how bad things could get. What ended up happening was so extreme that it was beyond anything we had planned for. When clarity mattered most, Wall Street and Washington were flying blind, FCIC Chairman Phil Angelides said. In the case of derivatives, my fellow commissioners and I are seeing something weve seen many times in our investigation: enormous risk, reckless leverage, and early warning signs being ignored. Angelides, former California treasurer, said to Goldman President Gary Cohn on July 1, Its pretty clear that you helped build the bomb. What do you think Dylan Ratigan Challenges Banks on MSNBC Vampire Banksters Control our Government The New York Times reported on June 27, 2010, that Dylan Ratigan, a financial news reporter, had transformed himself into an outspoken opponent of too-big-to-fail banks and the politicians whom he calls their servants. In the recent fight over financial reform, he lent a megaphone to people who wanted an end to too big to fail, and he called on viewers to lobby the Senators in his imaginary Bankster Party. All this from a man who, until recently, hosted a stock-picking show on CNBC, the cable personification of Wall Street. Now Mr. Ratigan, who labels himself a taxpayer advocate, rails against the vampire banks who have assumed control of our government. Its like being the guy who was running the casino, and then having an awakening and realizing that the casino is whats killing the country, Mr. Ratigan said in an interview last week. The American people are being held hostage by a banking system that acts like a government subsidized casino. There are early signs that viewers are responding favorably to Mr. Ratigan. His show, which is on MSNBC at 4 p. m. Eastern on weekdays, had an average of 330,000 viewers each afternoon in May, an increase of 20 over the news program that aired in that slot a year ago. Wall St. Crashed Americas Reputation The U. S. is losing face around the world The Sidney Morning Herald reported on June 11, 2010, that Australian hedge fund Basis Capital has filed a 1 billion lawsuit against Goldman Sachs and its Australian offshoot, claiming one if its funds was misled into buying a toxic security packed full of US subprime mortgages that eventually contributed to its collapse. Basis Capital paints a picture of a deliberate scheme by Goldman Sachs since early 2007 to offload toxic securities linked to US subprime mortgages. It also alleges moves by the investment bank to make large bets against the securities at the same time it was reassuring clients the securities were sound. The same week Basis and Goldman were closing a deal to buy two slices of the billion dollar security called Timberwolf, a senior sales executive at the Goldman sent an email to a colleague describing the instrument as one shitty deal. Senator Carl Levin quoted the email repeatedly in the Senate Investigations Subcommittees hearing on April 27. Timberwolf was a collateralised debt obligation holding pieces of other CDOs that were ultimately backed by US subprime mortgage bonds. Within five months of its debut, Timberwolf had lost 80 per cent of its value and was liquidated in 2008. Within 2 12 weeks of its investment in the Timberwolf CDO, Goldman Sachs began to make significant margin calls on Basis and forced the firm into insolvency, Basis said. Their lawsuit was filed on June 8 in Manhattan federal court. Meanwhile, the London Times reported on June 11 that John Napier, the chairman of the British insurer RSA, formerly Royal and Sun Alliance, was circulating a letter to President Obama. Your comments towards BP and its CEO as reported here are coming across as somewhat prejudicial and personal. There is a sense here that these attacks are being made because BP is British. If you compare the damage inflicted on the economies of the Western world by polluted securities from the irresponsible, unchecked greed and avarice of leading USA international banks, there has not been the same personalised response in or from countries beyond the US. Perhaps a case of double standards Napier was referring to a remark the President made after an interviewer asked him whether this wasnt a time to kick some butt rather than be calm and collected. Obama replied: I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf. A month ago, I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be. And I dont sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially had the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick. Right So, you know, this is not theater. Obamas remarks were not prejudicial or personal. Great Britain and Australia are two of Americas closest allies. With friends like that, who needs enemies All the credit goes to Wall Street for sending America limping into the dog house151Jamie Dimon, Stephen Rotella, Lloyd Blankfein, Gary Cohn, Ken Lewis, Kerry Killinger, Richard Fuld, and all the other banksters who took home 9-figure paychecks while they crashed the global economy. Obama said he would have fired BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward if Hayward worked for him, but he has not suggested that any of the CEOs on Wall Street step down. His administration remains populated by Wall Street insiders. If we leave the crooks in charge, theyre not going to tell us what they know - who committed the frauds, whose bonuses should be recovered, how much the assets are worth. We need to know the facts to solve a problem, and theyre deliberately leaving in place the people who caused the problem. 151 Bill Black. litigation director for Federal Home Loan Board during the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s. Speak of the devil, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon, center, leave the White House on March 28, 2009 (photo: Getty Images): How to Beat the Banks Class Actions are Not Likely to Succeed We hear about companies that promise to bring class action lawsuits against the banks. Just pay us 4,295 today, and in 90 days we will start filing class action lawsuits against the banks. Once theyre in a class action, the banks cannot foreclose against you. It sounds like a good deal if it will set you free and clear of your mortgage. I wouldnt place too much faith in class action lawsuits against banks. The courts have been throwing out class actions in this arena. See page 27 of the California Court of Appeals decision in Mabry v. Aurora published June 2, 2010. It would be rare for a court to stop multiple foreclosures based on a class action complaint, and the order would probably be reversed within days, if not hours. If an advocacy group hired one of the top 100 law firms in the country and it was prepared to assign several dozen lawyers to the case, then you might take it seriously. Otherwise, it would be a futile effort. Almost thirty years ago, seventy insurance companies were sued by Johns Manville in The Coordinated Asbestos Litigation. Early in the case, JM announced that it was producing 10 million relevant documents at a warehouse in Colorado. There were 72 corporations in that case, and each of them produced a mountain of documents in the same month. Depositions were conducted for the next 15 months151eight simultaneous depositions five days a week all over the country, some lasting a few hours, others a few weeks. A lawyer couldnt just throw up his hands and say, No way, Dude That was the good old days. Congress created the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2009 and gave it the mission to examine the causes of the financial meltdown. The Commission sent many requests for documents to Goldman Sachs, and complained when The Goldman delayed providing documents. On May 18, it produced five terabytes of records - which the commission estimates to be the equivalent of about three billion pages. What would a couple of lawyers in a small firm do with three billion documents in a class action lawsuit Goldman is just one bank. A grassroots approach with many simultaneous lawsuits stands a better chance of changing the corrupt practices that broke the financial system in the past decade. The banks cant be in ten thousand courtrooms at once. We hope you find the information on ChaseChase to be helpful. A Tale of Two Cities Foreclosures is Santa Barbara and Montecito The above house in Montecito was scheduled to be sold on the Santa Barbara courthouse steps on June 3, 2010, according to a Notice of Trustees Sale published by California Reconveyance Co. on behalf of Washington Mutual Bank and JPMorgan Chase, because the owner owed 349,782.00 on a promissory note. What are the chances that Chase could actually prove that it has any legitimate right to sell the property This house in Santa Barbara was scheduled to be sold on the Santa Barbara courthouse steps on June 3, 2010, according to a Notice of Trustees Sale published by California Reconveyance Co. on behalf of Washington Mutual Bank and JPMorgan Chase, because the owner owed the amount of 858,881.00 on a promissory note. What are the odds that WaMu followed any conventional underwriting practices when it made the loan An estimated total of 15,000,000 houses will have been sold in foreclosure sales in the United States by the end of 2012 as the result of the insatiable greed that infected Wall Street during the past decade. It is up to the people to stop the domicide. What do you think The Great Collapse Securitization received a significant stress test, and not only failed miserably, but also helped drag down much of the worlds economy with its failure. The current recession is, to a surprising extent, caused by the effects of securitization itself. While other factors also played a role in the meltdown, subprime securitization may represent one of the greatest structurally-caused financial implosions of the modern world. In essence, subprime securitization acted like a virus that infected the entire American financial industry and affected much of the world. - Kurt Eggert, Law Professor, Chapman University School of Law The Great Collapse: How Securitization Caused the Subprime Meltdown Connecticut Law Review (May 2009) Government Fell Asleep in Bed DOT Report How Feds Failed to Stop the Crash DOT Office of Inspector General released its Evaluation of Federal Regulatory Ovesight of Washington Mutual Bank on April 16. This is more ammunition for trial judges to take judicial notice of the fact that WaMu went crazy and broke the bank. When WaMu made a mortgage loan, they didnt expect that the borrower would be able to pay it back. They didnt care. They expected to make money even when the borrowers defaulted151tons of money. Kerry Killinger (right) stuffed 103 million into his piggy bank between 2003 and 2008 while he played captain on a sinking ship151the biggest bank failure in history151and ran out the door with 21 million in 2008, the year he was fired and WaMu went down to a watery grave. Systemic Underwriting Weaknesses at WaMu WaMu underwriting policies and practices made what were already inherently high-risk products even riskier. For example, WaMu originated a significant number of loans as stated income loans. Stated income loans, sometimes referred