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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on August 22, 2011, 05:04:56 AM
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Attorney General of N.Y. Is Said to Face Pressure on Bank Foreclosure Deal
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
Published: August 21, 2011
Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, has come under increasing pressure from the Obama administration to drop his opposition to a wide-ranging state settlement with banks over dubious foreclosure practices, according to people briefed on discussions about the deal.
Eric T. Schneiderman has objected to elements of the settlement for months.
In recent weeks, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and high-level Justice Department officials have been waging an intensifying campaign to try to persuade the attorney general to support the settlement, said the people briefed on the talks.
Mr. Schneiderman and top prosecutors in some other states have objected to the proposed settlement with major banks, saying it would restrict their ability to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing in a variety of areas, including the bundling of loans in mortgage securities.
But Mr. Donovan and others in the administration have been contacting not only Mr. Schneiderman but his allies, including consumer groups and advocates for borrowers, seeking help to secure the attorney general’s participation in the deal, these people said. One recipient described the calls from Mr. Donovan, but asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.
Not surprising, the large banks, which are eager to reach a settlement, have grown increasingly frustrated with Mr. Schneiderman. Bank officials recently discussed asking Mr. Donovan for help in changing the attorney general’s mind, according to a person briefed on those talks.
In an interview on Friday, Mr. Donovan defended his discussions with the attorney general, saying they were motivated by a desire to speed up help for troubled homeowners. But he said he had not spoken to bank officials or their representatives about trying to persuade Mr. Schneiderman to get on board with the deal.
“Eric and I agree on a tremendous amount here,” Mr. Donovan said. “The disagreement is around whether we should wait to settle and resolve the issues around the servicing practices for him — and potentially other A.G.’s and other federal agencies — to complete investigations on the securitization side. He might argue that he has more leverage that way, but our view is we have the immediate opportunity to help a huge number of borrowers to stay in their homes, to help their neighborhoods and the housing market.”
And Alisa Finelli, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department. said: “The Justice Department, along with our federal agency partners and state attorneys general, are committed to achieving a resolution that will hold servicers accountable for the harm they have done consumers and bring billions of dollars of relief to struggling homeowners — and bring relief swiftly because homeowners continue to suffer more each day that these issues are not resolved.”
Terms of the possible settlement under consideration center on foreclosure improprieties like so-called robo-signing and submitting apparently forged documents to the courts to speed up the process of removing troubled borrowers from homes. Negotiations on this deal have been led by Thomas J. Perrelli, associate attorney general of the United States, and Tom Miller, the attorney general of Iowa.
An initial term sheet outlining a possible settlement emerged in March, with institutions including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo being asked to pay about $20 billion that would go toward loan modifications and possibly counseling for homeowners.
In exchange, the attorneys general participating in the deal would have agreed to sign broad releases preventing them from bringing further litigation on matters relating to the improper bank practices.
The banks balked at the $20 billion figure. And the talks seemed to stall over the summer, as Mr. Schneiderman and a few other attorneys general — Beau Biden of Delaware and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, for example — questioned aspects of the deal.
Mr. Schneiderman began objecting a few months ago to the proposed releases barring future litigation, declining to participate as long as they were included.
“The attorney general remains concerned by any attempt at a global settlement that would shut down ongoing investigations of wrongdoing related to the mortgage crisis,” said Danny Kanner, the spokesman for Mr. Schneiderman. His office has opened several inquiries into mortgage practices during the credit boom.
Representatives for the four big banks declined to comment. Mr. Schneiderman has also come under criticism for objecting to a settlement proposed by Bank of New York Mellon and Bank of America that would cover 530 mortgage-backed securities containing Countrywide Financial loans that investors say were mischaracterized when they were sold.
The deal would require Bank of America to pay $8.5 billion to investors holding the securities; the unpaid principal amount of the mortgages remaining in the pools totals $174 billion. Lawyers representing 22 institutional investors, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, BlackRock and Pimco, contended that the deal was favorable.
This month, Mr. Schneiderman sued to block that deal, which had been negotiated by Bank of New York Mellon as trustee for the holders of the securities. The lawsuit contends that the deal could “compromise investors’ claims in exchange for a payment representing a fraction of the losses” experienced by investors and that it had been negotiated without the knowledge of all of the holders of the securities.
The lawsuit angered Bank of New York Mellon, and as Mr. Schneiderman was leaving the memorial service last week for Hugh Carey, the former New York governor who died Aug. 7, an attendee said Mr. Schneiderman became embroiled in a contentious conversation with Kathryn S. Wylde, a member of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who represents the public. Ms. Wylde, who has criticized Mr. Schneiderman for bringing the lawsuit, is also chief executive of the Partnership for New York City. The New York Fed has supported the proposed $8.5 billion settlement.
Other investors in the Countrywide mortgage pools who were not part of the settlement talks between Bank of New York Mellon and Bank of America have called the terms inadequate.
Characterizing her conversation with Mr. Schneiderman that day as “not unpleasant,” Ms. Wylde said in an interview on Thursday that she had told the attorney general “it is of concern to the industry that instead of trying to facilitate resolving these issues, you seem to be throwing a wrench into it. Wall Street is our Main Street — love ’em or hate ’em. They are important and we have to make sure we are doing everything we can to support them unless they are doing something indefensible.”
Mr. Schneiderman declined to comment on the encounter.
Mr. Schneiderman has opened an investigation into Wall Street’s mortgage machinery, especially examining whether loan documents were provided to the trusts as required under securitization contracts.
The New York attorney general’s office has hired Lynn E. Turner, former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as a consultant on the investigations, people briefed on the inquiries said.
Damon A. Silvers, associate general counsel for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., is also serving as a special counsel on a pro bono basis. Both men declined to comment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/business/schneiderman-is-said-to-face-pressure-to-back-bank-deal.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1314014404-QRiTZ8QYz5phJVbcBwyg0A
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BUMP FOR STRAW AND 180!
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BUMP for 180.
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BUMP for 180.
settle down ron howard. what are we talking about here?
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settle down ron howard. what are we talking about here?
ead the story.
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ead the story.
I'll ead it.
Then I'll espond.
Then will you be appy?
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I'll ead it.
Then I'll espond.
Then will you be appy?
If you are going to blame bush or palin, don't bother.
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180- did you read the story yet?
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180- did you read the story yet?
no
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no
why ? Cause it shows your false messiah for the liar and fraud he is?
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why ? Cause it shows your false messiah for the liar and fraud he is?
exactly. team kneepad doesn't want to read this stuff homie
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exactly. team kneepad doesn't want to read this stuff homie
thanks for the confirmation.
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thanks for the confirmation.
thanks for the haircut
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figures you would support Bama in this.
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figures you would support Bama in this.
man i dont support obama in shit.
but as long as the repubs ar eputting up dogshite crazy candidates who believe the earth is 6000 years old, they don't deserve the presidency.
Reagan would be huntsman today. repubs screaming for a perry to lead - while he screams about the need for default and how they seriously, seriously think we should teach creationism. I respect a higher power more than anyone - but - the earth was created in 6 days, and you seriously believe it?
sorry, they're fcuking juvenile. They don't deserve to lead with that silly shit on their plate. fucccken. Until you put up a grownup, enjoy obama's reign of shit.
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http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/corrupt-obama-ad...
Monday, August 22, 2011
Corrupt Obama Administration Pressuring New York Attorney General to Support Mortgage Whitewash
It is high time to describe the Obama Administration by its proper name: corrupt.
(snip)
The Administration has now taken to pressuring parties that are not part of the machinery reporting to the President to fall in and do his bidding. We’ve gotten so used to the US attorney general being conveniently missing in action that we have forgotten that regulators and the AG are supposed to be independent. As one correspondent noted by e-mail, “When officials allegiances are to El Supremo rather than the Constitution, you walk the path to fascism.”
