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POPSTop Contributors to Barack Obama Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the biggest players in the Oil Futures market price manipulation also notice UBS of Germany who started the Sub Prime crisis... Oh yeah Real Change we can believe in you betchya..!
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POPSFBI Investigating IndyMac For Possible Loan Fraud Additionally, two former Bears Stearns managers were indicted last month on conspiracy and securities and wire fraud charges alleging they lied to investors in a hedge fund that tanked last year as the subprime market collapsed. Those charges marked the first criminal charges to arise on Wall Street from the subprime mortgage debacle.
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POPSHundreds Swept Up In Mortgage Fraud Arrests In separate arrests, two former Bear Stearns managers in New York were indicted Thursday, becoming the first executives to face criminal charges related to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. Mortgage foreclosure rescue scams, which promise to help struggling homeowners stave off foreclosure and keep their homes, also have become a major problem, officials said. Typically, unsuspecting owners sign over their homes and then find they are victims of fraud. Officials declined to say who might be the next corporate target, but Mueller said the investigations focus on accounting fraud, insider trading, and failure to disclose the value of mortgage-related securities and other investments. Under review for potential fraud are: investment banks, hedge funds, credit rating agencies, brokerage houses and due diligence firms - which evaluate loans packaged into investments.
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POPSEx-Bear Stearns managers arrested for fraud! Welcome to un-regulated capitalism. "Barclays accused Bear Stearns of knowing for months that certain assets in the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Master Fund were worth "far less" than their stated values." The big shoe to fall... Naked short selling!
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POPSCongress And The Countrywide Scandal As for Republicans, most members of the Senate Banking Committee voted for the Dodd-Frank bill in exchange for reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The reforms, part of a deal brokered by Sen. Richard Shelby (R., Ala.), create a new regulator to establish tougher standards for the portfolio holdings of Freddie and Fannie. While both of these agencies are in dire need of reform, this deal is still a mistake. By foisting this compromise on their Republican colleagues, Democrats are holding the reform of Fannie and Freddie hostage in order to increase bipartisan support for a bailout of reckless mortgage lenders. In a free market, businesses take risks and reap either profits or losses. But markets only work when businesses are held accountable for their bad decisions. The message this proposed legislation sends to the market is clear: Big lenders like Countrywide who make bad bets can count on generous bailouts
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POPSCuomo, Wall Street Agree On Mortgage Debt Overhaul The deal applies only to riskier, non-prime loans in America, and is designed to end what the industry calls "ratings shopping" that pits credit-rating agencies against one another. The $5 billion rating agency industry has been accused of issuing favorable ratings to secure business with leading Wall Street investment banks. The three ratings agencies also signed a letter of agreement to work with Mr. Cuomo to pursue further reforms for the mortgage industry. The attorney general said his probe into the entire mortgage industry, including loan originators and big banks, is ongoing. "We continue to believe that the more our customers, investors and other market participants know about how we do our work, the better," the president of Standard & Poor's, Deven Sharma, said. "We continue to work with the attorney general and policymakers to support effective operations of the world's capital markets."
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POPSDow Tumbles 395 Points On Oil Spike Stocks tanked Friday, with the Dow industrials shedding 395 points, after oil prices spiked more than $11 a barrel and the May jobs report showed a big jump in the unemployment rate. Bond prices surged, as investors sought safety in government debt, while the dollar tumbled versus the yen and euro. According to early tallies, the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 395 points, its biggest one-day point loss since February of 2007, at the start of the subprime mortgage crisis. The selloff Friday amounted to a decline of more than 3%.
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POPSFunds to invest up to $8bn in National City bank All these billions being invested in propping up unsafe banks might have been put to more constructive and less risky use. Add the cost of wars. That is the money which is being taken away from the future ... from our children and their children. Best to start setting up non-money based ways of trading and bartering now, as money becomes increasingly scarce and worthless at the same time.
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POPSBank unveils £50bn rescue package The discount which the bank is paying is said to be about 10 per cent, not nearly enough to cover the potential losses from sub-prime investments. So Gordon Brown is liable to bankrupt all of us. Remember he has signed us up to another potential £50 billion in liabilities, just for Northern Rock! That's £150 billion and counting -- real money! (or is it?)
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POPSSub prime "solutions" Amen. The market works so let it. The drop in housing prices will stimulate demand. We don't need, as a government, to step in and right the ship. The market is fully capable of that without us intervening.
