Wells Fargo Takes Revenge on Blog for Posting How Bank’s Improper Foreclosure Led to a Suicide
It appears Wells Fargo is not happy about bad press about how it has blood on its hands and is not above taking petty revenge.
Read more...It appears Wells Fargo is not happy about bad press about how it has blood on its hands and is not above taking petty revenge.
Read more...Well, there’s nothing like seeing Jamie Dimon swinging for the fences. Dimon has taken his defense and turned it into an offense, in both senses of the word.
Read more...By Delusional Economics, who is horrified at the state of economic commentary in Australia and is determined to cleanse the daily flow of vested interests propaganda to produce a balanced counterpoint. Cross posted from MacroBusiness.
The fallout from the Spanish bank “bailout” continued overnight with Spanish yields moving back up and over their November 2011 euro area highs:
Read more...While I’m a bit late in reporting on my trip to Europe (coastal Spain, Portugal, and France), I had thought not to say anything at all, given that I learned vastly less about the economic state of play than I expected. But that in and of itself is a data point of sorts.
Read more...Whocouddanode? As more and more tidbits leak out about the activities of the JP Morgan Chief Investment Office, it increasingly appears to be a unit that was inadequately supervised. While that revelation is a dent to the reputation of self-styled ubermensch and alleged control freak Jamie Dimon, if he takes a few lumps in the press and otherwise can carry on as before, what difference will it make to him and the industry? Lloyd Blankfein took at least as much heat over a longer period, and he’s still firmly in place.
The CEO “I’m in charge and I know nothing” defense is alive and well because it has proven to be so successful.
Read more...As many readers may know, Jamie Dimon is on deck tomorrow before the Senate Banking Committee to explain how a soi disant hedge produced losses that are almost certain to exceed the $2 billion the bank has ‘fessed up to.
Read more...Yves here. While the municipal swaps fiasco may seem like old news, this piece discusses a post-crisis type of swap which is even more appalling. The old scam was to talk local and state authorities who would have been far better served with old-fashioned fixed rate financing into doing floating rate financing and entering into a series of swaps to get a fixed rate deal, with a supposed improvement in funding costs. The problem is that many of those floating rate deals were auction rate securities, and when that market failed in early 2008, the borrowers were doubly hosed. The ARS went to penalty rates. In addition, payments on the swaps often kicked up shortly thereafter (due to the slow-motion failure of monoline guarantors, which was the hidden trigger behind both events. The downgrade of the monolines de facto downgraded the municipality, which led to increased payments on the swaps).
The latest scam is more appalling. Municipal authorities would borrow fixed rate, then enter into a variable rate swap on the side. Earth to base, no responsible manager wants uncertain funding costs on a long-term capital investment. This is tantamount to the owner of a candy store borrowing money at a fixed rate from his bank to finance an expansion of his business, then betting at the racetrack to try to lower his costs. Not surprisingly, many of these swaps have proven to be costly time bombs.
By Tom Ferguson, Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Cross posted from Alternet
Many powerful interests have jumped at the opportunity to use the crisis to eviscerate what’s left of the welfare state.
Read more...By lambert strether
Netroots Nation (NN) is, or now is, a smallish trade show where Democratic consultants mingle with activists and operatives, held this year in Providence, RI. NN is organized at Daily Kos (DK), “a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory.” DK, founded by Markos Moulitsas (“Kos”) has a circulation of about two million unique visitors a month; with an Alexa Rank of 1006 (US) and 3707 (global), DK is at the top of the power curve for political blogs, and indeed, at the top for the Internet world-wide. Kos personally, and posters, commenters, and moderators at DK, played a key role in the online activist community by promoting Obama during the 2008 Democratic (D) primaries, and enforcing Obama’s primacy in DK postings and commentary.
Read more...By Philip Pilkington, a writer and journalist based in Dublin, Ireland. You can follow him on Twitter at @pilkingtonphil
What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.
– Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels ‘The Communist Manifesto’
Calls for balanced budgets in the present environment have long appeared somewhat confused, of that we have had little doubt for some time now as balanced budgets seem to exacerbate the problems they target rather than solve them and may lead to higher debt-to-GDP levels due to the reduction in real economic growth that they lead to.
Read more...By Delusional Economics, who is horrified at the state of economic commentary in Australia and is determined to cleanse the daily flow of vested interests propaganda to produce a balanced counterpoint. Cross posted from MacroBusiness.
So the worst kept and most predictable secret happened over the weekend with the Spanish bank bailout. Initially the deal appeared positive for Spain, but as usual the devil is in the detail. It must be noted that I don’t consider this something that, by itself, changes the medium to long term outcome of the country.
Read more...The Finland effort to dictate terms to the Spanish bank bailout may well turn out to be noise, but it is yet another indicator that despite the general optimism about a rescue, there are a lot of details to be nailed down.
Read more...By Michael Olenick, creator of FindtheFraud, a crowd sourced foreclosure document review system (still in alpha). You can follow him on Twitter at @michael_olenick or read his blog, Seeing Through Data
A post last week reviewed a botched foreclosure for a mortgage loan in Ace Securities Home Equity Loan Trust 2007-HE4 dismissed with prejudice, meaning that the foreclosure cannot be refilled; a total loss for investors. Next, we reviewed why the trust has not yet recorded the loss despite the six month old verdict.
Read more...