Bits Bucket for May 21, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Question for everyone. Will there be a QE-3? How will it manifest itself? Seems like govt. is finally throwing the towel in on support for housing…
Yes, but not yet. We’ll have another downturn first and after things get painful enough the money spigot will be turned on again.
Up, down, up, down - that’s what the future holds for us.
Yes. As QE3.
I think there may be a bailout or two coming. Not every business is doing great.
NO.
Like the third act in a really bad play,the bernank has to come up with something different.He will just keep buying treasuries.
Govt.has attempted to support housing,and it has not worked.
Regulators shut 2 Ga. banks, 1 in Wash state
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:05 p.m. Friday, May 20, 2011
Posted: 6:18 p.m. Friday, May 20, 2011
WASHINGTON — Regulators shut two banks in Georgia and a smaller bank in Washington state Friday, lifting to 43 the number of U.S. bank failures this year in the wake of a gutted economy and mounds of soured loans.
The pace of closures has slowed, however, as the economy improves and banks work their way through the bad debt. By this time last year, regulators had closed 73 banks.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized Atlantic Southern Bank, based in Macon, Ga., with $741.9 million in assets; First Georgia Banking Co., based in Franklin, Ga., with $731 million in assets; and Summit Bank in Burlington, Wash., with $142.7 million in assets.
Georgia has been one of the hardest-hit states for bank failures. Sixteen banks were shuttered in the state last year. The two shutdowns Friday brought to 12 the number of bank failures in Georgia this year.
California, Florida and Illinois also have seen large numbers of bank failures.
The FDIC expects the cost of resolving failed banks to total around $52 billion from 2010 through 2014.
Ever wonder what becomes of these stupendously paid, inept bankers when their institutions fail?
Atlantic Southern Bank:
Mark Stevens last week resigned as president and CEO of Atlantic Southern Financial Group Inc. to become Bibb County market president for State Bank & Trust, where he will head the bank’s commercial banking group in Bibb County.
“Joining State Bank returns me to the reason why I became a banker in the first place,” said Stevens, who had been with Atlantic Southern since 2001.
Joining Stevens in the move are Brandon Mercer, who was first senior vice president at Atlantic Southern Bank, and Tammy Blann, a lending officer at Atlantic Southern. Mercer will be senior vice president and commercial banker for State Bank & Trust.
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2010/12/17/Atlantic.html
“JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: U.S. Debt Default Would Be A ‘Moral Disaster”
Really? Well, if this guy thinks it’s a bad idea, let’s do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was my thought exactly when I saw that headline. There’s a guillotine ready for Dimon and in particular, Ken Lewis.
A MORALDisaser? Are they really tryin’ to imply that we should be taking moral advice from the CEO of JPM? The idea of taking moral advice from a banking CEO is absurd in the extreem, because their only idea of morality seems to be some sort of extreeme Randian substitution of self interest for compassion. Hey, I think it would be a bad idea from an economic perspective. I’m willing to acceed that banking CEOs know somthing about economics, but even their economic advice has to be viewed with suspicion because you KNOW that they’re advocating their own self interest rather than that of the rest of ours - I’m just willing to believe that in this narrow case, the interests of those 1%ers and mine are the same. I just can’t imagine a circumstance where I’d look to a banking CEO for for MORAL advice. ‘Cause those guys are of Lawful Evil alignment IMHO.
” . . .The idea of taking moral advice from a banking CEO is absurd in the extreem, because their only idea of morality seems to be some sort of extreeme Randian substitution of self interest for compassion. . . .”
In Rand’s turgid ramblings, the characters are selfish but they are also towering geniuses.
In real life your bank CEOs are merely welfare queens on a grand scale. We are the ones who support them; without our massive handouts they would quickly fade away and die. The dolt in NYC who was just released from Riker’s is a prime example of the species and their sense of absolute entitlement. It’s amazing that this trash holds the world in thrall.
It’s not amazing at all. The PTB have the disdain for the average person and the over bloated sense of entitlement they do because the world is full of cowardly and conniving sycophants along with being able to command the largest and most sophisticated psycho-warfare system ever invented by man. MSM.
Dear Jamie,
I am writing you……….whoooop……..F-you…….F-you……..whooooop.
Sorry, my tourettes is flaring up this morning.
Am I too late for the end of the world? What time is the rapture supposed to happen?
6:00 pm. The nutcase who started this did not specify the time zone. 6:00 pm is over with in New Zealand!
One down; how many more time zones to go? (Not holding my breath!)
At 6:00 pm 5/21/11 the NFL players lockout will end.
Is it too late for me to get a billboard?
It is. Well then….
At 6:00 pm 6/21/11 the NFL players lockout will end.
Does anyone know where I can get a decent price on a billboard?
It occurred to me that maybe nobody alive today is among those who are among those chosen to be raptured. What a kick in the gut for a believer if the rapture comes and they get left behind.
Somebody should write a book about that.
Sounds like it’s either QE3 or “the rapture.”
The end of QE2 will lead to massive depression according to former Fed economist
May 17th, 2011 8:44 pm ET
Kenneth Schortgen Jr
Finance Examiner
The end of QE2, and the unwinding of government and Fed stimulus, will lead to a massive depression according to former Fed economist Richard Koo.
In a report on May 17th by Mr. Koo regarding Federal Reserve stimulus and Quantitative Easing programs, much of the current run in the stock market, equities, and commodities has been primarily achieved through money printing, and not by market and economic growth.
…
I wish the Banksters would get “raptured”.
If unsustainable measures are what is required to prevent falling into GD2, then we are already there, we just haven’t realized it yet. In my heart, I may be a Kensian, I belive that it IS possible to use counter-cyclical stimpulus to keep the economy operating at a higher level than it would otherwise. But that in no way implies that stimulus can keep the economy operating at any randomly high level that we might desire, or that it can allow us to consume more than we produce over the long term.
Any news from the Other Side?
Are there lots of bees?
LOL
I believe the rapture was scheduled for 6p, Pacific Time (the prediction came from Oakland, CA, w/o specifying a time zone), so it looks like I lucked out twice today: Not only was there no big earthquake to bring on the end of the world, but I survived my first trip in the passenger seat with my 16-yr-old daughter behind the wheel on the freeway.
The only personal damage incurred from “the rapture” hoax was a very bad dream this morning that we had entered all-out nuclear war and I was in the middle of a big-city target zone (I believe it was Seattle). I chalk up this kind of nightmare to paying too much attention to end-time religious nut jobs: Stupid is as stupid sez.
Looking on the bright side, at least they did not commit mass suicide like an earlier generation of religious nut jobs did a few years back in San Diego.
In the end, rapture believers weren’t going anywhere
To many who put stock in Harold Camping’s prophecy about the end of the world, disillusionment was profound. It ended up being apocalypse … not.
