It’s just an observation, but it certainly appears that foreclosure judges have been given orders to squash homeowners like a bug at the lower court level and if they can afford to appeal – maybe, just maybe, they might get some fair and balanced justice. The process so far has been highly unbalanced. Whether foreclosure judges are just not competent enough to understand the securitization, rehypothecation and securities scheme, or whether they’ve been told by higher-ups that if they don’t rule against homeowners all their pensions will be lost or the economy will crash – it’s just a bizarre and pathetic state of mind.

Open Secret: The Global Banking Conspiracy That Swindled Investors Out of Billions

The LIBOR Fixing Scandal Gets A Conviction And A Book via cfaille, AllAboutAlpha.com

This month began rather badly for Tom Hayes. A jury found him guilty of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud in connection with the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate. He was then sentenced to 14 years, half of which will be spent in prison before there is any possibility of release.

Hayes had defended himself by trying to kick responsibility up the ladder. His superiors have thus far managed more successfully to do the same in reverse: they’ve kicked responsibility down the same ladder, blaming everything on rogues.

“Well, that’s why you’re the boss.”

Next month may bring Hayes at least a small sense of vindication to clutch to his heart as he begins serving that term. Portfolio/Penguin is bringing out Open Secret…

I have often noted the existence of a primitive tribal taboo shared by virtually all economists against using the “f” word – “fraud.”  I have found a new example that sums up many of the pathologies of economics and economists.  It is an article entitled “Going for Broke: New Century Financial Corporation, 2004-2006.”  Given that New Century was a classic accounting control fraud, the use of the long-discredited gambling metaphor (our “autopsies” of S&L failures refuted it in 1984) demonstrates the crippling power of the taboo.  The three economists who authored the September 2010 article are Augustin Landier (Toulouse School of Economics) David Sraer (Princeton University) David Thesmar (HEC & CEPR) (collectively, “LST”).

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has published a list of the “worst of the worst” – the ten worst lenders in the ten worst markets for nonprime mortgage foreclosures.  The absolute worst…

Just a moment while I am on the run. Hat tip to my clients who sent me this. It might be time to take a harder look at making claims under FDCPA.

In Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC, the Eleventh Circuit held that the creditor violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) by filing a proof of claim to collect a debt that was unenforceable because the statute of limitations had expired.

 In Crawford, a third-party creditor acquired a debt owed by the debtor from a furniture company.  In affirming the bankruptcy court’s dismissal, the district court found that the third-party creditor did not attempt to collect a debt from the debtor because filing a proof of claim is “merely ‘a request to participate in the distribution of the bankruptcy estate under court control.’ Furthermore, the district court found that, even if the third-party creditor was…

The CFPB has weighed in on whether a trustee foreclosing on a California home qualifies as a “debt collector” under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. In Ho v. ReconTrust, N.A. (9th Cir. Aug. 7, 2015), the Bureau filed an Amicus Curiae brief arguing that a trustee engages in debt collection if it sends consumers notices stating that nonjudicial foreclosure will occur unless the borrowers make payment on their debt. (That is, of course, standard practice in nonjudicial foreclosure states.) It argues that this is the case regardless of whether the conduct is related to the enforcement of a security interest—conduct which is frequently viewed as outside the purview of the FDCPA. The topic is of interest not only to entities that act as trustees under deeds of trust, but also to lenders, servicers and other entities involved in nonjudicial foreclosure.

Source: Lexology.com

“There’s not a single, solitary example that it had anything to do with the financial crash,” former President Bill Clinton tells Inc. regarding 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall.

• “In fact, a study done afterward said that the unified banks were actually slightly less likely to fail than either the commercial banks that overloaded on subprime mortgages, or the investment banks, like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and others”: Clinton
• NOTE: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won’t propose reinstating Glass-Steagall, adviser Alan Blinder told Reuters last month
• NOTE: Clinton’s rivals for the 2016 Democratic nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Md. Gov. Martin O’Malley, have called to break up the biggest U.S. banks

Source: Bloomberg

Read more on Inc. Click here.