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Pro Publica posts a nice article on the failure of the Administration to enact legislation enabling courts to modify the principal and terms of a primary residence mortgage in a bankruptcy. Before he took office, President Obama repeatedly promised voters and Democrats in Congress that he’d fight for changes to bankruptcy laws to help homeowners—a tough approach that would force banks to modify . . . → Read More: Obama did not reach out to help homeowners The recent attacks on all sorts of journalists by pro-Mubarak thugs probably means that the government is planning a bloody clearing of Tahrir Square that they want to shield from the eyes of the world. The endgame of Foreclosuregate is starting. According to the Wall Street Jounal Bank of America through its purchase of Countrywide, and Countrywide’s ex-CEO Angelo Mozilo are being sued for hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud allegations. Separately, Shashien Nasiripour at the Huffington Post reports that the Congressional Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will call for prosecution of fraudulent behavior on the part of principals on Wall Street. Obviously these are part of the first moves by the investor class to take to task the predatory and fraudulent mortgage origination practices that led to the meltdown of the global financial system. This will play out over many years in the courts and in Congress . . . → Read More: Bank of America (Countrywide) sued by investors for fraud It seems according to Reuters, that Congress is ever divided. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has failed to produce a consensus explanation of the 2007-2009 banking debacle, as it was asked to do in May 2009. Not two partisan viewpoints, nay that would be mere bickering, we will have three reports (or Thrice, if you follow Conan…). While I love debate that makes both our legislators and the people who have elected them to represent them think hard on the issues, the lack of closure in many of the current debates along what Reuters describes as familiar Washington “ideological fault lines” is worrying for the Republic in my humble opinion. . . . → Read More: The bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people – Oscar Wilde The office of the Attorney General of the State of Florida has made a Powerpoint presentation (and posted it on Scribd) of the abuses that it has found in Florida Foreclosure-gate. It details the delegation of powers of attorney and signature powers to foreclosure attorneys and clients in servicers, multiple cases of different robo-signing irregularities, creation illegitimate documents, falsification of affidavits. I would be VERY surprised if the Florida AG does not pursue criminal and conspiracy to commit fraud cases in 2011. . . . → Read More: Florida Attorney General has a presentation on Foreclosure Abuses I read an article in Infoworld by Bill Snyder Hackers find new way to cheat on Wall Street — to everyone’s peril which reports on some work done at MIT. The gist of the hack is that by packet insertion in your competitor’s transaction stream you can slow down their trades by a few microseconds. In the HFT world this may mean that . . . → Read More: High Frequency Trading hacking Reading an interview with Gary Gorton of the Minneapolis Fed. (Hat tip to Naked Capitalism). He makes some interesting points regarding the securitization industry, its relationship with the repo market, how when collateral was deemed untrustworthy it led to hair-cutting and then full panic. Side comments on the need for new measurements to size the securitization industry, efforts to build the trust of . . . → Read More: Interview with Gary Gorton: new theory of debt, collateral, repo, crisis and regulation The NYT had an article on people who actually got a job this year. The bottom line: you need to lower your standards. The path to getting a new job is hard and jobs are not what you wanted. The closing quote: [Adam Kowal whose] hourly wage has fallen from $15 an hour at the warehouse to $10.50 an hour washing dishes and . . . → Read More: Your desire for a future job? Pretty farfetched… For all 35mm camera owners: an era has passed. The New York Times reports that the last Kodachrome processor in the world has stopped processing the film. As digital wins out the era of silver based film processing is drawing to a close. An unlikely pilgrimage is under way to Dwayne’s Photo, a small family business that has through luck and persistence become . . . → Read More: Coda for Kodachrome I really liked and enjoyed Mike Konczal’s piece on the losing well in politcal terms. It seems to me that we were hoodwinked into believing that Obama was a progressive, or even a liberal. When all that he has shown to be is a politician focusing on the short term, what can I achieve. Mike makes the point in relation to immigration policy, . . . → Read More: Losing badly |
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