A failed prophecy
Keith and Kellie Bauer spent the week touring the country in anticipation of the rapture that Oakland preacher Harold Camping predicted would occur Saturday. Their son Joshua Bauer, 3, and relative Thomas Puff, 4, peer into the closed headquarters of Camping’s Family Radio in Oakland. (Rick Loomis, Los Angeles Times / May 21, 2011)
By Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times
May 22, 2011
Sue Espinoza was planted before the television, awaiting news of her father’s now infamous prediction: cataclysmic earthquakes auguring the end of humanity.
God’s wrath was supposed to begin in New Zealand and then race across the globe, leaving millions of bodies wherever the clock struck 6 p.m. But the hours ticked by, and New Zealand survived. Time zone by time zone, the apocalypse failed to materialize.
On Saturday morning, Espinoza, 60, received a phone call from her father, Harold Camping, the 89-year-old Oakland preacher who has spent some $100 million — and countless hours on his radio and TV show — announcing May 21 as Judgment Day. “He just said, ‘I’m a little bewildered that it didn’t happen, but it’s still May 21 [in the United States],’” Espinoza said, standing in the doorway of her Alameda home. “It’s going to be May 21 from now until midnight.”
But to others who put stock in Camping’s prophecy, disillusionment was already profound by late morning. To them, it was clear the world and its woes would make it through the weekend.
Keith Bauer, a 38-year-old tractor-trailer driver from Westminster, Md., took last week off from work, packed his wife, young son and a relative in their SUV and crossed the country.
If it was his last week on Earth, he wanted to see parts of it he’d always heard about but missed, such as the Grand Canyon and the Painted Forest. With maxed-out credit cards and a growing mountain of bills, he said, the rapture would have been a relief.
On Saturday morning, Bauer was parked in front of the Oakland headquarters of Camping’s Family Radio empire, half expecting to see an angry mob of disenchanted believers howling for the preacher’s head. The office was closed, and the street was mostly deserted save for journalists.
Bauer said he was not bitter. “Worst-case scenario for me, I got to see the country,” he said. “If I should be angry at anybody, it should be me.”
Tom Evans, who acted as Camping’s PR aide in recent months, took his family to Ohio to await the rapture. Early next week, he said, he would be returning to California.
“You can imagine we’re pretty disappointed, but the word of God is still true,” he said. “We obviously went too far, and that’s something we need to learn from.”
…
Realtors Are Liars
Apparently, so are Rapture predicting nutjobs.
I really was considering purchasing a blow-up doll and some helium, going to Boston Common and releasing it at 6.00pm.
Yet if you were to rightly refer to this Camping guy as a charlatan and clown, some amateur $hithouse theologian would formulate a wacked out theory to excuse the idiot and turn it around and attack you or me.
Look…. we need to be real hard on these religious hucksters and political flamethrowers like Dobson, Camping, Beck, etc. Not make excuses for them. They’re evil and I mean that in a spiritual sense. I’m not being hyperbolic.
Agreed. Beck in particular. But be sure to add people like Noam Chomsky, Rachel Maddow, and Jeremiah Wright to the list.
Right?
You do realize that if you took all the right-wingers and all the left-wingers off the air, that the net result would be a move to the left, yes?
:crickets
“You do realize that if you took all the right-wingers and all the left-wingers off the air, that the net result would be a move to the left, yes?”
I agree. The Schools and Universities would still be hard left indoctrination factories. Not sure how sure how centrists, libertarians and conservatives will ever be able to counter the hostage aspect of education.
There are plenty of atheist capitalists in the USA who are the real liberals. Democrats and Republicans want to conserve big government. Hence they are conservative. They don’t have the gonads to honestly accept change. The “change” Obama talked about was skin color. Big government goes on.
Not sure how sure how centrists, libertarians and conservatives will ever be able to counter the hostage aspect of education.
You’ll feel right at home at Regent, Bob Jones or Liberty “University”.
Free speech is a bitch sometimes, but I love it and it should be protected. We all have the ability to tune out the rapture freaks, progressives and other nuts if we so choose.
Repugnicans should learn how to stick to their guns.
The return of Freddie and Fannie?
OP-ED | Paul McMorrow
May 20, 2011|By Paul McMorrow
WASHINGTON REPUBLICANS have been howling for the demise of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ever since one of their own, George W. Bush, nationalized the two mortgage companies. They got their wish earlier this year, when the Obama administration announced a federal retreat from the housing market. But the GOP seems not to know how to handle victory: It’s now helping push a plan that would recreate the same flawed mortgage apparatus that it demanded be put out of business.
…
“Repugnicans should learn how to stick to their guns.”
Repugnicans are starting to come apart here in Fla. Believe it. An African American Dem beat a Tea Party Pub for mayor of Jacksonville. Unheard of, since that is an area that has been solidly repug for years. Not to mention there will probably be a Federal challenge to the law passed by Florida Repugs that restricts voting registration.
These pugs are a-holes on steroids. And people are beginning to see that. Not that I favor dems particularly. But I like my strategy of getting rid of the Repub party, followed by the Dem party which will fall apart in the absence of the Repub party. And it looks like palmy’s strategy is working. Bwahahaha!
Meanwhile, whassup with Wisconsin? Something up there that makes Repubs particularly nasty?
Take heart, folks. The Republicrats are in a state of mass confusion. They haven’t a clue and dunno what to do and won’t let anyone who DOES know what to do (as in Ron Paul) come to the fore. So they’re toast. On both sides. Best they can do is sit up there in Washington with their hands on their privates and quote rap lyrics.
Best thing I can do is ignore another election year.
And people are beginning to see that.
Record long term unemployment is quite the reality smack. It gives you a lot of time to do research accompanied by the music of an empty, rumbling stomach.
There’s nothing like hunger to help you cut thought the bullcrap.
“…through the…”
Don’t forget that Eugene McCarthy was a Wisconsin Repugnican. Nasty is the Wisconsin GOP tradition.
I think you mean Joe McCarthy.
What’s up in Wi?
Money won, they got rid of Feingold, and put in a gov who has pushed through their agenda.
It’s now helping push a plan that would recreate the same flawed mortgage apparatus that it demanded be put out of business.
Because they’ll profit from it. The unholy alliance between repukes and the Housing Crime Syndicate is no mystery. Look no further than card carry realt-liar John Isaakson(r) and the “contributions” made by shack builders Centex and Beazer to Shelby(r) and Hutchinson(r).
“The unholy alliance between repukes and the Housing Crime Syndicate is no mystery.”
Ex,
The looting of our economic future has been a bi-partisan effort for sure.
Skunks all.
No.
The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (repeal of Glass/Steagall) was a Repub initiative.
The Commodities Modernization Act was a Repub initiative.
NAFTA was a Repub initiative.
