As it took Nixon, with clear anti-communist credentials to stop the Vietnam war (even with secret bombing of Cambodia, and CIA shenanigans all over Southeast Asia, Kissinger, etc.); unfortunately it looks like it will take a Republican President with tax reduction and deficit reduction credibility in 2012 or in 2016 to finally say to the American people that the honest way out of . . . → Read More: A Nixon for Tax Increases?
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Bank of America has not yet seen the bottom of the hole that it dug itself when it purchased Countrywide. A report today add Allstate insureance to the growing list of companies that have sued BofA for the fraud perpetrated on them by the RMBS’ sold to them by Countrywide. Nasdaq reports: Insurance company Allstate Corp. sued mortgage- originator Countrywide Financial Corp., now . . . → Read More: Allstate queues up at the BofA trough Is it only me or is this a weird report? Both of the protagonists are majority owned by the US taxpayer, and yet they settle debts in order to hide the disclosure of the true amounts of bad loans which Ally (the bank formerly known as GMAC) stuffed into RMBS’ which have been sold to Fannie Mae. Is this just a way for the US government and its hedge fund partners in Ally to clean up the books and lower risk so as to polish up the IPO? As a result neither Ally nor Fannie Mae need to make adjustments for the crap mortgages on their balance sheets … at this time. . . . → Read More: Robbing Peter to pay Paul – Ally pays Fannie for stuffing them with bad loans Hat tip to Naked Capitalism which pointed me to Credit Writedowns for this: From the WikiLeaks cables as published in the Guardian today regarding a meeting with the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Bank of England Governor Mervyn King on 17 Mar 2008: Systemic Insolvency Is Now The Problem ————————————– 2. (C/NF) King said that liquidity is necessary but not . . . → Read More: Systemic insolvency is the problem – as said Mervyn King in 2008 This is one of the saddest Christmas stories I have read recently. A small Alabama town has stopped paying its pensions to the town’s retirees. The New York Times writes: This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund . . . → Read More: Pritchard Alabama stops paying its pensioners Many pundits like to excoriate people who supposedly cheated by buying houses while misstating their income. However, it is clear to many studying the current economic crisis that the processes and systems at the major banks are weak. In many instances they are civilly and perhaps criminally negligent, and in some cases fraudulent behavior on the part of banks, servicers, and their lawyers has been noted. An article today in the Huffington Post by Mary Bottari called Trapped in Bank of America Hell the case of one normal middle class family which has always been on time in its mortgage payments is told. . . . → Read More: Foreclosuregate: Bank of America mess The Economist has often really cogent views of America that American commentators cannot get into, a sort of self-myopia. The recent article on Peter Orzag’s transfer from the cabinet of government to the wood paneled offices of a bailed out Wall Street institution, Citigroup, is a case in point. This passage is really germane: Progressives laudably seek to oppose injustice by deploying government . . . → Read More: The rigged revolving door I’m starting a new tag and a new category of posts with this. I am going to start following unemployment for now. There is so much pain out there, 10 days from Christmas 2010, that I just think that we need to reflect on what our country is doing to itself through its elected officials. I will start with a primer on unemployment . . . → Read More: Unemployment Bloomberg reports that housing values are set to decline another $1.7 Trillion in 2011. This is on top of the already realized losses of $9 Trillion. This year’s estimated decline, more than the $1.05 trillion drop in 2009, brings the loss since the June 2006 home-price peak to $9 trillion, the Seattle-based company said today in a statement. The drop in home values . . . → Read More: Housing declines still not at bottom James K. Galbraith reset the discourse on the Catfood Commission in June. Most of the meetings were secret. Secrecy breeds the suspicion that the discussions are at a level of discourse they are embarrassing. A bipartisan commission should approach its task in a judicious, open-minded and dispassionate way. The attitude and temperament of the leadership are critical. The leader of a commission intended to sway the public cannot display contempt for the public. Senator Simpson has plainly shown that he lacked the temperament to do a fair and impartial job from the abusive response he made to Social Security Works. With just one economist on board they denied access to the professional arguments surrounding this highly controversial issue. It is impossible to have a fair discussion of any important question when the professional participants in that discussion have been picked, in advance, to represent a single point of view. The Commission was supported by Peter G. Peterson, who has for decades conducted a relentless campaign to cut Social Security and Medicare. This act must be condemned. A Commission serving public purpose cannot accept funds or other help from a private party with a strong interest in the outcome of that Commission’s work. Having done so is a disgrace. . . . → Read More: The Catfood Commission called out |
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