Sunday, August 28, 2011

msnbc video: Man, woman and cat rescued off Virginia coast

Just one question really.....was this supposed to be the hurricane free zone?  I am glad they made it ok.  But I think next time there is forecast for a hurricane for about 10 days straight take the boat in or take out somewhere out of the way of the storm.  Crazy idea I know but just a thought.


msnbc video: Man, woman and cat rescued off Virginia coast



Thursday, August 25, 2011

$1.2 Trillion in Secret Additional Bailout for Banks with No Collateral and No Commitments « Livinglies's Weblog

From livinglies.wordpress.com


$1.2 Trillion in Secret Additional Bailout for Banks with No Collateral and No Commitments « Livinglies's Weblog

Of course the figure is much higher, but the secrecy surrounding the money given by the Fed to the banks is something to enrage any tea party advocate and for that matter any taxpayer. The Federal Reserve window was opened to banks who actually sold their mortgage bonds — worth nothing — to the Federal Reserve under the guise of a loan that would never be repaid. The program correctly explained in this video was one of many totaling more money than the principal on all the defaulted loans put together. The kicker is that the mortgage bonds they sold probably didn’t belong to them! (But they were acting as agents for investor/lenders whether they like to think of it that way or not.
Add to that the proceeds they received from insurance, credit default swaps, cross collateralization, overcollateralization and servicer payments (made to creditors with reports stating the loans were performing), and you have real boondoggle fueled by ideology instead of arithmetic. If the banks received more money than they loaned, then how are those loans in default? If your Aunt Tilly pays off your mortgage, your non-payment after she pays it off is not a default because there is no payment due! In this case it was Uncle Sam who paid it off and a bunch of third parties who were all making money, having sold the loans multiple times under the guise of exotic derivatives and synthetic derivatives.
SO the Banks made a ton of money in “off balance sheet” transactions which remain off balance sheet because they are hiding profits and not paying taxes. THEN they claimed losses because the money they made was “off balance sheet” and received a “bailout” they didn’t need equal to all the money that was loaned.

$1.2 Trillion in Secret Additional Bailout for Banks with No Collateral and No Commitments « Livinglies's Weblog

$1.2 Trillion in Secret Additional Bailout for Banks with No Collateral and No Commitments « Livinglies's Weblog

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The end of capitalism underway?

New York times actually not siding with the banks in the settlement that the Obama Administration is pushing. Anything Obama is pushing should be seen as problematic. They have let the economy fall so far and the housing market go so long while be slapped around by the banks that they are desperate to do anything that might get people to forget how much they screwed things up. They mistakenly believe that a settlement letting banks off the hook would be good for the economy and good for the country. The only party a settlement would be good for would the banks. The bank execs could keep their huge salaries and ridiculous bonuses they gotten for running the economy in to the ground.



We have seen two major failings of our government in the past 10 years. The first was 9/11 as the government failed to protect our borders from attack costing thousands of lives. The second was the Tarp program and the fleecing of the country by the banks and Wall Street that has been never been held accountable for any of their criminal activity.


We are now looking at a 3rd major failing of our government. It will be a travesty if the Obama administration gets their wish and gets this silly settlement to go through with the banks. The government is supposed to look after the people and look out for their interests. The SEC failed for years and now the White House is taking up the battle to screw the people. They are going for the hat trick of major screw up all within the past 10 years.

Yet we are still supposed to believe that this is a government by the people of the people. We are hitting the end of the democratic republic. This form of government will only last for so many years until the government corruption and corporate influence squeeze out the middle class leaving the poor and the ruling class. Sounds Crazy Doesn't It? We are not that far off.










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Mirabile Dictu! New York Times Tells Obama Administration Off, Backs Schneiderman on Mortgage Settlement « naked capitalism

New York times turns up heat on Obama.  Yes you read that correctly.  Here is artcle excerpt from NY TIMES and Gretchn Morgenson taken from Naked Capitalism

As much as Morgenson’s expose was key, the editorial page of the New York Times throwing its weight behind Schneiderman gives him real political cover. From “It’s a Flawed Settlement”

The Obama administration has turned up the heat on Eric Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general, to go along with a proposed settlement with the nation’s largest banks over dubious foreclosure practices. Mr. 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…
Mr. Schneiderman, who became the attorney general of New York after the scandal broke, has rightly refused to go along with a settlement that is not based on a thorough investigation, and has ordered investigations of his own. He has been supported by a handful of other state prosecutors, who say that the proposed deal would restrict their own investigations and prosecutions.



