Sunday, December 5, 2010

Simon Johnson, one of the Authors of 13 Bankers, reflects on Euro woes as China's opportunity ..

Open Me

This gem from inside:

"In fact, the Irish leadership has every incentive to delay until other countries can be dragged into turmoil. The crisis will become euro-zone wide, at which point all eyes will turn to some combination of the European Central Bank, the German taxpayer, and the IMF." (emphasis added).

Scared yet?  Once this occurs, keep your eye on the impending bond problems in California, Illinois, and New York, among other states.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Federal Reserve Opens its Books on the $9 TRILLION in loans given to Wall Street during the crisis - yes, $9 TRILLION

All the scary goodness is being reported HERE
$9 TRILLION -- that is $9,000,000,000,000 in loans (at .5% interest) given to the banks and others (McDonalds?? Harley Davidson??).

One has to wonder, with $9 trillion in loans to the banks, backed by $9.5 trillion on junk securities (i.e. its worth closer to $0, NOT $9.5 trillion), how is the Federal Reserve going to get out of this mess ..... this is not good.

Mass. County Recorder Challenging MERS - did it illegally avoid paying millions in recording fees?

Click me to read all about it

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Holder investigating wall street. Criminal probe.

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Bank's seeking to foreclose face more and more questions of their standing

Open me - from ProPublica.org

The AIG bailout - good for the banks, bad for the Commonwealth of Virginia

Flashback to THIS excellent article / graphic revealing how incestuous the shadow banking system was/is.  At the bottom, the following shocking tidbits are revealed:

1) AIG was bailed out with $182 billion of taxpayer money (and counting)

2) In exchange for the bailout, AIG had to agree to WAIVE THE RIGHT TO SUE the banks for the fraud committed

3) The Federal Reserve told AIG not to disclose all the details, meanwhile California and Virginia pension plans were given a huge haircut while the bankers received 100 cents on the dollar from AIG.

How does this happen? 

Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin Speech at the National Consumer Law Center's Consumer Rights Litigation Conference, Boston, Massachusetts

Read it here

She candidly discusses the servicing problems in the finance industry.  Definitely worth a read.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Economist: California will default on its debt

He goes on to say: If California were to default, and the Federal Government even mentions a bailout then Illinois, New York, and other states will be right behind.

Read about it here

The California Qui Tam against MERS and many major financial institutions would be a big boost to the financial woes of the state.

Read about the Qui Tam suit here

Thursday, November 11, 2010

A who's-who in the foreclosure scandal / repost for those who missed it

Who’s Who in the Foreclosure Scandal: A Primer on the Players - ProPublica
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Govt has only spent a fraction of the $50 billion pledged for loan mods to help families

Gov’t Has Spent Small Fraction of $50 Billion Pledged for Loan Mods - ProPublica
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Many judges now skeptical of foreclosure documents

Banks Face New Rules on Foreclosures from Skeptical State Judges - ProPublica
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Sharp drop in foreclosures due to scandals involving robo signers and fraudulent documents.

Read about it here.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Lenders gross profits from forced placed insurance tied to conflicts of interest.

Ties to Insurers Could Land Mortgage Servicers in More Trouble - American Banker Article
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

The next major crisis could (read: will) come from state govts and their fiscal problems.

Read about it here.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Foreign leaders criticize Fed's Backdoor Bailout plan

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

Bank failures continue to set records

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

The VA Qui Tam (whistleblower statute).

LIS > Code of Virginia > 8.01-216.3
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

Volcker statement translated: Fed plan to infuse economy with $900 billion is a massive backdoor bailout that will not do much to help the economy.

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

Consumer right to class action may be at risk before supreme court.

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

Related to the previous post, just in case you didn't know who bought a lot of those mortgages, we did. Er Fannie and Freddie did.

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

Another story on the massive losses of AIG which continues the policy of refusing to report the truth: AIG had to pay billions to the banks for the credit default swaps purchased - i.e. the bets that the mortgages they sold would fail (and they knew they would fail).

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

Conservatives look to oust judges who supported gay marriage. Scary, these attempts to influence/control the judiciary.

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

Bank of America edges closer to the tipping point .... as expected.

