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HomeWall Street’s Meaningless ‘Mea Culpas’
Posted by Larry Doyle on May 18th, 2011 8:56 AM |
“I’m sorry. No, really I am. I did not mean to do it….er, I mean we did not mean to do it. I hope nobody got too badly hurt. Oh, sorry if you did. Really, I mean it and we mean it. I think we were well intentioned but things just got a little out of control. We will definitely try to make sure this stuff NEVER happens again…no, really. This time we definitely mean it. Will you still trust us? Please?”
Are you kidding me? Is “sorry” the best America gets for the ineptitude, incompetence, reckless and abusive behaviors of those on Wall Street and their regulatory overseers in Washington after driving our markets and economy over the cliff?
Who is issuing these meaningless mea culpas? (more…)
Is Capitalism Dead?
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 11th, 2011 8:20 AM |
While Uncle Sam in the persons of Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner et al may promote the fact that our capital markets currently are a reflection of a rebound in capitalism, they would be wrong.
Our markets and the Wall Street banks that dominate them no more embody the true tenets of capitalism than the incestuous nature of the Wall Street-Washington relationship truly represents the best interests of the American public. As The New York Times highlighted this weekend, Banks Are Off the Hook Again,
Americans know that banks have mistreated borrowers in many ways in foreclosure cases. Among other things, they habitually filed false court documents. There were investigations. We’ve been waiting for federal and state regulators to crack down. (more…)
Will Wall Street Mortgage Settlement Talks Halt Homeowner Abuse?
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 7th, 2011 5:57 AM |
Call me old fashioned but the idea that those engaged in abusive, and very likely fraudulent, business practices are allowed to negotiate a settlement strikes me as un-American.
That said, the world of unintended consequences in our Uncle Sam and Wall Street dominated economic system brings us just such an un-American approach in terms of addressing our current mortgage mess.
Negotiate? Settlement? Growing up in Boston in a family full of lawyers, I was under the impression that fraud and abuse likely got you 5 to 7 years in a medium security facility and maybe you got out in 3 to 4 with good behavior. Perhaps that form of justice still applies to you and me but for the large monied interests who run this country, we’re talking negotiations and settlement. Wow!! Little wonder why the rage in our nation directed at the Wall Street-Washington incest continues to burn so strongly. Let’s navigate. (more…)
Wall Street’s Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost
Posted by Larry Doyle on October 15th, 2010 4:09 AM |
Fraud is fraud.
No matter how you disguise it — or dare I say, securitize it — fraud smells. That stench associated with improperly, and often fraudulently, originated mortgages is growing rapidly and is poised to back up into the Wall Street plumbing. The losses connected with the inevitable outcome of Wall Street banks having to repurchase fraudulently originated mortgages are enormous, although hard to quantify.
I highlighted this reality two days ago in writing, The Real Issues Behind the Foreclosure Crisis:
The imposition of principal forgiveness may actually be less expensive for banks and servicers than addressing the real root problem behind many mortgages. What is that problem? The fact that a lot of mortgages in our nation today were fraudulently underwritten from point of origination and were then fraudulently conveyed via mortgage securitizations.
I actually initially addressed this reality in November 2008 in writing, The Wall Street Model is Broken…and Won’t Soon Be Fixed: (more…)
The Real Issues Behind the Foreclosure Crisis
Posted by Larry Doyle on October 13th, 2010 12:32 PM |
What is really going on in regard to the moratorium on mortgage foreclosures? A lot. Not all of it would qualify as the best of “sense on cents.” My thoughts include the following:
1. Can we now declare the HAMP (Making Home Affordable) program to be totally futile? How is it that everybody on Wall Street and in Washington is now promoting that the economy will be harmed if we forestall the mortgage foreclosure process? What the hell have the wizards in Washington been doing via HAMP and through Freddie and Fannie for the last 18 months? The simple fact is our policy makers have done everything in their power to inhibit the markets from working. Now, all of a sudden, they become proponents of free market principles? Were we born yesterday? Not here at Sense on Cents.
I have continually harangued our Washington politicos for not allowing the housing market to clear, and highlighted how forestalling that process would only prolong our economic pain. We’re feeling that pain now and will be for the foreseeable future.
2. Where are we going with this moratorium? (more…)
