The Greatest Hoax in the History of Money: The Fed, The Banks, The Lies | Crooks and Liars

The Greatest Hoax in the History of Money: The Fed, The Banks, The Lies | Crooks and Liars
It took the journalists at Bloomberg News two years - and presumably lots of legal fees - to pry information out of the Federal Reserve that should have been made public long ago. We now know that the Fed's secret $7.7 trillion lending program wasn't just the most massive bank bailout ever seen, and it wasn't just free money for mega-bankers - though it was certainly both of those things. It was also the greatest hoax in stock market history.

No, scratch that. It was the greatest hoax in the history of money. And it was built on lies. How many? Let us count the ways.
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The Fed printed trillions of dollars so they could lend it to the banks that crashed our economy at 0.01% interest (also to foreign banks and a number of very wealthy individuals). I think I could make a profit with that money. Don't you? How hard would it be to find somebody who wanted to borrow it at, oh, say 2.0%? Then the Fed kept it a secret. Not even Congress knew about it. When Bernie Sanders and a few other members of the US Congress had the temerity to ask for an audit of the Fed, they were told that such an idea was horrifying and would compromise the independence of the Fed. But a partial audit was ordered and done and it turned up this gigantic stinking obscenity.

But even so, what percentage of the public has read the news coverage of this? Compare that number with the percentage who know all the remaining contestants on the most popular reality show (whatever that is), or who know the current win-loss records of all NFL teams?

Thanks to Mystery Reader for this link.

Reporter Investigating Foreclosure Fraud Finds Out He's A Victim Of Foreclosure Fraud - The Consumerist

Reporter Investigating Foreclosure Fraud Finds Out He's A Victim Of Foreclosure Fraud - The Consumerist
Three years ago reporter George Knapp of KLAS-TV purchased a foreclosed-upon house. Or at least he thought he'd purchased the home. As part of his interview with a local lawyer, Knapp gave the attorney his home address to see what, if any, mistakes had been made during the foreclosure and subsequent sale.

Turned out it was a a little more than a mistake. After the attorney quickly discovered an error in the chain of title for the property, Knapp contacted the Nevada Attorney General's office, which confirmed he did not actually own the house because of fake signatures and improper filings.
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Thanks to Mystery Reader for this ironic tale. I have been reading a number of books and reports on the subprime meltdown and the foreclosure tsunami, and there is a consistent theme in all of these accounts. For about five or six years, nobody in the financial sector was doing things by the book. It was rampant criminality. Financial institutions large and small, from the world's biggest investment banks all the way down to the smallest mortgage originators, were cheating people, cutting corners, falsifying documents, lying, claiming they believed things they knew were lies, and then lying again in order to blame it all on poor people while expecting the taxpayers to bail them out one way or another. Now the mortgage servicers are lying and cheating so they can foreclose without even proving they own the note, and former subprime lenders have become "mortgage rescue" specialists who take people's money for nothing or steal the title to their homes.

And the rule of thumbs seems to be that you don't go to jail for any of this.

HARP's Dirty Little Secret: Most HARP Refis are of Positive Equity Mortgages - Credit Slips

HARP's Dirty Little Secret: Most HARP Refis are of Positive Equity Mortgages - Credit Slips
. As of 2Q 2011, 92% of HARP refinancings (776,009 of 838,441) were of loans between 80% LTV and 105% LTV. Only 62,432 refis were between 105% and 125% LTV. In other words, HARP has provided very little help for underwater borrowers.
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But on the bright side, the federal government has provided trillions to the big banks to help them out. Too bad homeowners aren't "too big to fail."

Notary who blew whistle on foreclosure fraud found dead - My News 3 - KSNV, Las Vegas, NV

Notary who blew whistle on foreclosure fraud found dead - My News 3 - KSNV, Las Vegas, NV
LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) -- The notary who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a massive robo-signing scandal case was found dead in her home on Monday.

The notary, 43-year-old Tracy Lawrence, was supposed to be in court at 8:30 Monday morning for her sentencing hearing.
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Homeowners Association Won't Allow Blinking Or Colored Holiday Lights

Homeowners Association Won't Allow Blinking Or Colored Holiday Lights
The dispute is happening right now in Doylestown around Avalon Court and Rolling Hill Boulevard.

Jennifer Brown's development, Doylestown Station, bans colored lights and even blinking lights. That's why she started a petition with the minimum 62 signatures the homeowner's association requires to even discuss the issue.
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Every year you can count on some association around the nation putting on its Grinch outfit and trying to steal Christmas. Thanks to Shu for the link.

