Published by VPRO on Nov 4, 2013
The Wall Street Code: a thriller about a genius algorithm builder who dared to stand up against Wall Street. Haim Bodek, aka The Algo Arms Dealer.
From the makers of the much-praised Quants: the Alchemists of Wall Street and Money & Speed: Inside the Black Box. Now the long-awaited final episode of a trilogy in search of the winners and losers of the tech revolution on Wall Street. Could mankind lose control of this increasingly complex system? Continue reading
Bailed Out Fannie and Freddie Are Repaying Taxpayers? Answer: FALSE
In a recent Committee on Financial Services report the truth comes out about government sponsored Fannie and Freddie that foreclosure defense experts and “MERS Blur” researchers realized long ago… There is no way Fannie and Freddie can ever repay the bailout debt; and, they were at the helm of the mortgage Ponzi-like scam to the detriment of the American public.
Washington, Nov 7 – Direct from the Committee’s website: Continue reading
NakedCapitalism posted a stunning article today by By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
THE TPP, IF PASSED, SPELLS THE END OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY FOR THE UNITED STATESYou’ve heard of popular sovereignty, right? It’s embodied in the Preamble of the United States Constitution.[1] I’ll quote it for the sheer majesty of the language, archaic though it may seem in these “innovative” days:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Continue reading
Doesn’t that just break your heart? Awww….shucks! Where da ya think all that money comes from?
U.S. seeks $864 million from Bank of America after fraud verdict
(Reuters) – The U.S. government urged that Bank of America Corp pay $863.6 million in damages after a federal jury found it liable for fraud over defective mortgages sold by its Countrywide unit.
In a filing late Friday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the government also asked for penalties against Rebecca Mairone, a former midlevel executive at the bank’s Countrywide unit who the jury also found liable, “commensurate with her ability to pay.”
The government said the penalties were necessary to punish the bank and Mairone “and to send a clear and unambiguous message that mortgage fraud for profit will not be tolerated.”
The U.S. House of Representatives voted last Wednesday to scale back a much-debated provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, handing bank lobbyists a token victory in their fight against the tougher rules. The much-debated provision centered around derivatives. Those fighting the foreclosure wars need not be told the “devil is in the derivatives.” Continue reading
America – we have a crisis. A moral decay that stems from decades of deceit and the acceptance of lies, fraud, and morally bankrupt behavior. We’ve allowed politicians, bankers, attorneys and judges to disregard ethical values and operate under a morally bankrupt code of conduct. It is time to demand that the culture change and it has to start at the top.
Our children have no respect for authority and frankly, how can they when Presidents, politicians and bankers lie – all in the name of money. We’ve set the bar so low that by the time the next generation arrives they won’t be able to recognize the truth. Huffington Post’s Shahien Nasiripour reports the NY Fed Chief’s opinion is that the problems need to be address. Finally maybe, yeah? Continue reading
Yup….we were right. Here we go again. Deb
Wall Street slumlords’ outrageous new scheme: New securities, backed by rental payments
You’d think that investors would run away from a new Wall Street innovation as fast as Congress runs away from a good idea. But instead, they’re flocking to the latest product peddled by large banking interests, even though they look almost exactly like the mortgage-backed securities that were a primary driver of the financial crisis. These new securities, backed by rental payments, also have real-world implications for millions of renters, who could end up turning in their monthly checks to Wall Street-based absentee slumlords.
Over the past couple of years, private equity firms and hedge funds have bought up over 200,000 single-family homes, mostly discounted foreclosed properties in communities wrecked by the housing crash, such as Phoenix, Atlanta, Tampa, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Riverside, Calif. They have spent billions to scoop up these vacant homes at fire-sale prices…
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The New York Times with an insightful review.
WEEK IN REVIEW NOVEMBER 1, 2013 BY ERIC OWLES
[Editors’ note: Please do not read this if you are a junior banker at Goldman Sachs.]
Sit back and enjoy eating your children’s Halloween candy. Looking ahead to next week, we face possible settlements for JPMorgan Chase and Steven Cohen’s hedge fund as well as Twitter’s initial public offering. Continue reading
Deadly Clear 