I do quibble with one part of the op-ed:
Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, however, says that a settlement on the narrow issue of robo-signing would not preclude other investigations by individual attorneys general. But, clearly, once the robo-signing issue is off the table, investigators would lose leverage to pursue remedies for other possible illegalities in the packaging, marketing and transferring of mortgage securities.
This isn’t correct. Robo signing isn’t worth a lot liability-wise nor does it give much (any) leverage into other theories of action. The real issue is much simpler. The banks are not going to agree to a deal that includes only robosigning. The only reason for them to come to the table and pay any kind of damages is to get a broader release. We’ve said so from the get-go. And the Administration has spent so many cycles on the settlement that it perceives that it has its credibility at stake on getting a deal, no matter how bank friendly it is. (Actually, bank friendly is the point, it just can’t be blatantly bank friendly).

 











Mirabile Dictu! New York Times Tells Obama Administration Off, Backs Schneiderman on Mortgage Settlement « naked capitalism Make big money in penny stocks today

Monday, August 22, 2011

Corrupt White House? Surprise Surprise

It is of little surprise that the Obama administration is taking sides with the bank in order to wash away all the sins committed in the mortgage fraud scandal.  Yves Smith called the Obama Administration "corrupt" today on her blog Naked Capitalism.  I agree with her 100% but I would add a question to her statement. 
Who isn't corrupt in Washington or in any branch of the state governments today?  I think getting into power either bring out the criminal in all those who are elected or it corrupts even the honest people.  I don't know the answer but there is no shortage of criminals in government today. 
What we have seen in the past few years has been a travesty.  The freedom to life, work and prosper in the United States of America has been pillage by the politicians who are in bed with the banks.  It is a disgusting time in politics for everyone and we will see that nothing will change the way of politics.  The new parties will bet  the same as the old parties and the gap between the haves and the have nots will continue to widen until we are living in a world of rich and poor. 
Those who have sought bower have taken it with the intention of confiscating as much of it as necessary to make the country fall apart.  It blows me away that people are not more outraged at what has happened to our financial system.  We have witnessed the most brazen and egregious transfer of wealth in the history of the world and our PRESIDENT, thinks it is OK.  He is not in jeopardy of ever having to work for a living and his book deals made him an instant millionaire after doing absolutely nothing extraordinary in micro biologyhis life until he become president.  Of course it is now clear that he was no more qualified to be president than a college student studying micro biology.  

The fat cats on Wall Street and the politicians have rolled a giant snowball to the side of the hill and it is ready to go over the edge.  Once it starts it will be too late for anything to be done.  This wrecking ball will get bigger and bigger until it is unstoppable.  The banks will have re-written the books on how to get away with the crime of the century and the biggest chapter will be on properly screwing as many citizens as you can because the government elites will always go where they think the money for their next election will be most abundant.  Of course that is with the to big to fail banks and the Washington power brokers. 

What have we been hearing the past 4 years or so?   That therecession is contained, it is over, we are growing again, jobs are picking up, the economy is coming back, never count out the American economy etc etc....
what has happened?  Banks have held the country hostage waiting for the government to give them another get out of jail free card for their hand in the mortgage crisis.  The government is giving free money to the banks so they can sit on all of their capital and make millions of dollars risk free by investing in treasury bonds.   They pay O percent to the government so any return they get is complete profit.  We are stuck with putting money in  savings or checking account to ensure liquidity.   It is a stroke of luck if we make 2% on either account and of course real estate is still declining and the stock market is again becoming an elitist game that is dictated by high frequency trading as the removal of the uptick law has taken stock trading off the list of jobs were the common man could make it big in America.  Now that real estate is gone from that list there isn't much left for the individual. Real estate and stocks were available to everyone even if they had very little money to start.  Now they are off the table which leaves anyone who want to create a wealthy lifestyle searching for a starting place. 





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Corrupt Obama Administration Pressuring New York Attorney General to Support Mortgage Whitewash « naked capitalism

Corrupt Obama Administration Pressuring New York Attorney General to Support Mortgage Whitewash « naked capitalism

Monday, August 15, 2011

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Creation of the Kleptocracy and good bye to Free Market Capitalism.

Creation of the Kleptocracy and good bye to Free Market Capitalism. 

We are going through a very difficult time. We have suffered a major recession that on paper looked more like a depression. We are on the verge of falling into another recession. The possibility of falling into another recession means that we are going on the assumption that we were delivered from the first one. This is debatable but regardless of what our opinion is on the economy, we have had a difficult run. If you are in your 40s you are living through something never before seen in your lifetime. We have seen the standard of living for the current generation fall below that of the previous generation for the first time since WWII. If you were in high school in the 80s and finishing college in the 90’s you probably had a very good beginning to your career.