Revealingly, one of the Administration’s allies said: “Wall Street is our Main Street.” And the worst is that this remark may not be a cynical Ministry of Truth pronouncement. Team Obama bears all the hallmarks of being so close to banks and big corporations that it has lost all contact with and understanding of mainstream America.
The latest example is its heavy-handed campaign to convert New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman to a card carrying member of the “be nice to our lords and masters the banksters” club. Schneiderman was the first to take issue with the sham of the so-called 50 state attorney general mortgage settlement. As far as the Administration is concerned, its goal is to give banks a talking point and prove to them that Team Obama is protecting their backs in a way that the chump public hopefully won’t notice.
The background of Smith's piece: NY state attorney general Eric Schneiderman's unwillingness to go along with a proposed settlement between the large banks and the Obama administration -- a settlement which would, in effect let the banks off the hook for any criminal charges they might face for engaging in possibly illegal mortgage activities.
However, as the NY Times article notes, the Obama administration is exerting great pressure on Schneiderman for him to drop his opposition to the settlement:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/business/schneiderman...
In recent weeks, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and high-level Justice Department officials have been waging an intensifying campaign to try to persuade the attorney general to support the settlement, said the people briefed on the talks.
Mr. Schneiderman and top prosecutors in some other states have objected to the proposed settlement with major banks, saying it would restrict their ability to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing in a variety of areas, including the bundling of loans in mortgage securities.
But Mr. Donovan and others in the administration have been contacting not only Mr. Schneiderman but his allies, including consumer groups and advocates for borrowers, seeking help to secure the attorney general’s participation in the deal, these people said. One recipient described the calls from Mr. Donovan, but asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.
Not surprising, the large banks, which are eager to reach a settlement, have grown increasingly frustrated with Mr. Schneiderman. Bank officials recently discussed asking Mr. Donovan for help in changing the attorney general’s mind, according to a person briefed on those talks.
And, from the following quote, it appears that the administration has ordered the Justice Dept. to collude with the Housing and Urban Development agency on this issue:
And Alisa Finelli, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department. said: “The Justice Department, along with our federal agency partners and state attorneys general, are committed to achieving a resolution that will hold servicers accountable for the harm they have done consumers and bring billions of dollars of relief to struggling homeowners — and bring relief swiftly because homeowners continue to suffer more each day that these issues are not resolved.”
Wait a minute, wait a minute: Why would the Justice Dept, supposedly and ideally an independent arm of the administration, not be interested in pursuing criminal charges against the banks on this matter? Why would the Justice Dept. claim that all the state attorney generals want to reach a settlement with the banks, when, in fact, that's not the case: as the article points out, some of the state attorney generals don't want to reach a settlement with the banks; they want to look into possible criminal charges against the banks. Why would the Justice Dept. suddenly be keenly interested in on the non-Justice Dept issue of homeownership and echo the exact position of the Housing and Urban Development?
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http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/08/22/us_p... /
US pressures New York’s AG to back bank deal
New York Times / August 22, 2011
NEW YORK - Eric T. Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general, is under pressure from the Obama administration to drop his opposition to a wide-ranging state settlement with banks over dubious foreclosure practices, say people briefed on discussions about the deal.
Shaun Donovan, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Justice Department officials have been campaigning to persuade the attorney general to support the settlement, the people said. Schneiderman and top prosecutors in other states have said the proposed settlement would restrict their ability to prosecute wrongdoing in a variety of areas, including the bundling of loans in mortgage securities.
The administration has been contacting not only Schneiderman but his allies, including consumer groups and housing advocates, seeking help to secure the attorney general’s participation, the people said.
The large banks, eager to settle, are frustrated with Schneiderman’s stance. Bank officials recently discussed asking Donovan for help, said a person briefed on those talks.
....
The possible settlement centers on foreclosure improprieties like so-called robo-signing and submitting apparently forged documents to speed evictions.
(more at link)
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New York Attorney General Kicked Off Government Group Leading Foreclosure Probe
First Posted: 8/23/11 07:57 PM ET Updated: 8/23/11 08:10 PM ET
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WASHINGTON -- New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Tuesday was kicked off the committee leading the 50-state task force charged with probing foreclosure abuses and negotiating a possible settlement agreement with the nation's five largest mortgage firms, according to an email reviewed by The Huffington Post.
Schneiderman was one of roughly a dozen state attorneys general leading the talks with the five companies, alongside representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal agencies. The government launched the negotiations in the spring after widespread reports of foreclosure irregularities, such as so-called "robo-signing" and illegal home seizures, emerged.
But state prosecutors and federal officials are pressing to complete a proposed settlement with the five companies even though they've initiated only a limited investigation that hasn't examined the full extent of the alleged wrongdoing, The Huffington Post reported last month. Elizabeth Warren, who until recently was a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, told a congressional panel last month that government agencies may not have sufficiently investigated claims that borrowers' homes were illegally seized.
Schneiderman, a Democrat who's in his first term as New York's top law enforcer, has been among a group of state legal officers who has also questioned the desire for a speedy resolution. He's leading his own investigation into mortgage improprieties, subpoenaing documents from the nation's largest financial institutions and reviewing court records for possible illegal home repossessions.
The Obama administration officials -- in particular, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan -- have publicly stated on numerous occasions that they want a quick resolution to the 50-state mortgage probe.
Sources said attorneys general like Schneiderman, along with the top legal officers from Massachusetts, Delaware and Nevada, among others, were complicating that goal by questioning the plan to scuttle the state and federal investigations in exchange for a settlement.
These attorneys general have said they're reluctant to sign on to an agreement that effectively kills their ongoing investigations or prevents new ones from being launched. Beau Biden, Delaware's top law enforcer, remains on the states' executive committee.
In a statement of support for Schneiderman, Biden said that the "events leading up to the mortgage crisis must be fully investigated, including origination and securitization practices, before any broad immunity is granted."
"The American people deserve an investigation," he added.
Top Obama administration officials recently reached out to Schneiderman and his allies, effectively requesting he get in line, people familiar with the discussions said. The New York Times editorial board on Tuesday declared that Schneiderman "should stand his ground in not supporting the deal."
"The administration says that a settlement would quickly deliver much needed relief to hard-pressed borrowers, but it’s doubtful it would provide redress on a par with the banks’ wrongdoing or borrowers’ needs," the board wrote.
The email announcing Schneiderman's dismissal from the states' executive committee was sent just after noon to more than 50 people by Patrick Madigan, a top lawyer in the Iowa Attorney General's Office. It read: "Effective immediately, the New York Attorney General’s Office has been removed from the Executive Committee of the Robosigning multistate."
This month, Schneiderman accused Bank of New York Mellon, the 11th-largest U.S. bank by assets, of "repeated fraud and illegality" when it came to its actions as a trustee for various mortgage securities, and he accused Bank of America of fabricating missing documents when foreclosing on some homeowners who defaulted on their mortgages.
Bank of America's stock price is down more than 55 percent over the past six months. Investors haven't seen a closing price as low as Tuesday's -- $6.30 per share -- since March 2009.
The state and federal discussions with the targeted banks -- JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial -- center on the banks providing distressed homeowners with reduced monthly payments, lower mortgage principal amounts or other relief in exchange for a release from liability for past illegal actions. An agreement could yield up to $30 billion to be used to allow troubled borrowers to remain in their homes or to help others move into rentals, according to people involved in the talks and documents reviewed by HuffPost.
The bigger the effective grant of immunity from potential government civil lawsuits, the more cash the companies are willing to pay to settle the accusations, these people have said.
