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Recent Recommendations
It may not undo every bad thing that happened in the past 8 years, but it's a start...
Hang them all!
I can't wait for the indictments that start with "the realtor knew of the large declines in neighbor prices, but told the buyers that 'this area is different'"?
And how is this different from Alan Schwartz telling investors Bear was solvent and worth $80 a share while privately telling the Fed they were on the verge of BK, yet he could well end up head of IB at JPM? At least Jimmy Cayne had the sense to stay mum and stoned in the end.
VODKA TOAST! wooohoo!
"CIOFFI talked about the extremely difficult
month the Funds had experienced in February, stated that the Funds
had averted disaster and led a vodka toast to celebrate surviving
the month."
C'mon CR, you've gotta start a "perp walk" or "frogmarch" posting label. You know it'll come in handy in the months/years ahead...
I'm watching Paulson lobby for the fox to guard the henhouse, and it raised a question. Why should we be able to leverage anything? Fundamentally, why, if you have $1, should you be able to buy a $20 stock, or $10 of crude oil, etc? It seems that being able to leverage the $ automatically guarantees inflation.
Everyone in America wonders why DOJ, FBI, SEC, CIA, FTC, Congress and Senate failed to go after Bush and impeach him a long time ago, so now, we have a half hearted political grandstanding effort to once again, take the light off the reason as to why The Subprime era of Bush's Ownership Society, resulted in the most corrupt era in American history.
Now, we can watch as a few dozen whipping boys are spanked and given fines that will be nothing more than speeding tickets!
hmmmm
lets see
sold us something they new was false
made stuff up to get us in
changed the rules, used fine print, and had big shots tell us it was a slam dunk and we would end up ahead
they said the war.... i mean the house, will pay for itself as oil prices... i mean RE prices go up
now what's the difference between the whitehouse and the mortgage meltdown???
I had a special on $3.00 champagne then. Damn.
Why is paulson saying the 'failure' of bear stearns?
They did not fail, were not allowed to!
The bailout of BS!
Congress should examine preferential loans to two Senate Democrats, including the sponsor of a major housing bill, by mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp , a senior Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday.
UPDATE 4-US ethics panel examines lawmakers' Countrywide loans
| Reuters
The rot always starts at the top, until there is an ass pounding, tar and feather, hang them on the White House lawn event is in country investing in US paper assets is a fools game.
"Might need to make liquidity available to a broader range of financial institutions under extraordinary circumstances"...
That is a scary phrase.
How many people will be charged with aiding and abetting, or acting as accessories to these crimes, like realtors, mortgage loan officers, government officials and the likes of the highly symbolic icon of someone like charlie gasparino, or fox news or newspapers and stock pickers and the hundreds of thousand of peeps like greenspan that pumped this bubble as big as they could blow it?
If Bob Rubin escapes jail, Justice will not have been served.
Unless this is just a prelude to wide-sweeping indictments of hundreds of investment bank and fund managers, mortgage company execs and bank officials (ha ha ha ha ha ha), the injustice is grating.
Not to be cynical, but the US is a tinhorn banana republic here in 2008.
Hundreds of thousands of troubled borrowers will soon receive a letter urging them to refinance their mortgages through a U.S. government program that will insure costly homes.
FHA plugs higher loan cap for troubled borrowers
| Reuters
Short Bucky!
Somebody in the know, please educate me.
How does this differ from those LEH execs saying that they have plenty of cash?
What about connecting Bernanke and Paulson in this Bear Sterns indictment and charge them both with aiding and abetting, or acting as accessories in a criminal conspiracy?
Cioffi architected the worlds largest Ponzi scheme. Bear's exec management knew it, but chose to ignore the risks while they enjoyed the profits that always come from being at the top of the pyramid.
