The FBI is investigating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG – and their executives – as part of a broad look into possible mortgage fraud.
Earlier this month, FBI director Robert Mueller told Congress that 1,400 individual real estate lenders, brokers and appraisers were now under investigation in addition to two dozen corporations.
“The FBI currently has 26 pending corporate fraud investigations involving subprime lenders,” Kelko said. Previously, CNN has reported that Countrywide is part of the investigation.
And the beat goes on. The beat goes on…
#25 “I like looking at root causes and what not. I think going back to 1966 is too early.”
Then, you need to go all the way back to the beginning of what is the current banking system & the Fed.
If you build something on a foundation of sand you can never “fix” the building. You can only tear it down and start over.
DEAR AMERICAN:
I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.
I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 800-BILLION DOLLARS US. IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER, IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.
I AM WORKING WITH MR. PHIL GRAM, LOBBYIST FOR UBS, WHO WILL BE MY
REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY. AS A SENATOR, YOU MAY KNOW HIM AS THE LEADER OF THE AMERICAN BANKING DEREGULATION MOVEMENT IN THE 1990S. THIS TRANSACTIN IS 100% SAFE.
THIS IS A MATTER OF GREAT URGENCY. WE NEED A BLANK CHECK. WE NEED THE FUNDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. WE CANNOT DIRECTLY TRANSFER THESE FUNDS IN THE NAMES OF OUR CLOSE FRIENDS BECAUSE WE ARE CONSTANTLY UNDER SURVEILLANCE. MY FAMILY LAWYER ADVISED ME THAT I SHOULD LOOK FOR A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY PERSON WHO WILL ACT AS A NEXT OF KIN SO THE FUNDS CAN BE TRANSFERRED.
PLEASE REPLY WITH ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, IRA AND COLLEGE FUND ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND THOSE OF YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TO
WALLSTREETBAILOUT@TREASURY.GOV SO THAT WE MAY TRANSFER YOUR COMMISSION FOR THIS TRANSACTION. AFTER I RECEIVE THAT INFORMATION, I WILL RESPOND WITH DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT SAFEGUARDS THAT WILL BE USED TO PROTECT THE FUNDS.
YOURS FAITHFULLY MINISTER OF TREASURY PAULSON
#32–chris==good one.
#31–paddy==also a good notion. Can you be more specific? Seems to me the “banking” regulations have worked. Its the securitization of mortgages that didn’t work out. If you mentioned going off the gold standard, please don’t give that more than one sentence and identify your other complaints?
Banking is interesting. Societies can’t grow without credit and banks provide that. Greece after WW2 is an excellent economic experiment in this. No banks, no credit, no society. Then the military took over and brought in western style banks and the Greek economy took off. But YOU have some other thoughts?
#33 “Can you be more specific?”
Yes and no. You really need to study the original leg and compare against other working banking systems. It’s a deep subject.
Do you know what the M0, 1, 2 & 3 are?
#35–Paddy==so its all mystical complete with anagrams huh? hahahahaha.
Just give one, other than going off the gold standard. Would MO,1,2,3 be a clue==because I haven’t got one.
28, M&M I could have sworn I mentioned Sept 19th. Are you sure you didn’t notice that subtle little hint I dropped with the link? Mark Levin is a conservative talk show host. And your point is? 🙂 Feel free to send me anything by an overt liberal that addresses the crisis. I’d rather see someone’s viewpoint from the left or right instead of immediately disqualifying what they have to say on the matter. At the very least, I can trust one side to “rat” the other side out.
30, I’m not trying to be partisan but regardless of causation, attempts were made to correct the problem as far back as 2003. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which side decided to block those attempts in favor of even more home ownership. As for approximately when it started, even Ron Paul is pointing towards the CRA (surely he’s not so partisan that he wouldn’t blame Republican party if they had a bigger play in this mess)… or is Ron Paul not Libertarian enough to be critical of the Republican party?: http://tinyurl.com/42y7qy
33, I would rather buy into gold rather than going on a gold standard at the rate we’re bailing banks out. I say let them fail and let the pieces fall where they need to over who nurtured the events that took place.
34. And way too many ARM loans were given to people who couldn’t otherwise afford the home they were trying to buy. Is that due to the CRA or due to greedy executives?
#36 Going off the gold standard is only problematic because it wasn’t replaced with another standard that would regulate money supply based on the amount of product the economy was creating. Pressure on the gov’t to increase inflation rate stems from the income tax system and using a graduated tax bracket system. Compare the timing of the introduction of the “income tax bracket” with a graph of inflation for instance.
Here’s a link to some basics on M0, etc.