The Obama administration, along with the top legal officers from other states leading the talks, including officials from Iowa and Illinois, has said the deteriorating state of the housing market should be a priority. By their reckoning, a resolution to these outstanding issues needs to be quickly achieved in order to save potentially hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure and to allow proper home repossessions to fully resume. Many companies halted home seizures last autumn after news reports of widespread robo-signing.
Foreclosures have since crawled to a halt, even though the number of homeowners delinquent on their mortgages remains sky-high, according to data compiled by Lender Processing Services and RealtyTrac. New delinquencies have ticked up, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Home prices continue to drop and are not expected to resume climbing until 2013, experts forecast.
Schneiderman is "committed to a comprehensive resolution," his spokesman, Danny Kanner, said in an emailed statement. "While we will continue to work with Delaware, Nevada, Massachusetts, and our other federal and state counterparts to achieve those goals, ongoing investigations by attorneys general cannot be shut down by efforts to settle quickly and those responsible must be held accountable."
Kanner said Schneiderman was removed at Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller's "prerogative."
Miller, through a spokesman, said that Schneiderman was "intimately involved in every aspect of this investigation and possible settlement" from the launch of the probe last October to this past June. Schneiderman was "on every internal [executive committee] conference call and participated in all conference calls and meetings with the top five mortgage servicers. As such, New York had a large influence on the actions and decisions of the multistate."
But in June, after The Huffington Post reported on a confidential conference call between state and federal officials, the executive committee was reduced to a smaller group of states that would directly negotiate with the five banks. Schneiderman was invited to join this smaller group, but declined, Miller said.
"Since that time, New York has actively worked to undermine the very same multistate group that it had spent the previous nine months working very closely with," Miller continued. "While we certainly respect the right of any state to choose to no longer participate in a multistate and to pursue another path, working to actively undermine a multistate while still a member of the Executive Committee simply doesn’t make sense, is unprecedented and is unacceptable. Accordingly, today I informed New York that it is no longer a member of the Executive Committee."
Schneiderman's removal will likely make it easier for state and federal officials to reach an accord with the five banks. However, the potential amount of money they'll be able to extract will likely decrease.
Schneiderman, armed with New York state's Martin Act, can bring suit against alleged fraudsters without having to prove that they intended to commit fraud, a much more lenient standard than available to federal securities regulators. New York's top legal officer is investigating whether banks followed the state's laws when bundling mortgages into securities.
That probe could prove explosive.
"If mortgages were not properly transferred in the securitization process, then mortgage-backed securities would in fact not be backed by any mortgages whatsoever," Adam J. Levitin, a bankruptcy expert and professor at Georgetown University Law Center, told a congressional panel last November. Levitin said the problem could "cloud title to nearly every property in the United States" and could lead to trillions of dollars in losses.
The banks targeted by state prosecutors and federal officials would rather settle claims that they improperly bundled home loans into securities than allow those probes to continue. In exchange, they'd shell out more cash to help homeowners and help the Obama administration avert foreclosures.
With a settlement into those investigations seemingly off the table, the banks would likely be willing to pay less infines.
Www.huffingtonpost.com
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can one of you disgusting leeches who still support Bama support this?
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can one of you disgusting leeches who still support Bama support this?
Well, here you can see he is a fascist corporatist, not a liberal.
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How anyone who voted for this guy still supports him is beyond me. Why? Cause he is black? Who gives a fuck that he is black other than the assholes who voted for him.
he has proven himself far worse than bush and yet they still support him. Why?
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Robert Scheer.Editor, Truthdig.com; Author, 'The Great American Stickup'
Robert Scheer
Amnesty for the Indefensible
Posted: 8/24/11 04:08 AM ET React Inspiring
www.huffingtonpost.com
They will get away with it, at least in this life. "They" are the Wall Street usurers, people of a sort condemned in Scripture, who have brought more misery to this nation than we have known since the Great Depression. "They" will not suffer for their crimes because they have a majority ownership position in our political system. That is the meaning of the banking plea bargain that the Obama administration is pressuring state attorneys general to negotiate with the titans of the financial world.
It is a sellout deal that, in return for a pittance of compensation by banks to ripped-off mortgage holders, would grant the banks blanket immunity from any prosecution. That is intended to short-circuit investigations by a score of aggressive state officials, inquiries that offer the public a last best hope to get to the bottom of the housing scandal that has cost U.S. homeowners $6.6 trillion in home equity in the past five years and left 14.6 million Americans owing more than their homes are worth.
The $20 billion or so that the banks would pony up is chump change to them compared with the trillions that the Fed and other public agencies spent to bail them out. The banks were given direct cash subsidies, virtually zero-interest loans, and the Fed took $2 trillion in bad paper off their hands while the banks exacerbated the banking crisis they had created through additional shady practices, including fraudulent mortgage foreclosures.
Yet the administration has rushed to the aid of the banks once again and is attempting to intimidate the few state attorneys general who have the gumption to protect the public interest they are sworn to serve. As Gretchen Morgenson of The New York Times reported:
Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, has come under increasing pressure from the Obama administration to drop his opposition to a wide-ranging state settlement with banks over dubious foreclosure practices. ...
In recent weeks, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and high-level Justice Department officials have been waging an intensifying campaign to try to persuade the attorney general to support the settlement. ...
Donovan has good reason not to want an exploration of the origins of the housing meltdown: He has been a big-time player in the housing racket for decades. Back in the Clinton administration, when government-supported housing became a fig leaf for bundling suspect mortgages into what turned out to be toxic securities, Donovan was a deputy assistant secretary at HUD and acting Federal Housing Administration commissioner. He was up to his eyeballs in this business when the Clinton administration pushed through legislation banning any regulation of the market in derivatives based on home mortgages.
Armed with his insider connections, Donovan then went to work for the Prudential conglomerate (no surprise there), working deals with the same government housing agencies that he had helped run. As The New York Times reported in 2008 after President Barack Obama picked him to be secretary of HUD, "Mr. Donovan was a managing director at Prudential Mortgage Capital Co., in charge of its portfolio of investments in affordable housing loans, including Fannie Mae and the Federal Housing Administration debt."
The HUD website boasts in its bio of Donovan that "under Secretary Donovan's leadership, HUD has helped stabilize the housing market and worked to keep responsible families in their homes." If that is so, we have to assume that the tens of millions savaged by an out-of-control banking industry were not "responsible." And if the housing market has in any way been "stabilized," why did the Commerce Department report Tuesday that new home sales have dropped for the third month in a row?
Shifting the blame from the swindlers to the victims is the cynical rot at the core of the response of both the Bush and Obama administrations to the housing collapse. It is a response that aims to forgive and forget the crimes of Wall Street while allowing ordinary folks to sink deeper into the pit of debt and despair. It infects Donovan and many others who claim to be concerned for the very homeowners they are betraying by undermining the few officials such as Schneiderman who seek to hold the bankers accountable.
In her article about the pressure being brought to bear on Schneiderman to go along with the sellout, Morgenson reported that according to an attendee at a memorial service this month for former New York Gov. Hugh Carey, as Schneiderman was leaving he "became embroiled in a contentious conversation with Kathryn S. Wylde, a member of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who represents the public."
When interviewed by Morgenson, Wylde claimed that her conversation with Schneiderman was "not unpleasant" but that she told him "it is of concern to the industry that instead of trying to facilitate resolving these issues, you seem to be throwing a wrench into it. Wall Street is our Main Street--love 'em or hate 'em. They are important and we have to make sure we are doing everything we can to support them unless they are doing something indefensible."
When haven't they done that?
________________________ ____________________
Bachmann eating corn dogs is obviously far more important.
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Demos eating their own now.
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BUMP for Ozmo, mal, straw, benny, blacken, vince, kc and the sunshine gang, etc.
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Bump.
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BUMP FOR STRAW AND 180!
333 - investigating the crimes of the banks is one thing you and I have always agreed on
don't you remember?
