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POPSGoldman Sucks’ new role: Taking Your Homes The couple alleges that Goldman declined for three years to confirm their suspicions that it had bought their mortgages from a subprime lender, even after they wrote to Goldman’s then-Chief Executive Henry Paulson — later U.S. Treasury secretary — in 2003. Unable to identify a lender, the couple could neither capitalize on a mortgage hardship provision that would allow them to defer some payments, nor on a state law enabling them to offset their debt against separate, investment-related claims against Goldman. In July, the Beckers won a David-and-Goliath struggle when Goldman subsidiary MTGLQ Investors dropped its bid to seize their house. By then, the college-educated couple had been reduced to shopping for canned goods at flea markets and selling used ceramic glass. Theirs is an infrequent happy ending among the hundreds of cases...
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POPSIn President Barack Obama Backyard, 10,000 Patriots Unhappy About Unstainable Government Spending
New Lenox Tea Party Express draws 10,000 YouTube (1:58) On tax day, the tea party movement began in earnest. Until now the movement has remained at the local levels. No longer will that be the case. The movement is coming to Washington on September 12, 2009 for a march and rally at the US Capitol. From autos to banking, the government is crowding out the private sector of our economy. Where Bush bailed out the private sector, Obama is making hostile government takeovers. Ignoring our multi trillion dollar deficit, Washington is considering a massive new energy tax and a takeover of health care. On Saturday, September 12th FreedomWorks will be joined by over ten thousands of liberty-loving activists to take a stand against politicians who are bankrupting our future. National co-sponsors include Tea Party Patriots, ResistNet, National Taxpayers Union, Americans For Tax Reform, Young Americans for Liberty, Ayn Rand Center, Campaign for Liberty, Free Republic .
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POPSTreasury, FDIC And More: How Many Lies? This usually occurs when a bidder for the failed bank is willing to pay a higher price for the entire deposit franchise. We are authorized to deviate from the "least cost" resolution only where a so-called "systemic risk" exception is made. This is an extraordinary procedure which we have never invoked. And again, any money we borrow from the Treasury Department must be repaid through industry assessments. I am confident in the strength of the FDIC's resources to make good on our sacred pledge to insured depositors. And, remember, no depositor has ever lost a penny of insured deposits, and never will. Note that bolded text. See, this is the second lie. Yes, the FDIC is required to follow the "least cost resolution" process, but what's being left out is that the FDIC (along with OTS and OCC) are also required to follow "Prompt Corrective Action" which serves as a means of preventing losses from happening in the first place. Yet the history of this crisis proves . . .
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POPSEconomic signs: Washington may have gotten it right "evidence is now pointing pretty strongly in one direction: history books may conclude that the financial crisis of 2008 turned out to be far less bad than it could have been and that Washington deserved much of the credit"
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POPSLawsuit to Obtain Treasury's Documents on Bailout of Freddie & Fannie Treasury Department officials requested a 10-day extension to conduct a document review. However, since that time, Treasury has provided no documents and no indication when documents will be forthcoming. On his first day in office, President Obama promised that "transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency." The president further declared that "the Freedom of Information Act is perhaps the most powerful instrument we have for making our government honest and transparent, and of holding it accountable." Earlier this year, Judicial Watch had to sue the Obama Treasury Department in order to obtain documents regarding an historic meeting held by former Treasury Secretary Henry "Hank" Paulson with top bank executives. The documents show that Paulson and other officials, including then-NY Fed Reserve head and current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner forced the executives to take the government's $250 billion "investment" (and resulting control).
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POPSTime for Congress to Start Issuing Subpoenas Pulling the TARP over taxpayers' eyes By: Michael Barone Last fall, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told shocked Americans that the $700 billion TARP had to be passed immediately but not to worry because taxpayers would eventually make money on the investments as banks and other institutions getting bailout money paid it back. To the contrary, Barofsky said, not only are banks hoarding TARP funds, it is "very unlikely" that most of the TARP money will ever be repaid, let alone turn a profit. The hastily passed bill included minimal reporting requirements, so a third of all TARP recipients admit they used the money to repay loans, merge with other banks, and even purchase more mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - the two institutions at the heart of the housing market collapse. Some companies are even using TARP to pay off other government loans in what auditors call "bailout arbitrage." And it's all perfectly legal.
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POPSWhat's the Hurry on Health Care? My apologies to wonderful car salesmen...I mean you no disrespect. But these guys in D.C. are disrespecting you. And us. Foisting on us the biggest lemon in history, and insisting that if we sign fast, we won't even notice. Again, take it from a guy who's been rushed and made to look stupid: Sharks don't let you wait. They attack. And attack fast. And we're all easy bait. But I hope not stupid bait. Because we must be seeing the warning signs. And enough of us must be asking the right questions. Because, the more the signs, the more the questions, the more they say, calm down, all is good, just sign here. Which has me saying, hey, stick this whole thing...here. Didn't we just do this? Last fall? When Hank Paulson said just sign-sign-sign this rescue deal? And it wasn't such a deal? Have we forgotten the quick bailouts that themselves needed bailing out? Have we learned nothing from rushing space launches when we shouldn't have?
