''How high-risk borrowers contaminated securities backed by prime mortgages. A story about the financial crisis and contagion''

"In the 1980s we had trickle-down economics. During the first half of the 2000s, we had trickle-up credit scoring. 

Before you yawn (or stop reading), consider that credit score inflation was 

(1) a real phenomenon, and 

(2) helps explain why, when the crisis hit, the market for bonds backed by supposedly high quality prime mortgages suffered from the same kinds of liquidity problems as subprime backed MBS." 


a must read......from wall street law blog...

''Goldman Sachs sparks debate over Western banks’ role in Islamic finance''

"A controversial plan by Goldman Sachs to issue an Islamic bond has ignited a wider debate on whether conventional banks in the West should be allowed to engage in Islamic finance.

At a major conference of Islamic scholars and bankers in London this week, much of the public and private discussion was devoted to whether growing Western interest in Islamic finance could damage the industry by compromising its religious principles."


from the news pakistan....

Keiser Report: ''City of London center of financial terrorism''

from rt via liar politicians.....02/23/2012

''Foreclosure Settlement Bails Out the Big Banks''

...."In addition it removes the risk of default on second mortgages from the banks which actually improves the health of the banks’ financial statements. As Smith expressed it: “This deal is a stealth bailout that strengthens bank balance sheets at the expense of the broader public.”

And enforcement is likely to be lax as well. The first layer of enforcement “is the banks reporting on themselves.” Smith called it “regulatory theatre.”

from the new american....

''Money-printing, central banking scammers should be locked in prison''

from europarl....

''Homebuyers Sue Banks in RICO Class Action''

"Wells Fargo Bank and J.P. Morgan Chase charge homebuyers who go into default inflated fees and interest rates, customers say in a federal RICO class action.
     Lead plaintiff Latara Bias claims the defendants, including Chase Home Finance, service almost 20 million mortgage loans, approximately 25 percent of the home loans made in the United States.
     The class claims the defendants use an automated mortgage loan management system, and subsidiaries, to "fraudulently conceal their unlawful assessment of improperly marked-up or unnecessary fees for default-related services, cheating borrowers who have least afford it."


from courthouse news....

Trailer: "The Wall Street Conspiracy"

The Wall Street Conspiracy Official Trailer from Kristina Leigh Copeland on Vimeo.

"Fed Plays Wall Street Favorites in Secret Bond Deals"

"The Federal Reserve secretly selected a handful of banks to bid for debt securities acquired by taxpayers in the U.S. bailout of American International Group Inc., and the rest of Wall Street is wondering what happened to the transparency the central bank said it was committed to upholding."


from bloomberg...

Simon English: ''It's about time we called the bankers' bluff''

"Deutsche Bank sometimes threatens to leave Germany. JPMorgan hints it might decamp from America. Where do these guys imagine they are heading? Do they pass each other at the airport with a confused look on their faces? Where the hell are you going? Can I have your parking space?"


Banks don't move jurisdiction very often, especially since they tend to need a government bailout every once in a while. And there are many many good reasons for being based in London aside from the prevailing tax rate, not least that everyone else is."


from the independent...

''The banks have won, homeowners are re-victimized''

"The housing market is not going to recover any time soon and the court system will be permanently corrupted by forged and perjurious documents.

This settlement is an incredible breach of the social contract between the government and the governed."

from firedoglake...

Dick Bove: "Every American should stop making payments on his Mortgage"

"These people were not making payments on these houses in the first place and, therefore, they're not getting the new flow of cash...they were not getting anything other the government has decided to pay everyone who cheated on their mortgages 2,000 bucks.  The second thing is you are going to reduce the price of houses in the United States where payments were being made because the house next store is seeing the principal balance taken down," he explained.

"This is not a stimulus to the United States economy.  It depresses the United States economy."

from business insider...

''The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement''

from Yves Smith...."As we’ve said before, this settlement is yet another raw demonstration of who wields power in America, and it isn’t you and me. It’s bad enough to see these negotiations come to their predictable, sorry outcome. It adds insult to injury to see some try to depict it as a win for long suffering, still abused homeowners."


a must read.........from naked capitalism....