Defeating the ending of tax breaks for offshoring jobs was Repub initiative.
Repubs controlled Congress for 12 years.
But hey! Why bother with facts? We all know deficits don’t matter, right? (another Repub)
The hypocrisy of retardicans knows no bounds.
Banks: Don’t tell us how to run our business. Get government hands of the way of the free market.
Obama: O-o-o..kay. Lemme just call up Timmy and Benny, and they’ll cut off that F&F subsidy for you today. Then you’ll be free.
Banks: N-O-O-O-O-O!!!! We didn’t mean it! Pretty please!
The great thing about a subsidized housing market is the potential to divert some of the subsidy flow into Congressional campaign contributions. Congress seems to really yearn for the return of its GSE cookie jar.
HEARD ON THE STREET
MAY 16, 2011
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Nine Lives
BY DAVID REILLY
A subsidized market is a subsidized market, no matter how you dress it up.
That’s worth remembering as the latest proposal to revamp housing finance emerges in Congress. Late last week, a House Democrat and Republican proposed legislation some are hoping will prove a workable compromise for the two parties.
…
The subsidized industries are where the educated “suits-n-ties” make their living while the free market is for toothless Joe Sixpack. This has been the case for many years, IMHO.
Decades.
A man is paid what a man is worth most of the time
Nope.
“A man is paid what a man is worth most of the time”
Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaahaaaaa!!!!!
Once Uncle Sam’s great big larded Fannie gets out of the way, perhaps the private mortgage lending system can recover.
May 18, 2011, 2:40 p.m. EDT
Private mortgage issuer urges Fannie wind-down
Raising guarantee fees would stimulate private market: Redwood Trust
By Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The top official of a California firm that has issued the only two major private residential mortgage security transactions since the financial crisis of 2008 said on Wednesday the illiquid private securities market would come back if the government winds down government-seized housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“We need to find ways to begin the process of bringing private capital in and move back to bring the government to more of a re-insurance position. I believe private capital will come in to take that position,” said Martin Hughes, president of Redwood Trust at a Senate Banking Committee hearing.
…
I would argue that it was the GSEs successful 50+ year run adding liquidity that enabled the private label MBS market to exist. Bond purchasers wouldn’t have regarded private label MBS with the same sort of high degree of trust if the GSE bonds hadn’t been paying without default in good years and bad for decades. It was investors assumption that MBS = safe that allowed the private securitizers to stuff any absurdly unpayable crap loans into a pool so long as they were labeled a “residential mortgage.”
The GSEs were at their worst as they became to resemble private banks more, and government agencies less in their final years. Overpaid CEOs, fraudulent books to appease Wall Street and ensure bonus payments, even lowering loan standards to stay competetive: these “banker style” failing were a far greater part of their fall than political patronage inspired loans and the fact that they had a slightly greater degree of regulatory capture than the big, Wall Street banks.
If you look at the economy through a “government always bad - private industry always good,” lens, the answers that you get won’t be any better than look through the “I’m a victim, the rich need to be punished for it,” lens.
“I would argue that it was the GSEs successful 50+ year run adding liquidity that enabled the private label MBS market to exist.”
And I, in turn, would beg to disagree. It appears the GSEs’ too-big-to-fail status gave them a market advantage over private securitizers which was only offset by private firms’ willingness to speculate in the high risk categories (e.g. subprime, liar loans, etc). And the GSEs did ultimately prove too-big-to-fail, didn’t they?
Had private firms not faced unfair competition plus incentives to make financially imprudent loans to satisfy political mandates to encourage low-income people to buy homes they could not afford, perhaps we would not have ever had a subprime meltdown.
Well we agree that the GSEs were TBTF, but ultimately, so were the vast majority of Wall Street banks involved in the securitization business. (although plenty of those who were writing the mortgages in the first place weren’t TBTF.) I think that we’ll also agree that the GSEs were even more successful at regulatory capture than the Wall Street banks. This allowed them to have TERRIBLY low level of reserves, AND they were allowed to put most of those reserves in CMBS. Exactly the same asset class as their main business, but based on a shaker slice of the mortgage pie.
But the WS banks weren’t FORCED into the securitization business. They could have stayed in commercial paper and other business where they weren’t in competition against a quasi-government agency that could get money to lend at a discount. Instead, they CHOSE to compete against F&F because they thought that through securitization they could magically reduce the risk of the mortgage market.
My understanding is that GSE bonds were DIFFERENT from CMBS. The GSE bonds were backed by the GSEs. So F&F were motivated to actually set conditions on the mortgages that they bought because THEY were on the hook for defaults. Unfortunatly, the widespread public perception turned out to be right, those bonds were backed by the US taxpayers. BUT the WS banks were NOT backed by the banks, they were only backed by the underlying mortgages and the ability of the borrowers to pay. Since the WS bank wasn’t on the hook, they had little reason to care whether the mortgages were likely to be paid off, or a pack of lies. So long as the bond purchasers didn’t ask any question beyond that AAA rating, they weren’t going to lose anything. And gaming the rating system was easier than looking at tons of mortgages and figuring out the chance that they’d be repaid.
That should say: BUT the CMBS were NOT backed by the WS banks, they were only backed by the underlying mortgages and….
Actually the GSE’s were private ,and they only had a implied backing by the taxpayer ,but not really . On their Web site they had all kinds of disclaimers that they were not backed by the USA government,until the Bail Out’s of course .
They had mandates and certain underwriting rules that were formed many years ago ,but they had turned private . The GSE’s also carried insurance that was suppose to take care of losses ,not the taxpayer .
People would buy stock in F&F ,just like any other stock company .
They needed F&F for a dumping ground for Wall Street loans as well as something that could be a lending machine at a time were the credit markets became dis-functional because of the crash .The Government took it over and than backed the losses and backed the post cash loan programs .
Fine in theory, but in practice just about everybody correctly predicted that if they were to fail, the government would step in. This meant that they could issue bonds (borrow money) at lower rates than investment banks could. This implicit (and later overt) support of the Government was, in effect gave them an unfair advantage over anybody else who wanted to get into the business. The fact that they combined this implied support and stockholders and dividends made them the worst sort of privitizing the benefits and socializing the risks. They were also subject to much less regulatory oversight than the commercial, or even investment banks. They had so much power over their regulator thant when the OFHEO issued a report about the systemic risk that the GSEs posed and proposed that the regulator should have the authority to put them to receivership if necessary, he was out of a job the next day.
Starting to see cracks in the dam in SE Fl. Houses for rent sitting in Tequesta and Bank Owned houses being put on the market not only fairly quick but also at a reasonable price in a decent hood. There is more than this but here is 1….