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No, I remember it being palins fault and christine odonnels fault as well.
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Bump for Andrewearsdiapers
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Bump for Andre blacken, and Vince
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Bump for the people of America
Wake up there is a cock in your ass!
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Obama kills investigation getting too close for comfort
Flopping Aces ^ | 08-24-11 | DrJohn
Barack Obama wants to crush an investigation that's getting too close to him and some really close friends:
Attorney General of N.Y. Is Said to Face Pressure on Bank Foreclosure Deal
Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, has come under increasing pressure from the Obama administration to drop his opposition to a wide-ranging state settlement with banks over dubious foreclosure practices, according to people briefed on discussions about the deal.
In recent weeks, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and high-level Justice Department officials have been waging an intensifying campaign to try to persuade the attorney general to support the settlement, said the people briefed on the talks.
But here's where it gets interesting:
Mr. Schneiderman and top prosecutors in some other states have objected to the proposed settlement with major banks, saying it would restrict their ability to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing in a variety of areas, including the bundling of loans in mortgage securities.
If allowed to be completed, this investigation would pull the scab off the grave wound inflicted on this country by Bill Clinton, Robert Rubin, and Andrew Cuomo with the assistance of Penny Pritzker and Obama's good friends at Goldman Sachs.
The involvement of Clinton, Rubin and Cuomo in creating the housing/financial crisis has been written about extensively in FA.
Penny Pritzker, not so much.
Pritzker is the financial genius who took a solvent bank and helped destroy it.
Chicago’s billionaire Pritzker family and their partners bought Lyons Savings for a quite reasonable $42.5 million, but were also given $645 million in tax credits. The kicker was that the buyers only had to come up with $1 million in cash, and got access to the $645 million, and all the bank’s deposits insured by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC).
The Pritzker family’s Superior Bank “started life with enormous tax benefits and a substantial amount of FSLIC-guaranteed assets under a FSLIC assistance agreement,” said financial consultant Bert Ely in a Oct. 16, 2001, statement before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
Penny Pritzker is known as the "Queen of the Subprime Mortgage" and for good reason.
Ms. Pritzker served as Superior chairman until 1994. During that period, Superior “embarked on a business strategy of significant growth into subprime home mortgages,” which were then packaged into securities and sold to investors, according to a 2002 report by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General.
Subprime mortgages were the Pritzkers' junk bonds
“The [sub-prime] financial engineering that created the Wall Street meltdown was developed by the Pritzkers and Ernst and Young, working with Merrill Lynch to sell bonds securitized by sub-prime mortgages,” Timothy J. Anderson, a whistleblower on financial and bank fraud, told me in an interview.
“The sub-prime mortgages,” Anderson said, “were provided to Merrill Lynch, by a nation-wide Pritzker origination system, using Superior as the cash cow, with many millions in FDIC insured deposits. Superior’s owners were to sub-prime lending, what Michael Milken was to junk bonds.”
The Pritzkers needed a vehicle to ride those mortgages:
Ely stated, “Superior’s trick, or business plan” under Penny Pritzker’s leadership was apparently “to concentrate on sub-prime lending, principally on home mortgages, but for a while in sub-prime auto lending, too.” In December 1992, the Pritzkers acquired Alliance Funding, a wholesale mortgage organization.
She championed subprime mortgages until Superior Bank was seized by regulators in 2001. She never admitted any wrongdoing though her family paid out $460 million to defray the cost of the bank collapse.
1400 families lost their life savings.
This is also a story about how the Pritzkers made enormous amounts of money while shafting thousands of Americans:
Wanting to avoid a lawsuit, the secretive Pritzkers quickly agreed to what the FDIC hailed in December as the biggest settlement they had ever negotiated. The Pritzkers would pay $100 million immediately, then $360 million over 15 years. But there were lots of little provisions in the agreement that benefit the Pritzkers. First, as former bank consultant and longtime thrift watchdog Tim Anderson notes, the $100 million doesn’t even quite pay back all of the unpaid loans made to the owners. The Pritzkers also pay no interest on the $360 million, and since it is paid over many years, the real cost to the Pritzkers may be only around $250 million. As of September 2002, according to FDIC figures, the insurance fund was still out $440 million after this settlement.
But it gets even sweeter for the Pritzkers. The FDIC also agreed to pay the Pritzkers 25 percent of any claim won in a lawsuit against Ernst & Young. Since the FDIC is now suing for $548 million, the Pritzker share could be $137 million. On top of that, the agreement stated that the Pritzkers get half of any civil penalties from such a lawsuit (after certain agency expenses). The FDIC is asking for triple damages, or $1.64 billion; the Pritzker share could be over $800 million.
Even taking into account the “record” settlement they made with the FDIC, the Pritzkers could make more than $700 million in additional profit for running a financial institution into the ground. They had already profited handsomely, sharing in the more than $200 million in dividends to the owners in the ’90s. They accomplished all this with an investment of about $21 million for each partner—though the Pritzkers had also already benefited from $645 million in tax credits.
via Karl
The Pritzkers made vast fortunes on subprime mortgages and raised boatloads of cash for Obama, and he has guarded their interests.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
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August 22, 2011 09:00 AM
NYT: Obama Administration Pressuring NY AG To Accept Bank Settlement Instead Of Prosecuting
By Susie Madrak
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/nyt-obama-administration-pressuring-n
This is really, really infuriating. Scheiderman is maybe the only person in America who's trying to hold banks accountable, and I knew it was just a matter of time before the administration started putting the screws to him for that very reason. I wonder if they're also bringing pressure to bear on the other state AGs who are resisting a broad settlement offering immunity to the banks (including Delaware AG Beau Biden, son of the VP):
Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, has come under increasing pressure from the Obama administration to drop his opposition to a wide-ranging state settlement with banks over dubious foreclosure practices, according to people briefed on discussions about the deal.
In recent weeks, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and high-level Justice Department officials have been waging an intensifying campaign to try to persuade the attorney general to support the settlement, said the people briefed on the talks.
Mr. Schneiderman and top prosecutors in some other states have objected to the proposed settlement with major banks, saying it would restrict their ability to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing in a variety of areas, including the bundling of loans in mortgage securities.
But Mr. Donovan and others in the administration have been contacting not only Mr. Schneiderman but his allies, including consumer groups and advocates for borrowers, seeking help to secure the attorney general’s participation in the deal, these people said. One recipient described the calls from Mr. Donovan, but asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.
Not surprising, the large banks, which are eager to reach a settlement, have grown increasingly frustrated with Mr. Schneiderman. Bank officials recently discussed asking Mr. Donovan for help in changing the attorney general’s mind, according to a person briefed on those talks.
In an interview on Friday, Mr. Donovan defended his discussions with the attorney general, saying they were motivated by a desire to speed up help for troubled homeowners. But he said he had not spoken to bank officials or their representatives about trying to persuade Mr. Schneiderman to get on board with the deal.
Last week, David Dayen wrote about how the Bank of America was trying to smear Schneiderman:
So having figured out that the Feds cannot come riding to the rescue with another back-door bailout, Bank of America has settled on Plan B. They’ve decided to smear the AGs who are doing their job.
And they’re doing it in a very roundabout way. They’ve trotted out Kathryn Wylde, the President of the Partnership for New York City, to attack Eric Schneiderman for his intervention in the Bank of America settlement with investors over mortgage backed securities. Wylde is going to bat for BofA as well as the Bank of New York Mellon, the trustee for the MBS in the settlement. And she is actually arguing that Schneiderman, by defending the rights of investors and seeking the truth on out and out securitization fraud, is threatening the existence of the financial sector in New York City. No, really.
A BNY Mellon spokesman told me the bank didn’t want to comment on the broader implications of the AG’s filing, but directed me to Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a business development non-profit. She said that the AG’s “careless action” hurts New York’s standing as a financial center.
