Popcorn!
Author: Matthew G. Saroff
The Beer Diet
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? (The Good Kind)
Is an odd data point.
Notwithstanding the poling showing an enthusiasm gap, Democrats are casting their ballot through early voting in greater numbers than Republicans:
But something special is going on in two Ohio Democratic strongholds: Cuyahoga and Franklin counties. I track on this handy web page that other places around the country — including other Ohio counties — are so far reporting low single digit early voting rates. In stark contrast, over 112,000 votes have already been cast in these two Ohio counties. As a comparison, this represents over ten percent of all ballots cast in the 2006 election in these counties, with still some time to go.
…
Something is afoot in Iowa. Not only have nearly 120,000 voters already cast their ballot, registered Democrats are returning their mail ballots at a higher rate than Republicans in nearly every Iowa county. This, in part, explains the approximately 5:3 partisan registration advantage Democrats have over Republicans among mail ballots returned so far in the Hawkeye state.
I still see the glass empty, and I stand by my analysis that, win or lose, the Dems don’t deserve to win, but this is heartening.
QOTD
I think too often many of us have tried to come up with elaborate financial/economic rationalizations for why the banksters have approached all of this the way they have. The simpler explanation is that they’re sociopathic assholes who think that everyone else must suffer for their mistakes.
And yes, my prior post segues very nicely into this.
Not Enough Bullets
From an attitude on Wall Street’s attitude about foreclosure fraud:
“The first thing that needs to happen, I think, is to get these people out of their homes,” a man wearing a bespoke blue-striped shirt, a Hermés tie patterned with elephants and Ferragamo loafers said recently. “Correct! I’ll explain,” the veteran member of a bank restructuring and advisory team said.
H/t Paul Krugman.
My 2012 Endorsement
I have no connection whatsoever to whoever is printing this shirt.
Economics Update
Unemployment Claims 2008-Present
Things aren’t getting better, they are just running out of people to lay off.
H/t The Washington Independent.
It’s jobless Thursday, and initial unemployment claims are back in the 450K-480K “sweet” spot, with initial claims rising 13,000 to 462K, the 4 week moving average rising 2¼K to 459,000, though both continuing and emergency claims fell.
Seeing as how the number really needs to be below 300,000 for any meaningful recovery in jobs, we remain in a bad place.
In non-existent inflation land, we saw producer prices rise 0.4% in September, though that was largely on food, the core rate was 0.1%, and the price of imports fell by 0.3%, even as the trade deficit rose.
I would note here to all the free trade fetishists, we have a deflation problem in our economy right now, and most of it is being imported.
Meanwhile, the us dollar has fallen to a low for the year.
Kochtopus
The Koch brothers, who have been using their Stalin derived fortunes* to back the teabaggers, have steadfastly denied any involvement in the movement.
Well, let’s role tape:
David Koch told New York Magazine earlier this year, “I’ve never been to a tea-party event. No one representing the tea party has ever even approached me.”
But the Guardian reports that footage has emerged showing David Koch at the podium during an AFP gala receiving direct and detailed reports from his astroturf AFP army on their efforts to organize tea parties around the nation.
It appears that, “Never been to a tea-party event,” means getting reports from the people you are bankrolling on stage in right wing speak.
*Really, patriarch Fred Koch made his fortune setting up refining for Josef Stalin.
They Write Letters
Alan Grayson has written to the FBI requesting a criminal investigation of fraud by the bankers in their foreclosure proceedings.
He is correct when he says that, ” It is time for handcuffs. Fraud does not become legal just because a big bank does it. … This is absurd. This is deliberate, systemic fraud, and it is a crime.”
October 14, 2010Robert S. Mueller III
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20535Robert O’Neill
U.S. Attorney
Middle District of Florida
400 North Tampa Street, Suite 3200
Tampa, FL 33602
Dear U.S. Attorney O’Neill and Director Mueller,When it comes to foreclosures, there is mounting evidence of a state of rampant lawlessness in Central Florida. There are increasing signs that big banks routinely evade laws meant to protect homeowners, in many well-documented cases of ‘foreclosure fraud.’ Despite the demonstrated existence, for instance, of ‘robosigners’ signing affidavits attesting to documents that they have never seen, the parties engaging in such misconduct are not being brought to justice. Big banks are mischaracterizing this as mere ‘technical problems,’ and apologizing only where there is clear and very public evidence of harm.
