We indicated yesterday that the Irish government had been in the process of trying to steer an inevitable rescue operation towards salvaging its bloated, cancerous banking system rather than a government bailout, which would not only further reduce national sovereignty but also saddle Erin with debt that could not be restructured. Stratfor describes how the […]
Read more...By Matt Stoller, a blogger-turned Congressional staffer. He was a policy advisor to Rep. Alan Grayson on financial policy issues. Cross posted from New Deal 2.0. A lot of people forget that having debt you can’t pay back really sucks. Debt is not just a credit instrument, it is an instrument of political and economic […]
Read more...The MSNBC show Last Word had a segment on servicer abuses in foreclosures. It’s good to see this issue start to get traction in the MSM. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Read more...Problem-solving bacteria crack sudoku New Scientist Antimatter atom trapped for first time, say scientists BBC US may disable all in-car mobile phones The Register (hat tip reader John M) Ahmed Ghailani, Gitmo detainee, acquitted of all but 1 charge in NY Washington Post. Mind you, this was out of 285 counts. Justices Are Long on […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal real estate blog reports that Federal banking regulators will conduct an examination of MERS, the electronic mortgage and servicing rights data service (hat tip ForeclosureHamlet). As much as scrutiny of MERS is very much in order, it remains an open question as to whether this effort is serious. One impetus for […]
Read more...In negotiations, understanding where you have leverage relative to your counterpart is key. Ireland appears to be engaged in a quiet staredown with the EU, evidently with the objective of securing a rescue of its banks rather than its government. In case you managed to miss it, Ireland is in the midst of a long […]
Read more...Given the ability of banks to muscle through all sorts of favorable legislation, there was good reason to be concerned about the sudden reappearance of HR 3808, the Interstate Recognition of Notarization Act. While this measure has been long sought by trial lawyers, many observers were understandibly concerned that this measure might serve to be […]
Read more...As mentioned here earlier, there was a wee bit of excitement in the Senate Banking Committee on the foreclosure crisis yesterday. Enjoy!
Read more...New frog species found in hunt for old ones BBC (hat tip reader John M) Morgan Stanley’s Net ‘Queen’ Meeker Sees Mobile Boom Bloomberg (hat tip Tom Adams) Freshman GOPer: Hey, Where’s My Health Care? Talking Points Memo (hat tip reader Marshall) Air Force Academy Excludes Group That Exposed Proselytizing of Military Personnel From “Religious […]
Read more...The spectacle of Senators in Tuesday’s banking committee hearings on the mortgage largely siding with articulate, fact-driven critics of the mortgage securitization is a sign that financial services industry misdirection and lame excuses are wearing thin. But far more devastating is the contrast between the long-promised American Securitization Forum paper on mortgage transfers, versus the […]
Read more...It’s become conventional wisdom to denounce Congressmen as know-nothings who routinely harass businessmen by hauling them before investigations and asking them uninformed questions. Tuesday, we saw a refreshing and badly needed contrast to that stereotype in the form of a comparatively short (less than three hour) hearing by the Senate Banking Committee on the foreclosure/securitization […]
Read more...It’s more than a bit puzzling when readers get upset when once in a great while, we point out how the case against banks on a particular issue is overstated. The reaction seems to be that we’ve suddenly gone soft on financial firm miscreants, which is about as wide of the mark as you can […]
Read more...Two media outlets tonight, Reuters and a Washington Post blog post, discussed the idea of a relatively quick settlement of the probe by 50 state attorneys general into robo signing and other foreclosure-related abuses. What is interesting is the timing of these sightings, which came the same day of the release of the Congressional Oversight […]
Read more...Pterosaur reptile used “pole vault” trick for take-off BBC (hat tip reader John M How to Speak Like a 17th Century Vagabond Cryptonym (hat tip Richard Smith, via Paul Kedrosky) Major spy scandal as five Scandinavian governments catch the U.S. watching their citizens Daily Mail (hat tip reader May S) Mr. Obama’s Most Recent “2%” […]
Read more...On the eve of Senate Banking Committee hearings into mortgage securitizations and the release of a Congressional Oversight Panel report covering the same terrain, the mortgage securitization industry has a full bore pushback underway. A story in the New York Times bears all the hallmarks of being a PR plant. Remember the sympathetic New York […]
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