“It’s disappointing from the standpoint of the business community that the AG would make a fraud accusation against a major financial institution — in the press,” she told me. “And to not have any consultation with the institution? The bank was blindsided by what appears to be an outrageous charge.” (The AG’s press office didn’t respond to my request of comment.)
BNYM DIRECTED the reporter to Wylde, incidentally. Wylde has done this before, back in November 2009, arguing that breaking up big banks would hurt New York City. This would be outrageous enough on its own. But Wylde happens to sit on the board of directors for the New York Federal Reserve (sub. reqd.).
So you have a board member for an federal overseer of banks on Wall Street ... attacking a state regulator for stepping into a settlement where he has found massive fraud in a preliminary investigation. She’s taking up for BNYM, which the NY Fed oversees, against the state Attorney General. This is just a classic case of regulatory capture.
There’s almost no way this is not coordinated. Wylde is pretty powerful in New York circles, I understand, and she’s raising fears of a slowdown to New York City’s main economic engine to stall regulatory oversight. The banks must continue looting, the story goes, or they’ll stop creating jobs in Manhattan. I don’t think Schneiderman is likely to fold under this attempt at pressure, especially because the evidence keeps moving in his favor, rather than the other way.
I hope he's right.
More from Marcy Wheeler here.
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Bend over here it comes again.
Meanwhile Obama got a birdie on the 6th hole.
American Idol is set for it's season opener.
And the Green Bay Packers are the super bowl favorites.
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NYAG Eric Schneiderman Pushes Back After Being Kicked Off Mortgage Abuse Investigation
New York Daily News ^ | 8/24/2011 | Celeste Katz
After being pushed off a national panel of state attorneys general looking into subprime mortgage abuses, Eric Scheiderman is basically telling the guys who ousted him where they can file their briefs.
As we noted in Wake-Up Call, Reuters reported that Schneiderman, a Democrat in his first term as AG, "has voiced concerns over a proposed settlement between major banks and a coalition of federal and state officials over claims of foreclosure abuses. He has come under increasing pressure to approve the deal."
Schneiderman is certainly framing himself as the good guy in this situation -- someone who wants to delve deeply into mortgage irregularities instead of simply reaching a fast settlement and getting the whole thing over with.
In an email to campaign supporters today, which came with the subject line "Standing Up For You," he wrote:
"You might have been following the latest developments related to the national settlement of the mortgage probe, including this story in today's Huffington Post about our tough fight for a comprehensive resolution to this crisis.
"Let me tell you directly: I am deeply committed to pursuing a full investigation into the misconduct that led to the collapse of America's housing market, and to seeking a resolution that gives homeowners meaningful relief, allows the housing market to begin to recover, and gets our economy moving again.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
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Back Off Banksters! NY AG Eric Schneiderman Fights Back After Being Kicked Off 50 State Robo-signing Investigation
Posted by 4closureFraud on August 24, 2011 · 28 Comments
http://4closurefraud.org/2011/08/24/back-off-banksters-ny-ag-eric-schneiderman-fights-back-after-being-kicked-off-robo-signing-investigation
Please People!
Take a moment to send thanks and encouragement to Eric Schneiderman & his staff who are aggressively investigating fraudclosure and felony land record fraud.
As is anyone who stands up and speaks out against TBTF predatory and criminal acts against Americans, Mr. Schneiderman is being attacked.
Remember that he is an elected official who is actually representing the people who elected him instead of the financial institutions! A rarity indeed who must be thanked and encouraged.
Contact info below…
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NYAG Eric Schneiderman Pushes Back After Being Kicked Off Mortgage Abuse Investigation
BY Celeste Katz
After being pushed off a national panel of state attorneys general looking into subprime mortgage abuses, Eric Scheiderman is basically telling the guys who ousted him where to file their briefs.
As we noted in Wake-Up Call, Reuters reported that Schneiderman, a Democrat in his first term as AG, “has voiced concerns over a proposed settlement between major banks and a coalition of federal and state officials over claims of foreclosure abuses. He has come under increasing pressure to approve the deal.”
Schneiderman is certainly framing himself as the good guy in this situation — someone who wants to delve deeply into mortgage irregularities instead of simply reaching a fast settlement and getting the whole thing over with.
In an email to campaign supporters today, which came with the subject line “Standing Up For You,” he wrote:
“You might have been following the latest developments related to the national settlement of the mortgage probe, including this story in today’s Huffington Post about our tough fight for a comprehensive resolution to this crisis.
“Let me tell you directly: I am deeply committed to pursuing a full investigation into the misconduct that led to the collapse of America’s housing market, and to seeking a resolution that gives homeowners meaningful relief, allows the housing market to begin to recover, and gets our economy moving again.
“Our ongoing investigation into the housing crisis cannot be shut down to accommodate efforts to settle quickly and give banks and others broad immunity from further legal action. If you have any thoughts or concerns about this critical issue, please contact me at 1-800-771-7755, or send a message via Facebook or Twitter.”
SOURCE: NY DAILY NEWS
Please everyone, we must support this man. He is our last hope on a national level.
Craft your own words or here’s a sample script to say when you call or to copy & paste when you email:
Thank you all at the NY AG’s office for standing up to predatory banks who are dispossessing, foreclosing, and evicting millions of American families by committing mortgage servicing fraud, securities fraud, modification fraud, felony land record fraud, property conveyance fraud, and fraud upon our courts across the nation. The impact to our economy of tens of millions of American properties with clouded titles and defiled land records has not even begun.
Please continue this important work. Please do not let the attacks and push back by the financial industry and their corrupt puppets in positions of power impede your office’s work aimed at protecting citizens from the criminal and predatory acts that have greatly harmed us all.
Now get to work Citizen Warriors!
NY AG Contact Info
Phone
1-800-771-7755
Webmail
http://www.ag.ny.gov/online_forms/email_ag.jsp
Press Office
NYAG.Pressoffice@oag.state.ny.us
Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/AGSchneiderman
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/AGSchneiderman?sk=wall
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Obama Goes All Out For Dirty Banker Deal
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/obama-goes-all-out-for-dirty-banker-deal-20110824
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, all the banks, and, now, apparently, all the other state attorneys general.
This second camp has all gotten together, put their heads together, and 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.
This deal is all about protecting the banks from future enforcement actions on both the civil and criminal sides. The plan is to provide year-after-year, repeat-offending banks like Bank of America with some stability and certainty, so that they know exactly how much they’ll have to pay in fines (trust me, it will end up being a tiny fraction of what they made off the fraudulent practices) and will also get to know for sure that there are no more criminal investigations in the pipeline.
Be sure to check out the rest of Matt’s article here…
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Dismissal of NY Attorney General Schneiderman shows Obama Administration and Iowa AG Miller poised to let Big Banks off the hook for Mortgage Fraud
Posted by 4closureFraud on August 25, 2011 · 7 Comments
Press Release | Outraged Homeowners, Clergy, Community Members make specific settlement demands and deliver report directly to 50 state-AG’s on how fixing foreclosure crisis will create one million jobs
The news that Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller has summarily dismissed New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from the executive committee of the 50 state Attorney General robo-signing and servicing settlement talks is just the latest example of the Obama Administration and their allied Attorneys General’s full court press for a settlement – any settlement – at the expense of real accountability for banks and real relief from homeowners.
The big banks’ dirty fingerprints are all over these latest actions. The Obama Administration and the Attorneys General cannot cave-in to the desire of Wall Street bankers to paper over their massive wrongdoing and throw homeowners under the bus. Homeowners and former homeowners from Iowa, Illinois, Florida, New York and all 50 states must be put first. For years homeowners have been the victims of systemic fraud and they have been waiting years for the banks to be held responsible. As much as there is a need for relief, speed at the expense of quality cannot and will not be accepted.
