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Fraudclosure Settlement Imminent
To all those who penned lengthy essays and activist missives to various law enforcement and judicial organizations in 2010 over the fraudclosure fiasco, we have one word: condolences. According to Bloomberg, which cited Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, "The five largest mortgage loan servicers, including Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co may be the first to settle with 50 state attorneys general who are investigating foreclosure practices." It appears these attorneys general were all sequestered and advised of the now-traditional M.A.D. apocalypse that would follow if this latest iteration of Wall Street's corner cutting was pursued by the full extent of the law. In other words what many have claimed is the biggest fraud in MBS history is about to be swept under the rug in exchange for 30 pieces of silver wrtistslaps. In the meantime, disclosure such as that revealed by Allstate, which virtually proves that Bank of America was lying outright to investors about its portfolio quality, will be made irrelevant, and yet one more aspect of TBTF fraud will be institutionalized.
From Reuters:
The attorney-general group expects to reach five separate agreements with the five largest servicers, the news agency said, quoting Miller, who heads the multi-state probe.
Miller could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.
The other three large servicers are Citigroup Inc (C.N), Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and Ally Financial Inc.
The group has had at least one face-to-face meeting with representatives from all five of the largest banks and will reach individual settlements rather than a global agreement with the servicers, Bloomberg reported.
Mortgage servicers have come under fire in recent months for abuses of the foreclosure process.
All 50 state AGs formed a joint probe in October to investigate the use of "robo-signers" in foreclosure proceedings.
Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.
The only take home message for the peasants who follow the rules is that the greater the crime, the easier one gets off. But that should not really be news to anyone at this point.
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No such thing as a down stock market, everyday is an up day. Make free money buy SP500 futures get rich it's all rigged to the upside.
And why is anyone surprised about this settlement? You MUST COUNT ON the fraud as part of the equasion. The government, regulatorsm law officials, journalists/newspaper and judicial syetm is comletely 'captured' by the private members who own the Federal Reserve.
"Give me control of a nations money supply, and I care not who makes it’s laws." -- Mayer Amschel Rothschild (one of the men who created the central banking scheme as used in many countries today)
I'm sure Marla will formulate a very eruditely legal discussion defending the settlement on her personal blog, just like she defended the government's position to prosecute Julian Assange.
I am Chumbawamba.
I am curious, is there real fraud behind this, i.e. is there a significant number of homes foreclosed incorrectly?
The banks probably cut a few corners when processing the documents, for which they deserve the wrist slap, but did they actually commit any real fraud, not the silly "did not cross with X, did not read the documents the signee claimed to have read, gotcha!" kind of lawyer's game that most of this ruckus seems to be about?
Is this a dumb question being masked by a feigned ignorance?
I am Chumbawamba.
This happening in any other country we would call it bribery.
Here it's called a settlement.
Bribery is illegal, settlements are not.
"I, for one, congratulate our fascist overlords"
LOL!!!
You do it and see how you go with that defense...are you a plant?
Apparently, there has been such a feeding frenzy that there have been cases of two banks trying to foreclose on the same house, banks or servicers trying to foreclose on houses that have been paid up, banks foreclosing on property they have no legal interest in, and poor locksmiths getting shot after getting requests from banks to break into people's homes to change the locks when the banks couldn't be bothering about the foreclosure formalities.
http://www.lsgmi.org/content/retired-cook-fights-two-banks-save-home-47-years-foreclosure
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/bank-america-sued-foreclosing-wrong-homes/story?id=9637897
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dawn-teo/locksmith-shot-by-homeown_b_175505.html
http://www.southcoastaccidentattorney.com/blog/bank-of-america-wrongful-foreclosure-on-paidup-home.cfm
Yes but can we assume that's the regular rate of error that occurs in any business? For the cases you mentioned, the bank has zero interest in having to fight with another bank over foreclosing the same house, and it does not have any interest in having to settle with the owner of an mistakenly broken door/lock either ...
I.e. those are expensive mistakes that create complications and costs for the bank.