It is not enough for big banks only to apologize for fraud, perjury, and even breaking and entering – when they are caught. It is time for handcuffs. Fraud does not become legal just because a big bank does it.
On September 20, 2010, after my office found evidence of systemic foreclosure fraud perpetrated by big banks and foreclosure mills, I called for a halt to illegal foreclosures.
Since then, big banks such as Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, GMAC, PNC and others have suspended foreclosures or foreclosure sales. These banks are still claiming that the massive fraud they have perpetrated amounts to nothing more than a series of technical mistakes. This is absurd. This is deliberate, systemic fraud, and it is a crime.
To give but two of the many available examples, attached is a deposition from an ex-employee of one of the largest ‘foreclosure mills’ in the state, the Law Offices of David Stern. In it, this employee testifies under oath that it was routine for that office to falsify documents regarding military records, in order to move foreclosure cases along more quickly.
The local media has reported on the case of Nancy Jacobini; a contractor for JP Morgan Chase broke into her home after the bank mistakenly foreclosed on it. JP Morgan Chase ‘apologized’ for terrifying her. But , US ; we have a system of laws. I am writing to ask you to enforce them.
The organized and systematic manufacturing of falsified documents to deprive people of their homes is not only a threat to the integrity of the legal system. It also aggravates and extends the weakness in the housing market. Who is going to feel comfortable buying a home if a big bank can simply take it, whether or not that bank has a right to it? Given the securitization of mortgage-backed securities, this misconduct is a threat to our securities markets as well. But fundamentally, this is a question of protecting basic property rights – if you don’t own it, then you shouldn’t try to take it. Without clear property rights, and a legal system that insists on clear proof of those rights before transferring ownership by force, the economy will fall apart.
If perpetrators of perjured affidavits and other systematic criminal activity can get off simply with civil liability – or even less, an insincere bureaucratic apology – the freedom that Americans enjoy will erode quickly in the face of lawless seizures of property. I appreciate your work on the joint Middle District of Florida’s Mortgage Fraud Initiative, and respectfully request that the efforts of your offices turn towards reining in this rampant criminality.
Regards,
Alan Grayson
Member of Congress
Obama Administration Requests Stay on DADT Injunction
There’s a shocker. They want to continue the witch hunts and persecutions while they are appealing:
The Obama administration on Thursday asked a judge to allow the Pentagon to keep its ban against openly gay men and women in the military while it appeals her decision that ruled the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was unconstitutional.
President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and military leaders have backed ending the policy, but have urged that it be done by the U.S. Congress and military so that there is no disruption to military operations, morale or recruiting.
At a town hall meeting with young voters, a woman pressed Obama on why he wasn’t ending the policy immediately.
“This is not a situation where with a stroke of a pen I can end the policy,” he said and noted that he cannot ignore laws on the books. “This policy will end and it will end on my watch.”
This is a lie. Obama, with a stroke of a pen, could end the separations, and if Congress passes something (ha!) then it is his pen that will sign the bill.
When we look at Obama, one has to wonder whether he, or those people closest to him, like Valerie “gay is a lifestyle choice” Jarrett say about gays when they are having their private moments.
I’m beginning to think that the policy here is to find a path to do the least possible without fatally alienating the party.
If Obama were a Republican, we would be talking about his homophobia right now.
Foreclosures Hit a New Record in September
I wonder how many of them were fraudulent or otherwise in error:
More than 100,000 U.S. homes were seized by lenders in September, a record number that probably will decline in coming months as major banks halt repossessions and review their foreclosure practices.
Lenders took over 102,134 properties last month, RealtyTrac Inc. said in a report today. That was the highest monthly tally since the company began tracking the data in 2005, surpassing the August record of 95,364. Foreclosure filings, including default and auction notices, rose 3 percent from the prior month to 347,420. One out of every 371 households received a notice.
I’m dubious of that the, “number that probably will decline,” as, “major banks halt repossessions and review their foreclosure practices.”
The banks will rush the moratorium, and in any case the moratorium will be very porous, because the banks are evil, so I expect the numbers to rise.
Describing the Green Party to a T
In Illinois the Green Party Candidate for Governor, Rich Whitney, had his name misspelled on voting machines. It reads Rich Whitey.