“Scheiderman was the first AG to say that he wasn’t going to back down on the big banks, and he was the first AG kicked out of the investigation,” says Judy Lonning a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. “There’s no question who this decision favors. It’s all about making life better for the big banks” Iowa CCI is an affiliate of National People’s Action and The New Bottom Line.
In order to for voters to believe that the Administration and the AG’s didn’t once again give in to bank pressure, The New Bottom Line has detailed the key component of a strong settlement that will hold big banks accountable, provide justice to millions of homeowners and get our economy working again, including:
■not releasing any claims beyond the narrow scope of this limited investigation, including but not limited to origination, securitization and chain of title issues
■widespread principal reduction for families, in particular low and moderate income families and people of color who have been disproportionately harmed
■principal reductions that reach beyond banks’ portfolios of first and second lien mortgages
■not requiring homeowners who obtain relief or damages from this settlement to give up their rights under other legal measures or settlements,
■restitution for those who have already lost their homes due to the banks’ abusive and fraudulent practices
■vigorous enforcement and accountability measures that ensures bank compliance and ensures that homeowners and former owners aren’t required to give up access to relief from any other settlements that may come in the future.
Starting this week, organizational members of The New Bottom Line are delivering copies of its recently released report, “The Win/Win Solution: How Fixing the Housing Crisis Will Create One Million Jobs.” The report details how by writing down all underwater mortgages to market value, the nation’s banks could pump $71 billion per year into the economy, create more than one million jobs annually, save families $6,500 per year on mortgage payments, and fix the housing crisis once and for all. In addition to the report, The New Bottom Line will be delivering the thousands of petition signatures calling on the 50-state Attorney Generals to make widespread principal reduction part of any settlement with the big banks. See a copy of the report here: http://www.newbottomline.com/underwater_mortgages_and_1_million_jobs
*******
The New Bottom Line is a new and growing movement fueled by a coalition of community organizations, congregations, labor unions, and individuals working together to challenge established big bank interests on behalf of struggling and middle-class communities. Together, we are working to restructure Wall Street to help American families build wealth, close the country’s growing income gap and advance a vision for how our economy can better serve the many rather than the few. Coalition members include PICO National Network, National People’s Action (NPA), Alliance for a Just Society, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Industrial Areas Foundation of the Southeast (IAF-SE) and dozens of state and local organizations from around the country. Learn more at www.newbottomline.com
###
Please everyone, we must support this man. He is our last hope on a national level.
Craft your own words or here’s a sample script to say when you call or to copy & paste when you email:
Thank you all at the NY AG’s office for standing up to predatory banks who are dispossessing, foreclosing, and evicting millions of American families by committing mortgage servicing fraud, securities fraud, modification fraud, felony land record fraud, property conveyance fraud, and fraud upon our courts across the nation. The impact to our economy of tens of millions of American properties with clouded titles and defiled land records has not even begun.
Please continue this important work. Please do not let the attacks and push back by the financial industry and their corrupt puppets in positions of power impede your office’s work aimed at protecting citizens from the criminal and predatory acts that have greatly harmed us all.
NY AG Contact Info
Phone
1-800-771-7755
Webmail
http://www.ag.ny.gov/online_forms/email_ag.jsp
Press Office
NYAG.Pressoffice@oag.state.ny.us
Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/AGSchneiderman
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/AGSchneiderman?sk=wall
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This is what happens when we have no leadership, ethics or morals in the white house.
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This is what happens when we have no leadership, ethics or morals in the white house.
I did not vote for Eric S., but called his office and sent a facebook message thanking him for his work on this.
This is totally fucking nuts.
Check this out, I appear before a judge on many cases called Judge Schack in Brooklyn, who really is an old school guy like me who is taking it to the bank lawyers like no other.
There are people trying to figh back against these criminals. Judge Schack often asks the lawyers : show me the chain of custody of the loan docs, and the lawyers for the banks often come up empty. He tosses the suits.
He is not some crazy lefty - I am in his office all the time and he says: " all I ask is that they follow the law" and most times these punks came produce the proper legal docs.
He has WW2 stuff all over the office and is a real mench.
check this out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/nyregion/31judge.html?pagewanted=all
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No, I remember it being palins fault and christine odonnels fault as well.
if you "recall" that I blamed Palin and ODonnel for the banking crisis then that is a perfect example of how you "remember" things that never happened and ignore actual statements that I or anyone has made. Even better examples of this peculiarity is when you post a videos and then claim something was said which does not appear on the video
we're back again, as usual, to the problem of your broken brain
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if you "recall" that I blamed Palin and ODonnel for the banking crisis then that is a perfect example of how you "remember" things that never happened and ignore actual statements that I or anyone has made. Even better examples of this peculiarity is when you post a videos and then claim something was said which does not appear on the video
we're back again, as usual, to the problem of your broken brain
I was joking fool. I know you and I agree on a lot of this. take a joke amd relax.
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Judge Schack Strikes Out Again For Justice
Supreme Court Justice Schack hits HSBC for ‘frivolous motion’ in foreclosure, asks boss to explain
BY JUAN GONZALEZ – NEWS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/nyregion/31judge.html?pagewanted=all
Once again New York Judge Schack upholds the law and justice.
A Brooklyn judge has ordered the head of one of the nation’s biggest banks to appear in court and explain why it should not be penalized for submitting false documents in a foreclosure case.
In a scathing decision issued Friday, Supreme Court Justice Arthur Schack dismissed HSBC’s case against Bedford-Stuyvesant homeowner Ellen Tahrer as a “frivolous motion” and a “waste of judicial resources.”
A Brooklyn judge has ordered the head of one of the nation’s biggest banks to appear in court and explain why it should not be penalized for submitting false documents in a foreclosure case.
In a scathing decision issued Friday, Supreme Court Justice Arthur Schack dismissed HSBC’s case against Bedford-Stuyvesant homeowner Ellen Tahrer as a “frivolous motion” and a “waste of judicial resources.”
The bank failed to prove it even owned the $475,000 mortgage on Tahrer’s home, Schack ruled. Instead, its lawyers submitted documents from several notorious “robo-signers,” all of which claimed the original loan had been transferred to HSBC from Delta Funding Corp., the original lender, which declared bankruptcy in 2007.
Those documents were “replete with false statements,” Schack ruled. He ordered the British bank’s North American CEO, Irene Dorner, to appear July 15 to explain.
“Submitting false documents” is fraud upon the court. It is a crime. It is happening in almost every case in almost every court in the country. Few, very few judges have the guts to call it what it is. An illegal practice which makes a sham of our entire judicial system. If judges (not Schack) can allow fraud and illegal practices to prevail in our courts then we do not truly have a court system that is fair. This is not the type of system our Republic was meant to have. These are kangaroo courts to say the least.
“Those documents were “replete with false statements,” Schack ruled” as he dismissed their case against the homeowner. “He ordered the British bank’s North American CEO, Irene Dorner, to appear July 15 to explain.”
It will indeed be very interesting to hear how the CEO of HSBC explains his banks committing fraud, attempting to defraud the courts just to take a home away from someone, collect their losses from the U.S. Government, then sell the house they have NO investment in for any price which becomes pure profit on their books.
The banks stole America to cause this economic crisis and they all continue to steal from Americans for no other reason then greed, well perhaps to control the country and the population as well.
Thank you Justice Schack for your honesty and belief in our system. For those that are not aware, Justice Schack has been ruling according to law against fraudulent foreclosures for nearly 4 years now. He is a leader in the crusade for justice and the American way of life.
We will follow his rulings and cases closely.