3711 Cypress St Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
$189,900
CBS
Beds:4 Bed
Baths:3 Bath
House Size: 3,137 Sq Ft
Days on site 15 days
MLS ID R3194919
———————————————————————
Location Address: 3711 CYPRESS ST
Municipality: PALM BEACH GARDENS
Name: FEDERAL NATL MRTG ASSN
Mailing Address: 2424 N FEDERAL HWY STE 360
BOCA RATON FL 33431 7701
Sales Date
Mar-2011 24430/1557 $151,300 CERT OF TITLE FEDERAL NATL MRTG ASSN
Cracks in the dam..
37 Stoney Dr Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
$209,900
3 bed
Baths 2.5 bath
2954 sq ft
Days on site 1 days
MLS ID R3198572
——————————————————————–
Location Address: 37 STONEY DR
Municipality: PALM BEACH GARDENS
Owner Information
Name: BANK OF NEW YORK TR
Mailing Address: 3476 STATEVIEW BLVD
FORT MILL SC 29715 7200
Sales Date Book/Page Price Sale Type Owner
Nov-2010 24205/0651 $100 CERT OF TITLE BANK OF NEW YORK TR
Mar-2005 18410/0112 $420,000 WARRANTY DEED VITELLARO SALVATORE J JR &
Mar-2005 18410/0105 $303,900 WARRANTY DEED RIST FREDERICK
———————————————————————–
Nice flip in Mar-2005 by RIST FREDERICK though. It got a 9.7 from the Countrywide judge. Leaving poor SALVATORE J JR a victim whose dog probably got cancer in 2008.
I have seen similar asking price reductions in a community where friends bought in 2006(!). This is in the Daytona Beach area. Yet when I look at listings in our old nabe in Sarasota the prices seem not to have dropped from their peaks nearly as much on a percentage basis. I.E., 50 to 70 percent in PBG, Daytona, etc. but maybe 25 to 35% in Sarasota.
What factors are at work here?
“What factors are at work here?”
Damned If I Know.
Cracks in the dam.. This hood was pushing $500k in 06-07 sales and HELOC taken back in Mar-2011 on the market now.
11601 Fir St Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
$224,900
Beds:3 Bed
Baths:2 Bath
House Size:2,592 Sq Ft
Exterior Construction CBS
Roofing Concrete
Days on site 3 days
MLS ID R3197756
———————————————————————
Property InformationLocation
Address: 11601 FIR ST
Municipality: PALM BEACH GARDENS
Owner Information
Name: FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE ASSOCIATION
Mailing Address: 3900 WISCONSIN AVE NW
WASHINGTON DC 20016 2892
Sales Information
Mar-2011 24426/0067 $145,100 CERT OF TITLE FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE ASSOCIATION
——————————————————————-
We are going to go out for a nice early dinner trying to time it so I get the check right at 6 pm.
Have a nice day.
Jethro,
I just looked up these places you posted. Not knowing anything about Fl, WTF is so special about them? The new one is hornswoggled inbetween duplicate shanties leaving barely enough room to walk between them. The other is a 30 year old ranch. I don’t understand the pricing.
Nothing special just a lot closer to reality.
11601 Fir St Palm Beach Gardens listed at $224,900 is in a good neighborhood with no HOA and is probably worth $190K IMHO. The previous low asking price that I have seen in this hood was north of $300k.
3711 Cypress St Palm Beach Gardens listed at $189,900
is also in a decent neighborhood also with no HOA and $150k to $160k would be mid 90s pricing.
The one that I would not consider buying myself,
37 Stoney Dr Palm Beach Gardens listed at $209,900
is the new one and you are correct, you would just about have to turn sideways to slip between them and there is an HOA which is probably fat. The only thing about this one is they got to $450k+ and were very slow coming down.
I know house prices are going lower but unfortunately I will not be able to pay cash for a house and as prices get closer to reality I kinda have to consider interest rates. That combined with the fact that I am so sick of shoveling $1,700 a month to DB LLs.
PS
“hornswoggled” Is a GREAT word!
I forgot 1 other point. 2 of them were taken back by the bank in Mar-2011 and are already on the market 2 months later. The other was taken back Nov-2010 and is on the market which is still a lot faster than 14 months or not being put on the market at all.
It seems the turnaround time in FL is much more rapid than in NY or VT. There’s dumps I’m interested in that have been sitting empty for a few years now.
FL seems nice(vacationed there) but the employment scene is dubious at best. Only an idiot would walk away from high $$$ employment right now and I’m not going to be that idiot, however, FL is appealing.
“FL seems nice(vacationed there)”
So did I in 1983, then I moved here and started working here. Found out what heat really was. It has some good points like everyplace but knowing what I know now and given a do-over, I would have stayed in Ct. Warm winters are nice but FL is not a great place to raise kids. Oh well, this is where my life is so I will just keep looking for a place of my own to die in.
Hopefully one of those places that has been sitting empty for a few years opens up at a decent price for you and everyone else here that has been so patiently waiting for this to end, so we can all get on with our lives.
Well, up here in the Great White, the Royal Bank of Canada, (Canada’s largest) announced that housing is officially unaffordable in a number of cities including Toronto, $775000 and Vancouver, 1 million for a s.f.house.This has been a long time coming but when it takes 72% of pre- tax income to carry a house for the average family in Vancouver what can you expect. Most Canadians are blissfully unaware for now.
When an average family is buying a million dollar house, things are completely out of whack.
But everyone wants to live in Winnipeg..
DCF contractor may be asked to repay misused public funds
By Ana M. Valdes Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:54 p.m. Friday, May 20, 2011
While Our Kids of Miami-Dade and Monroe is overhauling how it serves foster families, after the February death of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona, the agency may now face sanctions for how it spends taxpayer money and follows purchasing and bidding guidelines.
An investigation by the Department of Children and Families Inspector General, obtained by The Palm Beach Post, determined that Our Kids unintentionally misused more than $400,000 in state and federal aid to pay two sub-contractors in Miami-Dade County, and DCF Secretary David Wilkins may ask the agency to repay it.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/dcf-contractor-may-be-asked-to-repay-misused-1488147.html - -
Dang unions.
Oh wait…
Good find. Another great example of the REAL reason local governments have budget problems.
Looks like Tucson has their very own Seal Team Six:
Tucson SWAT Team Defends Shooting Iraq Vet 60 Times
by ELLEN TUMPOSKY
May 20, 2011
A Tucson, Ariz., SWAT team defends shooting an Iraq War veteran 60 times during a drug raid, although it declines to say whether it found any drugs in the house and has had to retract its claim that the veteran shot first.
And the Pima County sheriff scolded the media for “questioning the legality” of the shooting.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/tucson-swat-team-defends-shooting-iraq-marine-veteran/story?id=13640112
Too bad he can’t blame Palin this time……
But that braindead woman will blame the media for reporting the facts.
Did Palin supporters web sites put cross hairs on the Tucson SWAT Team’s target?