The question is, is there any serious fraud in this particular case that enriches the banks (for example tens of thousands of homes securitized twice, etc.) - or is it simply sloppy document handling?
If there's serious fraud that enriched the banks, well beyond the natural rate of error, then it's a serious issue. I've yet to see a single report that suggests serious fraud that actually benefited the banks in a systematic way, and nobody here even seems to ask this fundamental question - it's weird, it's almost as if people here were not able to (or willing to) think things through.
If it's only sloppy document handling then this is much ado about nothing substantial and the story will go away after the banks have settled and all the fake sell-side hysteria here on ZH will die down.
Lesee...banks loan money to mirror-foggers. Banks slice and dice mortgages, sell junk to investors, buy and sell derivatives (AIG)...Banks get in trouble, (see 2008), Banks get bailed out... trillions of dollars, who knows how much? Banks don't loan bailout $$$, buy T-bills. (First the corn-cob, then the kiss, Mr. Taxpayer!) No bank has losing day in stock market in months. Ohhh... then the problem with a contracting M1 compared with an expanding M3 means Joe Homeowner can't pay the mortgage... but who owns the mortgage? Urp...dunno...why not me, the TBTF Bank? I've been screwin' 'em all along, why stop now? So, I'll just forge a few signatures, fake a few documents, it's all business as usual...! Nope, no fraud here! that's why we sent those silly AG's home to Mommy...
figures
i'll say.
Bankrupt FTSE went up + 150 points with AAL leading the fraud for the last 5 weeks
The U.S. is the latest victim of the mafia-style banksters' "bust-out".
payout...sell out. The state AG were the last hope for justice. Guess the state governors pleaded with them to take the money to keep the Fat Nancies sitting behind some desk doing more of nothing for the citizens.
Of course. It was obvious from the beginning that the states merely planned to wet their beaks.
Typical law onyl applies to the 'Little Guy', time to get out of Doge!
Personally, this absolutely sickens me, but Denninger sounds almost defeated.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=176404
Denninger is a defeatist. How else can you describe a guy that takes every opportunity to whack precious metals? He wants to wallow in defeat because defeat is for losers, and Denninger is King of the Losers.
I am Chumbawamba.
What a lovely arrangement. Make Billions in profits rigging the markets and then pay millions in fine and continue doing the same.
Would the regulators extend me the same rules if I robbed one of the Too Big to Fail and then pay 5% of my collections as Fine for the crime.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article24581.html
Well, it's great, isn't it? Let's setup a bank with the explicit aim of forcing new laws upon the US, for our own benefit. If we get, I don't know, 100m subscribers, we should be able to force the hand pretty much as we want, right?
A securities dealer bilks clients out of $50 million and gets 2 years in the country club prison where he can practice his golf swing. Not bad pay, especially when you figger he's getting 3 hots and a cot to boot.
Figures. I wonder when the spineless politicians will legalize the MERS fraudulent note/mortgage/title mess. Is there such a thing as a clear title in this country anymore?
"Is there such a thing as a clear title in this country anymore?"
No. And that's not accidental. With such things as clear titles, any peon could contest the whims of the powerful. And while that sort of thing has been rare enough, clearly it's been decided at the highest levels that even the slightest risk of inconvenience is too much for the elites to have to endure.
Is there such a thing as a clear title in this country anymore?
NO...and no such thing as a clean conscience either. All for the greater good no doubt.
Forgive them father, they know not what they do...right.
Any title that has has a mortgage on it over the last ten years, is NOW suspect for 30 years...the "Marketable Title Act".
Anyone who does not think, believe, and understand the America you knew and loved is history, is a simpleton.
The one thing that makes a country trustworthy is LAW. With that now made at the whim, or broken at the bold indifference of the elite, we have become just another Georgia, Serbia, Iran, Egypt, and all the other countries that pretend to observe law (including religious law).
We might as well Federal Marshall deputize the banks, wall street, and the rest of the elites, and get it over with. At least they would have to wear badges so we would see their faces.
Is there such a thing as a clear title in this country anymore?
No. There's no such thing as private property ownership. How can you have title to something you don't really own to begin with?
