The BAMTOR Principle – Page 2

Breaking the Shorties

Otherwise Occupied: the OWS movement may actually be getting somewhere. It was really a bad idea to seriously injure a Marine, because they are serious about Occupy. Someone who can’t tell the difference between an enemy who wants to hurt you and an innocent that does not want to hurt you shouldn’t be allowed to carry a gun. Don’t forget other ways to peacefully protest the banks.

Maybe that wasn’t a good idea: B of A is backing down from their boil-the-frog fees.

Be Sure to Double Check the Name: Attention conservatives! Even the CATO guys think medical malpractice damage caps are a bad idea. Last I heard, those guys were just barely less conservative than the Heritage Foundation.

Speaking of Cato: Cato Fellow and extremely talented magician/comedian Penn Jillette has risen to Glenn Beck’s challenge to write 10 Commandments for Atheists.

Speaking of Republicans Being Wrong: The freaking World Bank says they’re wrong about the economy. Regulation is not preventing job creation and it never did.

Not Helpful: yet more talk of a foreclosure fraud settlement proposal that gives the banks a slap on the wrists for trashing our housing values and preventing a meaningful economic recovery. On the other hand, maybe doing something about mortgage debt will help. Good luck making the banks suck that up.

Yeah, it’s the FIZZ and not the SUGARS: Teens who drink non-diet “fizzy drinks” more prone to violence. Note the careful use of the phrase non-diet instead of sweetened.

Strike: General Strike November 2. Don’t work, don’t spend money, don’t do anything taxable. If you must go to work, don’t spend money.

Now will you make a freaking MLS client that runs on Lion???: Turns out Mac users are more productive. And that includes the time we spend finding workarounds for cludgy Windows only and MSIE only things we need for work! I’m talkin to you, Marketlinx! Don’t tell me “you’re aware of the problem” just fix it.

And Finally: Happy 125th Birthday to the Statue of Liberty.

Is that a Biblical name?

Here’s a story that made me happy and sad all at once: this week 285 girls in India were granted new names, replacing names that mean “unwanted.” Now, I can’t imagine naming my child something like that, and I can’t even imagine allowing my relatives to name a child that. But apparently it’s common enough in India that a big ceremony was put together for these 285 girls to legally change their names. And I am glad they have that opportunity.

Unfortunately, there is precedent in the Bible. You know those kids were well adjusted too….

In Closing: many parents go online before calling a doctor; we got a really big shoe for you tonight (kinda cool, if you have room); too big to fail?; a whole bunch of stuff about OWS; “The flat tax is a fraud“; why does anybody let Santorum have a microphone?; trade-in; privatized regulation is a joke; “In other words, the growth in the amount that individuals are consuming is lower, but individuals are paying more for what they are consuming” (most of us would call that “inflation”); and a Viking boat burial.

Be aware that I’ve had a huge spam problem lately. If the spam hose continues, I will have no choice but to close to comments in a matter of days.

Curious No More

When I saw this in a parking lot, I wondered what the heck it was:

Now I know. It’s an old mail truck!

Alright, for those of you who aren’t into Volkswagens, here’s In Closing: earthquake shaking things up at the zoo; solving Too Big Too Fail with Even Bigger; I wonder if Blodget is right; the cover-up continues; just in case you didn’t have enough depressing bank news; sure a “high fat” diet can cause diabetes, when it’s also a MEGA sugar diet!; wouldn’t it be terrible if Amy Winehouse didn’t have a drug/booze problem but rather a degenerative neurological disease?; “Hey, if he can stop earthquakes, why can’t he golf and bike at the same time?”; the New Retirement Plan; told you so; in case you didn’t understand that the War on Drugs was racist; only 1 in 5 medical malpractice cases result in anybody getting money (other than the lawyers, of course) (or if you prefer, 4 out of 5 med-mal cases may be almost completely without merit).

Misdirection

OK, Maybe CNN wasn’t terribly subtle when they said “Washington could take down a mega-bank” and then immediately below showed a row of Bank of America ATMs. And don’t get me wrong, everything I have read about B of A lately indicates that they are skating on thin ice.