I know that there are “people of color” in the Green Party. The late Ed Boyd, an African American, ran for governor in Maryland in 2006, but received no party support, because they were focusing on (equally doomed) the Senate candidacy of rich whitey Kevin Zeese.
Ed Boyd was kind of pissed, but that really is how the Green Party rolls. It’s the comfortable pretending to afflict the comfortable.
So, the Solar Panels are Going Up at the White House
He will be putting both photovoltaic and hot water panels on the roof.
I’m honestly kind of surprised, seeing as how, less than a month ago, some solar enthusiasts were treated like complete crap for making this request.
I guess that someone thought that maybe that episode was a hippie cock punch too far.
Your Bank Foreclosure Fraud Update
Barry Ritholtz opens a can of whup ass on a clueless Diana Olick (@ 8:20 but watch the whole thing)
First, some perspective.
When I went to UMass, there was a murder case in the Amherst area. Someone bought some land, and they met on the property to exchange deed and money, and when he got the deed, he shot the seller, and took back the money.
At the time, I wondered how someone could be so stupid to think that this would still work.
The requirements of real estate transactions are such that, even if they never find the body or suspect you of murder, you won’t get the property, and it’s been that way since well before the Civil War, and possibly since before the Revolutionary War in Massachusetts.
That’s what all these transactions are about. They are the product of hundreds of years of social and legal development in order to ensure that someone does not just shoot you and take the deed.
But the bankers just want to shoot you and take the deed, so they take short cuts.
It’s why Barry Ritholtz calls the foreclosure fraud an assault on the basic property rights that make capitalism work in our society.
On a slightly less philosophical level, read Rortybomb’s Foreclosure Fraud for Dummies, Part One, Part Two, and Part 3. It’s clear, it’s concise, and it helps you understand just what is going on here with the fraudulent paperwork.
Additionally, Felix Salmon points out that the entire mortgage backed securities process was a deliberate fraud perpetrated on investors:
………
This is where things get positively evil. The investment banks didn’t mind buying up loans they knew were bad, because they considered themselves to be in the moving business rather than the storage business. They weren’t going to hold on to the loans: they were just going to package them up and sell them on to some buy-side sucker.
In fact, the banks had an incentive to buy loans they knew were bad. Because when the loans proved to be bad, the banks could go back to the originator and get a discount on the amount of money they were paying for the pool. And the less money they paid for the pool, the more profit they could make when they turned it into mortgage bonds and sold it off to investors.
Now here’s the scandal: the investors were never informed of the results of Clayton’s test. The investment banks were perfectly happy to ask for a discount on the loans when they found out how badly-underwritten the loan pool was. But they didn’t pass that discount on to investors, who were kept in the dark about that fact.
………
In any case, it’s clear that the banks had price-sensitive information on the quality of the loan pool which they failed to pass on to investors in that pool. That’s a lie of omission, and if I was one of the investors in one of these pools, I’d be inclined to sue for my money back. Prosecutors, too, are reportedly looking at these deals, and I can’t imagine they’ll like what they find.
The bank I talked to didn’t even attempt to excuse its behavior. It just said that Clayton’s taste-testing was being done by the bank — the buyer of the loan portfolio — rather than being done on behalf of bond investors. Well, yes. That’s the whole problem. The bank was essentially trading on inside information about the loan pool: buying it low (negotiating for a discount from the originator) and then selling it high to people who didn’t have that crucial information.
We should be looking at throwing these folks in jail. (read the whole thing)
In terms of shoes dropping, we now have Wells Fargo initiating a review of its foreclosures, and J.P. Morgan announcing in an investor call that it has stopped using MERS as its agents in foreclosures, which indicates that the big banks have real concerns about the legality of what is basically a database containing an incomplete record of scanned images:
JP Morgan Chase is a valued member of MERS. They currently have their correspondent loans registered on the MERS System. They do not, nor have they ever, registered their retail loans on the MERS System. As members of MERS and for loans registered on the MERS System, banks have the option of foreclosing in their own name, or MERS foreclosing for them.
Notwithstanding the people out there who are maintaining that this is just a bit of paperwork, one of the more savvy banks out there is clearly concerned.