to as low-doc loans, allow borrowers to simply write in their income on the loan application without providing any supporting documentation. Approximately 90 percent of all of WaMus home equity loans, 73 percent of Option ARMs, and 50 percent of subprime loans were stated income loans. WaMu also originated loans with high loan-to-value ratios. Specifically, WaMu held a significant percentage of loans where the loan amount exceeded 80 percent of the underlying property. For example, WaMus 2007 financial statements showed that 44 percent of subprime loans, 35 percent of home equity loans, and 6 percent of Option ARMs were originated for total loan amounts in excess of 80 percent of the value of the underlying property. Further, WaMu did not require borrowers to purchase private mortgage insurance (PMI). PMI protects lenders against the loss on default when the loan amount exceeds 80 percent of the homes value. WaMus review of appraisals establishing the value of single family homes did not always follow standard residential appraisal methods because WaMu allowed a homeowners estimate of the value of the home to be included on the form sent from WaMu to third-party appraisers, thereby biasing the appraisers evaluation. Finally, WaMu did not provide adequate oversight of third-party brokers who were compensated for originating most of WaMus mortgages but were not WaMu employees. In 2007, WaMu had only 14 WaMu employees overseeing more than 34,000 third-party brokers. Although WaMu used scorecards to evaluate its third-party brokers, the scorecards did not measure the rate of significant underwriting and documentation deficiencies attributable to individual brokers. In 2007, WaMu identified fraud losses attributable to third party brokers of 51 million for subprime loans and 27 million for prime loans. These matters are under further review by law enforcement agencies. So WaMu dispensed with underwriting, discarded traditional principles of debt to equity ratios, and disposed of any oversight function to keep track of its 34,000 independent loan brokers. The Office of Thrift Supervision looked the other way. And now our leaders in Washington and on Wall Street are coaxing trial judges across the country to pass the buck to the 15 million households who are being thrown out into the street. Who do we have to killinger151no, thats not the right verb151who do we have to communicate with so that our society can begin to deal with such stunning institutional anarchy and overwhelming cynical greed. What do you think Whos on first and Whats on second Why the holder of the second is just waiting I had lunch with Scott the other day. Scott is a broker who helped me buy my house 18 years ago. He told me that homes are selling for 23 of what they were going for three years ago in Santa Barbara, 23 as many houses are selling, and people expect realtors to work for 4 commission instead of 615123 of what they made 3 years ago. 23 x 23 x 23 827. Local realtors make 30 to 40 of what they earned in 2007. Were all feeling the pinch. Scott suggested why so few homeowners in default are hearing from the junior lien holders. Lets say you took out an equity line of credit secured by a second mortgage or deed of trust, and it was not purchase money to buy the home. If the first forecloses and pays the second nothing, or only a fraction of what is owed, the second can collect the unpaid balance from the borrower. Lets say they have four years to sue under state law. If the second puts pressure on the debtor Whos falling behind on the first, the debtor is more likely to file for bankruptcy to discharge Whats on second, but if the second bides their time while the debtor works things out with Whos on first and resumes making payments, there may be a knock at the door as the four-year limit approaches. A debtor who is getting back on their feet will be less likely to file for bankruptcy and tarnish their credit, and most homeowners expect that things will get better in four years. Few have any idea Why they havent been pestered with calls from Whats on second. Scott said that it may be better to file for bankruptcy and get a fresh start151sooner rather than later151instead of hoping the bank has forgotten the six-figure debt151unless Whats on second is the result of bank fraud, or the bank no longer owns the loan or holds the promissory note because it sold it to investors, or for any other reason they cannot prove that they are entitled to your money. What do you think I just read through the whole site. I am in awe. You are amassing a serious amount of excellent and relevant information. Your writing and description of this information is outstanding. There, but for the grace of. Waterproof mantra for a rainy day If the bank is trying to take your house, the bills are piling up, your friends are shaking their heads, and the neighbors never invite you over for drinks anymore, just remember, it could be a lot worse. You could be Yitzchak Tessler. Bloomberg reported on April 29, 2010, that Lehman Brothers sued the Israeli developer to foreclose on his vacant 17-story building at Broadway and 5th Avenue in New York City. The bill comes to 137 million in principal, 17 million in interest, 10.6 million in default charges, and 14 million in fees151180 million and hes being sued by a ghost. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September 2008. Somebody must have forgotten to tell the lawyers. Indeed, NY Times reported on May 3 that fees for lawyers, accountants, and restructuring experts in Lehmans bankruptcy have exceeded 730 million and are heading to the billion-dollar frontier. The turnaround company hired to curate the remains has billed Lehmans ghost 262 million. Alvarez Marsals website boasts that a reputation for providing leadership, problem solving and value creation to both underperforming and robust companies across the industry spectrum leads clients to look to us to find the right answers and deliver solutions in a variety of service areas. Like how to remove all the remaining flesh from the bones. So when youre feeling a little down, just repeat after me: It could be worse 151 I could be Yitzchak Or Lloyd Blankfein151 Blankfein Testifies at Senate Hearing A swing and a miss for Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, testified on April 27, 2010, before the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations. It was the fourth hearing chaired by Sen. Carl Levin into the financial crisis, and the role of investment banks was the focus. The committee focused on a deal that sounded like a Wall St. version of a Daniel Boone episode. In 2007, Goldman sold 300 million of securities in a deal called Timberwolf to a Bear Stearns offshore hedge fund. Within five months, the CDO lost 80 percent of its value, the Bear Stearns hedge fund collapsed, and the AAA-rated securities were downgraded to junk status. A Goldman trader who managed the deal accurately predicted that the day Timberwolf was issued would be a day that will live in infamy. A senior Goldman executive wrote: Boy that timeberwof sic was one shitty deal. His supervisor, Daniel Sparks, head of Goldmans Mortgage Department, was confronted by Sen. Levin immediately preceeding Blankfeins testimony. Blankfein answered questions for three hours. Sen. John McCain (R Ariz) said to Blankfein, I dont know if Goldman Sachs has done anything illegal. From the reading of these emails. theres no doubt their behavior was unethical, and the American people will render a judgment as well as the courts.. Although a tone of indignation filled the room, this hearing was not good news for homeowners in distress. Other than fleeting references to the plight of people losing their homes, little was said about the wholesale fraud perpetrated on the American people, who were tricked into signing over their homes in exchange for liars loans and crap loans which were bundled into junk, toxic synthetic collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) sold to investment funds in shitty deals in which Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street syndicates bet against their clients - the quotes are all from emails in Goldman files. You dont kick 15 million families out on the street and fix it with a little twist here and a little turn there in the regulations for bankers while they pay themselves billions of dollars in bonuses as a reward for their crime orgy at the same time they accept billions in taxpayer bailouts. Thats too many people on the street. Thats too much money lining the pockets of the crooks. Kerry Killinger bailed out of WaMu with 25 million in 2008 just 18 days before the bank crashed into the ground151the biggest bank failure in history. His total take was 103 million. Banks are stealing millions of homes after risking no money of their own. Maybe the walls on Wall Street need to come tumbling down so that crooked politicians who are bankrolled by the bankers can finally see that they must answer to the people, not to Americas Most Wanted: Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase (paid 100 million) Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs Gary Cohn, President of Goldman Sachs Richard Parsons, Chairman of Citigroup Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup Hank Paulson, former Chairman of Goldman Sachs and U. S. Treasury Secretary Kerry Killinger, CEO of WaMu (paid 103 million) Angelo R. Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Richard Fuld, CEO of Lehman Brothers Stanley ONeal, CEO of Merrill Lynch Edward M. Liddy, Goldman Sachs director put in charge of AIG by Paulson Stephen Rotella, CEO Chase 01-05, President of WaMu 05 - 08, President Chase Mortgage 08 - After scolding Blankfein, Levin read his closing statement haltingly, promising amendments to Senator Dodds financial reform bill that would limit two bank practices: betting against their investment f und clients and buying off the rating agencies to get triple-A ratings. Levin has said the panel will decide after the hearings whether to make a formal referral to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. No help for homeowners was explored at the hearing, and it seemed that nothing was learned. Levins closing statement had been written before the hearing began. It was political theater, a moment in the pillory for banksters who wreaked havoc and still hold their jobs. Even Sen. Levin sounded disappointed with his encore. Pressure is mounting. Systems resist change - thats their job - but they also respond to external forces. The people are already influencing this Wall StreetWashington system after years of corruption, lax regulation, and secrecy. To bring the walls down, people will sue the basterds with thousands of lawsuits, stand in front of the banksters limousines to serve summons, TROs, subpoenas, and indictments, post maps to their exclusive clubs and hideouts, visit their tropical islands on rubber rafts and dugout canoes. The pressure is rapidly mounting from outside the beltway, and Washington will change. Thats how systems work. One day after the Senate Investigations Committee hearing, the New York