60. Frickin’. Times?
Maybe it’s just me, but I think they should more time at the gun range.
They kept the EMS away for 60 minutes while he died in front of his wife and child.
Collateral damage in the war on drugs.
Why not do a stake out, and grab them down the street when they go grocery shopping, and then inventory the house?
What are you, some kinda of rational smart guy?! That ain’t the way things work in our Idiocracy!
And taxpayers are livid.
Everyone knows that 50 bullets would have been more than enough….
Help! I am on a different computer as I just picked up some nasty virus or worm which won’t allow me to access any of my virus protection software on my laptop. It’s calling itself “Malware Protection” and it’s embedded in the system tray, and I cannot open task manager, any of my virus protection software to clean it, Firefox, or anything. Anybody know what I can do?
Right now, I’m in safe mode and running scans with my antivirus software. What’s BS is that it got past all of it to begin with.
From the computer you’re on download Malwarebytes (malwarebytes.com)
Change the file extension on the malwarebytes executable to .bat or .com. The virus you have blocks files with .exe extensions from running. Copy it to your PC, let it update itself, and the let it scan your PC. If you have problems, reboot into safe mode with networking support and try again.
This will usually work. There are ways to remove the virus manually but they’re kind of a pain. If this doesn’t work, google search with the exact name of the virus and you should find removal instructions.
I already had Malwarebytes on my laptop. I started in safe mode, and was able to clean the virus out. Where is law enforcement on something like this? It’s a scam to make people give their credit card numbers to pay for virus protection, as it pretends to have found all sorts of viruses which it wants you to pay to remove. I don’t even know which website it came from, and none of my virus protection detected it.
These are overseas operations. Yes, it is a scam. One that rakes in millions a month.
You absolutely have to keep your AV up to date.
I use 2.
I use Avira, and it’s always up to date. It didn’t stop it.
Grizz:
If Ben will allow, here’s a clean step-by-step scrub site for infected Macs.
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-mac-protector
Minnesota sues debt collector for robo-signing
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK | Thu May 19, 2011 2:04pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Minnesota sued Encore Capital Group Inc, one of the largest U.S. debt collectors, for allegedly using fraudulent “robo-signed” affidavits in collection cases, a practice that critics say also infects home foreclosures.
Thursday’s lawsuit against Encore’s Midland Funding LLC and Midland Credit Management Inc units follows a ruling by an Ohio federal judge that Minnesota’s case would not interfere with a $5.2 million class-action settlement of similar claims.
“Midland has perverted the justice system by filing robo-signed affidavits in court and hounding citizens for debt they don’t owe,” Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson said.
Encore Chief Executive Brandon Black in an emailed statement said the company changed its affidavit process in 2009, believes its practices are “legally sound,” and will work with Swanson to resolve the matter. He added that “because 95 percent of consumers ignore letters sent by the company, the legal channel is often the only remaining option.”
Based in San Diego, Encore often buys debt from credit card companies. Through year-end, it had invested about $1.76 billion to buy 33 million accounts with a face value of $54.7 billion, or about 3 cents on the dollar.
* REAL ESTATE
* MAY 21, 2011
U.S. Steps Up Loan Scrutiny
By NICK TIMIRAOS, RUTH SIMON and JEAN EAGLESHAM
Three years after the financial crisis peaked, banks face a new wave of scrutiny and potential penalties for actions that contributed to the mortgage meltdown, possibly raising their costs for the cleanup.
The Justice Department has instructed federal prosecutors to be creative in adapting decades-old laws to take action against Wall Street over the $1 trillion mortgage machine that helped fuel the crisis.
“We’ve been…encouraging the use of familiar, affirmative civil-enforcement tools in new ways,” said Assistant Attorney General Tony West.
…
Some state attorneys general and federal agencies, including HUD, are pushing for more than $20 billion in penalties to settle the foreclosure-paperwork debacle. The banks last week countered with an offer of $5 billion, a low figure that caught some officials off guard, according to people familiar with the matter.
If negotiations falter, “there would be a tsunami of litigation from states and federal agencies,” said one government official involved in the talks.
Federal legal challenges could be brought under the False Claims Act, a Civil War-era law designed to root out suppliers that swindled the U.S. Army. A federal housing watchdog shared audits of the five largest mortgage servicers with the Justice Department, according to people familiar with the matter. If a settlement isn’t reached, the government could use those to sue banks for submitting false claims to the FHA by, for instance, wrongly asserting they had clean title to the property.
The False Claims Act allows federal prosecutors to assess treble damages. Civil fines under the False Claims Act don’t require the government to prove intent to defraud. They must simply demonstrate a “reckless disregard for the truth,” said Adam Feinberg, head of the litigation department at Miller & Chevalier Chartered.
The False Claims Act already is being used to address allegedly illegal practices related to the origination and sale of troubled loans.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney filed a civil suit this month against Deutsche Bank, alleging that the German bank and a subsidiary lied about the quality of government-backed loans made by the unit.
A Deutsche Bank spokeswoman called the claims “unreasonable and unfair” and said most of the allegations involved conduct before the bank’s 2007 acquisition of the subsidiary.
The case is viewed as a warning shot that financial institutions could face more scrutiny from U.S. Attorneys.
The Martin Act is one of the legal tools behind Mr. Schneiderman’s preliminary investigation into mortgage-bond deals. The 1921 law, used by previous state attorneys general to investigate a wide swath of Wall Street practices, doesn’t require prosecutors to prove an intent to defraud.
Mr. Schneiderman’s predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, issued Martin Act subpoenas to a number of financial firms as part of an earlier investigation of whether Wall Street firms improperly packaged and sold mortgage securities. That effort didn’t result in any legal action.
* THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR
* MAY 21, 2011
Own Government Bonds? Here’s Why You Should Be Worried
* By JASON ZWEIG
Has the endgame for bond investors begun?
Since at least 2009, pundits and professional investors have been predicting that the three-decade-long bull market in bonds was about to end. So far they have consistently been proven wrong.
Earlier this week, however, the U.S. hit its debt limit—the total amount that Congress has authorized the Treasury Department to borrow (around $14.3 trillion). Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned that the U.S. would default on its debt in early August if Congress doesn’t pass legislation permitting the government to borrow more money to meet its existing obligations. Since 1978, Congress has raised the debt limit 51 times, often after wrangling with the White House over spending cuts.
On the surface, the market for Treasury securities seems to be shrugging off any fears, focusing instead on the Federal Reserve’s policy of keeping interest rates low and on the sluggish pace of economic recovery, which tends to be good for bonds. The Fed’s massive purchases of Treasury securities and other government and mortgage debt have flooded banks and brokerage firms with cash.