But don’t lose track of the prize. Fannie Mae just ~~was forced to buy~~ bought $500,000,000 in crappy loans from B of A — despite having plenty of foreclosures and pre-foreclosures of their own — in what Fortune calls a “back-door TARP.”

Gee, this couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the motivation behind a proposed program to help get rid of Fannie, Freddie, and HUD’s foreclosed properties, now could it? By the way, the headline is just a tweak misleading. They aren’t talking about slapping a “For Rent” sign in the lawns of these houses; they are talking about finding some ~~sucker~~ investor to buy them in bulk (that means with limited ability to pick and choose) under the condition of renting them out. Never mind that these homes are in conditions that vary from pristine to bulldozer-ready. Never mind that investors are already cherry-picking the best of them. Never mind that Fannie, Freddie, and HUD all have systems in place to favor owner-occupants when selling foreclosed properties.

Not gonna work.

In closing: I hope he’s still open for civil damages; She-Ra; Clavell did this as a novel, but with helicopters; If I Had $1000 Dollars; it hasn’t worked yet so let’s keep doing it; S&P and 63% of Americans agree about one thing; I know things are bad when Ron Paul starts to make sense; check your LinkedIn prefs; and Bert and Ernie are puppets, they have no sexual orientation.

Banks Will Continue to Make Their Own Rules

President Obama is backing down from the idea of actually having a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that protects consumers in any way. Elizabeth Warren is reportedly out of the running to head it. To me, this telegraphs that the CFPB may give lip service to protecting consumers and enforcing the law, but will probably really protect bankers from consumers while they continue to break the law and screw their so-called customers.

I sure do hope he’s not planning on my support to get re-elected.

In Closing: two ships that never sailed; still not vegetarian, adds ew; way to go, kid; neighbors would rather have a house be empty and slip into complete disrepair than have that man live there; Kucinich has a point (but credit rating agencies didn’t cause a crisis by handing downgrades, banks did by playing games with the numbers!); everyone panic!; the fight over nudie scanners has just begun; it’s good to be ~~king~~ CEO; and 5 fundamental problems with the jobs market.

I’d Bet a Dimon It

Oh Jamie, Jamie, Jamie. Me thinks thou dost protest too much.

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was actually able to say with a straight face that the reason the economy has stalled is too much banking regulation. Somebody pass the man a fire extinguisher; his pants are surely ablaze. Fed officials “dispute” it. Heck, when Jim Cramer says you’ve gone too far, that’s a big hint.

We already — still — have a problem where banks think the rules don’t apply to them. That’s even more true at the “too big to fail” institutions. The Feds can’t make banks follow the law. The states don’t even have authority to make them follow the law. And yet Jamie thinks he has too many regulations?

Just ignore those pesky regulations, Jamie. Keep ignoring the law. And especially, ignore those angry consumers who are tired of getting screwed.

In closing: on health care; Jesus wouldn’t approve of Ayn Rand; national debt; local news; spam; band-aids on a bullet wound; I hope it never happens to his wife; the elements; food prices going up; wage “growth“; Hooverites; fossil sea turtle; and the continuing saga of Whitney Elementary.

Ignore Them

I am completely disgusted with pretty much all politicians, and even more so with politicians that try to position themselves as “I’m a [insert noun] first, not just another politician.” Those ones are dangerous because half the time they don’t understand what the heck they are dealing with. I’m talking to you, Dr. Joe Heck!

I’m tired of politicians who think we can balance the budget without increasing taxes.

I’m tired of politicians who think we can balance the budget without addressing our 2 1/2 wars.

I’m tired of politicians who think that just because I’m not 55 yet, I just need to kiss Social Security goodbye.

I’m tired of politicians who are so ignorant of history that they think there can be a “private sector” solution to Medicare.

I’m tired of politicians who use the phrase “death tax,” when only a few thousand people will ever pay it.

I’m tired of politicians who use coded words to whip the ignorant into a frenzy. (“Domestic enemy”? Why not just call him Satan or the Anti-Christ? What a shame that you really mean he’s an “uppity ******”!)

And most of all, I’m tired of the other politicians who won’t call them out on this nonsense. Don’t even get me started on the media that lets them lie on the air and call it the truth.

Go ahead. Close down the government. Do it! Do it right at “tax day” and completely screw yourselves.