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

Monday, November 1, 2010

States taking on Foreclosure Fraud

NYT: State Attorneys General Take H
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

William Black and L. Randall Wray - Foreclose on the Fraudsters

These two courageous persons released part 1 earlier - find it here

Part 2 is now out - do not miss it here

These are must read articles for anyone who cares about the rule of law, or what is going on out here.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The HAMP program continues to disappoint.

HAMP actually causes people to lose their homes, says Watchdog

HAMP is a scam, the banks gert everything

BoA boasts of poor HAMP performance

Foreclosuregate Status - Karl Denninger provides a candid look at the foreclosure problem

Nicely done .. check it out here

Please take the time to listen to the audio from the KOH radio show - interviewee, a foreclosure defense attorney in Nevada, does an excellent job of exposing the credit default swaps and their use to incentivize the banks as they proft from defaults of loans.

Direct link here

Be sure to check out the first few minutes, a couple of minutes starting at 12:30 in.  Then listen to 16:30, and 42:30, right around 50:00 and then again at 70:00 and finally, at 78:00 in.

Investors Create Cleringhouse to Share Info on Bank Lawsuits

Read all about here at Neil Garfield's LivingLies blog.

A sober look at the state of our economy. States think they have problems now? As the damage done by the banks continues to trickle out (by design, mind you), State governments will begin to face significant budget problems.

Check it out here

Fore a cheery writeup on income inequality check out this article.

Top Fed Official On Government's Foreclosure Prevention Efforts: 'Three Years Of Failed Policies'

Read all about it here.
 
Want more?  "The Obama administration's signature anti-foreclosure effort, unveiled in 2009 with the promise of helping three to four million homeowners modify their mortgages, is such a failure that it now risks "generating public anger and mistrust," according to a federal audit released Monday."

Read about it here.

Robert Sheer, puts two and two together and asks: "How do you foreclose on a home when you can't figure out who owns it because the original mortgage is part of a derivatives package that has been sliced and diced so many ways that its legal ownership is often unrecognizable? "

Sound familiar?

Read the whole post here

Dylan Ratigan with Bill Black. Pay close attention at the 6:20 mark

msnbc.com Video Player
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

MERS in the news again.

MERS Comes Under Fire in Foreclosure Crisis: Video (Correct)
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Foreclosure methods under intense scrutiny - but will officials look to shield banks from liability to reserve the housing market?

Top Stories
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Excellent article that gives some insight into why banks will not do loan mods - fails to mention one thing: credit default swaps. Other than that, great article.

NYT: Foreclosures Are Revived; Shor
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Dcoumentation Problems downplayed by CitiGroup CFO

CitiGroup claims it did not use robo-signers, but still has problems
Of particular interest from this article:
 ---------------
One analyst on Monday's call, James F. Mitchell of Buckingham Research Group, brought this up.
"[P]eople are worried about not just the documentation issue but the poor quality of the underwriting of the loans," Mitchell said about Citi's loans that were ultimately securitized and sold. "Does that somehow ... break the representation and warranties in the prospectus, and therefore investors can put the whole securitization back, not just on documentation but on loan quality issues? Did you have a discussion with your counsel on that?"
Gerspach, Citi's chief financial officer, responded.
"We had several counsels. I couldn't find anyone that indicated that there was this big red button that gets pushed and completely blows up a transaction based upon underwriting quality," Gerspach said. "But I'm going to leave that one up to all the lawyers in the world to argue about," he added, dodging the larger question about Citi's underwriting practices.
----------------
But the underwriting is not the problem, its the problems with the documents that will haunt the banks - as noted here at the blog The Stopped Clock:

the problem of widespread failures to convey notes to the securitization trust isn’t a “technicality”; it means what were sold as MBS are potentially just unsecured consumer paper. And it goes further than that: if no notes were conveyed at closing, the trust under New York law (and all these trusts elected NY law for the trust operation) was “unfunded” meaning it does not exist (multiple top experts on NY trust law concur on this issue).

Is this just the beginning, or will this train wreck be derailed by the Federal Investigation?