''$698 Million Class Can Sue Goldman''

"A $698 million class action against Goldman Sachs will proceed, after a federal judge certified a class arising "out of a single offering ... of certificates derived from a pool of securitized fixed-rate, second-lien home mortgages."
     U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. in Manhattan certified the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi as representative of a class of more than 150 investors."


from courthouse news...

Source: ''Holdout states to sign mortgage settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses''

"Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial agreed to the settlement — for an estimated $37 billion as of Wednesday for lowering homeowners’ mortgage principal, refinancing, a reserve account, and checks to homeowners. However, they were seeking releases from further legal liability, which have been one subject of negotiations for the past several days with state attorneys general who wanted to pursue investigations.

The source said the agreement will enable authorities to pursue all claims over mortgage-backed securities that collapsed. It lets them use facts from robo-signing claims in securities, insurance and tax fraud cases.

It also preserves the lawsuit filed last week by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that accused some banks of deceit and fraud in using an electronic mortgage registry that allegedly put homeowners at a disadvantage in foreclosures."

from wapo...

''The government and the mortgage industry are now engaged in a race to amass teams of attorneys over upcoming securities investigations and charges''

"The Justice Department and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said last week they would coordinate with other state AGs in a wide-scale investigation into possible mortgage-backed securities fraud. Already 11 banks received subpoenas.

"With Connecticut and Delaware participating on the government side, Schneiderman said last week his task force will have jurisdiction over every MBS issued in the past decade."


from housing wire...

''Proposed settlement with banks over foreclosure practices dealt a setback''

"From the time he took office in January 2011, Schneiderman insisted that any robosigning settlement with banks should not grant a legal release from separate claims over how they bundled and sold mortgages to investors, a process known as “securitization.” Rather, he argued in favor of a more comprehensive investigation of mortgage-related misdeeds aimed at reaching a larger settlement with banks down the line."


from wapo...

''Wall St. now placing risky bets on the weather''

"This year’s light snowfall throughout the nation may enrich a number of Wall St. firms who essentially have bet against a good ski season. Hedge funds sell derivatives in which you can bet on the put or take side of snowfall amounts. Because most people based this year’s bet on last year’s snow-rich season, the Wall St. firms picked up the opposite bet (it’s just like shorting a stock, where you bet that the stock price will fall).


We might as well start calling poker chips “derivatives” and turn casinos over to Wall St. firms."


from ivn.us...

Michael Hudson: "How the Banks Broke the Social Compact, Promoting their Own Special Interests"

"If there is any silver lining to today’s debt crisis, it is that the present situation and trends cannot continue. So this is not only an opportunity to restructure banking; we have little choice. The urgent issue is who will control the economy: governments, or the financial sector and monopolies with which it has made an alliance.

Fortunately, it is not necessary to re-invent the wheel. Already a century ago the outlines of a productive industrial banking system were well understood. But recent bank lobbying has been remarkably successful in distracting attention away from classical analyses of how to shape the financial and tax system to best promote economic growth – by public checks on bank privileges."

from market oracle...

Bill Moyers: ''John Reed on Big Banks’ Power and Influence''

35 minute video.........from bill moyers.com....

"There’s no clearer example of the collusion between government and corporate finance than the Citicorp-Travelers merger, which — thanks to the removal of Glass-Steagall — enabled the formation of the financial behemoth known as Citigroup. But even behemoths are vulnerable; when the meltdown hit, the bank cut more than 50,000 jobs, and the taxpayers shelled out more than $45 billion to save it."

"Into The Belly Of The Beast-How Goldman Sachs Became The Most Hated Bank On Earth"

part 1........a must read.....from economy watch....


"Goldman Sachs is the bank everyone loves to hate. In the first of our two-part investigation into the bank, we ask why they emerged as the biggest winners in the financial crisis. We also look at how they lobbied the US Government to reduce banking regulations, how they acquired massive fortunes by selling sub-prime mortgages, and how they deceived their clients by betting against the products they sold."