In Closing: defense; a man and his boat; two takes on dessert sushi; WHY??; if you won’t stop for humane reasons, or justice reasons, how about fiscal reasons?; about time; I like Kathy; it’s all about cheap labor; gaming inflation through housing prices; if you haven’t heard about the real Tea Party yet, watch it today; resist BAMTOR; I knew this would happen! Throw the book at them!; and a picture of a random cat. If anybody knows the source, put it in comments so I can attribute it:

Connecting the Dots

Today, the SEC announced fraud charges against a third banker for selling worthless and non-existent mortgages to Colonial Bank, leading to its collapse. This is on the heels said executive confessing to conspiracy and being sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Most reporting on “mortgage fraud” centers on one of two themes: Joe Average knew perfectly well he couldn’t afford the house and lied to get the mortgage in the first place; or robosigning was a just an unfortunate oversight caused by the sheer volume of foreclosures and nobody could reasonably predicted a problem. Both infuriate me. The first was only a small fraction of the foreclosures we have, and the second is merely a cover-up for the real mortgage fraud.

Let’s start from the beginning.

The buyer is told by an unscrupulous mortgage broker that he indeed does qualify for a mortgage, even though the mortgage broker knows that within 3 to 5 years, this buyer will have to refinance or go into foreclosure.
Some buyers — mostly minorities — are pushed into sub-prime mortgages despite the fact that they qualify for a better deal. They are at higher risk of foreclosure from day one and the mortgage broker knows it.
In some cases, a bait-and-switch occurs at the closing table. Either the documents presented are not what was promised, or only the first few pages reflect what the buyer was promised. The rest of the huge stack of paper the buyer must sign is at a higher rate or with worse terms.
The mortgages are sold to trusts, banks, insurance companies, pension funds, investment firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They have been fraudulently represented as “performing” — that is, paying every month and likely to continue. Sometimes, these loans change hands multiple times. This is particularly true in an environment where some financial institutions have failed.
The original bank is now just the servicer, and they have every incentive to add fees, post payments late, deny short sales, deny mortgage modifications, and push the homeowner into foreclosure.
Meanwhile, in violation of the laws of every state in the union, they have failed to report the new mortgage holder at the county recorder’s office. After all, that costs money. Instead, they put together a private company to keep track of who owns what: MERS stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration System. The banking industry insists that this is fine, the law is quaint, this is the way everybody does things now, so the courts need to just accept it. Courts in several states have disagreed. Just because everybody goes above the speed limit doesn’t mean you won’t get a ticket.
The homeowner knows he is in trouble. He calls to ask about a mortgage modification. He is fraudulently told that they won’t even consider it unless he stops paying for 3 months. When the 3 month mark comes, the homeowner is in default and the foreclosure process is begun; it’s a race to see whether the modification or the foreclosure finishes first.
Default is where the robosigners finally come in to play. They have stacks and stacks of documents, some of which need to be fabricated because originals were shredded to hide fraud.
I would be remiss if I did not point out that in some cases, banks are foreclosing illegally: they foreclose on the wrong home, they foreclose without legal standing to do so, they foreclose in violation of a bankruptcy order, they foreclose on a member of our military who is serving overseas.
In the fallout, some financial institutions fail.
The banks turn around and sell the properties at absurdly low prices, sinking property values. In any other industry, they would face charges of dumping.

And there you have it. Robosigners and “people who should have known better” are only a very small part of the mess we now face.

Cross-posted at The Moderate Voice.

In closing: the center is further left; “don’t expose our law breaking trade secrets!”; odd recall; on austerity; women‘s issues; tied hands; seriously??; Pac-Man was supposed to be for girls; I’ve got a soft spot for VW, but this is not likely to be my next car; glad they can agree on something; Superman‘s citizenship and other issues; what are we hiding?; fix it; Matt Damon; and a picture:

The End of the BAMTOR Principle?

Alas, I can only hope. However, I do know better.

Somebody’s actually going to jail for fraud at a mortgage company that caused another bank to collapse. I’m quite pleased that finally, somebody is actually being punished for a crime. But frankly, we need a lot more bankers being escorted off premises in handcuffs. The only way to break the BAMTOR Principle is to make it so Joe Banker tells his boss: “I can’t do that! It’s against the law! Don’t you remember that they arrested Bob for that?”