Social Market Housing for the USA: Dream or Nightmare? | Newgeography.com

Social Market Housing for the USA: Dream or Nightmare? | Newgeography.com
Imagine a future America where the home ownership rate climbs from the current 65%1 to 87%2. Libertarians as well as many social democrats would be cheering. Imagine that this rate was achieved by the state itself acting as the builder of 88%3 of the housing. Imagine also that the state imposes rules on home purchases to favor first time buyers and young families. “Progressives”, increasingly tilted towards the unmarried and childless, would bristile. Imagine racial diversity rules that restrict who you can sell your home to. Time for libertarians to shudder.

Most Americans would probably say such a concept is “Utopian” but serious policy makers should reflect that the word “Utopia” literally means “nowhere”. But Social Market Housing is alive and well in Singapore...There is no problem with runaway maintenance fees. HDB owners do not pay associations dues...you can build an HDB block next to a private condominium and you cannot tell which is which...
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When you step outside the American way of doing things you see that there are some alternative approaches being tried in other nations.

Tennessee constables aren't salaried, but they can make money » Knoxville News Sentinel

Tennessee constables aren't salaried, but they can make money » Knoxville News Sentinel
Constables are elected officials who operate as officers at no cost to the county. But they get a kickback from the state for writing citations, making arrests and serving court summonses. The state-based fees for each service are $1 per citation, $40 per arrest and $20 per summons. The money comes out of court costs paid by a defendant or party.
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What could possibly go wrong with this creative privatization scheme, that enlists the wonderful power of The Market to solve yet another problem?

HOA scheme victims say plea deals ignore them - News - ReviewJournal.com

HOA scheme victims say plea deals ignore them - News - ReviewJournal.com
I have a policy of never linking to the Las Vegas Review Journal because of their contemptible and now destroyed relationship with the ruined copyright troll firm RightHaven, but the work of the LVJR reporters on the Las Vegas HOA fraud case is so good and so important that I have to reconsider. No quotations--links only.

Examining the big lie: How the facts of the economic crisis stack up | The Big Picture

Examining the big lie: How the facts of the economic crisis stack up | The Big Picture
You may have heard people blame the economic crash of 2008 on government policies that "forced" banks to give mortgage loans to low-income people who couldn't afford to make the payments. New York Mayor Bloomberg said it a couple of weeks ago. This is a "big lie," as Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation, explains once and for all, in this long and devastating piece.

Hudson Reporter - Website revels in condo controversies Guttenberg man butts heads with Galaxy Towers board

Hudson Reporter - Website revels in condo controversies Guttenberg man butts heads with Galaxy Towers board
Mike Deluca, a resident and former board member at the Galaxy Towers condominiums – which contain most of the population of the tiny waterfront town of Guttenberg – is fully aware of the extent of the controversy his community website encounters.

A computer programmer, Deluca says he created GalaxyFacts.com in 2006 after he felt that he wasn’t given the chance to defend himself at Galaxy Towers Condo Association board meetings.

Read more: Hudson Reporter - Website revels in condo controversies Guttenberg man butts heads with Galaxy Towers board

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Thanks to Shu Bartholomew for this link.

How Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools | The Nation

How Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools | The Nation
The frenzy to privatize America’s K-12 education system, under the banner of high-tech progress and cost-saving efficiency, speaks to the stunning success of a public relations and lobbying campaign by industry, particularly tech companies.
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Think of the money to be made by privatizing public education. And that's being pushed very hard across the nation, in an organized campaign.

Kamala Harris is key in mortgage settlement with banks - latimes.com

Kamala Harris is key in mortgage settlement with banks - latimes.com
Even as Occupy Wall Street protests have turned America's attention to the economic inequality that has soared as banks have come to dominate our economy, those banks have been quietly working to cut themselves still one more sweet deal. Whether they get away with it may ultimately depend on California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris.
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Good article that explains the nature of the proposed settlement and the politics behind Harris' refusal to go along with it.

Meet with HOA? That'll be $650 for our legal counsel

For years, the simple cedar birdhouses that Gregg Harcus hung in the trees behind his town home in Eden Prairie attracted wrens and other small birds.

Now they've landed him $650 in legal fees.

The homeowner's association that oversees Bluff Country Village Townhomes, where Harcus has lived with his wife since 2002, notified Harcus that his birdhouses violated association rules and had to be removed.

Harcus, who resigned in protest from the association's board of directors earlier this year, was surprised that his birdhouses ruffled someone's feathers. He said they have been in place for at least seven years and no neighbors have complained. Harcus said the violation notice came amid a simmering conflict between him and the new management company.
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So much for the notion that private HOA government is superior to municipal government because it's closer to and more responsive to constituents. Who ever heard of getting a bill from the city attorney to discuss an ordinance compliance matter? And all of this over a few birdhouses? This HOA has gone bananas.