If you survived the dot com bubble and were able to start a business, invest in the right stocks, or find a good job you likely had your life on the right track for nearly 20 years. You did all the right things, read all the right books and invested for the long term. Everything you read and researched on the stock market and real estate told you to invest for the long term. The graphs and the pie charts all showed the best way to have a secure retirement was to invest in the long term and not worry.



Kleptocracy as defined by Wikipedia:

Kleptocracy, alternatively cleptocracy or kleptarchy, from Ancient Greek: κλέπτης (thief) and κράτος (rule), is a term applied to a government subject to control fraud that takes advantage of governmental corruption to extend the personal wealth and political power of government officials and the ruling class (collectively, kleptocrats), via the embezzlement of state funds at the expense of the wider population, sometimes without even the pretense of honest service.

As the economy grew, manipulations by the government, the banks and the corporate Kleptocracy hypnotized everyone into believing we were safe in our investments. We could take any book off the shelf in the library or book store and see that real estate has never gone down if we took date from the 50 states. The trend of the housing market was always increasing. We had all the evidence to believe that the safest, most stable investment was our home or rental property. Americans took pride in making their monthly payments and meeting their obligations to the banks and lenders. What was interesting was that people remained committed to making payments to the banks even after the savings and loan scandals of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’

We were given a wake up call that should have increased our suspicion of the mortgage banking, banking and lending industry. However, thanks to government coming to the rescue, and an unsuspicious media, the banks were given a free pass. This free pass seemed to make the banks and lending institutions even more brazen and fearless. The banking industry took over the economy and bought off the entire government as well.

This all sounds like conspiracy theory but if we look more closely at what has happened to our form of “capitalism and free markets” we can see that we have given up on a free market economy and allowed corporate America to pillage Main Street from their ivory towers of Wall Street. How else could we explain the unquestioned fleecing of county and state governments with the magical creation of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System? The MERS system was instituted with no fan fare, scrutiny or act of law. It was a drastic change to one of the founding principals of our country. The registration of property and chain of title has been one of the reasons for our successful economy. How could the corporate banks completely ignore the system in place and create a new one without any vote of the people or legal standing?

They did it because the politicians are in bed with the banks. Our so called representatives have been bought and paid for many times over. They were all fell to their enormous desire for power and money. The banks bought politicians easily and created a pseudo power system through campaign donations and strategic appropriations against their enemies. They were smart on one level however, by giving the country a taste of super prosperity in the real estate markets so they could continue their bidding to put all the pieces in place to plunder trillions of dollars from the American middle class. Who would question what the banks were doing when so many people were making easy money? Who would question the banking system when banks were freely lending out capital at great rates?

No one would question the banks behind the scenes manipulations during prosperity. The late 1990’s and the early 2000’s were the banks final push to destroy the economy and redistribute trillions of dollars out of the hands of hard working Americans and place it in the fat bank accounts of the Wall Street and D.C. criminal elite. There is no question there was a method to their madness. Anyone who thinks this was all a big accident is gravely mistaken.

Despite the hype and cheerleading of the President and Congressional officials angling for re-election we are no where near the end of this recession or recession like economy. The foundation of the country is the financial system. This system must thrive for the country to prosper now that we have little manufacturing left to generate the dollars needed to increase the velocity of money. The only reason we were able to have a stable system of banking was because of a stable housing market. The home mortgage gave the banks a very high yielding, highly profitable and highly consistent and stable source of income. The banks were taking little or no risk on home mortgages. If you factor in the high percentage of paying customers with the reality that the collateral backing these mortgages were valued well in excess of the note. The unbeatable combination of homeowners paying down mortgages while the collateral securing the notes continued to increase, lined the coffers of the banks with unlimited amounts of money.

Lets not forget that a large percentage of mortgages were insured by the government and were sold quickly by the originator at huge, fast profits made the banking model perform a lot like a Ponzi Scheme. Of course it was all done under the vale of “free market” capitalism but it was a complete scam backed 100% by the full faith and credit of the US Government. Our government was complicit in the devastation of the economy and the destruction of the retirement accounts of millions of Americans.