Well, as long as you have access to the property, you can always arrange for a bulldozer to "accidentally" make its way onto your property and demolish the house, the day before it goes up for public auction.
Actually, a bulldozer doesn't need permission to go anywhere. Even the courthouse itself.
I am Chumbawamba.
Just making home improvements?
Why should anyone obey ANY laws if yet more banksters get away with it
Do you make Million dollar campaign contributions to your elected representatives?
Well then, you better pay attention to those laws. "Get out of Jail Free" card's ain't free.
Too Big To Jail
+1000
What a shame. I pray daily for a collapse because I want to see these dirty banker cocksukers get whats coming to them.
That would be our politicians, right?
He's got it right.
Dirty BANKERs. They are the criminals.
Learn to read.
So how long you been in politics?
you missed the joke
Need more than 1/2% of the population to pay attention for that to happen. Not likely, though, too disrupting to travel soccer.
You should spend your time more productively. You might then have a chance of improving your financial position so you arent sponging off the rest of us.
I junked you.
Your comments are often incendiary for no real reason. His desire for collapse does not imply that he is sponging. Troll.
Jamie, is that you?
You know, if you didn't waste your own and our time posting here, you could spend your time more productively. You might then have a chance of improving your financial position so you arent sponging off the rest of us.
Buy Gold and Silver, as much as you can, to hasten the collapse.
In the case of a collapse, the justice meted out will be bloody and indiscriminate, and much more likely to fall on the head of some poor middle management schmuck staggering under too much debt, who always played by the rules and paid his taxes, trying to live out his American Dream in a McMansion in some suburb. Mob vengeance will fall on the heads of his wife and children too. In other words, people the mob can catch, people who excite their envy. The architects of our misery will be out of the reach of our revenge, watching the fireworks and bonfires from satellite TV.
I was atleast hoping for indian burns! no more wristslaps! And more comments are needed on my petition to timmay!
http://mandelman.ml-implode.com/2011/01/sign-this-stopservicerscams-com-petition-to/
Shocking...really....
</sarcasm>
No surpirse. I am tempted to get that steak now...will someone PLEASE plug me back into the Matrix?! Man, it sucks to be stuck here in the 'real world' where the truth is cold, wet, and very uncomfortable.
Shut up and eat your gruel.
first off where is "road kill girl"? having seen some doing a little "ice road truckin'" out West (southern Colorado to be exact) I am while not disappointed feeling that others might be. Needless to say "bring back bored to death girl" anytime. Insofar as "the issue at hand"--well "we have 2nd lien mortgages (trillions), failed credit card securitizations (trillions), the continued collapse of real estate valuations (trillions) and unfunded pension/health care/disability comp/etc...(always important) obligations at the state/local/and Federal level (trillions)." That's a lot of trillions that no matter how many "banks are just groovy" brooms Attorney's General speak towards these realities simply cannot be swept under the rug. You know it, I know it, the government knows it, Kim Jong Il knows it and of course "all those darg nabbit fight clubbers speak of it whether you wanna hear about it or not." In short "of course there's a settlement." Perhaps the title should be "emminent" rather than imminent?
They "formed a joint probe"
They are killing me, where do I start. Did all 50 Attorneys General screw us at once?
The position of AG is a joke. It seems as its become a stepping stone for something greater. Faustian bargain of sorts.
Just look at Cuomo.
First time being at the center of a gang-bang?
Nah man, I'm an American tax payer.
Well played miss, well played.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Seems to me that the financial condition of the various states contributed to this sham of a settlement. The states are so broke that they're looking for any pools of money to help them continue their charade. So, the largest rip-off of individual 'homeowners' in history sets up as a payday for the state's coffers. When, in fact, the parties that were actually harmed receive nothing, zilch, nada. It would be as if you were due a large settlement from a company that wronged you and then the state steps in and says "hey wait a minute, instead of paying this individual citizen for the harm you caused him/her we'll just fine you and you can pay us instead." This is a case of state governments robbing their own citizens by taking a payoff from the criminals. Sickening.