US Judge Calls Harrisburg Bankruptcy Filing Illegal - US Business News - CNBC

US Judge Calls Harrisburg Bankruptcy Filing Illegal - US Business News - CNBC
While admitting that she typically doesn't consider matters of state and constitutional law, France had questioned Wednesday whether a four-month-old state law designed to temporarily prohibit a bankruptcy filing by Harrisburg had met state constitutional standards that demand transparency in the passage of legislation.

In the end, she said it did.

She also questioned whether a divided Harrisburg City Council indeed had the authority to go over the mayor's head and file for bankruptcy. After the arguments, she said it didn't.
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This whole debacle goes back to a botched effort to rehab an ancient incinerator. The city went $300 million in debt over this project.

President of homeowners association accused of embezzlement

President of homeowners association accused of embezzlement
NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla.- Board members of the Sabal Springs Golf and Raquet Club filed charges Wednesday against the former president of the homeowners association, claiming he embezzled more than a $1 million over the last 3 years.
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Another isolated example. I am shocked. Shocked!

Texas Couple Fined $7,000 for Posting Sign in Yard

When Johnnie and Clara Russell posted a small yard sign on their own North Texas property outside Ft. Worth several years ago, they did not expect that they would have to seek government permission first. The sign, which promoted an event called “Wake Up America” for conservative pundit Glenn Beck’s “9/12 Project,” provoked the ire of one of their neighbors, who complained to authorities.

The Blaze reports:

Apparently the sign violated the rules of the Homeowners Association (HOA) that governed the subdivision where the Russells lived. And although Mr. & Mrs. Russell claim they never joined the association, never paid dues to the association, and never signed any papers acknowledging the association as a governing body with rules over their property, they were sued for violating the rules.

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Read the story. Another HOA inmate ground to fine dust in the courts.

As the World Crumbles: the ECB spins, FED smirks, and US Banks Pillage - Thoughts - Nomi Prins

As the World Crumbles: the ECB spins, FED smirks, and US Banks Pillage - Thoughts - Nomi Prins
The US subprime crisis wasn’t so much about people defaulting on loans, but the mega-magnified effects of those defaults on a $14 trillion asset pyramid created by the banks. (Those assets were subsequently sold, and used as collateral for other borrowing and esoteric derivatives combinations, to create a global $140 trillion debt binge.) As I detail in It Takes Pillage, the biggest US banks manufactured more than 75% of those $14 trillion of assets. A significant portion was sold in Europe – to local banks, municipalities, and pension funds – as lovely AAA morsels against which more debt, or leverage, could be incurred. And even thought the assets died, the debts remained.
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Which is why the European sovereign debt crisis is yet another stage in the unfolding catastrophe that started with the US mortgage market.

Foreclosure law firm famed for mocking the foreclosed-on will close; world's tiniest violin plays sad song - Boing Boing

Foreclosure law firm famed for mocking the foreclosed-on will close; world's tiniest violin plays sad song - Boing Boing
The firm last month agreed to pay a $2 million fine and change its practices to settle a federal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, but it's also under investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has subpoenaed the firm and people associated with it. Most recently, Cong. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, launched an investigation into Baum, and wrote to the firm to request documents.
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Allegations of robo-signing, bogus assignments, sloppy work, mocking the people they were making miserable...good riddance. Thanks to Mystery Reader for the link.

Why cities should dismantle highways | SmartPlanet

Why cities should dismantle highways | SmartPlanet
Interesting set of examples. Obviously we need highways to connect cities with each other and span the country, but is it a good idea to plan for commuting and other routine transportation within a metro area premised on millions of individuals driving gasoline-powered private vehicles?

Chickens stir up legal trouble between Round Rock homeowners association and residents

Chickens stir up legal trouble between Round Rock homeowners association and residents
First, Andrea and Martin Feher, residents of Round Rock Ranch, filed suit in September against PS Property Management Co., saying it violated their privacy by taking pictures of them, their five children and their chickens in their backyard as it investigated reports of the rule-breaking fowl.

The Round Rock Ranch Phase One Homeowners Association, which employs PS Property Management, then sued the Fehers this month, saying the family was refusing to get rid of their chickens even though they had been told it was a violation of the bylaws to keep them.
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They had one third of a turducken dinner all lined up, but the family got rid of their chickens. Thanks to Bill Davis for the link.