Times reported: With political pressure mounting, Senate Republicans relented on Wednesday and agreed to let Democrats open debate on legislation that would impose the most far-reaching overhaul of the nations financial regulatory system since the aftermath of the Depression. F. D.R. was a leader. If Washington continues with business as usual, Obama will have Jamie Dimon over for dinner at the White House while homeowners grapple with predatory loan modification programs, waiving their rights to prosecute the fraud perpetrated against them when NINJA loans were consumated. Only the people have the power to pry apart those strange, quarreling bedfellows151banksters and bank-owned politicians. What do you think Dick Fuld Mocks Henry Waxmans Committee Fulds 212,000,000 act of perjury not punished On Oct. 6, 2008, three weeks after Lehman Brothers filed the largest bankruptcy in U. S. history, Lehmans former CEO found himself before Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Mr. Fuld will do fine, Waxman said. He can walk away from Lehman a wealthy man who earned over 500 million. But taxpayers are left with a 700 billion bill to rescue Wall Street and an economy in crisis. Dick Fuld replied that his total compensation from 2000 through 2007 was less than 310 million, not the 485 million that appeared on Waxmans chart. He said 85 of his pay was in Lehman stock that had become worthless. I never sold my shares, Fuld said at one point, Business Week reported on 4292010. At another, he said he had not sold the vast majority of them. Fuld said he was a victim, not an architect, of the collapse, blaming a crisis of confidence in the markets for dooming his firm. Reckless management had nothing to do with it. Lehman Brothers was a casualty, he said. However, a Harvard University study published in July 2010 reported after careful analysis that Fuld took home 522.7 million from 2000 to 2007. In other words, Fuld harvested over half a billion dollars while he destroyed Lehman Bros. then he lied to Congress under oath. The Yale Journal on Regulation Vol. 27, pp. 257-282, published The Wages of Failure: Executive Compensation at Bear Stearns and Lehman, 2000-2008. Harvard Law professor Lucian Bebchuk, Alma Cohen, a visiting professor from Tel Aviv University, and Holger Spamann, a Harvard Law lecturer, reported, Overall, we estimate that the top executive teams of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers derived cash flows of about 1.4 billion and 1 billion respectively from cash bonuses and equity sales during 2000-2008. The study found that Fuld made 522.7 million, and 461.2 million of that total was from the sale of 12.4 million shares of Lehman stock. How does Dick Fuld lie to Congress under oath to the tune of 212 million and avoid prosecution Why have there been no convictions since this collapse began three years ago Inside Job, a feature-length documentary, concludes, We have a Wall Street White House. If theyre right, were in big trouble and Mr. Obama might well be remembered for making Herbert Hoover look good. Bill Black Calls the Kettle Black Lehman Brothers Committed Fraud Bill Black, former litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Board, testified on April 20 before the House Financial Services Committee on the 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers. Dick Fuld, former CEO of Lehman (right) sat at the table with Black during his testimony before the committee. Lehman was the leading purveyer of liars loans in the world throughout the decade, Black said. The incidence of fraud was 90. Financial institution leaders are not engaged in risk when they engage in liars loans. Liars loans will cause a failure. They lose money. The only way to make money is to deceive others by selling bad paper, and that will eventually lead to liability and failure as well. When people cheat, you cannot continue business as usual, Black continued. SEC decided to have only 24 people in their comprehensive program when it should have assigned hundreds. Secretary Geithner testified that Lehmans insolvency pushed the financial system to brink of collapse, but Chairman Bernanke said he only dispatched two people to Lehman Brothers. The Fed has had authority since 1994 to regulate all mortgage lenders under HOEPA. We have known for a decade that these are frauds. We have known for a decade how to stop them. All of the major regulatory agencies were complicit. We have a self-fulfilling policy of regulatory failure because of the leadership in this era. Bill Moyers interviewed Black three days later on April 23, 2010. In addition to Lehman Brothers, they discussed the civil lawsuit filed in April against Goldman Sachs. BILL MOYERS: The complaint names only one person, Fabrice Tourre, who was 27 at the time. Would he have been acting without supervision on a deal of that enormity WILLIAM K. BLACK: Not even close. And this was part of a package of about 18 deals as well. So as big as this package was, and it was huge, the overall package was absolutely the type of thing that received personal attention of the leaders, the absolute top leaders at Goldman Sachs. So its very curious to me that the SEC has failed to name the higher-ups. MOYERS: Why did it take so long for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC, to kick into gear on this I mean, have they kicked into gear BLACK: Well, they havent kicked into gear fully, or theyd be naming Blankfein and other senior leaders of Goldman. And theyve, as you just mentioned, theyve only gone after a junior person. And there would be, if they were really in gear, there would be criminal charges here. And if they were really in gear, thered be a broad investigation, not just of Goldman, but of all of these major entities. In the last three weeks, we have finally done a half-baked investigation, mind you. Nothing like we did in the Savings Loan days - of Washington Mutual (WaMu), Citicorp, Lehman, and Goldman. And we have found strong evidence of fraud at all four places. And we have looked previously at Fannie and Freddie and found the same thing. So the only six places weve looked, at really elite institutions, weve found strong evidence of fraud. So where are the other investigations Why are there no arrests Why are there no convictions MOYERS: Well, Bill, where are the other investigations Why have there been no arrests Why have there been no convictions BLACK: Because we have still Bushs wrecking crew in charge of the key regulatory agencies. Why are they still in place They have abysmal records as major causes of this crisis. MOYERS: You talk about the Bush appointees still being there, but Goldmans former lobbyist, his treasury secretary, Timothy Geithners chief of staff, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler, who may soon have new power over derivatives, worked for Goldman. So did the deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, the under Secretary of State is a former Goldman employee. Goldmans hired Barack Obamas recent chief counsel from the White House on his defense team. I mean151 BLACK: Dont forget Rubin. MOYERS: Robert Rubin, whose influence is all over the place, who used to be-- BLACK: Its his proteges that are in charge of economic policy, under Obama. MOYERS: So is this administration, which still has some Bush holdovers in it, and now has a lot of Goldman people in it, is this administration going to be able to pass judgment on Goldman Sachs BLACK: Well, so far, they havent been able to do it. They cant even get themselves to use the word fraud. Ten days later, Bill Black appeared in a Huffington Post video interview, The Perfect Crime. He said, The current crisis is a story of accounting control fraud. During the Savings Loan scandal in the 80s, a thousand indictments were handed down. This time, there have been no indictments. If you look at this crisis, crime pays, Black concluded. Right now, accounting control fraud by these elites is a perfect and successful crime. They got away with it and they made more money than anybody in history. Gun was Smokin on Clintons Watch Feds Warned Banks of Illegal Loans in 2000 Here is an excerpt from OCC Advisory Letter AL 2000-7 issued ten years ago by the Comptroller of the U. S. Currency, not long after Congress repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and demolished the wall erected in 1933 between Wall Street brothels and Main Street banks: TO: Chief Executive Officers and Compliance Officers of All National Banks This advisory is to alert you to abusive lending practices that may involve violations of fair lending and other consumer protection laws and regulations. Objective, fairly-applied subprime and risk-based lending have been important tools in expanding access to credit. However, certain lending practices -- largely engaged in by non-bank entities -- have come under intense scrutiny recently. Most of these practices involve the setting of prices, fees, and other terms and conditions in a manner that drastically departs from those used by more traditional and responsible prime and subprime lenders. These practices may involve violations of fair lending statutes and other consumer protection provisions. They may also lead to increased credit, legal, and reputation risk. For this reason, national banks and their direct subsidiaries should review their direct and indirect lending practices to determine whether they are involved in activities that may be considered abusive or predatory, and should take corrective action where needed. This advisory does not attempt to define what constitutes abusive or predatory lending, and many of the indicators of such lending may not be readily available to examiners. However, examiners should be alert for the following indications that an institution may be engaging in abusive lending practices: Collateral or Equity Stripping - loans made in reliance on the liquidation value of the borrowers home or other collateral, rather than the borrowers independent ability to repay, with the possible or even intended result of foreclosure or the need to refinance under duress Pricing and terms, whether interest rates or fees, that far exceed the true risk and cost of making the loan Targeting persons, such as the elderly, women, minorities, and persons living in low - or moderate-income areas, who are perceived to be less financially sophisticated or otherwise vulnerable to abusive loan practices Inadequate disclosure of the true costs and risks of loan transactions Lending practices that are fraudulent, coercive, unfair, deceptive or otherwise illegal and the list goes on. When examiners identify circumstances that may lead to a conclusion that a bank is engaged in predatory lending, they should inform both the supervisory office deputy comptroller and the deputy comptroller for Compliance Operations, who will determine the appropriate course of action. John D. Hawke, Jr. Comptroller of the Currency (1998-2004) Hawke testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on April 8, 2010. We did not predict that securitizations would drive lending, rather than vice versa, as investment bankers