For me, this is the best comment on this thread. Connects all the dots really well.
thinking the same. the worse it gets, the more desperate, corrupt, and contolled they become. At the other end, those in control are becoming so powerful and arrogant, that they could give a shit how bad it looks. The corruption is blatant and almost a challenge. I dare you to do something about it. So when do we take them up on it?
that is quite a gang raping, ms C!
MsCreant, The D.A.'s all 50 of them can only settle in the name of the state, not individuals as near as I can see. We are the soverign citizens and tne D.A. cannot settle or represent us individually without our approval.
Still in all I am pissed! These pissants have, have for the most part been directly elected to defend our state and it's owners-us.
Time to load and lock!! Milestones
Just don't pay your mortgage. It takes a long time for them to foreclose.
Copper is way up, gut the pipes and wires before they take it. Fuck them all.
OK, they got away with another rape. But But who are they going to pick as the fall guy title insurance company to miraculously wave a "clear title" wand over all the foreclosed properties?
OH...don't be such a downer! We'll figure that out when we get to it.
But, seriously, the insurers will go out of business and the bond, that the insurer guaranteed with the state, will be up to the state to pay up on. Easy piezzie. States are bankrupt, so what is one more obligation.
"The Rule of Law".....or "The Rule of Your Law"
The Rule of Lawn. We need a mower
Simon Black's writings are daily more appealing. America is twisted fucked up.
I have to agree with your post. The financial system is fraudulent beyond our wildest imagination. Politicians are corrupt and twisted beyond belief. The rule of law is extinct. The only way to protect ourselves is through buying gold/silver and expatriation.
Indeed. Eric Holder could be in coma and we'd have the exact same level of 'justice' as we have now.
<drum roll>....and the WINNER IS....THE FUCKING BANKS!!!
Let's all give them a big hand!
We are connedstituents; we have taxation with farcification.
We are a nation ruled by law when convenient or involving inconsequential issues of the little people. The various state AG and fannie freddie and pimco were never out to destroy the banks or stop foreclosures in a meaningful way. People were very foolish to bet on armegeddon merely because they think the law or justice mandate it. This was easily predictable and anyone without a chip on his shoulder could look at the financial numbers and see that bank armaggedon was not priced in. Most of the.time the market is correct in its predictions and doomers are wrong. Understand that tptb will not allow laws or fairness to get in the way. Invest accordingly. However they cant control commodities!
if i had to guess, not many writing here have been betting on this "armageddon" to happen. After all, many here have seen this movie before. However, we were entitled to expect the rule of law to be followed at some repeat at some extent. Otherwise, what is it another banana republic?
Otherwise, what is it another banana republic?
Affirmative...
could not agree more with troy ounce....good luck everyone
http://theopeningrange.blogspot.com/
The fact that nobody will go to jail for this, should have demonstrators rioting in the street.
..... I'd go, but, ahhh, I just got last season's "Lost" DVD in the mail from Netflix, and I want to watch it on my new iPad, so I'm kinda busy today.
The voice of an entire generation.
Julian: Spill the beans!
The best way to demonstrate or protest is to buy gold and silver.
Trust me, the bankster ptb have that angle covered, too.
At least to the ones who only read the headlines such as this one:
Police are now warning people about buying and selling gold and I quote, "
"The Pasadena Police Department would like to inform the public that buying gold is against the law unless you are licensed by the California Department of Justice," the statement said.They are of course talking about buying via a pawn broker, but how many will understand the difference. Out of control. Read more: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_16988452#ixzz1A5Gj30ks
Got this MarketWatch article from Mish. It ain't over for BoA.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/for-b-of-a-mortgage-put-backs-arent-over-2011-01-03?pagenumber=1
I can't determine who is sicker in the head: Pelosi or Blythe.
or blankfein?
to give credit where is due.
the banks are mt shells for the most part. when our "government becomes an mt shell as well" then we have a problem. great comments...and glad to see ZH picking up it's game on this "wild start to the New Year." As they say "be careful what you ask for...you just might get it." And of course "buy DirecTV."