Read the entire story in the New York Daily News…click here
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I was joking fool. I know you and I agree on a lot of this. take a joke amd relax.
sorry
it's hard for me to tell when an insane person is making a joke
have you ever seen a schizo dude walking down the street, yelling and cursing and gesturing
wait, you live in NYC so you know what I"m talking about
that's how I see you most of the time
It's hard to tell when you're having one of your infrequent periods of lucidity
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Obama Administration Pressuring New York Atty General To Drop Mortgage Fraud Investigations
Outside The Beltway ^ | August 24, 2011 | Doug Mataconis
________________________ ________________________ ________________________ __
The Attorney General of New York has been on the receiving end of what seems like an unusual amount of pressure from Obama Administration officials to accept a settlement with mortgage lender rather than pursue the criminal fraud investigation that he opened several months ago:
Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, has come under increasing pressure from the Obama administration to drop his opposition to a wide-ranging state settlement with banks over dubious foreclosure practices, according to people briefed on discussions about the deal.
In recent weeks, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and high-level Justice Department officials have been waging an intensifying campaign to try to persuade the attorney general to support the settlement, said the people briefed on the talks.
Mr. Schneiderman and top prosecutors in some other states have objected to the proposed settlement with major banks, saying it would restrict their ability to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing in a variety of areas, including the bundling of loans in mortgage securities.
Mr. Donovan and others in the administration have been contacting not only Mr. Schneiderman but his allies, including consumer groups and advocates for borrowers, seeking help to secure the attorney general’s participation in the deal, these people said.....
(Excerpt) Read more at outsidethebeltway.com ...
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Bombshell Admission of Failed Securitization Process in American Home Mortgage Servicing/LPS Lawsuit
Naked Capitalism ^ | 8/26/2011 | Yves Smith
Wow, Jones Day just created a huge mess for its client and banks generally if anyone is alert enough to act on it.
The lawsuit in question is American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. v Lender Processing Services. It hasn’t gotten all that much attention (unless you are on the LPS deathwatch beat) because to most, it looks like yet another beauty contest between Cinderella’s two ugly sisters.
AHMSI is a servicer (the successor to Option One, and it may also still have some Ameriquest servicing). AHMSI is mad at LPS because LPS was supposed to prepare certain types of documentation AHMSI used in foreclosures. AHMSI authorized the use of certain designated staffers signing with the authority of AHSI (what we call robosinging, since the people signing these documents didn’t have personal knowledge, which is required if any of the documents were affidavits). But it did not authorize the use of surrogate signers, which were (I kid you not) people hired to forge the signatures of robosigners.
The lawsuit rather matter of factly makes a stunning admission (note that PSA here means Professional Services Agreement, and it was the contract between AHSI and LPS, click to enlarge):
So AHMSI has just admitted that all of its foreclosures done with LPS were completed by the wrong party. In Alabama, wrongful foreclosures are subject to statutory damages of three times the value of the house, and recent cases have awarded much higher multiples of the property’s value. This little paragraph is a litigation goldmine for the right attorneys. I hope they have fun with it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nakedcapitalism.com ...
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This president should be tried for Treason. The other one should be too. Fuck it, throw em all in jail, every congressman, senator and cabinet member.
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This president should be tried for Treason. The other one should be too. Fuck it, throw em all in jail, every congressman, senator and cabinet member.
I already said we should have let these banksters collapse and we deal with the aftermath. In the long run we would have been far better off.
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I already said we should have let these banksters collapse and we deal with the aftermath. In the long run we would have been far better off.
But we didn't and now there are likely some real crimes that were committed.
It's ok though because Obama isn't manly, Bush was, Perry is, Michelle Bachmann is a fraud and a whore, Michelle Obama lobster eating muff diver and wale watcher, Perry's wife is a pilot whale, and Ron Paul is Satan.
It's all good.
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But we didn't and now there are likely some real crimes that were committed.
It's ok though because Obama isn't manly, Bush was, Perry is, Michelle Bachmann is a fraud and a whore, Michelle Obama lobster eating muff diver and wale watcher, Perry's wife is a pilot whale, and Ron Paul is Satan.
It's all good.
;D
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Why Is The White House Defending The Banks From Investigations?
Megan McArdle, The Atlantic | Aug. 25, 2011, 3:00 PM | 689 | 8
Via Outside the Beltway, I see that the administration is pressing New York's attorney general to drop its investigation into dodgy foreclosure practices and settle with the banks.
Doug Mataconis, who wrote the post, says, "I'm sure the large amount of donations coming from the financial sector into the coffers of the Democratic National Committee and Obama For America have nothing to do with this pressure. I also believe the guy who tells me he has a bridge in Brooklyn to sell me."
I quite agree that the administration should not be intervening, but let me suggest a more charitable explanation, contained within today's edition of the New York Times: "U.S. May Back Refinance Plan for Mortgages".
It looks like the administration has convened a working group to explore more aggressive options for dealing with underwater mortgages.
"One proposal would allow millions of homeowners with government-backed mortgages to refinance them at today's lower interest rates, about 4 percent, according to two people briefed on the administration's discussions who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to talk about the information.
A wave of refinancing could be a strong stimulus to the economy, because it would lower consumers' mortgage bills right away and allow them to spend elsewhere. But such a sweeping change could face opposition from the regulator who oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and from investors in government-backed mortgage bonds.
Administration officials said on Wednesday that they were weighing a range of proposals, including changes to its previous refinancing programs to increase the number of homeowners taking part. They are also working on a home rental program that would try to shore up housing prices by preventing hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes from flooding the market. That program is further along -- the administration requested ideas for execution from the private sector earlier this month."
How much these proposals will actually accomplish seems rather questionable--I doubt lowering interest rates is going to do much to fix the housing market, given how highly correlated default seems to be with a) losing your job and b) the simple fact of being underwater. But leave those concerns aside.
If the administration actually wants any of these programs to work, it is going to need the cooperation of the banks.
And no, I do not mean "because they can't move without the okay of their corporate paymasters". I mean that the administration is going to need some active cooperation from the banks that hold and service all these mortgages.
Corporate and social reformers tend to get caught up in the notion that with a combination of steely will and brutal intolerance of misbehavior, you can simply force all those twerps in a misbehaving organization to do what you want: the only reason people don't, they believe, is that they have somehow been paid off, or brainwashed, by the twerps.
This is why most corporate reorganizations, and social reforms, fail miserably. Not even Stalin or Pol Pot exercised this level of total control over the workers. There are all sorts of way that unwilling people will subvert your efforts.
That's not to say that reforms should be all carrot, no stick. Indeed, sometimes the way to deal with a tricky organizational problem is to fire all the workers. But even this doesn't work as well as you might think. I once spent some time talking to an in a turnaround situation whose solution to a deeply dysfunctional corporate culture at a firm that had been losing money for more than a decade was ultimately a mass firing that axed more than 90% of the staff. Eighteen months later, I asked him whether the old culture had died out, or re-established itself among the new workers.
"Honestly?" he said, "The culture won."
You need some level of buy in; if you don't have it, your reforms won't work unless you can actually fire everyone. And a "clear the decks" approach is not an option the administration has. They cannot fire the owners of these mortgages, nor do I think they'll have much luck forcing the owners to fire their servicers. If they want to do anything serious in the mortgage market, they're going to have to have the active cooperation of the banking industry.
And that, in turn, means that they have to trade the industry something that they want . . . like a quick settlement in this foreclosure fraud investigation. I don't know that this is the particular quid-pro-quo that led to the administration's pressure. But after three years of covering their economic policymaking, I find it eminently more plausible than the idea that they're doing this because some banker made a well-timed phone call to David Axelrod.
I frequently disagree with administration policy, but however much you question their priors or analysis, it's always operated within an admirably consistent technocratic framework. The technocratic wonks are shocked because they cannot believe that this is what technocracy actually looks like in the real world: it involves a lot of side-deals to get buy in from the affected parties.
