Does an Inspector General ave rubber gloves AND epaulets?

"subprime lending and HLTV lending may pose the biggest threat to consumer loan portfolio credit quality"

Glad I got my HLTV plasma before credit dried up. It's awesome for watching football.

OT: Just posted the San Fernando Valley home sales for August 2009 if anyone is interested:

Effective Demand: San Fernando Valley home sales report - August 2009

"we need a clear explanation why no significant action was taken"

The chainsaw photo isn't clear enough? I am not sure what would make it clearer.

Or do you mean we need a clear explanation of what this administration intends to do differently? Well, we aren't going to get that either. This administration has made it abundantly clear they aren't going to do anything differently, and wouldn't tell you if they were.

I too would love to see all the key people's conversations and votes laid out to the public. But inflating the bubble was a series of big decisions that had to have been made at the top, and we already know who the top people were. They are Greenspan, the political operatives in the Bush WH who pulled Snows' strings, and the two top people (one from each party) on each of the more powerful financial committees in Congress. For some reason, these people are not all being held to account.

obama did say he was going to protect bankers from the pitchforks.

Break-|-Mark 9:08

The debt ceiling will become the debt sealing, of fate that is.

hmmm... pondering... what is the Asian strategy? break us with debt? ...like some sort of perverse arms race waged by trading paper?

Asia to Expand Faster Than Expected This Year, Next, ADB Says

Thanks, Effective Demand.

"Few short sales because the banks are slow in responding (This might change soon, I'll post on why later). Few REOs because the administration has made them verboten. This is not a functioning market but one on life support. Reality has been suspended until Uncle Sam decides otherwise."

"Slow in responding" might change soon - Why? I can't wait

Respect for the aged day? Like they celebrate how old their recession is?

Weird.

C

not in the tinfoil sense. those are annual bank holidays in Japan.

yeah, but cummon... I don't mean any disrespect to the culture, but "respect the aged day" and the "vernal equinox"... that sounds pretty far-fetched on the surface. Glod love em.

William Black stated that they were taking down banks before they even posted a loss!

Hoocooda bleeping node...

Yalt +1

Welcome back FFDIC.

For anyone doing the split-screen thing, I highly recommend :

Dead Like Me - Full Episodes and Clips streaming online for free - Hulu

guarranteed doomer entertainment

Bond Girl - Bush installed Chairman Powell who instituted drive by examinations, blitz examinations and no examinations to let the banks do as they please. He also told examiners to go easy on the banks. Hell, Powell was a Texas banker his entire life! Fox guarding the hen house and it worked for Bush and the banks but it did not work for the American public who will pay the rest of our lives. Powell told FDIC employees as late as 2004 that... "we were in a Golden Age of banking..." and continued to RIF FDIC employees as late as Sept 2005. My boss said, "anybody can do this job and we will just hire you back if we need you..."

barfly (profile) wrote on Mon, 9/21/2009 - 9:18 pm

For anyone doing the split-screen thing, I highly recommend :
Hulu - Dead Like Me
guarranteed doomer entertainment

I have the entire series. Love the stickie notes.

I wonder how significant this will be? SCOTUS bound?

"The District Court denied this motion, and various appeals resulted. The Kansas Supreme Court rejected the appeal by MERS and Sovereign, finding that since MERS did not own the note its status in law as relates to the mortgage is tenuous. Therefore none of the criteria for setting aside the foreclosure could be met. In ruling this way the Court rejected the amicus brief filed by various financial organizations which endorsed the MERS system, saying that it must follow the law as written, notwithstanding the amicus brief’s complaint that the recording scheme stems from “seventeenth-century property law that is entirely unsuited to twentieth-century financial transactions”."
Decision: Landmark National Bank v. Kesler « Kansas Supreme Court Blog

"The significance of the holding is that if MERS has no standing to foreclose, then nobody has standing to foreclose – on 60 million mortgages. That is the number of American mortgages currently reported to be held by MERS. Over half of all new U.S. residential mortgage loans are registered with MERS and recorded in its name. Holdings of the Kansas Supreme Court are not binding on the rest of the country, but they are dicta of which other courts take note; and the reasoning behind the decision is sound."
OpEdNews - Article: LANDMARK DECISION PROMISES MASSIVE RELIEF FOR HOMEOWNERS AND TROUBLE FOR BANKS

Re: "This is what we get for having the same administration for the last 9 years continuously."

