Obama Goes All Out For Dirty Banker Deal

by Matt Taibbi / Rolling Stone

A power play is underway in the foreclosure arena, according to the New York Times.

On the one side is Eric Schneiderman, the New York Attorney General, who is conducting his own investigation into the era of securitizations – the practice of chopping up assets like mortgages and converting them into saleable securities – that led up to the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

On the other side is the Obama administration, the banks, and all the other state attorneys general.

This second camp has cooked up a deal that would allow the banks to walk away with just a seriously discounted fine from a generation of fraud that led to millions of people losing their homes.

The idea behind this federally-guided “settlement” is to concentrate and centralize all the legal exposure accrued by this generation of grotesque banker corruption in one place, put one single price tag on it that everyone can live with, and then stuff the details into a titanium canister before shooting it into deep space.

One Day Late with Mortgage Payment, Gas Station Owner Could Lose Business to Foreclosure

article from: zerohedge.com

"This is the idiocrasy of this stuff. This is why we're in a worldwide financial crisis because there's no business sense any more in the foreclosure industry, none. And it blows my mind. Totally blows my mind.'' Circuit Judge Amy Williams

Much more to come on this one, but for now the foundation of the story...

Reports of Mortgage Fraud Reach Record Level

 

by: Robbie Whelan

Reports of mortgage fraud, which have been increasing since the housing boom, rose to their highest level on record in 2010, Treasury Department figures showed.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a Treasury agency, reported 70,472 "suspicious activity reports" related to suspected mortgage fraud, up from 67,507 in 2009, or a 5% increase. That's the highest number recorded by the government since tracking began in 1996.

No Buyers For Treasuries aka "Toxic Waste"

by: Bob Chapman

We believe there will be something similar to a QE3 by another name and the Fed will probably have to create some $2.5 trillion to buy Treasuries, Agencies, and toxic waste and perhaps inject funds into the economy. Japan certainly won’t be a buyer and probably will be a seller. China has indicated that they won’t be purchasers in the future either. The question also arises concerning the continued purchase of these securities by countries in the oil producing Gulf States, which are in turmoil. The three countries make up 45% of Treasury purchases. As we pointed out in previous issues the second half of 2011 should be monstrous. Even if the fed buys all the Treasury and Agency bonds they’ll still have to deal with a lower dollar and high inflation. Then there is high unemployment and raging gold and silver prices. There is also the question of US debt, federal, state and municipal debt, along with wars in the Middle East and North Africa. How many US Treasuries will Japan have to sell and how deeply will its slowdown effect American industry?

Amid Global Meltdowns, What Is The Half Life Of The U.S. Government's Fiscal Solvency?

article by: Mike Adams  NaturalNews.com
               
Thanks to the recent (and laughable) "largest annual spending cut in history" announced by Obama and Boehner, it is now abundantly evident that the U.S. government is headed toward a complete economic meltdown that will make Fukushima look chilly by comparison. While cesium-137 may have a half-life of 30 years, and iodine-131 a half-life of 8 days, if the U.S. government continues on its current path of spending trillions of dollars it doesn't have, the half-life of the value of a dollar may soon be measured in hours.

Who Really Owns Your Mortgage?

Do you know who really owns your mortgage? As Scott Pelley reports on "60 Minutes" this week, that question has become a nightmare for many homeowners since the invention of mortgage-backed securities. Yes, those were the exotic investments that sparked the financial collapse in this country. And the're still causing problems.

Administration Approves Bailout Pay Packages

WASHINGTON (AP) — The four companies still receiving government bailout aid won't be able to raise the amount of cash they pay out to their top executives this year, the administration's pay czar has ruled.

The decisions, released late Friday, cover 2011 compensation for the top 25 executives at General Motors Co., Chrysler, American International Group Inc. and Ally Financial Inc., the former financing arm of GM.

19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems

Most Americans do not understand what the Federal Reserve is or why it is at the heart of our economic problems.  When Americans get into discussions about the economy, most of them still blame either the Democrats or the Republicans for inflation, for the housing crash, for our rampant unemployment and for the national debt.  But the truth is that the institution with the most power over our economic system is the Federal Reserve.  So exactly what is the Federal Reserve?  Most people would say that it is an agency of the federal government.  But that is absolutely not true.  In fact, the Federal Reserve itself has argued in court that it is not an agency of the federal government.  Rather, the Federal Reserve is a privately-owned banking cartel that has been given a perpetual monopoly over our monetary system by the U.S. Congress.

Why Deficits Do Matter

by David Stockman
The Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture at the 2011 Austrian Scholars Conference.

The Triumph of Crony Capitalism occurred on October 3^rd 2008. The event was the enactment of TARP – the single greatest economic policy abomination since the 1930s or perhaps ever.

Like most other quantum leaps in statist intervention, the Wall Street bailout was justified as a last resort exercise in breaking the rules to save the system. In the immortal words of George W. Bush, our most economically befuddled President since FDR, "I’ve abandoned free market principles in order to save the free market system."

The Gathering Storm: A Must Read

“Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” – Winston Churchill (the Second World War)

Debit Card Spending Limit? Banks Consider A $50 Cap On Transactions

 

Declined! Your debit card may soon be denied for purchases greater than $100 -- or even as little as $50.
JPMorgan Chase, one of the nation's largest banks, is considering capping debit card transactions at either $50 or $100, according to a source with knowledge of the proposal.