I live next to a semi large Mortgage company. This past weekend, I watched in some amazement as they hired a mobile shredding company to bring in a few trucks to shred excess paper stock piles. It took about six hours on Sunday afternoon. This is a bit unusual given that they rarely outsource their document shredding to outside firms. For the past three days they have been closed due to a network related problems. The company, however, is not completely shutdown. There are at least a few people coming in and out. Again, strange.
Mustard and bobbo, fine out of the definitions, which include:
“red·line (rěd’līn’) Pronunciation Key
v. red·lined, red·lin·ing, red·lines
v. intr.
To refuse home mortgages or home insurance to areas or neighborhoods deemed poor financial risks.”
You choose the one specific to discrimination. OK. The point, however, is that the gub’ment, in their infinite wisdom, decided that sound economic principles were to be thrown out the window and loans would be made based on social engineering standards. Back to our friend and benefactor Barney Frank, who ridiculed a Bush administration official in 2003 that warned about the unsoundness of giving mortgages to people who can’t afford them, “… he is worried about the tiny little matter of safety and soundness rather than ‘concern about housing.'”
When redlining these neighborhoods, the banks were concerned that, according the Boston Fed, “discrimination may be observed when a lender’s underwriting policies contain arbitrary or outdated criteria that effectively disqualify many urban or lower–income minority applicants.” And what were these “outdated and arbitrary” criteria? How about credit history, down payment and closing costs, and sources of income!
Ya, so choose you dictionary definitions so you can make a point about racism, meanwhile, the Bank of Rome burns.
I wonder what it would take to have the FBI to raid and investigate the REST OF the mega corps and companies..
A legal book keeper to FIND the problems and FIX THEM.
#38 – O’Furniture
Here’s a link to some basics on M0, etc
Nice econo-babble. And you claim PSYCHOLOGY is a pseudoscience? LOL!
#42 “Nice econo-babble. And you claim PSYCHOLOGY is a pseudoscience? LOL!”
M0, M1, etc., has nothing to do with science. It is an artificial construct.
Why would you compare reports on money supply to science?
>>Why would you compare reports on money supply
>>to science?
I said that the “artifical constructs” are econo-babble. That is to say, babbling about economics, which is a “social SCIENCE”.
Got that?
#44 “I said that the “artifical constructs” are econo-babble.”
Yes, it is. What is your point?
BTW – If you introduce X amount of currency into circ and it drives prices up do to too much currency vs. demand, that’s less “social” and more “law of supply & demand”.
But I see what you are saying.
#40–geof==YOU are part of the problem. YOU did not use the word/concept “redlining” correctly.
Notwithstanding that, if one idiot misuses the term to scare another idiot that they are violating the law because of the term, then we have the problem you demonstrate.
Politicians exercise their enfluence all the time. When banks were economically motivated to resist that pressure, they did. When the regs were changed so that they were no longer motivated to resist, they did not.
Yes, lots of blame to go around. Its not democrats, or republicans, or idiot Bush regardless of what they may have shouted into the wind from time to time. ITS ALL THEIR FAULT!!!! Including the defaulting homeowners.
All the evil/stupid doers deserve to suffer. Anyone know how a credit worthy market could be established without bailing out the idiots who need to suffer? Love to hear it.
Answering my own question==what wrong with letting the market “work” and using the &700Billion to provide a “new” credit system based out of Washington? Socialized? Yes. Market has shown it can’t do it==so what is left?
#46 – “ITS ALL THEIR FAULT!!!! Including the defaulting homeowners.
All the evil/stupid doers deserve to suffer. ”
I agree 100%
Angry liberals should have nominated Hillary. The Clintons may be crooked, and despised by the part itself, but at least they would have a voice in this discussion.
There’s always 2012… which is what she was running for anyway.
James, I don’t think marrying into wealth makes an individual experienced on dealing with economic matters. What university get John or Sarah get their MBA (and, or PhD in economics) from (and when was this)?
The last I checked, John almost didn’t graduate from Annapolis and I am pretty sure that Sarah only has a BS degree in journalism.
On a side note, James do you work for Mr. Rove? Is he a relative, perhaps a long lost cousin? I just wonder because you do have down the ability to take a candidates weakness and shift to to the other candidate.
Watching the Tv news, I still haven’t heard any mention of this FBI investigation. Maybe the briefest of notes about it. But I doubt they’ll breathe a word about the guilty parties until after the election, or the big bailout. Which ever comes first. So far its 26 under FBI investigation for fraud? Sounds like George Bush presidential pardon list is growing by the hour.
The Ameican legal systems is very complex. I’m sure these people all think they are in the clear but if you look long enough and hard enough I’m sure they aren’t.
Good hunting.
This process will take time and Bush isn’t going to be President forever.