What does that leave for the next generation? It leaves a very different world for our children and grandchildren. It also leaves a very treacherous and winding road back to prosperity for the 40 something demographic. Our economy has ground to a halt and we are not seeing any recovery since the economic meltdown that started over 5 years ago. We have seen the American dream that has been the guiding light of average Americans who had the freedom to work hard and persistently and expect to get ahead by the time they retired. The arrogance of power has taken our country to the abyss. Those in power are trying so hard to convince the rest of us that we are not hanging over the edge of oblivion with our lifeline working the hold loose as we wait for some real evidence that were are not heading straight down.
Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse


Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed (New Updated Edition)






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Friday, August 12, 2011

New Jersey Decision against truestee in foreclosure case

Here is an important decision regading housing trusts and securitized mortgages in NewJersey. 


Court reverses foreclosure for failiure to comply with pre suit notice statute.
publication a decision which reversed an Ocean County, New Jersey trial court foreclosure judgment and remanded with directions that the case be dismissed without prejudice due to the Plaintiff’s failure to comply with New Jersey’s pre-suit notice statute, which requires a foreclosing party to identify the name and address of the lender (who owns the obligation). The Court held that identification of the “servicer acting on behalf of the owner” is legally insufficient, and fails to comply with the statute. The case is Bank of New York as Trustee of CWALT, etc. v. Laks, No. A-4221-0593.









http://foreclosuredefensenationwide.com/?p=375






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Fools still blaming the people bank screwing





Video on housing recovery.  This guy says no full recovery until housing recovery but he also sounds like he is completely clueless on what really happened and how the issues will get resolved.  He again refers to moral hazard when asked as to whether or not the banks should be modifying mortgages.  The moral hazard issue went out the window as soon as the banks were bailed out so that is complete BS.  Another fool on tape here as he says you can't reward "deadbeats" because other people have paid all along....This guy is a complete D bag and obviously is in the pocket of someone!  If you are that stupid to think that the banks didn't screw the entire country while making huge profits on the backs of the middle class and the tax payer you are simpleton.  But what else do you expect. The government is failing the people as the banks are working on a reach around for Obama.  We have gotten hosed royally and they are all getting away with it. 
















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Wednesday, August 10, 2011


Deleware joins NY and files against Bank of America over their attempted settlement agreement to get Bank of New York off the liablity hook. 


From Naked Capitalism Post August 10, 2011 READ FULL POST HERE


The immediate basis for the objection sounds modest:




The Delaware Department of Justice objects to the proposed settlement on the basis that it does not have sufficient information to evaluate the reasonableness of the proposal.



But it builds up steam as it lists concerns, first, that many investors have been kept in the dark:



The Delaware Department of Justice… has significant concerns that the proposed settlement does not adequately remedy the harm suffered by the beneficiaries of the Covered Trusts, some of whom are undoubtedly Delaware investors. Many of these investors have not intervened in this litigation and, indeed, may not even be aware of it…With its intervention, the Delaware Department of Justice will ensure that the interests of absent Delaware investors are adequately represented.



Second, as we have said and has been echoed in other petitions, the Bank of New York has a massive conflict of interest:



The Delaware Department of Justice’s intervention is particularly important given the evidence suggesting that BNYM negotiated the settlement on behalf of the trust beneficiaries under a conflict of interest. The proposed settlement confers substantial direct benefits to BNYM, primarily by a provision, contained in a side letter to the proposed settlement agreement, in which BoA agrees to expressly guarantee the indemnification obligations of Countrywide to BNYM under the terms contained in the PSAs. This expanded indemnification provision also covers BNYM’s negotiation and implementation of the terms of the settlement. The potential conflicts of BNYM go directly to the heart of the issue in this special proceeding, which is “did BNYM act reasonably in negotiating this settlement?”



And it goes straight to an issue we flagged, that the trustee makes annual certification in SEC filings, and the bar for securities fraud is much lower than under contract law theories. Delaware’s securities laws follow SEC 10(b)5 language re disclosure (that it not merely be narrowly accurate, but that it be free of material omissions). Boldface ours:



The acts and practices ofBNYM alleged herein may have violated 6 Del. C. § 7303(2), in that BNYM may have made untrue statements of material fact and/or omitted to state material facts in order to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading. BNYM’s conduct as described above may have violated the Delaware Securities Act insofar as the Trust PSA requires the Trust annually to certify the following “servicing criteria”:



• “Collateral or security on mortgage loans is maintained as required by the transaction agreements or related mortgage loan documents.”

• “Mortgage loan and related documents are safeguarded as required by the transaction agreements;” and

• “Any addition, removals or substitutions to the asset pool are made, reviewed and approved in accordance with any conditions or requirements in the transaction agreements.” [See generally, Trust PSA, [Ex W to NY Petition]].