demanded more and more product to securitize. I believe that this top down demand151driven not only by securitization fees, but also by a demand in the market for higher yield investments at a time of low market rates151encouraged an erosion of underwriting standards. Mortgage brokers, who received commissions for originating loans, had little incentive to be rigorous in underwriting borrowers banks, who were acting as conduits, and who did not retain loans in their own portfolios, had a diminished incentive to be rigorous the investment bankers, who were taking in big fees for selling the bonds issued by securitization pools, had no particular expertise in loan underwriting, and, in any event, were slicing up the risks in the pools in such a manner as to obscure the risks that really existed. When banks stopped underwriting, the system stopped working. They didnt look to see if the borrower could pay back the loan because they didnt care. Default would be somebody elses problem, because the bank was not putting up its own money and did not ever intend to own the loan. So there was no expectation that the borrower would perform. So there was no contract. The promissory note is unenforceable. Foreclosure is not lawful. The bank expected nothing from the homeowner, so now the bank gets nothing. The grantee on the grant deed keeps the home. What do you think A Crash That Keeps On Banking Banks are swallowing millions of homes RealtyTrac said on April 15, 2010, that the number of U. S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. More than a quarter of a million houses, places that people used to call home, were consumed by the same banks that caused the financial meltdown. Foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - were reported on 932,234 properties in the first quarter, a 16 percent increase from the first quarter of 2009. One in every 138 U. S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter. California alone accounted for 23 percent of the nations total foreclosure activity in the first quarter with 216,263 properties receiving a foreclosure notice. Floridas total was second highest, with 153,540 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the quarter, and Arizonas total was third with 55,686 properties. Banks are scooping up homes at a rate unprecedented in human history. Not even Genghis Khan or Adolf Hitler succeeded in driving people out of their homes at the rate of a million households per year, dislocating millions of people. The 21st century wars are economic. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO and Gary Cohn, president, wait for Obamas speech on Wall Street Consider these remarks from our leaders in Washington this week: Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs were not simply market-makers, they were self interested promoters of risky and complicated financial schemes that helped trigger the crisis, said Sen. Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations in a press release on April 24, 2010. In one day Goldman netted over 50 million by taking short positions that increased in value as the mortgage market collapsed. They profited 1,000 million in 2007, the year the bubble burst, which Blankfein dismissed as chump change (close to home) in his testimony on Capital Hill. Goldman made a lot of money by betting against the mortgage market, Sen. Levin said. They bundled toxic mortgages into complex financial instruments, got the credit rating agencies to label them as AAA securities, and sold them to investors, magnifying and spreading risk throughout the financial system, and all too often betting against the instruments they sold and profiting at the expense of their clients. President Obama said in his weekly radio address on Saturday, April 24, In the absence of common sense rules, Wall Street firms took enormous, irresponsible risks that imperiled our financial system and hurt just about every sector of our economy. I still remember when banks were considered a safe place to keep your money. The safe was a prominent feature in every bank, and the bank manager was a human being you could trust. The only place you could trust Blankfein, Cohn, Dimon, Rotella, Fuld, Mozilo, Parsons, Killinger, Jester, or Pandit 151 these are all real names of multi-millionaires who headed the biggest banks while they broke the system 151 is behind bars. How else can society reward any individual who becomes so smitten with greed that they cast millions of families into the streets while they hoard a 103 million salary (Killinger), or 245 million (Mozillo), or 246 million (Fuld). See Public Citizens report Rewarding Failure to see how far the banks leaped off the deep end, taking every one of us with them 151 but keeping the money for themselves. Joseph Cassano, head of AIG Financial Products division, was paid 280 million for creating credit default swaps during the eight years between Y2K and the day he was fired. AIG has since received 134 billion in taxpayer infusions. The average annual CEO compensation during the period 2000-2007 for Countrywide was 51.4 million for Lehman Brothers it was 69.2 million. These immense salaries rewarded men whose claim to fame is that they literally broke the bank. The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government151a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMFs staff could speak freely about the U. S. it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, were running out of time. - Simon Johnson, professor of Entrepreneurship at the Sloan School of Management, M. I.T. and former Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund 32007 - 82008 Underwater and Not Walking Away The Psychology of Drowning The University of Arizona College of Law reports in a discussion paper that a recent qualitative sociological study of the internal costs of foreclosure found that feelings of personal failure, shame, and embarrassment dominated the accounts of individuals who had lost their homes to foreclosure. Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and Social Management of the Housing Crisis, by Brent T. White, The University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law (Oct. 09) Moreover, such feelings predominated even when individuals were not at fault for their predicament, but were victims of the declining economy andor unethical practices by mortgage brokers. And, as further evidence of the shame and guilt felt by those who experience foreclosure, large damage awards for humiliation are common features of successful suits against lenders for wrongful foreclosure. David Stevens, HUD Assistant Secretary for Housing, parrots the government line, drawn by President Obama, that anyone who can afford to keep making the payments should stay in their house, even if they will remain underwater for the next 15 years. The policy of the Administration is to shift the burden of the housing meltdown from the banks to the homeowners by shaming them into clinging to a sinking ship. It is a corrupt line that has not basis in law. The mortgage contract is based on the premise that the buyer can walk away and hand the keys to the bank. The term commonly used to describe foreclosure by those who face it is terrifying. People not only fear losing their homes, but fear having ruined credit for life, not be able to find a decent place to live, to buy a car, to get a credit card, to get insurance, to ever buy a house, or even get a job. Foreclosure is seen as the end of life as one knows it: financial suicide to be avoided at all costs. In short, fear - like shame and guilt - is a powerful motivator in homeowner decisions not to default. Federal policy proclaims that homeowners are - for the most part - not ruthless and wont walk away from their mortgages simply because they have negative equity. Most homeowners walk only when they can no longer afford to stay. As evidence of this fact, only 45 of homeowners would walk even if they had 300,000 in negative equity. This percentage drops to 38 among the subset of individuals who believe it is immoral to strategically default on ones mortgage (a subset to which 87 of homeowners belong). Federal policy can only proceed on the premise that affordability is the prime consideration as long as the moral and social constraints on foreclosure remain strong. The government thus has an incentive, along with certain other economic and social institutions interested in limiting the number of foreclosures, in cultivating guilt and shame in those who would contemplate walking away. Similarly, knowing that guilt and shame alone are not enough to prevent many individuals from defaulting once negative equity is extreme, these same institutions have an interest in increasing the perceived cost of foreclosure by cultivating fear of financial disaster for those who contemplate it. A homeowner contemplating a strategic default would be hard pressed to avoid the message that doing so would place them among the most despicable members of society. It is thus not surprising that a large number of media stories about individuals who walk on their mortgages indicate that these individuals ask that their last name not be used to protect their privacy. Gail Cunningham of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling declared in an interview on NPR: Walking away from ones home should be the absolute last resort. However desperate a situation might become for a homeowner, that does not relieve us of our responsibilities. Well, Gail, if the responsibilities you invoke with absolute moral certainty do not appear in the written contracts between the desperate homeowners and desperado banks, when exactly would it be appropriate for the owner to stop pouring money into a sinkhole Many homes will not recover equity for more than a dozen years. When can the owner say that enough is enough A non-recourse loan is a contract with a provision that allows the owner to walk away. That is not a breach of contract. Business owners do it all the time. Why should homeowners bear the burden of the real estate collapse while big banks enjoy taxpayer bailouts and record profits But in one sense, Im with you, Gail. Dont walk away when the bank adjusts your interest rate through the roof and you can no longer afford to pay. Stay and fight for your home. Dont give it to the bank that made a fraudulant loan, knowing full well that you could never pay it back. If you were the owner of this three-story building that disappeared down a sinkhole in Guatamala City on June 1, 2010, would you keep paying the mortgage for the next 30 years WaMu Former CEO Killinger Testifies Senator Carl Levin turns up the heat WaMu CEO Kerry Killinger (left) and President Stephen Rotella testified before Senator Carl Levins Senate Subcommittee on Investigations for two hours on April 13, 2010. Shameless passing of the buck climaxed with an 8-minute exchange between Mr. Levin and former CEO Killinger on C-Span that left Mr. Killinger speechless. Dont get me wrong, Im not passing judgment on Mr. Ks sheepish grin. Ive worn that expression when I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar and asserted my inalienable right to remain silent. I just never got caught with 300 billion broken cookies on the floor. Nor did it ever occur to me to grab 25 million in severance pay (for a total of 103 million in compensation) as I ran out the door shouting, Its not fair They didnt give me a bailout. The Stress of It All by Barbara Caldwell Shelter is one of the essential elements in life, in addition to food, water, and human contact. What is shelter It is our homes. And because our homes are essential, the banks are able to mess with those of us in loan modification hell to the point that we become physically ill. I have read about it, and I have experienced it. The gut-wrenching fear is present almost constantly some days. Most of the people I know who are in loan modification hell are on anti-stress meds. We are smart people, loving people, compassionate people, and the banks are brutally assaulting our very souls. I know thats strong, but its how I feel and what I know. I know people in this nightmare who throw up many mornings because of the stress. I know people whose chronic illnesses have increased, and who are often too tired to drag themselves out of bed. I know that couples fight, that marriages are threatened, and that people are just overcome with disbelief. And yet it continues. I worry about the people who are at their wits end. How in the world are they ever going to fight the banks if they are so scared - so almost paralyzed with fear that they will lose Most people have no ONE person at the bank they can talk to. Its the luck of the draw who you will get on the other end of that line when you call that bank, and I know first hand that no matter how prepared you think you are, that person can reduce you to a puddle with their cruelty. I often fantasize about a class action lawsuit against Wall Street. Not about the loan mods (although that is a fantasy at other times), but one that is due to the personal damages and stress and health care costs that we have all incurred because of this nightmare. Ah, that is something that might happen in another dimension, unfortunately. The America I now know now does not care about much about anything more than money and power. It is sad, isnt it The Pillory or the Sack How do we reward avarice and greed The New York Times reported on tax day, April 15, 2010, that the number of homeowners who defaulted on their mortgages after getting loan modifications doubled in March to 2,879 from 1,499 in February. HUDs loan modification program started last fall. The defaults are only 1 of the 228,000 active permanent modifications in March, which represent only 3 of the seven million households that are behind in their mortgage payments. Sixty percent of modifications undertaken by banks in late 2008 were in default a year later, according to the latest Mortgage Metrics Report compiled by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the comptroller of the currency. Many of these private plans either kept the payments the same or increased them. Inevitably, those mortgages suffered the highest failure rate: about two-thirds of the borrowers defaulted again. Loans for which the payments were decreased by at least 20 percent failed at a slower but still significant rate of about 40 percent. The Treasury said on Wednesday that new elements of the program focus on allowing distressed homeowners to sell their properties for less than they owe and on shaving the principal owed by borrowers. The notion of cutting principal, however, has already run into some resistance from the big banks, which do not want borrowers to get the idea that their mortgage can be chopped on a whim. Chopped on a whim. Hmmm. These big banks are the same pranksters who made loans to homeowners who could not possibly pay them back, sold the toxic assets to unsuspecting pension funds as bundled securities, then took out insurance in the form of credit default swaps so that they, the banks, would be paid the amount of the loan in full (which they no longer owned) from insurance companies such as AIG when the borrowers defaulted. Taxpayers bailed out AIG because Wall Street told our President that it was too big to fail. Then the banks seized the homes. To say that banks dont want borrowers to think their mortgages can be chopped on a whim is not simply the pot calling the kettle black. Its the rapist calling the victim a tramp. How does a bank sell off a toxic loan, pocket the balance of the loan when the homeowner defaults, then seize the home, evict the residents, and sell the house Its called fraud, malice, stealing, unjust enrichment. Societys civilized remedy for such conduct is restitution, punitive damages, ostracism, and jail. Oh yes, and we replace the guarded mansion behind the wall with a guarded cell. Many years ago it was tar-and-feathers, lynching, the pillory, or burned at the stake. In the time of Jesus, they got sacked . The thieving money-changer would be tied up, stuffed in a leather sack with a live monkey, a rooster, or a dog, and tossed in the river. The Sack was considered a preferable method to crucifixion because the unfortunate soul would be dead before he drowned. Weve come a long way since Good Friday, but so have the banks. Rep. Marcy Kaptur Grills Tim Geithner Goldman Sachs gets to keep U. S. 14 billion Congressman Marcy Kaptur (Ohio-D) grilled Tim Geithner, Obamas Treasury Secretary, about his Goldman Sachs colleagues, who drained the US Treasury of 14 billion in AIG bailout funds in 2009 while two million American families lost their homes and Wall Street rewarded its unblushing champions-of-the-universe with 20 billion in bonuses. Goldman Sachs was the largest recipient of federal funds that were dumped on Wall Street to bail out AIG so that it could honor the banks in full for their credit default swaps (bets that homeowners would default on mortgages written by the banks). It was the biggest heist of all time. Goldman Sachs has given new meaning to the term bank robber . Kaptur elicits admissions from Geithner that he was elected to his previous job as President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank during the George W. Bushs presidency (2003-09) by a handful of private banks. Geithner held that powerful position at the pleasure of the Wall Street banks while they wreaked havoc on the global economy. For example, Jamie Dimon, C. E.O. of JPMorgan Chase, sat on the Board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank in 2008 when it decided to loan 55 billion to Chase to bail out Bear Stearns. Thats about how much Bush said the invasion of Iraq would cost American taxpayers. No other U. S. president but Obama has picked a New York Fed President to be his Treasury Secretary. Bushs Treasury Secretary was Hank Paulson. who headed Goldman Sachs before taking over the Treasury. Geithners gatekeeper, Mark Patterson, Treasury Secretary chief of staff, worked for Goldman Sachs before he joined the Obama administration. Geithner bristles as Kaptur grills him. You in effect nationalized AIG and let the bankers off the hook while President of the New York Fed, she said. She points out that during the critical period when the AIG bailout occured, Geither made 225 calls to Treasury Secretary Paulson, about a hundred calls to Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, and 103 calls to Dan Jester at Goldman Sachs. Goldman received more AIG bailout funds than any other US corporation. Its probably not a coincidence that Paulson put Edward M. Liddy, a Goldman director, in charge of A. I.G. in the fall of 2008 as he directed the bailout. Wall Street tanks the Euro In 1929, The St. Valentines Day Massacre was the beginning of the end for the mafia. It was probably just a coincidence that the New York Times ran a headline on Feb. 14, 2010, Wall St. Helped to Mask Debt Fueling Europes Crisis. Could this story signal the beginning of the end for the characters who steered the US economy to the brink of collapse Is the boss of Goldman Sachs, Gary Cohn (on your right) going the way of Al Capone Will he share a jail cell with Jamie Dimon (dukes on your left) Chairman, President, and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Will they get along okay in an 8x10 cell Sweet dreams. The Times is in hot pursuit: Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermined the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts. As worries over Greece rattle world markets, records and interviews show that with Wall Streets help, the nation engaged in a decade-long effort to skirt European debt limits. One deal created by Goldman Sachs helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels. Financial derivatives played a role in the run-up of Greek debt. Instruments developed by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and a wide range of other banks enabled politicians to mask additional borrowing in Greece, Italy and possibly elsewhere. In dozens of deals across the Continent, banks provided cash upfront in return for government payments in the future, with those liabilities then left off the books. Greece, for example, traded away rights to airport fees and lottery proceeds for years to come. New York Times Feb. 14, 2010. Wall Street put Greece underwater while knawing at the fragile bonds that hold together the European Union. This is not your typical subdivision in the suburbs. Hey Gary, Jamie, listen up. It aint wise to mess with Zorba. Greece is the cradle of democracy151an idea introduced by Theseus 2,500 years ago. Will this meltdown turn into a grand duel between the Rockefellers and the Rothchilds Will they settle the score in an epic battle over the Atlantic with supersonic drones, or will they face off like gentlemen over a civilized game of cribbage We can only wonder how the modern lords of finance will duel. Perhaps there is a new legend in the making. What diety will Chief Ex Dimon (on your left) play What do you think How to Interview a Lawyer from LivingLies - Neil Garfield If you can see the writing on the wall, you house is underwater, or your mortgage is going to adjust through the roof, or you just cant keep paying the bank and still feed the kids on the same reduced paycheck, and you suspect that the lender knew or should have known that you wouldnt be able to keep up with the payments, maybe its time to start interviewing lawyers. Most law firms will meet with you without charge, even if only for 15 minutes, to explore whether or not you will hire them to represent you. You can learn a lot in a quarter of an hour if youre prepared. Here is a link to a list of questions posted by Neil Garfield, a Florida lawyer and outspoken advocate for beseiged homeowners. To Neils list, I would add the following three questions: If the bank knew, or should have known, that you couldnt pay back the loan when you signed the promissory note, then how could there have been a meeting of the minds . If there was no meeting of the minds, how could there be an enforceable contract If there was no contract, how can any bank lawfully foreclose under a Deed of Trust How Banks Can Bankrupt a Nation The fall of an empire is not a