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  1. Fan

    Awesome. Harry Shearer = america’s funniest truth teller and Yves Smith = most badass. Plz someday debate Andrew Ross Sorkin, Adam Davidson, etc and humiliate them all.

    2. Francois T

      OMG!

      Yves debating and quartering Adam Davidson publicly! That would make my week, big time. The guy has become a Wall Street stooge of the worst kind and deserve a public spanking.

  2. kravitz

    Gretchen Morgenson quoted you, but didn’t link to you. She also didn’t note the ‘there’s no terms document’ part.

    The Deal Is Done, but Hold the Applause
    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/business/mortgage-settlement-leaves-much-to-be-desired-fair-game.html

    The LA Times didn’t quote you, but did mention the no terms thang.

    Mortgage settlement is great — for politicians and banks
    http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-hiltzik-20120212,0,7852934.column

    1. skinla

      LA Times has QUOTED YVES SMITH with Link to her blog:

      “In the words of business consultant Susan Webber, who blogs expertly on financial matters under the pen name Yves Smith, “We’ve now set a price for forgeries and fabricating documents. It’s $2,000 per loan.” She observes, quite properly, that the payoff is a minuscule fraction of the costs these practices have imposed on borrowers, the court system and the economy.”
      –
      Mortgage settlement is great — for politicians and banks – By Michael Hiltzik, LA Times
      http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-hiltzik-20120212,0,7852934.column

      1. psychohistorian

        Congratulations Yves,

        Who knew you could achieve noteworthy status from speaking truth to power?

        Don’t stop now……..please!

        1. kravitz

          And now, The New York Times links to your page as well. (I tend to catch the early versions of stuff…)

  3. Darren Kenworthy

    Your first interview with him had the effect of forcefully removing the wool from my eyes. I have read your blog since then. Thanks for the education.

  4. just me

    Yves’ first Le Show interview with Harry Shearer, December 5, 2010, here:
    http://harryshearer.com/news/le_show/player/?id=773&start=0:08
    with transcript here: http://harryshearer.com/article/?auid=8gGDo2536R6FbV

    Second interview October 2, 2011 here: http://harryshearer.com/news/le_show/player/?id=838&start=0:04
    with transcript here: http://harryshearer.com/article/?auid=VsXWE45984Sok7y

    (It’s how I got to be a fan of both of them :-)

    (Harry’s website’s a little tricky — you have to search Le Show for the audio and News/What’s New for the transcripts, and the transcripts aren’t dated/numbered. But it’s all there if you know to look.)

    The first interview included in-depth discussion on MERS — I haven’t seen this point made quite like this elsewhere…

    HARRY SHEARER: How many employees does MERS have?

    YVES SMITH: Uh, 47, and I think it may be up to 48.

    HARRY SHEARER: (laughs)

    YVES SMITH: So they’ve outsourced all the database, I believe, to Electronic – EDS, Electronic Data Systems, so it’s really almost a virtual company and they have this very bizarre corporate structure which has been described as unorthodox to the point of being virtually fraudulent where the MERS members will temporarily put on a MERS hat and say, “Oh, even though I work full-time for _____ – again, say Wells Fargo – I’m going to temporarily be a MERS signing officer and do all these things in the name of MERS even though MERS never paid me a nickel. I mean, it’s just – there’s this whole crazy set of arrangements they’ve come up with which now that people have looked at it, they are beginning to question the legitimacy of a lot of the ways that it does business.

    HARRY SHEARER: How many people have signed documents as supposed MERS officers?

    YVES SMITH: Well, it’s kind of hard to know, because again MERS won’t tell us, but at any one point in time MERS has over 20,000 signing officers authorized on its behalf.

    HARRY SHEARER: (laughs) Twenty thousand officers! And 47 employees. If you took it at face value, you’d say that’s a rather top-heavy organization, wouldn’t you?

    1. LeonovaBalletRusse

      And William K. Black tells us how many were “literally flipping burgers* before they became *brokers*.

    1. aletheia33

      re: radio stations, i’m set to listen online at 1 p.m. to wcbe-fm, columbus, ohio. from my review of the list posted above, i don’t think we can get le show any earlier on the east coast.

      many public radio stations seem to be having pledge drives today. at the moment, i’ve been getting afropop on wcbe and have heard no pledge drive interruptions; am hoping to fly right on through le show without any.

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