"With WaMu Shareholders Set to Vote On TPG-Led Buyout On June 24th, New Information Raises Concerns That TPG-Led Investment Could Pose Unacceptable Risks to Consumers, Taxpayers, and Shareholders"
With WaMu Shareholders Set to Vote On TPG-Led Buyout On June 24th, New Information Raises Concerns That TPG-Led Investment Could Pose Unacceptable Risks to Consumers, Taxpayers, and Shareholders
does tpg own casinos in vegas...i mean really, no snark intended
Regulators Lay Plans for Investment Banks' Fed Access
Regulators Lay Plans for Investment Banks' Fed Access (Update3) - Bloomberg.com
It looks like they were part of a larger FBI operation that took place in the last few days with ~400 people arrested.
The article requested is no longer available.
Anonymous writes:
Congress should examine preferential loans to two Senate Democrats, including the sponsor of a major housing bill, by mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp , a senior Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday.
i agree whether dem or repub where guilt is found, let em roll.
What always amazed me was the way in which departments like FTC, which has massive regulation powers, stood by with bound hands and feet like a helpless victim of The Bush Era, just as did SEC, DOJ, FBI.......where were these people that are charged with defending America? Instead of being able to rely on these watchdogs, we had countless government departments overrun by treason-like collusion and tyranny, e.g, DOL (Department Of Labor) which acts as a conduit between wall street abuses and 401k/pension plundering.
Where is the law in America?
Mock,
Re: TGP
I think the concern is that TGP is a private corporation which does not have to disclose SEC-like disclosure, which I always felt was a huge conflict of interest for something like a public held bank, backed somewhat by FDIC!
They want to call it "mortgage fraud"
but the charges are securities fraud.
PR to imply they are going after mortgage RICO.
__
We need the CIA and Pentagon in on the mortgage fraud and wall street cover ups!! The FBI is a pussy org!
FBI agents objected to military's 9/11 interrogations, audit finds
Military tactics worried FBI interrogators - Los Angeles Times
Re: Friction between the FBI and the military surfaced in late 2002 over the handling of alleged Al Qaeda operative Mohammed Qahtani, who was being held at Guantanamo Bay.
Fine said the FBI favored building rapport with the suspect over a long period so he might be persuaded to cooperate; the military insisted on a more aggressive tack. In one instance, that included attaching a leash to him and making him perform dog tricks.
FBI concerns about those practices were flagged to top Justice Department officials. But senior officials there told Fine that concerns about the legality of the techniques or their impact on future prosecutions was never a focus. The overriding concern, he found, was whether techniques were effective at developing "actionable intelligence."
s0mebody writes:
"I'm watching Paulson lobby for the fox to guard the henhouse... It seems that being able to leverage the $ automatically guarantees inflation."
They want inflation (to make debt in all sectors serviceable). Their actions - negative real interest rates, no margin increases, no oil from the NPR, no new oil drilling, among others - prove it.
"Inflate-Or-Die"
Cioffi architected the worlds largest Ponzi scheme
not even close.... patsy at best.
couple billion of opm he lost? there are individuals who made that on paper last year. how much do you think they were betting for that type individual gain?
"couple billion of opm he lost? there are individuals who made that on paper last year. how much do you think they were betting for that type individual gain?"
Cioffi's involvement goes WAY beyond the hedge funds -- that was a side job. He was the key architect to Bear's subprime CDO's, (which were then cloned throughout the industry). That's the Ponzi scheme I was referring to.
Brought to you by the FBI a fabulous new loan product... the RICO loan. It's a steal!!!
Someone might tell CNBC about these arrests. There is nothing about them on what they call "news".
Sounds like there is an ever growing contingent of really pissed off people looking for indictments and prison sentences for a whole bunch of high ranking gov't pricks. I'm in favor of a few hanging, starting at the top. What say you 236 visitors online?
American Patriot, The Bush administration is the only one that had put any, and I mean any of these guys in jail from Enron on. Not like the "maserati marxists" in the Clinton administration that took payoff from Marc Rich, The Red Chinese Army and numerous other crooks. Go back to watching CNN...The Clinton News Network.