Toss out the pigs every two years or sooner and get rid of the old bastards. No offense intended at Ted Kennedy, but politicians need to be replaced versus given lifetime positions.

HBS... yes, we could have some fun with that.

C

Re: "Golden Age of banking" backed and linked to a tsunami of derivative shit that was so big and diversified that every model proved that failure was not possible! So why regulate something so safe ........ why not just open the floodgates and let people go wild and not hold anyone accountable for being part of the Ownership Society> What a bunch of retard crooks ... and now we all pay for their fantasy!

"I wonder how significant this will be? SCOTUS bound?"

It goes too far to be upheld. But the very fact that such a ruling could be issued bu such a high court supports my notion that debt repayment is taken much less seriously than it used to be in the US. That may be a lot of fun for a while, but the long term consequences are not good. It's that no free lunch thing again.

Thanks, as always, for the background, FFDIC.

Good night everyone.

more like, dude, you fought to defend the rights of the insurance companies to charge whatever they want? Awesome!

barfly (profile) wrote on Mon, 9/21/2009 - 9:23 pm

Dawg, don't tell me we can relate. I don't think I could handle it.

Once you've laughed at a tree full of toilet seats you can handle anything.

rosethorn - FDIC was looking at various novel ways to reduce staff because it had instituted a BONUS play for managers who reduced expenses regardless of the risk involved. The FDIC mangers went wild in a hurry cutting right and left to get their greedy bonus money.

Oh yeah, make fun of precedent. That's the way to win the SCOTUS to you views. Not.

That would explain why your application was rejected...you're experience level would bust their "budget". Sorry to hear about it; we need people who genuinely care about the work they do more than ever.

Bond Girl, I think we all idolize the country's founding fathers a little, and wonder if their status as part-time legislators might not be a key to the greatness of their political and legislative achievements. There may be some truth to the idea that making legislating only a part of our lawmakers' lives would improve the quality of our politics. If so, what is needed is to eliminate the lifetime political career. Term limits as written today seem to merely move lifetime career pols from one position to the next (like Putin). We'd almost need an "up or out" set of rules that forces pols to leave politics if they didn't move to a higher office. And pay them enough so that they are not desperate to stay in politics forever. Never gonna happen.

Derivatives = + +
Risk Models = x

Any questions?

This makes some sense...as part-time legislators they could double up as as lobbyists while still in office instead of waiting until their terms are up. It would be more efficient, and more transparent, than the current system.

From last week:

The amount of debt covered globally by protection in the credit default swaps market shrank by nearly a fifth in the first half of the year, to $31.2 trillion, according to the latest industry survey.

At its annual conference Tuesday, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association said there was a 19% decline for the first six months of the year from $38.6 trillion. That brings the total drop over the past 12 months to a whopping 43%..

Global Credit Derivatives Market Continues To Shrink - WSJ.com

DIR and FDIC's OIG love facts. Former FDIC Chairman & Bush cronie Powell hated them except as a necessary peg to hang generalizations on.

Uh, I am quite certain that you are missing in that second part.

"They have a half dozen now who really understand them? Does anyone? Really?"

I deal in derivatives on a daily basis. I am sure that the top people at the key organizations, and probably quite a few further down, understood enough to know what the real risks were. But there was money to be made, and political gain, by not acknowledging the problems or doing anything about them.

The consolidation of counterparties.

Dude, we already DID C4B. Sigh....

I need some landscaping done.