Pimco and NY fed said to seek BofA repurchase of mortgages

Read it here:
BofA being asked to buy back $47 billion in bonds

Feds Will investigate Foreclosure Problems

Not sure where this is going.  Either the Govt is looking to recoup losses for Fannie and Freddie, which pay losses to financial institutions on failed loans, or if this is a means to a band-aid for the problem ...

Read about it here:
Fed to Investigate Foreclosure Problems

Federal Judicial Panel Consolidates Class Action lawsuits vs Bank of America

The class action lawsuits filed across the country against bank of America for violations of the HAMP program were consolidated by a judicial panel.

Read about it here:

Lawsuits vs BoA for violations of HAMP consolidated

Monday, October 18, 2010

Friday, October 15, 2010

Will Asia end up being in the same mess we are, in light of this report? Anyone willing to take a guess? :)

Asia surpasses US in derivatives trading
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

False attorney affidavits in MD - by one of the top foreclosing firms in NoVa.

Foreclosure robo-signing: Attorneys at two Maryland law firms that handle thousands of foreclosure cases have acknowledged that some of their affidavits were not actually signed by them - baltimoresun.com
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Wells Fargo will not halt foreclosures despite employees admit to having no knowledge of the facts in affidavits they signed.

Wells Fargo won't halt foreclosures
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Wall Street: maybe we did some things wrong, but the homeowner is the problem. Translation: We can take their houses if they default, even if we have no right to foreclose.

The Foreclosure Fiasco and Wall Street’s Shrug | The New York Observer
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

GMAC acted in bad faith, rules the court, but moves to evict because the homeowner hasn't paid in two years. Translation: it doesn't matter if GMAC has no right to foreclose. The court should let them because the homeowner hasn't paid *boggle*

NYT: Out of Maine, a National Forec
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The problem hiding in the back of the room: The title problems that will wreak havoc on property records all over the country. The good news? This problem is only like the fifth biggest resulting from bank behavior.

The Foreclosure Defense Blog: Foreclosure Errors Cloud Homeownership With ‘Blighted Titles’
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Flashback to an article on a complaint we filed a year ago.

Fighting Foreclosure: Lawyers in Virginia launch new and creative attacks to keep clients' homes | North America > United States from AllBusiness.com
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

We've been told this story an untold number of times. FYI The servicers receive $1000 or so per person in HAMP. Now multiply $1000 x 1 million. Your tax dollars at work to pay servicers to string people along, default them, then foreclose. Propublica.org has all the stats on servicer compliance for your reading enjoyment.

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Moratorium? Let's debate it .... They are breaking the law. Debate over.

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

This is going to be a whopper if AG Holder investigates ... buckle up if he does. It will not turn out well. Not for wall st .... or main st.

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

False documents, unethical notaries, and worse ...

Foreclosure Paperwork Scandal 'Same Process' That Fed The Housing Bubble

http://www.huffingtonpost.com//2010/10/04/foreclosure-paperwork-sca_n_749245.html

Things are going to get worse before they get better.

Foreclosures hit all time high last month
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

This story will continue to amaze as more and more comes to light.

Lawsuit: Bank 'Foreclosure Experts' Included Hairstylists, Teens, Walmart Workers:
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Attorneys general from all 50 states to investigate foreclosure fraud.

All 50 attorneys general join forces to investigate foreclosure fraud
via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

And you were concerned the direct bailout and AIG bailout and Fed discount window were not enough!

Wall Street is on track to pay its employees $144 billion this year, breaking a record for the second year in a row, the Wall Street Journal reports.

via HuffPost
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Pro Publica exposes CDOs

All the stories are worth reading, but do not miss this story:

A Bank’s Best Customer: Its Own CDOs

Or this one:

The CDO Daisy Chain

Welcome!

Finally, our office now has a blog to monitor stories and reports of issues and incidents impacting homeowner foreclosure defense in Virginia, and nationwide!  We will use this blog to monitor, report, and dissect stories concerning foreclosure defense, the financial sector, and the efforts of the government to attempt to assist homeowners through this difficult period.

We are hopeful that by visiting our blog you will learn something that will assist you, or someone you know, in defending their home from foreclosure.  Future posts will focus on particular stories and (hopefully, time permitting) provide some context / interpretation of the meaning and/or impact on foreclosure defense.