610 Grand, Not Enough
The lawsuit against the Lower Merion school district for spying on children with webcams has been settled for $610,000:
The Lower Merion School District will pay $610,000 to settle lawsuits over its tracking of student laptop computers, ending an eight-month saga that thrust the elite district into a global spotlight and stirred questions about technology and privacy in schools.
School board members voted unanimously Monday night to pay $185,000 to the two students who claimed the district spied on them by secretly activating the webcams on their laptops.
Someone should have gone to jail over all of this.
The fact that there was not a serious criminal investigation of this, with dozens of school officials under scrutiny is a disgrace.
Holy Crap
LoL Cat approves of the investigation State Attorney Generals have opened investigations into foreclosures.
No, really, I don’t mean that some of them, I mean all of them. All 50 state Attorneys Generals have opened investigation:
Top legal officers of all 50 states opened a joint investigation into home foreclosures, saying they will seek an immediate halt to any improper practices at banks and mortgage companies.
The states will conduct a coordinated inquiry into whether banks and loan servicers used false documents and signatures to justify hundreds of thousands of foreclosures. The group intends to establish independent monitoring, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is leading the probe, said today in a statement.
Great googly moogly!
Every single one of them.
Still, I expect that the net result of all this will be that there will be changes in the law to wallpaper this all over, and leading the charge for banker amnesty will be the White House.
Seriously, when you have Virginia State AG Ken “Misuse my office to abuse climate academics” Cuccinelli joining in on this, the political and legal landscape is pretty unambiguous.
While it is clear that the United States needs a functioning credit system, it does not need these banks, who f%$#ed our whole country (with out lube), but little Timmy Geithner* is determined to shield the people who broke the law and defrauded the their customers, because he* is completely unable to see behind the needs of the megabanks.
*But remember, the Cossacks work for the Czar.
Good Riddance
I was listening to a hagiography on Michelle Rhee, now former Chancellor of the DC public schools on NPR today, and I had to change the channel.
She got test scores up by focusing on nothing but, and the evidence is that, in one of the most disadvantaged school districts in the nation, she had no interest at all in early education, basically ignoring it in her 5 year plan.
As Matthew Yglesias noted 2 years ago, “A certain type of person isn’t interested in any education improvements that don’t involve picking fights with teacher’s unions, and this seems to me like perhaps an example of Rhee suffering from that affliction.”
Basically, she spent a lot of time being an asshole, because that’s what got her the good press, and teaching to the test, along with a headlong embrace of gentrification, were what caused the bump in her numbers.
I Haven’t Posted, Because I Have Nothing to Say
I really haven’t had much to add to the rescue of the Chilean minors miners.
Well, thanks to Nick Mueller,I now have this bit of artwork to share.
My congratulations to the minors and the rescue team.
The mine owners, however, can go Cheney themselves.
Not Feeling Hopey Changey
The Obama administration has lifted the moratorium on deep water drilling in the Gulf.
Well, at least this means that Mary Landrieu has dropped her hold on Obama’s OMB chair, right?
It appears that she wants to be sure that the EPA and the Department of the Interior are sufficiently compliant:
“I am not going to release my hold on Jack Lew. Instead, I will take this time to look closely at how [Interior] is handling the issuing of permits and whether or not drilling activity in both shallow and deep water is resuming. When Congress reconvenes for the lame duck session next month, I will have had several weeks to evaluate if today’s lifting of the moratorium is actually putting people back to work,” Landrieu said in a prepared statement Tuesday after the Interior Department announced the lifting of the deepwater ban ahead of schedule.
You just got called a c*cks*ck*r by Mary F%$#ing Landrieu, and you are supposed to be the umpire, to mangle a Bull Durham moment.
What are you going to do now?
This is what happens when people know you have no guts.
Economics Update
Click for full size
Small Business Hiring Down
The index still sucks wet farts from dead pigeons
H/t Calculated Risk for the graph pr0n
Oh, those invisible bond vigilantes are at again, with the 3-year Treasuries hitting a record low yield, 0.57%. (!)
Meanwhile the National Federation of Independent Business released its September survey of small business optimism, and the numbers remain grim, essentially flat, up from 88.8 to 89.0 from August, still highly contractionary, and the businesses are looking to lay off more workers.
We also saw 30-year mortgage rates continue to fall, but no one is borrowing, because non one is buying.