BlackNews.com - Former FDIC Employee Blows Whistle On FDIC Chairman Donald E. Powell

sm_landlord writes:
Track 3, "Supermassive Black Hole" just started. Must go crank it up more.

Give "Map of the Problematique" a listen.

I deal in derivatives on a daily basis. I am sure that the top people at the key organizations, and probably quite a few further down, understood enough to know what the real risks were. But there was money to be made

Isn't the speculative market founded on the principle that you can gain an advantage over others by having some insight, some predictive ability, "knowing" something that other market participants do not?

If that's the case, then inventing instruments that only you can understand seems like the perfect way to make money. Convincing someone else that it's worth something is the only trick, and that can be accomplished by trading it amongst a few institutions who have a pedigree name attached.

Just in case you think everyone agrees that the dollar needs to depreciate versus other currencies:

Of course they don't... lol... it means unemployment in their country!

Hey I don't care if the dollar stays strong - just so long as they don't bitch when we don't pay them back. If they are okay giving it away forever - I guess we take it.

I don't think they want that either.

I mean how are unemployed average Americans going to PRODUCE enough value to justify their jobs to pay back the mortgages in strong dollars if the goods they produce are denominated in same strong currency competing on a world market and getting crushed price wise [when up against cheaper product - cheaper only due to currency manipulation].

We can't keep running current account & trade deficits and pay them back in strong dollars - if they want to get paid back in strong dollars then WE have to run the surpluses - not them.

Or they get paid back in increasingly weaker money.

They can't have it both ways - they need to pick one.

C4∬
C4♃
C4♅
C4♐
C4☞
C4♹
C4✂
C4ɰ
C4ʤ
C4⊉
C4◉

i second mp s motion

three cheers and welcome back to FFDIC

GD9000, climbing the charts with #1 , with a bullet.

Got it.
I was tempted to post the lyrics to Assassin, But it would probably get Homeland Security down on me.

I learned something about India this evening.
Now I need to investigate hedging the currency.

Reports: Silverado figure Wise leaps to his death

Don't tell me he didn't have an invisible "helping hand" here -- there were a number of really pissed-off people who would have told him his family would be better off if he "did the right thing" -- or they would drop by later to help push.

Or, maybe he felt remorse -- you choose the explanation you think fits best.

FFDIC, thanks for all your illuminations. I've been lurking here long enough to have seen when CR got you to acronym that first word of your handle, and you've been giving quality commentary the entire time. Don't give up; we're getting closer to closure on the truth.

Silverado ( Savings and Loan?) Neil Bush? Where have I heard that name before?

OMG - the more I know of history, the more I want to upchuck. So Kissinger in the mid 70s supported the post Peronist right wing thug government and advocated torture. No wonder we got where we got recently....same people, same methods, same lunacy.

NYTimes reporters...that's hilarious.

barfly (profile) wrote on Mon, 9/21/2009 - 11:11 pm

I think I hear the black helicopters...

No. You won't.

GDD9000
are you talking about HAK's tacit support of Argentina? I have read a substantial amount of docs from that time...
Henry was no choir boy and I will say that in high school I wanted to grown up to be Nat Sec Dir like him...
never happened, nor did I get close... now that I can look at internal docs and tapes I think I have a clear picture of him (remember I am in a country where if HAK committed an obvious war crime it's here... not Chile, not Argentina)
....
FFDIC, I wasn't trying to bruise your feelings... my comparison of the de-reg of '93-07 and all of the financial engineered products if produced and the strategies applied or not applied seems to mesh in an analogous way with WW1... that was a war where new and little understood technology was used in battles where the tactics or strategies were those used in the napoleonic wars, one has to go back to Agincourt to see a similar disjuncture...