The Delaware investors in the Trusts may have been misled by BNYM into believing that BNYM would review the loan files for the mortgages securing their investment, and that any deficiencies would be cured.













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Monday, August 8, 2011

Bank of America hit hard

Here is a story from MSN money that talks about today's market collapse and some reasons why Bank of America went down so hard. 




Why Bank of America tankedBank of America was the biggest loser among Dow and S&P 500 stocks, down 20.3% to $6.51. Investors worried the banking giant won't be able to handle all the problems created by its mortgage business. The selling accelerated after a big hedge-fund manager sold out his stake.

It's not clear if the collapse today of Bank of America's stock price means the government may be forced to extend assistance again. Most of its problems are mortgage-related and directly the result of its disastrous 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial.

It was hit with two bits of bad news today: American International Group (AIG) sued the company for more than $10 billion over what it called a "massive fraud" on mortgage debt, deepening the litigation morass facing the largest U.S. bank.

AIG said it expects to pursue other litigation to recover losses from counterparties that "sought to profit at our expense." Taxpayers still own 77% of AIG, which received $182.3 billion of government bailouts.

The other was that hedge-fund manager David Tepper, who won big in 2009 betting on battered bank shares, now is bailing out on some battered bank shares.


CNBC said Tepper’s Appaloosa Management sold its position in the banking company.











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Saturday, August 6, 2011

New York Attorney General Schneiderman Drops Bomb on Bank of America Settlement and Bank of New York « naked capitalism

New York Attorney General Schneiderman Drops Bomb on Bank of America Settlement and Bank of New York « naked capitalism
This is from Naked Capitalism reporting on new opposition to the scam settlement Bank of America and bank of New York Mellon are trying to get away with in order to free themselves of future liabilty resultant from the failure to transfer proper documents to the trusts in the mortgatge securitizations scandal.  Here is an excerpt but you can read the entire story by following the link above to Naked Capitalism

The motion objects to the settlement on multiple grounds:






1. The amount to be paid appears to be too low given the damages suffered



2. The other consideration (the undertakings by BofA) are pretty meaningless and don’t make up for the insufficient dough. Per the motion:




Given the steeply discounted cash payment, the value of any nonmonetary consideration is a crucial element in evaluating the Proposed Settlement’s fairness. Here, the Attorney General believes that the proposed settlement’s purported servicing improvements are too vague and ill-defined to provide any concrete value to investors.



3. The trustee failed to perform key duties it had promised to carry out in the contracts that govern these deals (the pooling and servicing agreement, or PSA), and made false certifications about its actions:



One of BNYM’s primary obligations as trustee under these PSAs was to ensure the proper transfer of loans from Countrywide to the Trusts. The ultimate failure of Countrywide to transfer complete mortgage loan documentation to the Trusts hampered the Trusts’ ability to foreclose on delinquent mortgages, thereby impairing the value of the notes secured by those mortgages. These circumstances apparently triggered widespread fraud, including BoA’s fabrication of missing documentation.



This is the first time I have ever seen a court filing discuss widespread document fabricatio by a servicer. This of the proper transfers is germane for the BofA deal because BofA gives Bank of New York indemnification for this liability. And it’s even juicier: Bank of New York’s self dealing works to the disadvantage of the investors to whom it owes a fiduciary duty:



But as BNYM concedes in its petition here (Petition ¶¶ 78-81), Countrywide has inadequate resources. A side-letter agreement appended to the Proposed Settlement expands the benefit of the PSAs’ indemnification provisions by having BoA, now Countrywide’s parent company, expressly guarantee the indemnification obligations of Countrywide. In addition, the Proposed Settlement expands the indemnification to cover BNYM’s negotiation and implementation of the terms of the settlement, thus shielding the trustee from significant forms of liability in connection with the formation and implementation of a settlement which seeks to compromise the claims of the investors to whom BNYM owes fiduciary duties.



Although the motion discusses the constrained financial capacity of Countrywide, let us not forget that Bank of America has limited resources as well, so any valuable indemnification to Bank of New York comes out of what otherwise might have been available to pay the investors.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Bank of America working on another Mortgage Scam

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/02/bank-of-america-justice-foreclosure-fraud-settlement_n_916490.html


Read the story at hufpo.  It is another total scam in process by bank of America.  They are holding out for a deal that is dragging the economy down.  They screwed up royally with the mortgages and instead of helping get the economy back on track they have been holding the country hostage so they could work out a deal to get them immunity from all the fraud and abuses they have perpetrated in the past several years. 

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