Elsewhere, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are whining that they may actually have to pay “material fines” for breaking the law in foreclosures. Poor babies. B of A may also have to pay investors a few hundred million dollars for delaying foreclosures because it turns out that some pesky activist judges wanted them to follow the law! It seems like the only way to make a bank pay up is when it’s paying another financial institution. Gee FDIC, I hope you’ve got a plan for what to do when one of these big boys finally collapses.

Finally, some pesky activist judges are finally saying to big institutions “Just because it’s standard practice doesn’t make it legal.”

In Closing: Americans without passports; a recap; another reason to quit smoking; Bring It; no TSA required; stagflation; the center is way off here, no, a little more to the left; worth reading; budget cutting their own throats; stop manipulating me!; that sounds easy; free in Tokyo (did you know Tokyo is 4 syllables long?); and you know I don’t generally do celebrity news, but this sounds like the setup for a re-make of Weekend at Bernie’s. What could possibly go wrong??

Mulholland Shorties

Was I Wrong About Rahm?: He’s not even sworn in yet, and he’s announced that something he wants to do is enlarge a good old-fashioned public works project! Granted, it’s just bike lanes, but it will put people to work and help other people get around when it’s done.

Food Insecurity is just a fancy word for Going Hungry: Here’s a viewpoint from somebody who once had to endure it. It turns out there are a lot of issues in play.

So You Want to be a Revolutionary: This man wrote a book about non-violent revolution. There’s a link to the PDF, which is credited with change around the world.

Income Inequality: When people in other nations notice it, it’s bad. If that has too many words, this one has lots of pretty pictures. Here’s more.

Release the Hounds: An Indiana Deputy Attorney General suggested using live ammunition on protesters in Wisconsin. Thankfully, he didn’t have the authority to order such a thing. But sanity did prevail: he is now unemployed on the grounds that a man in his position must demonstrate civility.

Speaking of Shafting the People who Teach Your Kids: Providence just sent lay-off notices to each and every teacher. They will decide later who actually gets the axe. Way to promote morale! And just a reminder, the average teacher in Wisconsin makes less than the Wisconsin median income.

Your Insurance Company Believes in Global Climate Change: Because 2010 was one of the worst years for climate disasters ever! That would include things like storms. Oh, and I sure hope those of you in San Francisco enjoy the expected snow.

Too Big to Fail is Too Big to Exist: Seriously, even people from the Fed say so.

Making the Situation Worse: Banks are moving branches from poor neighborhoods to wealthy ones — despite laws requiring them to serve the entire community. In this vacuum, payday lenders and check cashing businesses spring up out of need. And did you know that one in nine banks is in danger of collapse?

Some People Have Never Heard of the First Amendment: Some people think you can outlaw “shariah.”

Who Knew: It turns out Americans like having clean air and water.

Priceless: It turns out you can download sheet music of the classics for free. Mozart’s copyright rights are long since expired.

Truth in Comics: Drew and Bors.

Can we Stop Calling it the Party of Lincoln?: It turns out President Lincoln would disagree with almost everything the current Republican party stands for.

They Really Would Prefer All Women were Pregnant: No word on whether they think we should be allowed to wear shoes.

Plastic Tubes and Pots and Pans, Bits and Pieces: Kids need to do more science.

Batshit Crazy: Qaddafi.

The Only Evidence that I am “Moderate”: I’m clearly somewhere between these two crazy extremes. Honestly, I think of myself as left of center. You know I think that the banks are the root cause of much of our current economic woes, but it would be childish to assert that “Wall Street causes all bad things.”

Placebo: Dogs just want to please their masters. That’s why drug sniffing dogs only have an accuracy rate of 44%. That rate drops to 27% when the person in question is Hispanic.

Lily the Pink: Or, Who Knew Moldovans Drank So Much?

Advice for Democrats: Stop using the Republican’s terminology! I want to scream every time i hear one of you talk about the “death tax” or “tax reform” or “Obamacare” or “Social Security reform.” For pity sake, all these things have names that don’t admit that their way of looking at it is correct!

What Happens When This One Pops?: College textbook price bubble.