Well, this is disconcerting. However, there is a bright side to it, as well. We now know that we will be heading into a multiple decade economic depression.
This might cause someone to ask, "Hey man, how is that a bright side?" Well, if you are anything like me, then you are frustrated at how stupid Americans blow millions/billions of dollars buying cheap crap made in China and talking about how this habit of buying things represents the salvation. I'd rather folk did not seek salvation in this form, thus propping up Communist Chinese folk.
Nope, I'm one of those weird folk that think this money should be saved so that said person could retire without walking up to the government and saying, "Hey, take care of me," thus continuing the socialistic tendencies of many stupid Americans.
So bring on the depression. And this decision will do just that because...and this won't be the first time I have said it....
CAPITAL CANNOT FORM IN BANKS AS CORRUPT AS THESE!
As such, capital will not form, and only Bernanke Bananas will be available as formation capital...which will also bring on the depression. Questions?
questions, yep sure have them...
Forced 401k...you think it will be there when SS isn't? Do you think 401k and the rest of the forced retirement plans has anything to do with the financial success of China and the destruction of American Jobs? Buy from China or not, this countries financial industries and government investment/tax rules have systematically made sure wall street bets win dropping some crumbs for "investors" along the way. But everyone discounts THAT because it part of their 'get your damn hands off' portfolio.
Blindfaith,
We have a linguistic problem here...not sure about all of your questions. In the general spirit, however, the things you mention will be insufficient to provide support for folk getting older.
On Forced 401k account conversions...yes, I'd be very concerned about that happening as a last ditch effort to prop up the bond market.
As for criminal syndicate Wall Street bankers, yes, they will be propped up and live happily ever after in their enclaves...just prior to dying and heading to Hell for all the people they ripped off during their lives on Planet Earth.
Not sure about your last sentence at all...but let's just assume "yes" because the current regime consists of equal portions of criminal syndicate Wall Street bankers and incompetent and/or corrupt politicians in DC that protect them.
Clear?
As I have said from the beginning regarding "foreclosure gate":
Lawyers will make money, bankers will make more money and those delinquent will get kicked to the curb and run to section 8.
No one will be punished (except for the taxpayer), much less strung up in town square.
Get used to this ZH sheeple. The TBTF are exactly that and will remain so. Your dellusions of an uprising by "main street" are as unfounded as your dellusions of a collapsing dollar and society in general.
It just is what it is people; it just is what it is.
You can only piss in your own nest for so long. There are obdurate consequences for doing so.
please observe the behavior of rats, that is exactly what the do. And, when that nest is completely putrid, they go fine a new nest.
rats also eat their own feces. the analogy still fits
While your assertion that hopes for a civil revolt are delusional has merit, your assertion that expectations of a collapsing dollar and society are delusional lacks merit. The later will be decided by people outside America whom our TBTF bankers don't control.
It is as we expected. Everything in the world today is of the banks, for the banks and by the banks. No one can move against the banks. They own and control.
check out the latest nod for Chief of Staff
removed to avoid getting my ass visited by Homeland Security
Seeing black SUVs in my nightmares is second only to all of the broken windows.
["Strike" tag doesn't seem to work.]
I saw the comment and it made me want to invest in other, er, commodities besides the PMs.
how did you know they start with your anus?
Really, I feel sorry for you all Americans but your lethargy puzzles me.
Your only way out seems to be to buy as much bullion as you can. Max credit cards, buy bullion and hide it.
There is no way out. Obama is not going to help you. Republicans will put you over the barrel and not use glycerine, despite promises.
9/10 your media will present to you soon a new enemy to fight, most probably one with a beard, in digital form, far away, but the rage will be big enough to declare a State Of Emergency in order to keep the attention away from the looting by the bankers at home.
Good luck.
do you really think the rest of the world will be ok? this is a global economy isnt it?
Bringing Closure to Fraud Closure. Fraudulently of course.
I'm sure no one here is surprised. Can't wait to see the sputtering rebellion!
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
Et tu, Texas? I really had hoped for better.
ditto for WA.