pretty picture One in every 365 housing units in the United States was branded with a foreclosure notice recorded in December 2009, according to RealtyTrac. That means 850,000 Americans got a big lump of coal in their stocking from Uncle Scrooge. Its hard to think of a more unpleasant holiday greeting than a Sheriff knocking on your door with an eviction notice when the kids are expecting Santa Claus, but banks will be banks . The number is February 2010 was one in every 418 housing units. According to author Michael Lewis, appearing on 60 Minutes on March 14, 2010, the financial hoard on Wall Street paid themselves 20 billion in bonuses in 2009. The all-time bonus record was 30 billion in 2007, when they crashed the global economy. Will any of those courtesans survive the roar of the crowd as more and more people wake up to the fact that their bonuses came out of the pockets of taxpayers in the form of government bailouts Look up their names. Publish their addresses. Post their phone numbers on bulletin boards and restroom doors. Cherry bombs on slingshots at 3:00 AM. Dog poop catapults targeting the fine wedding on the lawn151No Dont do it. An evil force must be taking over my mind. Be nice to these insatiable, greedy people, for they know not what they do (or maybe they just dont care). Over 2,076,764 American homes are now in foreclosure. The number of persons per household in 2000 was 2.6 according to the US Census. so 5.4 million people are now feeling like deer in the headlights. How many human beings is that They would fill 68 Sun Life Stadiums, where Super Bowl XLIV was played, if they could afford the tickets151226,000 for one seat facing the end zone in Section 238A offered on the official NFL website on February 4, three days before the game. What a country As for trends, the number of foreclosures rose 41,409 in the past two months for an increase of 106,663 casualties in the first two months of 2010. It hurts to get kicked out of your home. One in every 165 housing units in California (more that twice the national average) received a foreclosure notice in December, for a total of 80,488 properties. In Nevada, the figure was one in every 93 houses getting Santas boot. In Santa Barbara County, 965 properties are currently in default, according to RealtyTrac. A search of public records in the SB Recorders Office shows that notices of trustee sale increased from 116 in 2005 to 2460 in 2009151a 2,100 increase in five years. The ratio of NODs to NOTSs jumped from 30 to 75. Three out of ten defaults resulted in a foreclosure sale in 2005 four years later, three out of four defaults ended with a foreclosure sale on the courthouse steps. In the first 6 months of 2010, the number of NOTS climbed another 8 over the same period in 20091511,273 Notices of Trustees Sale filed between New Years Day and June 30, 2010. At 2.8 persons per household (U. S. Census 2000 ) that adds up1517,128 people in Santa Barbara County notified that they will lose ownership of their home in 2010. They would fill the Arlington Theater four times. Sales of houses on the South Coast (Goleta to Carpinteria) are 30-40 short sales or foreclosures, and 10-20,000 homes are underwater (no equity). Theres trouble in paradise, but not a word is said in the local media. Shame is a major component of South Coast culture. Wear a happy face until the Sheriff is about to come knocking, then slip away silently into the night as friends and neighbors look the other way shaking their heads. This may shed some light on the debate at the SB Board of Supervisors reported by Noozhawk about the growing homeless population in Santa Barbara. If every homeless shelter bed was used, it would still leave 300 to 400 people on the street with nowhere to go, according to John Buttny, director of Bringing our Community Home. The Red Cross has declined to help recently because it doesnt have the staff equipped to deal with people with mental illness, said Michelle Mickiewicz, deputy director at the County Public Health department. They are saying, Wed love to help with this, but we are not fit for this. The Red Cross can deal with Haiti, but not State Street. Is it possible that homelessness is related to the 4,927 Notices of Trustees Sale recorded in Santa Barbara during the past two years Homelessness is not only a mental health issue involving winos and drifters, as often portrayed in the press. We are facing systemic failure compounded by issues of institutional cardiac arrest. Noozhawk reports that the coroners office has seen a disturbing trend with an increase in suicides, which were up to 60 deaths in 2009 from the previous years 34. The total number of deaths also was up, hovering near a 20 percent increase. Do people without a roof over their heads die in the winter Maybe we should all try sleeping outside under a blanket151if we can find one151when its raining. Flott arbeid. Youve done a wasterful job here. 151Jack Reed Thanks Jack. Ill keep wasting away here. I welcome everyones comments. The Upbeat and the Downbeaten Are we recovering from a Great Recession, or are we sinking into a Great Depression Here are two sides of the story from the New York Times . The first appeared on January 7, 2010: Despite extensive government intervention in the housing market, some policy makers at the Federal Reserve are worried that even more might need to be done. Unease is growing that a tentative comeback in the housing market could fall apart as a tax credit for home buyers expires and the Feds program to hold down mortgage rates comes to a close. Other signs of stress in real estate have become apparent in the last few weeks, although most economists say any downturn will be relatively mild. The Fed has been buying 1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed assets to ease lending markets and keep longer-term rates low151a program that is winding down and scheduled to end by March 31. So the government is doing a lot, we are told, but there is growing unease whether the comeback we are enjoying will persist, but any downturn will be relatively mild. Relative is relative. If youre a Rockefeller, life is good. The Times benignly referred to purchase of 1,125 billion of mortgage-backed assets by the Fed. I have trouble grasping the concept of a trillion dollars. A thousand million is a billion a thousand billion is a trillion. What am I supposed to do with twelve 0s I can still remember when a billion seemed like a lot of money. Those assets are the securitized mortgages were reading about, and didnt the 150-billion-dollar-bonus recipients on Wall Street refer to them as toxic waste while they were marketing them as Triple-A bonds to teachers retirement funds There was another story told in the New York Times a week earlier on December 30 that is not rippled with unease that the downturn might turn out to be slightly more vexing than mild. In New York City, 20,000 homeowners faced foreclosure in 2009. With an average household size of 2.6 persons, this is a story about 52,000 people who grappled with some combination of terror, anger, shame, and grief as they faced the imminent prospect of being herded out of their homes by officers in uniform151rain or shine. Lenders offered new or trial mortgages to just 3 percent of New York homeowners who sought help. Nationwide, lenders have cut three-month trial deals with 759,000 homeowners, but they have converted just 31,000 of those to permanent new mortgages151thats 4 percent. So if youre facing foreclosure in the Big Apple, you have 3 chances in 100 of being offered a trial mortgage, and 4 chances in 100 of converting it to a permanent new mortgage. That adds up to 12 chances in 10,000. New York state law requires lenders to negotiate with troubled borrowers in court. Leonard N. Florio, a court-appointed referee, oversees such sessions in a dusty room in Queens. I have yet to see an attorney for a servicer cut a deal, he told the Times . In California, only 7.8 of the mortgages modified through Obamas Making Home Affordable program were permanent through December 31. Foreclosures will mount as borrowers are not able to make it from trial modification to a permanent modification, said Celia Chen, senior director of Moodys Economy. This will cause home prices to start falling again. So take your pick151are we experiencing a mild downturn or has the bottom fallen out Stephen Choiniere sends these fascinating articles for your consideration: Heres an article by Chris Hedges (Pulitzer Prize winner 2002) that might interest you: Wall Street Will Be Back For More. As for cap and trade, Matt Tabbi wrote a scathing article in Rolling Stone about the next surprise from Goldman Sachs: The Great American Bubble Machine. Thank you, Stephan. I hope all the lawyers who work for the banks will read Chris Hedges article, as well as their investigators, paralegals, secretaries, and especially their clients. Here is an excerpt: Jan 11, 2010. Corporations, which control the levers of power in government and finance, promote and empower the psychologically maimed. Those who lack the capacity for empathy and who embrace the goals of the corporation151personal power and wealth151as the highest good succeed. Those who possess moral autonomy and individuality do not. And these corporate heads, isolated from the mass of Americans by insular corporate structures and vast personal fortunes, are no more attuned to the misery, rage and pain they cause than were the courtiers and perfumed fops who populated Versailles on the eve of the French Revolution. They play their games of high finance as if the rest of us do not exist. And it is a game that will kill us. These companies exist in a pathological world where identity and personal worth are determined solely by the perverted code of the corporation. The corporation decides who has value and who does not, who advances and who is left behind. It rewards the most compliant, craven and manipulative, and discards the losers who cant play the game, those who do not accumulate wealth or status fast enough, or who fail to fully subsume their individuality into the corporate collective. These deeply stunted and maladjusted individuals, from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to Robert Rubin to Lawrence Summers to the heads of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J. P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America, hold the fate of the nation in their hands. They have access to trillions of taxpayer dollars and are looting the U. S. Treasury to sustain reckless speculation. Chris Hedges, a former Middle East bureau chief of The New York Times, shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism. He has written nine books, including Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009). A video of a lecture by Chris Hedges in Seattle on tour with his latest book, Empire of Illusion . also helps to place our current crisis in an historical perspective as it describes the unconscious forces that cause many Americans to keep trudging on the treadmill in our consumer culture. The bubbles manufactured by Wall Street banks like Goldman and Chase dont just take away peoples houses. The food bubble of 2005 - 2008 added another 250 million people to the ranks of the food insecure and starving. Banks starved a quarter of a billion people in order to make a buck. Thats four times the number of people who died in World War II. Hard Times in River City Here is one of those things that circulates by email. If you know who wrote it, drop me a note . The economy is so bad that: I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail. I ordered a burger at McDonalds and the kid behind the counter asked, Can you afford fries with that CEOs are now playing miniature golf. If the bank returns your check marked Insufficient Funds, you call them and ask if they meant you or them. Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM. McDonalds is selling the 14 ouncer. Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their childrens names. A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico. Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting. Motel Six wont leave the light on anymore. The Mafia is laying off judges. Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen. Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great. The guy who made 50 billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made 1.5 brillion disappear. And, finally. I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc. I called the Suicide Lifeline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck. Auctioning Off the American Dream Houses are going like hotcakes at 1 pm on the Santa Barbara Courthouse steps. Here are dates of the public auctions listed in the legal newspapers on January 6, 2010: January 2010 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 11, 12, 13, 14 18, 19, 20 25, 26, 27 The auctions listed that day announced 43 foreclosure sales 151about one fifth of the total for the month. Listings appear in the classified ads 7 days a week. There are eight legal newspapers in Santa Barbara County that can publish Notices of Trustees Sale: News Press Independent CarpinteriaSummerland Coastal View Pacific Coast Business Times Santa Barbara Daily Sound Santa Ynez Valley News Lompoc Record Santa Maria Times Have you ever attended a public auction on the courthouse steps, where your neighbors houses are being transferred to the banks almost daily in foreclosure sales Here is a photo taken January 5, 2010, of Ryan, Santa Barbara Countys leading public auctioneer at work, a handsome fellow with a trim goatee dressed in T-shirt, levis, and sunglasses facing the steps of the courthouse as he reads a script: Okay, I do have clearance. It is a total debt bid, address purported to be 1310 State Street in Santa Barbara. If you want to bid you must have cashiers checks acceptable to the trustee for any bid that you make before you make that bid. Any bid that you make is irrevocable. It cannot be withdrawn. Your bid will only be cancelled by a higher bid, postponement or cancellation of the sale. The first bid must be higher than the opening bid. I will sell the property to the last and highest bidder. I will not pronounce the property sold until I have endorsed checks for the full amount in my hand. Bidders are advised that all sales are being perfected on an as-is where-is basis. No representations or warranties are made by the trustee or beneficiary regarding the title or condition of the property or its habitability. Does anybody care to qualify for the sale On behalf of the beneficiary, I am authorized to and I do bid the sum of 53,553 dollars even. Do I have any higher bids Ill bid a dollar, says a woman who is sitting on the steps. A dollar over - 53,554 dollars even. Do I have any higher bids 53,554 dollars going once, twice, third and last call. Taking no more bids. And then the property changes hands. If nobody bids, the bank takes it for the amount it claims it is owned. The bank doesnt pay one additional penny for the house, even if151 the bank doesnt own the loan the bank cant produce the promissory note that is the only evidence of the loan the bank never entered the loan on its balance sheet the bank cant tell the homeowner who put up the money for the loan the bank doesnt know whether the lender still has any interest in the loan the bank has no idea whether the middlemen who securitized the loan have been paid the entire balance of the loan many times over because they placed a series of bets that the homeowner wouldnt be able to keep up with the payments on the loan. How do the banks get away with it Because so many homeowners walk away from their homes without asking questions, without demanding to be shown documents that would prove whether the bank has any legal right to the property. There are 3,140 counties in the United States, where foreclosure filings were reported on 2,824,674 properties in 2009. That is 54,320 families per week or 7,739 families per day. Another army of refugees is forced out of their homes by the banks every day in the worlds richest country. The number of homes receiving a foreclosure notice increased 120 from 2007. A Realty Trac report released Jan. 14, 2010, shows that 2.2 of all U. S. housing units (one in 45) received at least one foreclosure filing in 2009. Foreclosure filings were reported on 349,519 U. S. properties in December, a 14 jump from the previous month. As bad as the 2009 numbers are, they probably would have been worse if not for legislative and industry-related delays in processing delinquent loans, said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. After peaking in July with over 361,000 homes receiving a foreclosure notice, we saw four straight monthly decreases driven primarily by short-term factors: trial loan modifications, state legislation extending the foreclosure process, and an overwhelming volume of inventory clogging the foreclosure pipeline. Despite all the delays, a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market, and many of those delinquencies will end up in foreclosure as lenders gradually work their way through the backlog. More than 10 of Nevada housing units received at least one foreclosure filing in 2009, giving it the nations highest state foreclosure rate for the third consecutive year. Four states accounted for more than 50 of the nations total151California, Florida, Arizona and Illinois. A total of 632,573 California properties received a foreclosure filing in 2009, the nations largest state foreclosure activity total and an increase of nearly 21 from 2008. The next wave of foreclosures is starting to hit. In a 60 Minutes segment on December 16, 2009, investment fund manager Whitney Tilson told Scott Pelley that we are about halfway through the bursting of the real estate bubble. Defaults in subprimes mortgages approached 1 trillion. Now the Option ARMs and Alt-A loans are about to adjust, leading to additional damages of 1.6 trillion. Tilson predicts that 70 will default. California will be especially hard hit. It had more than its share of Option ARMs and Alt-As because the real estate prices were so high. Every homeowner felt like a millionaire151just like in the movies. We were feasting like pigs in a culture of celebrity and now we are told that we must pay the piper151JPMorgan Chase, BofA, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs. What do you think If you have nightmares about some big bank rumbling down the street and aiming its cannon at your home, and that causes you to wake up before the sun rises and wander through the house fending off images of packing, you might reconsider your attitude. Craig Cunningham has attitude . The Dallas Observer reports that he has been suing debt collectors and beating them at their own game. How about this for a battle cry: Su-eeeeeeeee Information is easy to find on the web. The FTC publishes a Guide for Consumers describing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Here is one example: What practices are off limits for debt collectors Harassment. Debt collectors may not harass, oppress, or abuse you or any third parties they contact. For example, they may not repeatedly use the phone to annoy someone. You have the right to sue a collector in a state or federal court within one year from the date the law was violated. If you win, the judge can require the collector to pay you for any damages you can prove you suffered because of the illegal collection practices, like lost wages and medical bills. The judge can require the debt collector to pay you up to 1,000, even if you cant prove that you suffered actual damages. You also can be reimbursed for your attorneys fees and court costs. The FCC publishes a Consumer Fact Sheet that describes your rights under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). This statute established the national Do-No-Call list. Once you register your phone numbers, callers are prohibited from making telephone solicitations to those numbers. There is no need to re-register your number(s) as time passes. Even if you havent registered, autodialers and artificial or prerecorded voice messages may not be used to contact cell phones or any other service for which the person being called would be charged for the call. Debtorboard is a message board founded in 2005 by Steven Katz, author of an e-book, Debtmanship (January 2010). Debtorboards describes the TCPA, the FDCPA, and various other tools used more and more frequently to fight collection agencies. The site reports that debtorboard members have collected 355,551.12 from creditors. Watch that number climb into the millions as a growing army of people who are fed up with greedy banks fight back. Chase Bags WaMu for 1.9 Billion A grandstand deal or a brazen steal This is from Bill Moyers on December 18, 2009: Only around 31,000 homeowners have received permanent loan modifications under the Obama administrations 75 billion plan. Lenders claim that the low success rate is due to the failure of borrowers to send in the necessary paperwork. Wall Streets earnings surged to 50 billion in the first 3 quarters of 2009. Wall Street bonuses for employees in the New York City may be as much as 40 higher than in 2008. According to the non-profit Americans for Financial Reform, Wall Street is paying itself 150 billion in bonuses151which would be enough money to prevent all foreclosures for four years. JP Morgan Chase is paying its executives 29 billion in bonuses for 2009, the highest ever paid by the bank and an increase of 28 from the previous year, when 1,626 JP Morgan bankers took home bonuses of more than 1 million each. The bank received 25 billion from the US Treasurys Troubled Assets Relief Programme (TARP). The website of Americans for Financial Reform reports, Countrywide CEO Angelo R. Mozilo was paid 244.8 million in the two years leading up to his firms demise former Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld received 246.3 million in the three years preceding his firms bankruptcy and former Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley ONeal received a 161.5 million golden parachute when he was removed in 2007. The next year, Merrill Lynch was sold for a fire sale price. The UK Telegraph