Daily Yomiuri Online reported that Tokyo Power company (TEPCO) knew of a leak in the Number 3 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi prior to sending repair workers into the area. Most startling was the fact that the presence of the leak was not shared with workers pulling a power line into the damaged reactor, who last week walked through radioactive water pooled on the . . . → Read More: TEPCO sent workers down into basement without telling them it was ‘hot’
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The WSJ had an blog article today on the economic cost of the earthquake in Japan. Disaster modeling company Eqecat estimates a total insured loss from the earthquake and tsunami to be $12 billion to $25 billion. The estimate includes losses from the effects of earthquake shaking, ensuing tsunami and fires, and losses to car, marine, life, and personal accident insurance. By contrast, . . . → Read More: Japan losses may go up to $35B Dr. Philip Neches has an analysis at the Huffington Post of the Bank of America (BAC) announcement that they will separate 1.3 million of their mortgages into a new entity. This is a “good bank / bad bank” strategy. Bank of America will now try to resolve the loans that it places in the bad bank at low impact on its own balance sheet. I wonder how it is going to do this. IF the entity becomes separate from BAC they could take out a short on it though… or they could securitize the entity in tranches and sell off the more toxic stuff to some idiots. If they could buy a AAA from some supine rating firm, then they could get a good price for the securities. Does this sound familiar? . . . → Read More: Legacy entity slieght of hand at Bank of America The Connecticut Watchdog.com posted another doozy of a story on the total dysfunction of BofA. In an article ‘Bank Of America’s Christmas present: Foreclose Even Though Not A Payment Missed George Gombassy reported: Bank of America notified Shock Baitch and his wife that foreclosure action will start today – Christmas eve – unless the couple agrees to put their home up for a forced sale. Another unit of Bank of America erroneously reported to credit agencies that the family was seeking a loan modification, ruining their credit rating and as the result putting their mortgage into default. In a nutshell, the other creditors will not reinstate the old credit limits because they use the current credit reports, BofA will not help because they use the current credit reports, and monthly minimum payments have more than doubled because of the BofA’s errors. . . . → Read More: Bank of America’s Christmas Present 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 President Obama has twisted the arms of the Senate Republicans so much that they are going to give him exactly what they want: extension of the Bush tax cuts for two years. Ezra Klein at the Wall Street Journal reported on Mark Zandi‘s thoughts: I also asked him about the Bush tax cuts. His own figures say they’re a horrible deal on stimulus . . . → Read More: Taxcut haircut In a case in Pennsylvania the judge in a foreclosure found the the bank and the lawyers ‘had not been honest with the court.” Bank of America/Countrywide used lawyers who did not supervise non-lawyers or read the documents it submitted to the court. It also did not send letters unilaterally changing the home owners mortgage to her or to the bankruptcy court handling her affairs. And when they later tried to foreclose manufactured letters purporting to be notifications of the modifications after the fact. . . . → Read More: Foreclosuregate: Bank and lawyers lie to a court in Pennsylvania and get caught This is a refreshing, and chilling little video making the rounds this week. The fact that the cute anime doglets are so affect constrained is part of its charm. I liked at about 4:50 where this exchange takes place: Girl: Is this an episode of the Twilight Zone? Guy: I don’t think so. Girl: Are you Sure? . . . → Read More: Ben Bernank and the Goldman Sacks One must wonder if banks have totally escaped the possibility of being regulated by states. I was pondering the current Irish problem, the amount owed to banks outside of Ireland shows the immense set of dominos that could fall in Europe. A sovereign default would not have as great an impact, as a risk-flaring contagion impacting countries’ primary financial entities, whose assets account in some cases for multiples of host GDP. It seems to me that the regulators of the banks are in some ways more influential than the Ministers of Finance. They potentially have sway over multiples of GDP assets. But can they avoid ‘capture’ by the mentality of the banks and provide regulation that can contain risk? . . . → Read More: Can banks be regulated by nation-states? I have read it through and found lots more interesting stuff from House testimony by Adam J. Levitin Associate Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Center. I have excerpted some of what I think are the best bits here: . . . → Read More: Foreclosure-gate: Servicers dupe investors, defraud homeowners |
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