McKenna was looking pretty good for a while.
Not so much any more...
McKenna had better put it back in his pants or I'm personally going to start a recall petition.
And I have plenty of spare time to put into this kind of stupidity.
I am simply disgusted to the point of "corruption sensory overload".
To cheer myself up, I added to my physical silver pile last night...buying the dip...bitchez.
+1000. "Corruption sensory overload" ... totally understand. My only small comfort is my 60% 'in' position in physical PMs
Wasn't there something about pre-christmas banker bonuses?
The media and the administration is going to claim this a triumph of justice for the little guy.All the states getting together to put the screws to the banks just for us.
The media and the administration is going to claim this a triumph of justice for the little guy. All the states getting together to put the screws to the banks just for us.
Janet Tavakoli and William Black must feel as though they've been bashing their heads against brick walls.
DavidC
certainly explains the BAC price action lately...was suspicious this was afoot
Idiot lawyers...if the MAD scenario sold them. The path IS to destroy stability in the economy, the path IS to make banks the sole organism which can sustain the economy. IT needs to change, it really needs to fucking change. I know a banking collapse would be a disaster, but the alternative is just so much worse.
I TOLD YOU SO. These fraudsters need to be held accountable. If the Government won't do it..... It is the patriotic duty of all Americans to tar and feather these asswipes.
Clarity begins at home. There are 50 places to start getting closure on this issue.
Definition of "sure thing".
Work for the gangster banksters or federal government.
fortune.cnn.com
"This looks to me like a gift from Tim Geithner," said Chris Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics. "There's politics all over this."
Fannie, Freddie and BofA sadly shake their heads at that one. BofA finance chief Chuck Noski spent a Monday conference call describing negotiations over the putbacks as "vigorous." Fannie and Freddie say resolving the mortgage putback issues has been a priority for months, and present BofA's $2.8 billion payment as one that is fair to taxpayers.
Freddie chief Charles Haldeman even says his company, recipient of $64 billion in federal aid over the past two-plus years, "has focused sharply on being a responsible steward of taxpayer funds."
But how sharp is Freddie if all it can do is squeeze a $1.28 billion payment out of a giant customer in exchange for relinquishing fraud claims on $117 billion worth of outstanding loans? The very best its million-dollar executives can do is claw back a penny on each bubbly subprime dollar?
That seems pretty weak even given that this is Congress' favorite subsidy dispenser we're talking about.
"How Freddie can justify this decision to settle 'all outstanding and potential' claims before any of the private-label putback lawsuits have been resolved is beyond comprehension," says Rebel Cole, a real estate and finance professor at DePaul University in Chicago. "This smells to high heaven and they should be called out."
Freddie declined to comment beyond its public statements and filings, and its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, didn't comment beyond its celebratory statement.
Could this be QE3?????
No Laws. No Rules. Only Tyranny.
Let there be revolution.
These banksters have raped your wives, pissed in your faces, murder your children and now intend to make you lick their boots.
What a fucked up place, where crime is never crime if committed by a bankster or friend thereof, where Senators, AGs, Regulators are owned by banksters from cradle to grave. The ruling classes are the real terrorists, and against other Americans.
Slavery your way cometh.
Only the most massive black swan is going to save you guys. And if the SHTF do the ruling class think soldiers, police, the national guard are going rise up with ordinary Americans or on the side of the slave traders? Hint, all these guys are ordinary people with mortgages thorougly fucked over by the banksters as well.
At least the Romans knew to pay the army well, give them land..
Glad Im far far away, with my gold and silver and supplies.
I figured the outcome would be that the TBTF banks would win somehow. I expected that CONgress would roll over and give the loan servicers immunity and standing to foreclose and all would be well with the world.
But I did have some hope that the attorneys general would put up a fight. So I'm surprised and disgusted that they've turned out to be a bunch of cheap prostitutes.
It's beyond disgusting.
We knew this was coming when they rolled it all into (1) complaint with all the AGs as plaintiffs. Made it that much more efficient. Are you still looking for justice in this system?