reported on Dec. 16 that receivers in the WaMu bankruptcy case (which was filed one day after the FDIC transferred WaMus assets to Chase on Sept. 25, 2008 for 1.9 billion) have now alleged that Chase launched a public relations campaign to drive down WaMus value before they took over WaMu - the worlds largest saving loan. In filings in US bankruptcy court, WaMus receivers allege that JP Morgan disclosed confidential information to government regulators, ratings agencies, media and investors in an effort to harm WaMu by driving down WaMus credit rating and share price. JP Morgan expressed an interest in rescuing WaMu in early September but the courtship came to nothing. However, they apparently took the confidential information and used it against WaMu. Following a series of damaging downgrades from credit ratings agencies, the smaller banks shares plummeted, leading to its eventual collapse. The bank was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on September 25, 2008, and JPMorganChase the same day acquired its assets in a government-brokered fire-sale for 1.9 billion. WaMus shareholders were stuck with the dirt while Chase walked away with the gold. Chase picked up WaMus 2,200-branch network - much of which was on the West Coast where his Chase retail format was under-represented - as well as its 310 billion of deposits and 176 billion of mortgage book. I asked a banker what the WaMu-now-Chase properties are worth on State Street at Victoria St. and at Hope St. in Santa Barbara. He said, Four million, maybe five million each. Multiply that by 2,200 branches, add 486 billion in deposits and secured loans, and you have a very good deal for slightly under 2 billion brokered by the FDIC - which was hailed at the time as a necessary move to save the free world from financial freefall. The FDIC didnt have a license to steal WaMus assets from its shareholders and give them to Chase for less than half a cent on the dollar, so heres what the FDIC might have been telling us: (1) The 2,200 branches were valued at less than 1 million each (2) Overnight instant access to the entire West Coast was a freebie (3) The deposits belonged to the depositers, not WaMu and (4) There were not many mortgages on the books. Why would there be so few mortgages on the books This was reported on April 14, 2008, in the Seattle Times : WaMu made billions of dollars worth of loans with only limited documentation of the borrowers income, net worth or credit history. Such loans - often called liar loans or NINJA loans, for no income, no job or assets - make up three-quarters of its 58.9 billion option-ARM portfolio. The option-ARM product, Killinger said on the conference call, is a key flagship product for our company. Unfortunately for WaMu, its flagship was precisely the kind of loan most prone to sour once the housing boom ended, mortgage rates started going up, and borrowers couldnt make their payments, refinance their loans, or sell their houses. And despite selling off hundreds of billions of dollars worth of option ARMs to outside investors (who now are watching them blow up at alarmingly high rates), WaMu still has 58.9 billion of them on its books. So WaMu securitized the vast majority of their option-ARMs, and 34 of them were liar loans. The question remains, did WaMu invest in credit default swaps and bet against their own borrowers And how did Washington Mutual CEO Kerry K. Killinger manage to take home 14,364,883 in 2007 while his bank was crashing into the ground And that was only 14 of his total estimated compensation of 103 million since 1990 as WaMu CEO. Wall St. Turned Mortgages into Dust When securitization took over the mortgage market, many big banks stopped owning the mortgages they wrote. They passed them off to Wall Street as quickly as they wrote them, taking a commission on each deal but keeping the promissory notes and deeds of trust off their balance sheets. In other words, they acted like a Fuller Brush salesman who works on commission but doesnt own the brushes. How could that bank foreclose on a familys residence if they never owned the promissory note Good question. Keep asking good questions, and dont give up your home without a fight. If the banks knew the borrower would not be able to repay the loan, then how could there be a meeting of the minds . one of the necessary elements of an enforceable contract Every lawyer learns that in law school. United States Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) said to Amy Goodman in 2009 on Democracy Now. Im saying that possession is nine-tenths of the law therefore, stay in your property. Get proper legal representation. If you believe that Wall St. has been deceptive, could have been fraudulent or tried to dupe the public151and with these subprime loans and with the kind of circuitous financing thats been done, Wall Street cannot produce the deed nor the mortgage audit trail151you need a lawyer. And you should stay in your home. It is your castle. Its more than a piece of property. Its your home. U. S. Treasury is a Branch of Wall St. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner spends more time on the phone with Wall Street than Capital Hill. In the first seven months of Geithners tenure, his calendars reflect at least 80 contacts with Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup Chairman Richard Parsons or Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit. Geithner had more contacts with Citigroup than he did with Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. the lawmaker leading the effort to approve Geithners overhaul of the financial system. Geithners contacts with Blankfein outnumber his contacts with Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Geithners previous job was CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. On January 26, 2010, economist Mark Schneipp, Ph. D. said, Policy mistakes in September and October 2008 pushed the economy into the Great Recession. Capitalism is self correcting. It doesnt need a stimulus from government. So when US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson presented the Bush administration with a choice between a 750 billion bailout of Wall Street and a Depression, he tanked the economy. The Bush administration and Congress discussed the possibility of a breakdown in law and order and the logistics of feeding US citizens if commerce and banking collapsed as a result of financial panic. Making his first appearance on Capitol Hill since leaving office, Paulson testified to a House Oversight Committee on July 16, 2009, When a financial system fails, a whole countrys economic system can fail. I believe we could have gone back to the sorts of situations we saw in the Depression. Time named Paulson as a runner-up for its Person of the Year 2008, saying, If there is a face to this financial debacle, it is now his. Paulson was Chair and CEO of Goldman Sachs before serving as United States Treasury secretary under President George W. Bush. Schneipp predicted that the 862 billion spent on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a. k.a. the stimulus bill, will eventually have an impact on the economy, but he concluded that it would have been cheaper to send everyone in the United States a prepaid credit card with equal shares of the stimulus package151about 2,800 per person. Bank Fraud Caused Mortgage Crisis Bill Black Blows the Whistle on Bill Moyers Bill Moyers interviewed William K. Black on PBS in the Spring of 2009. If you are fighting to save your home from foreclosure, you may be able to prove that a bank committed fraud when it loaned you the money. This could lead a judge to stop the foreclosure. Find out how the banks turned into robbers, and how they are now fanning out across America seizing title to millions of homes. Bill Black was the litigation director for the Federal Home Loan Board during the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s, when Charles Keating wrote a memo, Get Black. Kill him dead. Black is currently a professor of law and economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Black says that this economic meltdown has been driven by fraud. Fraud is deceit, and the essence of fraud is, I create trust in you, and then I betray that trust and get you to give me something of value. Calculated dishonesty by people in charge is at the heart of most large corporate scandals. They made really bad loans because they paid better. Heads of large banks deliberately set out to make bad loans so they would increase their personal income. Alt-As are called liars loans, which means, we dont check. They knew that they were frauds. You tell us what your income is, you tell us what your job is, you tell us what your assets are, and we agree to believe you. These were also called NINJA loans - no income verification, no job verification, no asset verification. In 2006, Indy Mac sold 60 billion in liars loans to other companies. They even gutted the verification process for prime loans. We know that that will produce fraud through economic theory and 2,000 years of life experience. Then you take something so toxic that it has crushing risk and you rate it triple-A so that it has zero risk. The ratings agencies never looked at a single loan file. When they finally looked, there was evidence of fraud in almost every file they checked. The lenders, rating agencies, and investment banks all committed fraud, and the result was they sold investments with AAA ratings that experienced 60-80 losses. Our financial system became a ponzi scheme. The FBI publicly warned in 2004 that there was an epidemic of mortgage fraud that would produce a crisis at least as large as the savings and loan crisis, but there are not even one fifth as many agents working on this crisis as the SL crisis, even though this is at least a hundred times worse. The taxpayers played the fool under both Secretary Paulson and Secretary Geithner when they bailed out AIG. We paid 5 billion to UBS, a huge Swiss bank, even as we charged it with defrauding the taxpayers of America and fined it 780 million, so U. S. taxpayers paid the fine. Geithner was in charge as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York while the entire scandal unfolded and he took no action. The policies of the Obama administration in response to this crisis completely lack integrity and violate the rule of law. Geithner is hiding the truth about the big banks. AIG was used to bail out favored banks like UBS and Goldman Sachs, Secretary Paulsons firm, which got 12.9 billion. Either weve lost our sense of outrage, or people lack the facts. If we leave the crooks in charge, theyre not going to tell us what they know - who committed the frauds, whose bonuses should be recovered, how much the assets are worth. We need to know the facts to solve a problem, and theyre deliberately leaving in place the people who caused the problem. What sets this crisis apart from the savings and loan crisis is that this time, the most powerful financial institutions in America engaged in, or facilitated, fraud. To add your comments or for permission to reprint, contact Editor. ChaseChase. org