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New York's JPMorgan Chase Lawsuit: Are the Critics Right? by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | October 28, 2012
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over allegations of wholesale fraud by Bear Stearns, which JPM acquired during the 2008 financial crisis. The lawsuit's critics, including Rep. read more »New York's JPMorgan Chase Lawsuit: Are the Critics Right? by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | October 28, 2012
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over allegations of wholesale fraud by Bear Stearns, which JPM acquired during the 2008 financial crisis. The lawsuit's critics, including Rep. read more »You? Fix The Debt? You Gotta Be Kidding by Isaiah J. Poole, OurFuture.org | October 26, 2012
Americans for Tax Fairness does a pretty devastating take-down of the group of CEOs who were at the New York Stock Exchange Thursday ringing the opening bell under the banner "Fix the Debt." Their picture makes the point: read more »Why Freddie Mac Resisted Refis by Jesse Eisinger, propublica.org | October 25, 2012
Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, made it harder for millions of Americans to refinance their high-interest-rate mortgages for fear it would cut into company profits, present and former Freddie Mac officials disclosed in recent interviews. In closed door meetings, two Republican-leaning board members and at least one executive resisted a mass refi policy for an additional reason, according to the interviews: They regarded it as a backdoor economic stimulus. Freddie's policy was financially brutal: During the worst years of the Great Recession, when homeowners most needed the savings they could have gotten from refinancing to lower interest rates, Freddie helped keep millions of borrowers locked in high-interest-rate mortgages. read more »We Must Stop Protecting The Rich From Market Forces by Ha-Joon Chang, The Guardian | October 25, 2012
Gore Vidal, the recently demised American writer, once famously quipped that the US economic system is "free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich". Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, not only has the US lived up to Vidal's caricature but the whole of the rich capitalist world has become more "American". The poor are increasingly exposed to market forces, with tougher conditions on the diminishing state protection they get, while the rich have unprecedented levels of protection from the state, with virtually no strings attached. read more »How Wall Street Won the Election Long Before The First Vote Was Cast by Nomi Prims, alternet.org | October 24, 2012
Before the campaign contributors lavished billions of dollars on their favorite candidate; and long after they toast their winner or drink to forget their loser, Wall Street was already primed to continue its reign over the economy. For, after three debates (well, four), when it comes to banking, finance, and the ongoing subsidization of Wall Street, both presidential candidates and their parties’ attitudes toward the banking sector is similar – i.e. it must be preserved – as is – at all costs, rhetoric to the contrary, aside.Obama hasn’t brought ‘sweeping reform’ upon the Establishment Banks, nor does Romney need to exude deregulatory babble, because nothing structurally substantive has been done to harness the biggest banks of the financial sector, enabled, as they are, by entities from the SEC to the Fed to the Treasury Department to the White House. read more »Unfortunately, The Fiscal Cliff Joke Is On Us by Stan Collender, OurFuture.org | October 23, 2012
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games. Have you heard the one about the big-name financial services CEOs who last week released a letter to Congress and the president demanding they do whatever it takes to avoid the fiscal cliff? read more »Revolving Doors Matter by James Kwak, baselinescenario.com | October 23, 2012
It is common fare for people like me to point disapprovingly to the revolving door between business and government, which ensures that every Treasury Department is well stocked with representatives of Goldman Sachs. In 13 Bankers, the revolving door was one of the three major channels through which the financial sector influenced government policy, alongside campaign contributions and the ideology of finance. The counterargument comes in various forms: people like Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson are dedicated civil servants who wouldn’t favor their firms or their industries, the government needs people with appropriate industry experience, etc. It is certainly possible that industry experts provide valuable skills and experience to the government. But that value comes with a cost; put another way, it’s not just the public good that benefits read more »The Danger of Wealth at the Top by Paul R. Pillar, consortiumnews.com | October 19, 2012