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POPSPaulson to Testify July 16 to House Panel He denied that the Fed inappropriately persuaded Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis to continue with the deal, despite Lewis' concern about Merrill's condition. Lewis had told Bank of America's board that federal officials said if he did not go through with the transaction, "the Treasury and the Fed would remove the Board and management of the Corporation," according to a transcript of that meeting. The committee has released hundreds of pages of documents that it subpoenaed from the Federal Reserve, which has shined a spotlight on the internal deliberations that took place during the time the deal was being negotiated. Towns and Kucinich, both Democrats, also said they want Paulson to answer whether the government had any role in persuading Bank of America to acquire Merrill Lynch. Republicans on the committee have accused regulators of strong-arming Bank of America to complete the Merrill acquisition,
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POPSThe Great American Bubble Machine a suspiciously self-serving plan to funnel trillions of Your Dollars to a handful of his old friends on Wall Street. Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury secretary, spent 26 years at Goldman before becoming chairman of Citigroup " which in turn got a $300 billion taxpayer bailout from Paulson. There's John Thain, the asshole chief of Merrill Lynch who bought an $87,000 area rug for his office as his company was imploding; a former Goldman banker, Thain enjoyed a multibilliondollar handout from Paulson, who used billions in taxpayer funds to help Bank of America rescue Thain's sorry company. And Robert Steel, the former Goldmanite head of Wachovia, scored himself and his fellow executives $225 million in golden parachute payments as his bank was selfdestructing. There's Joshua Bolten, Bush's chief of staff during the bailout, and Mark Patterson, the current Treasury chief of staff, who was a Goldman lobbyist just a year ago, and Ed Liddy, the former Goldman director . . .
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POPSGoldman Sachs The Next Bubble But it was only in 2000 and 2001 that the foundation gave money to the Climate Exchange -- funds deemed by the exchange itself to be fundamental to its successful launch, and in fact to its early survival. Having survived, thanks to the million-dollar bailout from Obama and the Joyce Foundation, the Chicago Climate Exchange went on to merge with Climate Exchange Ltd in 2006. Goldman Sachs took a 10% stake in the firm at the time and later increased its holdings to at least 19%. CCX is also 10% owned by Generation Investment Management, a firm founded and chaired by Al Gore and co-founded by the above-mentioned former Goldman CEO, Hank Paulson. According to EnergyRisk.com, "Goldman Sachs is a major trader of European Union allowances and is set to be a key player in the US emissions markets that are planned to start up at the end of the decade."
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POPSGoldman Sachs The Wizard of Oz and primed to spearhead an assault on the mortgage banks, bringing suits against any suspected of practicing unlawful discrimination, whether on the basis of race, gender or disability." Goldman Sachs played a major hand in these Clinton-era financial policies through Robert Rubin, former Co-Chairman of the firm, who actually announced them on December 8, 1993. Taibbi wrote in Rolling Stone: During his (Robert Rubin's) tenure at Treasury, the Clinton White House made a series of moves that would have drastic consequences for the global economy - beginning with Rubin's complete and total failure to regulate his old firm during its first mad dash for obscene short-term profits. Taibbi adds that other Goldman graduates played a major hand when the market crashed, including another Goldman-ex turned Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson: Paulson elected to let Lehman Brothers -- one of Goldman's last real competitors -- collapse without intervention...
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POPSThe Economic 9/11: September 11th 2008 "Changed Everything" The Big Secret: The Economic Terrorist Attack Sept. 11, 2008 in New York City. An "electronic run on the banks" that almost led to total American and global financial collapse. Who was the "someone" behind the "electronic bank run" that almost collapsed America's economy, in the New York City financial district, center of international trade as well, on Sept. 11, 2008, between the hours of 9am and 11am, on the very anniversary of the 9/11 attack in the same city, and at the very same time? The Bailouts have received all the attention without giving due attention to this "catalyzing event" on 9/11/08 that precipitated the Economic Crisis and subsequent government response. It is an unspoken, but fully documented event, that receives no attention. Why not?
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POPSDid the Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke Lie? “Just had a long talk with Ben . . . says they think the MAC threat is irrelevant because it’s not credible. Also intends to make it even more clear that if they play that card and they need assistance, management is gone.” In other words, Bernanke acknowledged to Lacker that if BofA management disclosed to shareholders the terrible state of Merrill, even in considering a withdrawal from the deal, Bernanke would fire them. This directly contradicts the Fed head’s public statement before Congress’s JEC. At that time, Lewis was strongly considering a material-adverse-change clause to stop the Merrill deal. So Bernanke put a gun to Lewis’s head, but he won’t fess up about it. A House investigative committee will probably call Bernanke to testify on this subject. If so, the whole world will be watching. As former Reagan prosecutor Joe diGenova told me last night on CNBC, the Justice Department won’t prosecute Bernanke.
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