But there are concerns beneath the surface. “The professional attitude seems to be, ‘What, me worry?,’” says Daniel Fuss, who oversees $146 billion in fixed income at Loomis Sayles in Boston. “But will this time cause the perception that default is possible? I really am worried about that.” Mr. Fuss says that as he visits institutional clients overseas, he keeps being asked, “What’s going on? Why can’t [the U.S.] get your act together?”
…
Treasury bills, not much of a problem if any though.
The trickiest aspect of bubble investing is timing your exit before the collapse.
Soros sharpens gold bubble debate
By Jack Farchy and James Mackintosh
Published: May 20 2011 19:20 | Last updated: May 20 2011 19:20
The ultimate asset bubble is gold . . .
It may go higher but it’s certainly not safe and it’s not going to last forever . . .
Gold has shown tendencies to go parabolic and usually bubbles tend to end in that parabolic rise before the collapse.
George Soros – who made the statements above at various points last year – has been one of gold’s most strident critics and also one of its largest investors.
But now the billionaire financier has dumped a large portion of his gold investments, according to regulatory filings released this week and people with knowledge of the fund’s activities.
Mr Soros is not alone in cutting his exposure to the yellow metal. Investors sold 2.5m ounces of gold through exchange traded funds in January and February as prices slid 8 per cent, and bankers say several hedge funds were also selling gold on the physical market.
“There was a fairly major exodus at the beginning of the year,” says Philip Klapwijk, executive chairman of GFMS, a precious metals consultancy. “There may have been a bit of an echo of that following the recent peak.”
On Friday, gold was trading at $1,511 a troy ounce, down from a nominal record of $1,575.79 at the start of May.
If one of the world’s most prominent investors is getting out, does that mean the gold bubble is about to burst?
…
I dont’t know. Most of the investment rags hardly ever report about asset allocation and rebalancing. that is never exciting news. But it is a smart plan to be humble and assume you don’t know how to time the market. Three different areas: government securities (including cash), precious metals, and stocks. Jon Nadler of Kitco advises 10% allocation in precious metals, and I think he is right. Currently I have too much in stocks and too little in cash, about a 2% unbalance at either end. The stock market could take a big dive before I rebalance, or it could go up another 10%. gold too. I don’t worry.
There is no reason just yet to throw away that large bottle of hand lotion that sits on your desk.
The Financial Times
Greece worries markets on reform plan
By David Oakley in London, Kerin Hope in Athens and Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt
Published: May 20 2011 19:35 | Last updated: May 20 2011 19:35
The eurozone crisis deepened on Friday as Greek economic reform plans were delayed, sparking tension in the financial markets over the country’s ability to rein back its mounting public debt.
The euro dropped against the dollar, Greek bond yields rose to euro-era highs and fears of contagion to Spain, the key economy, increased amid worries that Athens’ determination to implement its recovery plan was waning.
Fitch, the rating agency, also hit Greece with a multi-notch credit downgrade, warning that the country faced big challenges in turning round its reversing economy.
Harvinder Sian, euro rates strategist at RBC, said: “The Greek crisis has ratcheted up this week because policymakers and central bankers cannot decide the way forward.”
Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities, added: “It is a mess. Division among the politicians and central bankers is not helping.
“The problems in Greece could spread to the larger economies.”
…
Yawn…Wake me up when this great vampire squid ends up in some swordfish’s belly.
The Financial Times
Goldman Sachs facing federal investigation
By Justin Baer in New York
Published: May 20 2011 18:51 | Last updated: May 20 2011 18:51
For a brief time, it appeared Goldman Sachs executives could exhale.
The US bank began the year expecting much of the regulatory scrutiny and public backlash it endured throughout 2010 would soon subside, returning investors’ attention to welcome subjects, such as Goldman’s superior returns.
Yet one US senator’s stinging rebuke, delivered in April with a promise to refer his subcommittee’s probe on the causes of the crisis to federal prosecutors, reignited fears of fresh problems.
…
PB ,I hope this isn’t a dog and phony show rather than a real quest to
bust the GREAT VAMPIRE SQUID .
So far, all I have seen is Grand Kabuki. But perhaps at some point, a rule of law will be reinstated in our banking system, and Goldman will have to go.
This is a reassuring article (not!)…
The Financial Times
US doom is not assured
By James Mackintosh
Published: May 19 2011 23:18 | Last updated: May 19 2011 23:18
When investors are uncertain, strange things happen. Paying to lend money is certainly odd, yet a handful of short-term US government bills have once again had negative yields over the past few weeks. This is the equivalent of paying the Medicis to look after one’s savings: the money is as safe as can be, but the alternatives have to be pretty unpalatable.
The equity markets do not share the concern: LinkedIn’s share price rose as much as 173 per cent during its initial public offering on Thursday.
The bond markets may be closer to the truth, at least for the short term. On Thursday the widely watched change in the leading US indicator from the Conference Board plunged to its lowest since March 2009.
This suggests the economy is heading for a repeat of last year’s summer slowdown, with disappointing US housing sales adding further gloom. Surveys of industry tell the same story.
…
Fund managers: Extended period of low rates likely to be extended.
The Financial Times
Fund managers losing faith in world economy
By Richard Milne, Capital Markets Editor
Published: May 17 2011 19:00 | Last updated: May 17 2011 19:00
Investors’ belief in the world economy and corporate profitability is waning, with a majority of fund managers believing European growth will slow down, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch fund manager survey.
A net 8 per cent of investors believe Europe’s economy will weaken in the next year, says the survey, which was concluded just before last week’s gross domestic product data from Germany and France provided a positive surprise.
Globally, concern is also mounting, with just a net 9 per cent of fund managers expecting corporate profits to increase and a net 10 per cent believing the world economy will improve, down from a net 58 per cent in February.
The survey underlines how investor confidence in the global growth outlook is falling after a weak first quarter.
This has translated into a strong majority, 73 per cent, of investors expecting the US Federal Reserve to start raising rates next year compared with a similar proportion who thought in April that it would happen in 2011.
…
Make the Banks Pay Their Fair Share!
by Arlene Holt Baker, May 20, 2011
The foreclosure crisis just keeps getting worse. More than 12 percent of residential mortgage loans are in foreclosure or at least one payment past due. Millions of homes have been needlessly foreclosed on because banks have not modified homeowners’ mortgages to affordable levels. On top of this misery, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) funding for counseling to prevent foreclosures has been cut to zero.
Government efforts to hold banks accountable for the “robo-signing” scandal continue. Last month, federal regulators ordered banks to clean up their mortgage-servicing processes to prevent wrongful foreclosures. Federal and state officials also have proposed that the banks pay $20 billion in penalties. The banks have offered $5 billion, but they object to using the money to reduce mortgage principal amounts.
…
[ EDITORIAL ]
Home Loan Reform: Go After Mortgage Fraud
Published: Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 12:38 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 12:38 a.m.