That's not to say that I approve of making this deal. I don't. But this is the sort of devil's bargain we accepted when we got the government into the business of guaranteeing mortgages. The problem is not that politicians are making the kind of distasteful backroom agreements that politicians have ever made, and ever will. The problem is that we put the government in the position where these kinds of deals are necessary.
This post orginally appeared in The Atlantic.
Please follow Politics on Twitter and Facebook.
Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/why-is-the-white-house-defending-the-banks-from-investigations/244131/#ixzz1W57NSR7t
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Bump for Lurker and Mal.
Is this the bullshit you two morons voted for?
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SNORE
"Is this the BS the whole country voted for" is a much better question because this kind of collusion and corruption was going on with the previous administration also.
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SNORE
"Is this the BS the whole country voted for" is a much better question because this kind of collusion and corruption was going on with the previous administration also.
Shit doesnt change if we keep voting for the same candidates
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Shit doesnt change if we keep voting for the same candidates
Yep.
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Yep.
I am voting for R paul in the primary. however, if Bachmann is close to take out perry or romney I will vote for her.
In the General election - I would vote for Gadafi, Achmadenijad, Putin, Wee Man, Vandersloot, OJ, Scot Peterson, David Berkowitz, John Wayne Gacy, Steeve o, Bam margera, or Wee Man over Obama at this point.
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I am voting for R paul in the primary. however, if Bachmann is close to take out perry or romney I will vote for her.
In the General election - I would vote for Gadafi, Achmadenijad, Putin, Wee Man, Vandersloot, OJ, Scot Peterson, David Berkowitz, John Wayne Gacy, Steeve o, Bam margera, or Wee Man over Obama at this point.
the sad sad part about our politics these days it that it will come down to 2 candidates. ATM I won't likely vote for either.
Espcially if it comes down to Obama vs: Romeny or Perry or Bachmann
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the sad sad part about our politics these days it that it will come down to 2 candidates. ATM I won't likely vote for either.
Again 33 Math works like this:
1. GOP is likely to hold the house and retake the Senate
2. So long as Obama is in office - we are guaranteed more of the same. Sure the GOP might be worse- but they might be better too. But we know what we get with obama is horrible and disastrous. So in my mind its worth taking the chance with someone new.
3. Bama gets re-elected - two more picks on SC - 2 more kagans vs. 2 more Alitos - Case closed.
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Sounds like you are worried about Bama getting reelected.
either way, I am not voting for an establishment that has taken away representative government in this country. Every time you cast a vote, one way or another you are supporting more of the same, if not just in a different flavor.
Bachmann is a fraud and a whore, Perry is dumb hick probable puppet like bush, all Perry is going to do is excite ignorant rednecks, Romney is a flip flopping whore mount.
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Sounds like you are worried about Bama getting reelected.
either way, I am not voting for an establishment that has taken away representative government in this country. Every time you cast a vote, one way or another you are supporting more of the same, if not just in a different flavor.
Bachmann is a fraud and a whore, Perry is dumb hick probable puppet like bush, all Perry is going to do is excite ignorant rednecks, Romney is a flip flopping whore mount.
Probably true - however - from Day 1
Perry or Romney start with a 50% chance of being good or sucking
Bama getting re-elected = 100% of shit.
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Probably true - however - from Day 1
Perry or Romney start with a 50% chance of being good or sucking
Bama getting re-elected = 100% of shit.
I'm sure that's how many independents looked at it in 2008.
Not a good idea as demonstrated by OB.
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..Why Is The White House Defending The Banks From Investigations?
Megan McArdle, The Atlantic | Aug. 25, 2011, 3:00 PM | 1,875 | 17
Via Outside the Beltway, I see that the administration is pressing New York's attorney general to drop its investigation into dodgy foreclosure practices and settle with the banks.
Doug Mataconis, who wrote the post, says, "I'm sure the large amount of donations coming from the financial sector into the coffers of the Democratic National Committee and Obama For America have nothing to do with this pressure. I also believe the guy who tells me he has a bridge in Brooklyn to sell me."
I quite agree that the administration should not be intervening, but let me suggest a more charitable explanation, contained within today's edition of the New York Times: "U.S. May Back Refinance Plan for Mortgages".
It looks like the administration has convened a working group to explore more aggressive options for dealing with underwater mortgages.
"One proposal would allow millions of homeowners with government-backed mortgages to refinance them at today's lower interest rates, about 4 percent, according to two people briefed on the administration's discussions who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to talk about the information.
A wave of refinancing could be a strong stimulus to the economy, because it would lower consumers' mortgage bills right away and allow them to spend elsewhere. But such a sweeping change could face opposition from the regulator who oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and from investors in government-backed mortgage bonds.
Administration officials said on Wednesday that they were weighing a range of proposals, including changes to its previous refinancing programs to increase the number of homeowners taking part. They are also working on a home rental program that would try to shore up housing prices by preventing hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes from flooding the market. That program is further along -- the administration requested ideas for execution from the private sector earlier this month."
How much these proposals will actually accomplish seems rather questionable--I doubt lowering interest rates is going to do much to fix the housing market, given how highly correlated default seems to be with a) losing your job and b) the simple fact of being underwater. But leave those concerns aside.
If the administration actually wants any of these programs to work, it is going to need the cooperation of the banks.
And no, I do not mean "because they can't move without the okay of their corporate paymasters". I mean that the administration is going to need some active cooperation from the banks that hold and service all these mortgages.
Corporate and social reformers tend to get caught up in the notion that with a combination of steely will and brutal intolerance of misbehavior, you can simply force all those twerps in a misbehaving organization to do what you want: the only reason people don't, they believe, is that they have somehow been paid off, or brainwashed, by the twerps.
This is why most corporate reorganizations, and social reforms, fail miserably. Not even Stalin or Pol Pot exercised this level of total control over the workers. There are all sorts of way that unwilling people will subvert your efforts.
That's not to say that reforms should be all carrot, no stick. Indeed, sometimes the way to deal with a tricky organizational problem is to fire all the workers. But even this doesn't work as well as you might think. I once spent some time talking to an in a turnaround situation whose solution to a deeply dysfunctional corporate culture at a firm that had been losing money for more than a decade was ultimately a mass firing that axed more than 90% of the staff. Eighteen months later, I asked him whether the old culture had died out, or re-established itself among the new workers.
"Honestly?" he said, "The culture won."
You need some level of buy in; if you don't have it, your reforms won't work unless you can actually fire everyone. And a "clear the decks" approach is not an option the administration has. They cannot fire the owners of these mortgages, nor do I think they'll have much luck forcing the owners to fire their servicers. If they want to do anything serious in the mortgage market, they're going to have to have the active cooperation of the banking industry.
And that, in turn, means that they have to trade the industry something that they want . . . like a quick settlement in this foreclosure fraud investigation. I don't know that this is the particular quid-pro-quo that led to the administration's pressure. But after three years of covering their economic policymaking, I find it eminently more plausible than the idea that they're doing this because some banker made a well-timed phone call to David Axelrod.
I frequently disagree with administration policy, but however much you question their priors or analysis, it's always operated within an admirably consistent technocratic framework. The technocratic wonks are shocked because they cannot believe that this is what technocracy actually looks like in the real world: it involves a lot of side-deals to get buy in from the affected parties.
That's not to say that I approve of making this deal. I don't. But this is the sort of devil's bargain we accepted when we got the government into the business of guaranteeing mortgages. The problem is not that politicians are making the kind of distasteful backroom agreements that politicians have ever made, and ever will. The problem is that we put the government in the position where these kinds of deals are necessary.
This post orginally appeared in The Atlantic.
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Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/why-is-the-white-house-defending-the-banks-from-investigations/244131/#ixzz1WYANN0nG