RSS Feed
Twitter
Facebook
Email
HomeUPDATE: Did Wall Street Violate the Racketeering Act?
Posted by Larry Doyle on May 4th, 2011 11:50 AM |
A month ago I questioned whether there was sufficient evidence of abusive and fraudulent practices in the mortgage business on Wall Street (underwriting, servicing, securitizations, etc) to make a case that the industry as a whole violated the Racketeering Act? I would not expect that our ‘leaders’ in Washington would ever think about making that case; that said, I think there is plenty of reason to believe that a very real case could be made.
What will we likely see? Perhaps a number of individual cases. We witness just such a situation today with news that the Department of Justice yesterday filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank for lying about the quality of loans made by a mortgage subsidiary of the German bank. (more…)
Will Geithner ‘Walk the Walk?’
Posted by Larry Doyle on November 18th, 2009 9:35 AM |
Do you have any confidence that Washington even knows how to properly address our massive and growing fiscal deficit? Rahm Emanuel, Tim Geithner and others understand that from a political standpoint they need to start talking about deficit control, but will that talk lead to action?
Do you think Congressional leaders, specifically Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, have the character and fortitude to ‘tighten the belt?’
The first real test for this crowd is already upon us. How so? The TARP, with a $700 billion commitment, expires on December 31, 2009. Of that $700 billion, $400 billion has actually been spent. Why wasn’t the other $300 billion spent? Well, don’t forget that Obama’s Stimulus Bill totaled $770 billion and assorted other programs implemented by Treasury have run into the trillions. As a result, Geithner did not immediately need to allocate those funds.
The question begs as to what will happen to that $300 billion. While Emanuel and Geithner are starting to ‘talk’ the fiscal discipline ‘talk,’ will they ‘walk the walk?’ (more…)
