The country’s first black president contributed to a significant disintegration of wealth for people of color.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/obamas-failure-to-mitigate-americas-foreclosure-crisis/510485/

Housingwire:

Lately it seems that Wells Fargo can’t even go a few days without another round of bad news. And Tuesday was another one of those bad-news days.

In September, Wells Fargo’s reputation was shattered after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the city and county of Los Angeles fined the bank $185 million because more than 5,000 of the bank’s former employees opened approximately 2 million fake accounts in order to get sales bonuses.

That fine led to explosive hearings before both houses of Congress, followed by theresignation of Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, who took a beating at both Congressional hearings.

The scandal is far from over as Wells Fargo is still fighting off regulatory and furtherCongressional inquiries over the fake accounts.

The bank also lost business from several states, and then the OCC slapped additional sanctions on…

http://www.wired.co.uk/gallery/infoporn-cities-on-the-edge

Using data on 2,100 cities, Robert Muggah has found which factors make an area more likely to become violent, unsafe and fragile

The 21st Century is inching ever closer towards chaos… and the time to get out of the big city is upon us.

America is on the brink of harsh economic realities, growing crises, desperate populations barely getting by, and more division than at any previous point in American history.  American cities could rapidly descend into dangerous and unruly territory, if the market bubbles implode via 2008 but worse.  If you remember the housing bubble, it was not a slow deceleration of the market but a rapid collapse.

People are living in bigger urban communities that are more blighted than ever before.  Urban centers are dangerous place to be in a collapse. Crime is rampant, order is shaken and many people become willing to take advantage of the…

NEP’s Bill Black appears on The Real News Network. “Despite promises to ‘drain the swamp,’ Trump chose a man for Deputy Secretary of Commerce who enriched himself at expense of labor and consumers and shipped jobs overseas.”

The brokerage industry’s self-regulator has asked employees fired by Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, -2.38%   and stripped of their securities registrations to come forward if they have concerns over their treatment, the latest sign of growing scrutiny on the bank.

The request from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, comes as lawmakers question whether Wells Fargo wrongfully fired employees who pushed back on questionable sales practices and sometimes mischaracterized their behavior on their industry records.

In response to an inquiry by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), and Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), Finra has said that more than 600 Wells Fargo employees fired during the five-year period that encompassed the bank’s cross-selling scandal had received termination filings known as Form U5s. Such forms document the reasons for the dismissal of brokerage employees, and negative justifications can hinder an adviser from gaining employment elsewhere in the…

U.S. insurer Prudential Financial Inc (>> Prudential Financial Inc) said on Monday it had suspended the distribution of a low-cost life insurance policy through Wells Fargo & Co (>> Wells Fargo & Co), pending a review of how the product was sold by the bank.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones told Reuters on Monday he had ordered an investigation into allegations, the latest regarding Wells Fargo’s sales practices, that retail bankers signed up customers for life insurance policies from Prudential without their permission.

The New Jersey Division of Insurance is also investigating, according to a Prudential spokesman and a news release from Jones’s office. Spokesmen for the New Jersey office had no immediate comment.

The allegations are part of a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by three former managers in Prudential’s corporate investigation division. The lawsuit was filed in New Jersey state court last week.
Read on.

American homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments will get a small break from the government this holiday season: They won’t be evicted until after the new year.  What a treat- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will temporarily cease stealing homes they don’t own for two short weeks.

The Federal National Mortgage Association, better known as Fannie Mae, which is operated by the federal government, said it will not evict homeowners between Dec. 19, 2016, and Jan. 2, 2017, though legal proceedings may continue. Fannie Mae declined to say how many families the hiatus would affect.

Since the housing crisis began in 2007, the US government has stood behind the mortgage market, rushing in as banks rushed out. In 2008, it nationalized the two largest holders of mortgage loans, Fannie Mae and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). Fannie and Freddie guarantee and securitize loans made…

State takes final steps to implement new foreclosure laws

December 7, 2016

In May, 2011, Peter Belli filed a complaint in Boston. With guidance from whistleblower experts at Mahany Law, he accused Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corporation of massive mortgage fraud in a False Claims Act “qui tam” whistleblower lawsuit.

Over five years later, and after a trial that lasted five weeks, a jury found both the corporation and its CEO, Jim Hodge, guilty of knowingly representing to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that certain loans were properly prepared and eligible for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insurance, when in fact they were not.

Belli had managed several Allied branches in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, and other states. He was thus in an ideal position to observe Allied Capital’s fraudulent practices, and he was determined to bring the scheme to light. Unfortunately, he passed away before the verdict came out only days ago in Texas. The move to a Texas court had been…

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., announced Monday that he has joined 14 of his colleagues to introduce legislation, the Justice for Victims of Fraud Act of 2016, to give Wells Fargo customers who were victims of a fraudulent account scheme their day in court.

The senator said Wells Fargo is using the forced arbitration clauses it tucked away in the fine print of contracts customers signed when they opened legitimate accounts to prevent the Wells Fargo customers with fraudulently opened accounts who were harmed from joining together and taking Wells Fargo to court.

“What Wells Fargo did was outrageous,” Merkley said. “Opening millions of fraudulent accounts was a jaw-dropping betrayal of their customers’ trust, and one that had a real cost for many consumers. Whether it’s fraudulent fees or a falsely-damaged credit score, consumers should have every recourse when it comes to these violations—especially since customers never actually agreed to…