The federal indictments of 14 people early this year in what officials call a mortgage-fraud conspiracy were an important step in addressing the abuses that contributed to the inflation and collapse of Southwest Florida’s real estate market — but only a step.
Federal investigators, and those in Sarasota, where the arrests were made Feb. 25, suggest that further indictments are possible. That would be helpful because the 14 arrested so far included many minor investors and relatively minor charges. Investigators say there was widespread fraud involving not only the real estate industry but lending institutions and attorneys.
A 2009 investigation by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune identified more than 40 investors and professionals who worked with one real estate agent, involving more than $100 million in questionable property deals.
‘FLIPPING’ FRAUD
As the Herald-Tribune’s 2009 analysis made clear, the fraud identified in Sarasota and Manatee counties applied to other parts of Florida.
At least 12 percent of real estate “flips” conducted in state in the previous decade contained two strong indicators of fraud — multiple sales within 90 days and an increase in price of 30 percent or more. In November 2009, a federal crackdown on mortgage fraud led to dozens of prosecutions in Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and Jacksonville.
…
Wouldn’t it be easier to prosecute illegal activities by banks if none of them were too-big-to-jail? What I am suggest invoking the Sherman Antitrust Act to break up banks that are too-big-to-jail. Under the status quo, the largest banks can fund massive PR and lobbying campaigns to buy themselves protection from the rule of law. If the banking sector were divided up into non-systemically risky pieces, it would become far easier to root out and prosecute systemic corruption. Soon enough, trust would be restored in the U.S. banking sector.
Where is the downside with my proposal?
Opinion
EDITORIAL: Big banks cough up ill-gotten gains
Published: Saturday, May 21, 2011
One way the nation’s biggest banks made their money was illegal.
They cost states, cities, hospitals and other tax-exempt institutions hundreds of millions of dollars in inflated fees.
Now the states, led by Connecticut and New York, are reclaiming some of those illegal gains.
Parallel investigations by federal authorities have resulted in the conviction, on fraud and conspiracy charges, of eight bankers from JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and UBS, which has its American headquarters in Stamford.
UBS has just agreed to pay $160 million in restitution, penalties and fees for rigging bids on bond derivatives, which are investment vehicles used to hold proceeds of bond sales or hedge against inflation.
In December, Bank of America, which discovered and reported misconduct to federal authorities, agreed to pay $137 million for fixing bids on bond derivatives in another investigation in which New York and Connecticut took the lead for the cheated states.
Of the settlement with UBS, $90.8 million will go to Connecticut.
Among the victims of UBS’ fraud here were the state, cities and school districts.
The Hospital of Saint Raphael, South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority, Bridgeport, Stamford and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority will all receive restitution under the settlement.
Much of the cost of the banks’ fraud was passed on to taxpayers in the form of higher borrowing costs.
…
JPMorgan’s Annual Meeting Brings Protest on Foreclosures
May 18 (Bloomberg) —
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday demanding Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon do more to help homeowners and small businesses recover from the financial crisis. For any errors that were made, “we deeply apologize,” Dimon, 55, said at the meeting. “We are doing everything we can to keep people in their homes that should stay in their homes.” Dimon said he especially regretted the bank’s mistakes in foreclosing on active-duty military personnel and for fumbling paperwork on other home seizures. (Source: Bloomberg)
JP Morgan Chase CEO Warns Of US Defaulting
by The Associated Press
FILE - JP Morgan Chase and Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon is seen in the East Room of the White House in Washington, in this Feb. 13, 2009 file photo. Dimon speaking Thursday May 19, 2011 at a dinner for the University of Colorado-Denver business school said it would be a “moral disaster” if the U.S. defaults and can’t pay its obligations. Dimon says the U.S. is the financial linchpin of the world and its default would be potentially catastrophic.
DENVER May 20, 2011, 12:51 am ET
It would be a “moral disaster” if the United States were to default on its debts and become unable to pay its obligations, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said at an appearance in Colorado Thursday evening.
The U.S. is the financial linchpin of the world, and the economic effects of the U.S. defaulting could be “potentially catastrophic,” he said at a dinner for the University of Colorado Denver Business School.
“It will dwarf Lehman,” Dimon said, referring to the 2008 collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers, which contributed to the beginning of a global financial crisis.
Dimon’s comments came in response to a question about the federal deficit from moderator Tom Petrie, a vice chairman of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Congress is debating raising the country’s $14.3 trillion borrowing limit. White House officials say the government will run out of cash to pay expenses Aug. 2, but lawmakers have said they want spending cuts before they agree to raise the debt ceiling.
Dimon got a standing ovation at the dinner, a marked contrast to JPMorgan’s annual meeting in Ohio on Tuesday, when more than 400 demonstrators shouted outside. The protests were organized by a coalition of clergy and unions, which is pushing for action and legislation around banking practices that hurt troubled homeowners.
…
College Loan Defaults Jump to Highest Level in 13 Years
Friday, May 20, 2011
May 20 (Bloomberg) — The rate that borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans rose to 8.9 percent, the highest level in 13 years, the U.S. Education Department said today.
The 2009 rate, which covers defaults in the two years through Sept. 30, 2010, rose from 7 percent a year earlier, according to data posted on the agency’s website. The default rate at for-profit colleges, such as University of Phoenix owner Apollo Group Inc., rose to 15.2 percent from 11.6 percent.
The rate applies only to the first two years that students are required to make payments on their loans. The above-average default rates among students at for-profit colleges has led the Obama administration to increase regulation and Congress and state attorneys general to conduct investigations.
“What we’re seeing is the continual effects of a troubled economy coupled with a growing problem of defaults among for- profit colleges,” said Justin Hamilton, a spokesman for the Education Department. “It’s another example of why we need to do a better job of making sure students are getting what they pay for: preparation for a good-paying job.”
…
FRAUD!
U.S. to Join Suit Against For-Profit College Chain
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: May 2, 2011
The Justice Department plans to intervene in a whistle-blower lawsuit charging that one of the nation’s largest for-profit college companies, the Education Management Corporation, defrauded the government by illegally paying recruiters based on the number of students they enrolled, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday.
Related
The filing by Education Management, known as EDMC, said “several states” also planned to join in the False Claims Act case, in federal court in Pittsburgh, alleging violations of their state laws.
This is the first time prosecutors have joined such a case, one of dozens in recent years that accuse the for-profit college industry of illegal practices devised to increase federal student aid revenue.
The company, which enrolls nearly 150,000 students, operates several career-college chains, including the Art Institute, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College and South University.
EDMC, 40 percent of which is owned by Goldman Sachs, said in its securities filing that its compensation plan for recruiters did not violate the law, and that it would “vigorously defend itself.”
…
Just shut it down, bust the trust, and be done with it.