Regulator: More mortgage ‘put-backs’ suits coming - Analysts contend that settlements won’t help taxpayers, 3 January 2011, by Ronald D. Orol (MarketWatch) http://www.marketwatch.com/story/regulator-more-mortgage-put-backs-suits-coming-2011-01-03
Total losses for Fannie and Freddie could be in the $200 billion range.
Christopher Whalen, managing director at Institutional Risk Analytics, argues that the government could have pushed harder for a bigger settlement. He called the agreement “a gift” for Bank of America. “Taxpayers will pay the tab,” he said.
I thought you all would have figured it out by now. A good blackmailer doesn't break the mark. The mark must be kept in business so the blackmailers can come back multiple times to get more money. The thought that the AGs were going to protect the average joe is naive.
The legal profession and the judiciary are, alas, in thrall to the banksters:
http://strikelawyer.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/banks-and-the-courts/
Don't expect anything good from lawyers, or at least lawyers that have anything at all to do with the establishment. They have been bought and paid for.
May take on the matter is here:
http://strikelawyer.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/banks-buy-off-state-attorne...
What do people think about amending the constitution to reign all this in? Do you think it would work?
As horrible as this is, there is one silver lining.
NOWHERE DOES THIS CRAPPY SETTLEMENT PREVENT GLASS-STEAGALL FROM MAKING EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE BOGUS MBS....WORTHLESS.
As much as we'd love to see people thrown in jail, the ABOVE is the BIGGEST piece of the pie.
Once again (govs and senators in waiting) State Attorney Generals show that they really work AT LAW and not OF LAW.
Did the banks threaten martial law if the AG's failed to comply?
"It appears these attorneys general were all sequestered and advised of the now-traditional M.A.D. apocalypse that would follow if this latest iteration of Wall Street's corner cutting was pursued by the full extent of the law. "
In other words, hey, nice state you got there, shame if anything were to happen to it.
"...According to Kalashnikov, talk about various bodies in Russia doing this or that is nonsense. It is all a deception. There is one class, working as one vast criminal enterprise, holding down the entire society. "And being so rich," added Kalashnikov, "and having no serious challenges within the country, they are still well aware that the only way to place the stolen wealth properly would be to deposit this wealth in Western banks, in Europe, in Cyprus, in Switzerland, and elsewhere; because they know the source of this wealth is questionable. They understand that this money could be taken away from them at any time. So they are eager to launder this money in the West. For this purpose, they need close cooperation with Western banks and institutions to legalize their money. That's what they need, therefore, they naturally cultivate closer links with Western governments and businesses. They also realize that the Western banking authorities will be tempted to look deeper into the origin of all this money. So, in order to make the West more cooperative, the Russian nomenklatura needs to be properly armed, and be aggressive at the proper level. They always put the West on the horns of a dilemma. Will it be confrontation or cooperation? If cooperation, then you abolish visa requirements for elite Russians, you abolish certain legal obstacles when it comes to investing Russian money in the West. Let us cooperate, they propose. If not, you may have some trouble in military terms. So, Russia may become unpredictable and aggressive. It is a soft blackmailing of you."
There is another side of this blackmail which Kalashnikov didn't mention. When Western politicians and businessmen get tangled up with Russia's mafia elite, they enter into a partnership from which they cannot easily extricate themselves. Western bankers who have laundered Russian money are now part of the Russian mafia's scheme. They have purchased the infamous one-way ticket. They cannot go back. They cannot get out. It is too late. Now they must follow along, and the Russian criminal machine colonizes the unsuspecting Western capitalist. The ultimate exploitation of this process may not be far to find. As the criminal system advances, the leaders of the West must keep silent; for they were the first to advocate "engagement" with the Russians. How can they publicly admit that they have been drawn in, swindled, and tainted?..."
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/jr-nyquist/thoughts-on-the-te...
What you don't know is hurting you, Zerohedge.
http://thefinalphaseforum.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=44
JR's articles at financial sense are worth the read to anyone here.
News flash...
Senator Joseph McCarthy is dead.