a slight improvement on Rob Dawgs' "No, you won't."<\

"THE scrabble of rodents on the roof is only mimicry, the work of wind and weeping willows.
James Brecht thinks the sound is made by slithering ropes dangling from a hovering helicopter. He fears a SWAT team might soon descend.
When I note that we can hear no engine noise or rotor blades, Brecht says, “You guys have stealth choppers. Hush-mode flight. Quiet as dirigibles. I know all about it, Harry.”
I have told him my first name, in hope of establishing a bond.
Now I risk stoking his paranoia. “But we have stealth ropes, too. Made of frictionless nanofiber. You’d never hear them.”
“Frictionless? How do you hold onto them?”
“Very tightly, Jim. And with nanofiber gloves.”
People believe anything if you use words like nano and quantum."
.....
EDIT
by Dean Koontz

Duke of Con Dao (profile) wrote on Mon, 9/21/2009 - 11:28 pm

People believe anything if you use words like nano and quantum."

Or quantitative.

Dawg, I'm shocked at how much I've underestimated your sense of humor, your politics notwithstanding.

touche Dawg!
Or quantitative.!!!!

East Asia needs a common currency before there can be a discussion about supplanting the West. I don't see the Japanese giving up the yen, or China the yuan, or Korea adopting either. Because of that the region will remain tied to exports and dollars.

Or 'hope'.

GDD9000
not exactly....
Phnom Penh is a beautiful city with the palace, the national museum, the river front, some really fine architecture which was derived from one of the greatest civilizations on Earth... everything so wonderful in Thailand was borrowed in the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries
by Siam inc. the best looking women - I'm sure you've seen the King and I? pure Khmer dancing, again borrowed... like Japan to China so was Siam to a collapsing Kampuchea. this is why the Thais have such a chip...
....
the beach areas while not as great as the Thai beaches are now humming with backpackers cause Thailand got greedy...
but essentially I agree w/o Angkor they would lose 80% of tourism...
in comparison Saigon is a sh**hole......

thx for the stories Duke...always entertaining and informative.

Duke, I have no doubt about what you say concering the desirability of gold in your part of the world. Does it relate in any way to my IMF post?

good

If they ever wanted to remove their corner, they'd take a huge bath on it...

And what do you think would happen if they sold their Treasuries?

Considering these supposed regulators are supposed to be watching all the time, then it begs the question: why didn't any regulatory agency put a stop to any of this madness sooner? Because all regulators are usually one of two things: (1) incompetent, or (2) bought off somewhere along the food chain. The FBI warned in September 2004 that the mortgage lending industry had epidemic fraud in it; and Congress responded by not allowing them to replenish their already depleted man power in white collar investigations.

Yet, after all this regulation failed, as regulation has always continued to fail, because it is easier for Wall Street to commit fraud under regulation. It's the same mentality behind the War of Drugs--making drugs illegal has only made them more profitable.

We think deregulation doesn't work because what we call deregulation is not actually deregulation, but a pseudo-deregulation. When the S & Ls were deregulated they should have also lost all government safety nets as well.

Today, if the banks were allowed to fail, and investors and depositors had to eat that loss, then next time investors and depositors will perform due diligence on a bank before giving them money. All regulation and government safty nets do is create complacency, and this in turn allows for fraud to go on because everyone who has an invested interest stop looking. Regulators do NOT have an invested interest in catching or stopping anyone, so it's very easy to make it more in their interest to try even less.

Seeing the problem is the easy half of the equation. Selling the problem where it will do some good is much harder.

Dot connection time: Look at the post prior to this one -- on the plan to have banks loan to the FDIC. Oversight was bad enough in 2002 with the FDIC-- what do you think is gonig to happen to oversight of "heathy" banks when they are lending boatloads to the FDIC? Could they ever do wrong in the FDIC's eyes?Huge, unacceptable, borderline criminal conflict of interest between the lines of this plan.

Anyone telling you the problems with our markets is "too much government" is shoving a large red herring down your throat. They have it ass backwards -- The problem, temptation, corrosion and downfall of these systems has always been too much lopsided influence of private industry in goverment. Step by step, a very few "healthy" banks (the new oligarchy) are making the government beholden to them-- not merely so they can never fail, but so they can gain control of our governing and lawmaking process. So, kiss your free market and your democracy goodbye at the same time.