WRITING ON THE WALL
MAY 19, 2011, 11:49 A.M. ET
You Won’t Read This Story About Goldman
By David Weidner
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is in trouble again.
Still reading? If you are, you must be a Goldman employee, regulator, class-action lawyer, financial journalist or trolling the Internet for news about Steve Jobs. (See how I dropped the name to make this column more Google-friendly?)
David Weidner explains why believes no one seems to care much about Goldman’s latest troubles, and many Americans seem numb to more allegations of wrongdoing related to the financial crisis.
No one seems to care much about Goldman’s latest troubles, and many Americans seem numb to more allegations of wrongdoing related to the financial crisis.
Yet they keep coming, especially at Goldman. One of the biggest was last week’s disclosure that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s staff has “orally advised” the company that it “intends to recommend … aiding and abetting, civil fraud and supervision-related charges” against the trade-clearing unit at Goldman.
In addition, Goldman said the Justice Department is reviewing data related to credit-default swaps and fee arrangements for clearing of credit-default swaps, including potential anticompetitive practices. European regulators are also investigating.
And remember Abacus? That’s the collateralized debt obligation created by Goldman that morphed into a $550 million fraud settlement. There are more subpoenas on that gem, Goldman said last week.
Goldman declined to comment beyond the disclosures it made in its quarterly report and didn’t offer any additional comment Wednesday.
In the filing, the company said it is cooperating with the CFTC, now led by former Goldman executive Gary Gensler.
…
Goldman Sachs Spent $292 Million on In-house Legal in 2010
Dana Olsen
Corporate Counsel
May 20, 2011
Goldman Sachs paid out over $700 million to attorneys last year in the aftermath of the Wall Street crisis, during which the controversial actions of the giant investment bank took center stage.
According to The Wall Street Journal, at a shareholder meeting held last Friday in New Jersey, Goldman Sachs chief counsel Gregory Palm addressed shareholder questions and said the bank spent $292 million on its in-house legal department in 2010, in addition to $434 million on outside lawyers.
The high legal fees reflect a year of legal battles for Goldman Sachs, including an unprecedented $550 million penalty paid to the SEC to settle fraud charges and congressional hearings concerning the bank’s actions during the recent financial catastrophe.
Wall Street banks under scrutiny over mortgage loan packaging
Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs among those questioned by attorney general Eric Schneiderman
Dominic Rushe in New York
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 May 2011 20.07 BST
Goldman-Sachs-protestors
Protesters from the lobby of a Goldman Sachs office building in New Jersey. The investment bank is among others under scrutiny over loans packaing by the New York attorney Eric Schneiderman. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP
Wall Street banks are facing fresh high-level scrutiny of their role in the credit crunch as New York’s attorney general opens an investigation into the packaging of mortgage loans into securities.
Eric Schneiderman has called for meetings with several major institutions including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, according to reports in the US. The attorney general is not commenting on the investigation, which is believed to be in its very early stages.
The banks and others have been blamed by politicians for worsening the financial crisis by encouraging the sale of high-risk financial instruments tied to mortgages. Schneiderman is reportedly interested in discussing the securitisation of mortgage loans and other mortgage related practices with the bankers.
Schneiderman was appointed attorney general last November and follows Andrew Cuomo and Eliot Spitzer, both of whom led crackdowns on Wall Street. This month he reached a $90.8m (£55.9m) settlement with UBS over the “fraudulent and anti-competitive” sale of municipal bonds.
The inquiry comes as banks continue to struggle with the legal fallout from the credit crisis. Civil suits have been filed by federal and state regulators since the financial crisis erupted in 2008 and private shareholders have also filed cases against the banks.
In a sign of ongoing public anger towards the industry, eight people were arrested during protests outside JP Morgan Chase’s annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, where demonstrators, greeted by a heavy police presence, chanted “make banks pay” and wielded placards with slogans such as “Chase gets rich, we lose homes, jobs and services”.
Last year the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US financial regulator, levied a $550m on Goldman Sachs over claims the investment bank misled investors in collateralised debt obligations linked to subprime mortgages. It was the largest ever fine on a Wall Street bank.
Banks packaged thousands of home loans into bonds known as mortgage-backed securities during the housing boom and sold them to investors around the world. Many of these bonds were given triple-A credit ratings, a grade supposedly denoting a safe investment, even though they were backed by high risk loans. The collapse of the US property market triggered a massive collapse in the value of the bonds, often to junk status.
US officials have alleged banks, including Goldman Sachs, deliberately misled investors by encouraging them to invest in mortgage-backed securities they knew to be junk. The allegations are also being investigated by the SEC and the Justice Department.
Schneiderman, like his predecessors, has a powerful legal tool at his disposal: the 1921 Martin Act. The act gives the prosecutor sweeping powers of investigation, allows him to subpoena any document he wants, and makes it easier for the attorney general to bring prosecutions. It was most extensively used by Spitzer after the stock market crash at the turn of the millennium.
During his election campaign Schneiderman pledged to tackle Wall Street over the credit crisis.
“The mortgage fraud crisis is devastating working families in every corner of New York State – it’s upending our economic recovery upstate and downstate,” he said.
…
News
This rapture story is so fascinatingly bizarro! How come whenever Jeebus is involved with a fraudulent prophesy, people take the fraud perpetrator seriously? Why don’t they arrest Harold Camping for perpetrating fraud on his unsuspecting adherents?!
DUMB!
Time of rapture comes, then goes
Published: Sunday, May 22, 2011
By KELLY METZ
LORAIN — Apocalypse? Not now.
Yesterday at 6 p.m., California-based Family Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted the May 21 doomsday message and spent more than $100 million spreading the prophecy. According to wire reports, Camping is an 89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multi-million-dollar Christian media empire that publicizes his apocalyptic prediction. According to Camping, the destruction was likely to have begun its worldwide march as it became 6 p.m. in the various time zones, although believers said the exact timing was never written in stone.
Locally, Lorain County residents called Camping a “false prophet” and said the 89-year-old should be charged with inducing panic for causing mass hysteria that prompted several hundred people across the country to drain bank accounts and sell possessions in order to prepare for the end.
As yesterday drew near, followers reported that donations grew, allowing Family Radio to spend millions on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the doomsday message, according to The Associated Press.
“He should be charged for inducing panic, just as if someone would of ran into a building and yelled, ‘bomb,’” Latonia Jaram-Miranda, of Lorain, said.
Megan Milovich said she had seen several children “freaking out.” Patty Bullard, of Lorain, said while “God only knows” when the end is coming, she was scared and panicking herself.
“(Camping) got people all over the country talking or worrying about it,” Milovich said.
…
Bingo. The broader question is why do we tend to say schizophrenics need to get their heads examined, yet we are supposed to respect a religionist who prays?