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POPSFear Is Driving Recessionary Trend:Global Economy Is Still Solid
The global economy in general is being driven by several huge factors which significantly outweigh any blip in the U.S. mortgage market. Global investment in commercial real estate increased from $665 billion in 2006 to $930 billion in 2007, and foreign buyers will likely look to the U.S. for properties with long-term value. Furthermore, the current exchange rate of $1.51 per Euro expects to support the growth of exports by offering strong opportunities for the U.S. economy. A recession is not inevitable, but it may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Frost & Sullivan research reveals the current concern over the "crisis" in the U.S. subprime market is overstated and reflects the risky lending practices of banks. The subprime mortgage market accounts for $1.3 trillion of the total U.S. economy, of that only 1.5% is actually at risk. Considering the default rate of 1.5% is the same today as it was in 2004, it seems foolhardy to tie this amount to a nationwide economic downturn.
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POPSAre we Better Off Today Than 8 yrs. Ago FactCheck: Said--then denied--he needed economics education. Russert claimed that McCain had repeatedly said, "I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." McCain responded, "Actually, I don't know where you got that quote from. I'm very well-versed in economics."Russert's quote comes from a 2005 interview with the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 26, 2005: "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." The Chicago Tribune quoted McCain talking to reporters on Dec. 18, 2007: "The issue of economics is something that I've really never understood as well as I should. I understand the basics, the fundamentals, the vision, all that kind of stuff." ...obviously!
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POPSThe hazards of leverage Another fund finds itself in hot water because of its leverage to the volatile mortgage securities market. It probably won't be the last.
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POPSCountrywide Financial Prompts Scrutiny Of Federal Investigators Mozilo insisted that there "was absolutely no relationship between the buyback of stock and my sale of options." Mozilo's remarks were made at a congressional hearing on the lofty compensation levels enjoyed by certain chief executives even as their companies were hammered by losses in the sub-prime mortgage market. He was joined at the witness table by Stanley O'Neal, former head of Merrill Lynch & Co., and Charles Prince, former head of Citigroup Inc., along with members of their boards. O'Neal and Prince were pushed out after their firms suffered billions of dollars in losses tied to ill-fated mortgage securities. Mozilo remains at the helm of Countywide, the company he founded, although he is expected to leave after Bank of America's acquisition of the Calabasas-based lender. "This is a mess," said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), referring to executives "with golden parachutes drifting off into the golf field" at the same time that people "are losing their homes."
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POPSDo Central Banks Matter? European and U.S. central banks have been trying to flood the banking system with money and prodding banks to lend to each other, but it doesn't seem to be working. Inter-bank lending has gotten more expensive, suggesting banks' unwillingness to extend credit. So much for the power of the central bank.
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POPSThe Commander-in-Chef Cooks Up a Storm "Bush: And as people are now beginning to see, Iraq is changing, democracy is beginning to take hold. And I'm convinced 50 years from now people look back and say thank God there was those who were willing to sacrifice. "Curry: But you're saying you're going to have to carry that burden... Some Americans believe that they feel they're carrying the burden because of this economy. "Bush: Yeah, well -- "Curry: They say -- they say they're suffering because of this. "Bush: I don't agree with that. "Curry: You don't agree with that? Has nothing do with the economy, the war? The spending on the war? "Bush: I don't think so. I think actually, the spending on the war might help with jobs. "Curry: Oh, yeah? "Bush: Yeah, because we're buying equipment, and people are working. I think this economy is down because we built too many houses."
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POPSFour Wrong Reasons For Pessimism On the Economy Continued.:It is also less than 1% of the market capitalization of U.S. stocks. In any typically volatile trading day U.S. stocks gain or lose $150 billion every hour. How often does one hear that? "Surely that $150 billion will grow," you say. No doubt. Let's say the amount of bad paper doubles or triples. Would that finally bring the U.S. economy to its knees? I don't think so. The nearest historical comparison we have is the savings-and-loan crisis of 1986--95. On a constant dollar basis--so we can compare apples with apples--the S&L crisis saw $700 billion in bad loans. Nearly five times as much as we've seen in the subprime mess so far. The S&L crisis caused some damage, to be sure. But during the 1986--95 period the U.S. economy grew and stocks went up. We survived stock shocks in 1987 and 1989 and a mild recession in 1990. The country did not collapse into a 1930s-like depression.
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