Look at the loans being made by these banks to crippled state and local goverhments -- look at these banks' highly successful efforts so far to quash regulatory reform. Can anyone seriously believe a major power grab is not happening here?

Alo writes: "...what do you think is going to happen to oversight of "healthy" banks when they are lending boatloads to the FDIC?"

I read the post, twice. But I'm old and given to imperfections. That said, I did not notice any remarks about the FDIC borrowing money from Indy Mac. Could you point it to my attention please?

Volker - sorry - confusing again -- - -- A bitter pill that we embattled taxpayers may found ourselves increasingly on the hook to banks who caused the crisis to begin with.

Need. More. Coffee.

In just a few weeks or months, Wall*Street will be pretty much discredited completely...

Uttering the word "investment", in the future, will be similar to blurting out blasphemous words in a church full of the faithful, you just don't go there.

And America gets a chance to find out there are more things in life, than worshipping the altar of greed and avarice in NYC.

It's all good eventually~

A guy
Who drives
The money supply wide open
Is not thinkin'
He's just hopin'
Burma-Shave

Nobody believes the IMF, apparently.

Nice look at greed vs. blind greed here with GS Boss.

SPIEGEL Interview with Goldman Sachs CEO: 'We Didn't Realize How Bad Things Would Get' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

@ this point in the game, the IMF seems more like a boiler-room trying to sell people metric tons of gold. Nice to see them blow so much credibility in one-fell swoop...

Archimedes.

Give me a big/long enough lever and I will move the world.

My Budget 360

What a coincidence that during this time of a 50 percent consumer absent market rally that the U.S. dollar has fallen 15 percent. Much of this rally is because of a weaker dollar but also, massive injections of liquidity into the banking system. Unable to lend to consumers, many Wall Street casinos have decided it would be a better risk to gamble in stocks than to give out loans to American consumers. In the end, the bailouts were essentially a credit line extension to the biggest gambler in the casino who hit a major losing streak and is expecting to double down through the night to recover the losses. Chasing bad money with good is like seeing empty ships carrying no cargo and expecting that to be a sign of healthy consumer demand.

Spidey senses again, JD? or something else?

In just a few weeks or months, Wall*Street will be pretty much discredited completely...

Morning........"Got Celestons?"......I had forgotten about those nut-jobs.

Speaking of Gold, China has already gone Public stating that it will Buy all of the IMF gold sale, which is about $33 billion...mere bag of shells for a $2 trillion dollar holder.

Oh and they want a discount...go figure.

What makes me sick the most is all the young men and women fighting for American values.. what values? Banking values?

Soldiers in the battlefield ought to wear corporate logos. Bank of America, Haliburton, etc.

Well, you must know something, so I take your word for that. And I have nothing to lose, so I'm popping my corn. I hope it doesn't get stale by then.

Time for me to get back on the treadmill of life. See you all, same place, same time, next go-round.

good morning
need more
happy first day of fall.

Dollar flirting with 52-week lows
Last trade 76.124 Change -0.619 (-0.80%)

mr slippery
maybe we arent waiting for the fat lady to sing but for an insider. that might change everything.

What happens is the government worker at the bottom like FFDIC (RIPh) - also known as a "loser who can't succeed in the real world"- sees a problem, but the political appointee at the top (also known as one of those who creates reality rather than merely reacting to it) sees a profit stream. In fact, he foresaw the profit stream well before the loser, and so he got into position to safeguard those profits from the loser "crabs" at the bottom. Those losers are "crabs" not just because they harsh the buzz you got from that last real estate seminar on how to make $80K/yr in your spare time, but because they try to grab hold of any other crab who is trying to escape the pot and drag him back it. But once the loser crabs are neutralized and the alpha crabs are safely out of the pot of shared economic doom, the alpha crabs fire up the gas bbq and laissez faire les bontemps rouler.