America’s growth-inhibiting inequality is making it less able to compete, and less able to serve as an exemplar for others, in the global arena. Ideologically driven myopia, which mistakenly cherishes anything in the private sector status quo, even when it is destructive of free markets and vigorous competition, and disdains anything government does, even when it is necessary for economic growth and the fullest use of human capital, is needlessly weakening the relative as well as absolute position of the United States. read more »How Obama Can Smoke Out Mitt: Call for Breaking Up the Biggest Banks, and Resurrecting Glass-Steagall by Robert B. Reich, robertreich.org | October 19, 2012
President Obama should propose that the nation’s biggest banks be broken up and their size capped, and that the Glass-Steagall Act be resurrected. It’s good policy, and it would smoke out Mitt Romney as being of, by, and for Wall Street — and not on the side of average Americans. It would also remind America that five years ago Wall Street’s excesses almost ruined the economy. Bankers, hedge-fund managers, and private-equity traders speculated on the upside, then shorted on the downside — in a vast zero-sum game that resulted in the largest transfer of wealth from average Americans to financial elites ever witnessed in this nation’s history. read more »
The Latest
Foreclosure: Nationwide Title goes on attack against vocal critics, tampabay.com | December 11, 2010
Foreclosure activity up across most US metro areas, finance.yahoo.com | October 28, 2010
Bank Of America Tries To Frame Foreclosure-Gate As Simply A Case Of Misspelled Names, wonkroom.thinkprogress.org | October 26, 2010
Since the foreclosure fraud scandal — in which banks were caught allowing “robo-signers” to approve potentially fraudulent foreclosure forms — first hit the national airwaves, Wall Street banks have been trying to downplay the extent of the problem, claiming that it only has to do with paperwork mistakes and not a compete disregard for due process and property rights. more »
Corporations Hide Election Spending From the Public Eye, The Nation | October 19, 2010
To avoid angering the public and their investors, some corporate interests are going to great lengths to hide their political spending. These companies have dumped money into nonprofits and trade associations that often have innocuous names like Americans for Job Security or Revere America, but in reality serve to shield donors from accountability for their spending in our elections. more »
Sorkin: Felix Rohatyn Looks Back, and Sighs, dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com | October 19, 2010
Felix G. Rohatyn, one of Wall Street’s last old wise-men, was sitting in his office at Lazard overlooking the Empire State Building on Monday morning. more »
The New Tax Man: Big Banks and Hedge Funds, huffpostfund.org | October 19, 2010
Nearly a dozen major banks and hedge funds, anticipating quick profits from homeowners who fall behind on property taxes, are quietly plowing hundreds of millions of dollars into businesses that collect the debts, tack on escalating fees and threaten to foreclose on the homes of those who fail to pay.
How Do We Judge the Homeowner?, Huffington Post | October 19, 2010
In the rush to foreclosure, the banks and even government officials have been taking the position that the borrower/homeowners are fully to blame for the situations they find themselves in and that the paperwork technicalities just need to be worked out in order for there to be a just outcome, which is to say, a foreclosure.
The Washington Post's Entry in the "How Many Big Things Can You Get Wrong in a Short Article?" Contest, cepr.net | October 19, 2010
The Washington Post appears to have outdone itself in a discussion of the politics surrounding the foreclosure crisis. For beginners, it told readers that:
"Reviving the economy requires repairing the housing market." more »
Bondholders Pick a Fight With Banks, The Wall Street Journal | October 19, 2010
As banks restart foreclosures they had suspended, bondholders are stepping up efforts to recoup losses on soured mortgage portfolios amid concern about sloppy mortgage servicing and underwriting practices. more »
Foreclosure Fortune Buys Bugatti, Yacht, Mansions for Attorney, bloomberg.com | October 19, 2010
For Americans, the foreclosure crisis has wiped out fortunes, bringing destitution and homelessness. For Florida attorney David J. Stern, it has brought mansions, a Bugatti sports car and a luxury yacht. Florida has the third-highest residential foreclosure rate in the U.S., and Stern, 50, has made a fortune off the bust. more »