"Not like the "maserati marxists" in the Clinton administration that took payoff from Marc Rich, The Red Chinese Army and numerous other crooks. Go back to watching CNN...The Clinton News Network."
2002 called, they want their insane rant back.
A little more satisfying (and a little less insulting) than the next round of NEPats hearings in the Senate that Specter had threatened.
2002 called, they want their insane rant back.
honestly, I thought that after the last four years all these people had either been committed, on medication, or died of shame. Just goes to show the wingnuts are still out there. They'll probably try to vote for Bush again. Ugh maybe Jas is right.
I'm waiting for the next season of "Flip that House" - I would expect lots of cliffhanger episodes.
"I'm waiting for the next season of "Flip that House" - I would expect lots of cliffhanger episodes."
Cut to Last Scene - Flipper hunched down over a can of tuna in a Motel 6. Stares angrily at the camera: "For God's sake! I had a discount on that faux-Tuscan balcony tiles! Get that camera off of me!" (lunges at camera, fade to black).
Malicious Mortgage:
"While today's operation focused on individual cases and smaller crime rings, officials said they are also probing 19 companies, including investment banks and hedge funds, that may have engaged in accounting fraud related to mortgage securities."
National Average Mortgage Rates ~ Historical Data
Looking at the rates from that period, It appears perfectly reasonable that Dodd was offered a 15 year fixed at 4.5%.
Where is the shenanigans? According to that chart, the rates around then dipped below 4.75 twice, and I don't see why he would have needed to get special treatment to get a 4.5% rate. The media should be doing some due dilligence here, and I would hope that posters here that think this was out of line could show why they think something is amiss here?
@Proto: You got that one right. Unfortunately, they're sponsored by a lot of companies that sell into the market, so I don't think they'll do busted flips, which is too bad. That would be compelling TV...
Sorry if I NINJA'd (pun intended) someone's poster name, I'll try to come up with a new one.
ipodius-I often agree with you, but Jas is a born and bred Indian dope. The only difference with American dopes is it's a larger population base, so there are more of them.
"Somebody in the know, please educate me.
"How does this differ from those LEH execs saying that they have plenty of cash?"
The difference is that "plenty of cash" is a relative position bordering on opinion; potentially incorrect, but still an opinion. The problem in the Bear Stearns funds case is probably not what they were saying, but what they were doing. Failure to disclose material facts is more of an issue for a regulated fund than for a non-regulated fund. But if they gave inside information to well-connected investors and allowed them to withdraw their funds while telling the less fortunate investors that everything was fine--and then slamming the redemption window shut when it became evident that everything wasn't fine--then that constitutes a serious breach of fiduciary duty, or even fraud, which is grounds for prosecution.
I don't know that there's a requirement to tell the truth. Unfortunate, but there it is. Failure to disclose material facts can be an issue, but if it's someone's honest opinion--or if they can make the case that it is their honest opinion--then it's freedom of speech. Lehman can say that everything is fine, but then Mariah Carey thought that "Glitter" would be a smash hit. An opinion, even if completely totally wrong, is still an opinion and protected speech.
"Where is the law in America?"
The law has this "due process" thing it has to follow. That means that it needs to wait until after the crime is committed (unfortunate, I know), and then it has to identify which law has been broken, and then gather evidence to show that it has been broken.
I realize that there has been a lot of stupidity, arrogance, terrible decision-making, irresponsibility, and out-of-control greed in the markets, but technically speaking, none of that is against the law. And thank goodness--if all of that was illegal, we wouldn't have internet discussion forums.
Yeah, I know some people who got under 5 for a short while who were not senators--but they were mtg brokers!!
But it was a legitimate rate.
these guys at least pulled the wool on qualified investors. This isn about hurting poos little johnny. No leave that for Shwartz and CNBC with its "sources are telling us" wink wink Dick and Alan and Ben...These hedge fund investors should know better. This is a show trial of the most rediculous proportions.
Can I sit on the jury. Of course, all the allegations are also true of the federal reserve.