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Guest Post: Bank Shot
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The banking authorities were shocked - shocked - to discover last week that an awful lot of mortgage paper in this country is not quite in order... appears to contain, er, irregularities... seems less than kosher... frankly, exudes an odor like unto dead carp or, shall we say, a heap of dead carp the size of the building at 3900 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. Any day now we will hear that... mistakes... were... made.
Is it indelicate to say that the USA as an enterprise has its head so deeply and firmly up its ass that the all the proctologists alive on planet Earth could not extract the collective cranium from the collective cloacal chamber even with the aid of a Bucyrus-Erie 1060-WX bucket-wheel excavator? Like, where were we the past ten years? Surely not everybody in the nation was doing bong hits while playing Grand Theft Auto, or watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey, or downing tequila shots and Percocets in the parking lot of the Talladega Superspeedway, or cooking meth in the family room, or whacking it to Internet porn, or searching for "excitement" in one of America's 450 commercial gambling casinos.
Did nobody, for instance at Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, review any of the paperwork fluttering in from places like Countrywide or Ditech and scores of other boiler rooms where mortgages were hatched like Peking ducklings? There was an awful lot of it, I'm sure, but aren't there a lot of seat-warmers at Fannie and Freddie who collect their salaries for the express purpose of reading mortgage documents? Was nobody the least bit suspicious about the mysterious flurry of "restaurant employees" and "lawn-care technicians" buying million-dollar condominiums with no money down at terms that would make a three-card monte dealer weep with laughter? After all, they had to sort and bundle all these contracts for the likes of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and Citibank - the list isn't that long, but you get the picture....
And speaking of these august institutions, didn't anybody in the divisions charged with assembling complex securities composed of mortgages, or composed of bets against bundles of mortgages, or composed of some notion of something dimly related to a rumor of mortgage lending - didn't any of these expensively-educated chaps or lasses pause a moment in their aardvark-like labors of bonus-seeking to withdraw their snouts from the moist ground where swindles pupate and at least goggle in self-admiration at the fantastic legal novelty of their endeavors.
And what of the numberless agencies, federal on down, starting with, say, the Office of Thrift Supervision, or the Comptroller of the Currency, or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, or the chairpersons of a dozen senate and house subcommittees on matters related to finance, or the various inspectors general from sea to shining sea or the attorneys general of all fifty states plus the US Department of Justice, or the countless fiduciary officers of the pension funds who tripped over each other buying all the tainted paper churned out like so much Purina Rat Chow - or, for Godsake, a lonely loan officer here or there with something resembling a conscience?
Nobody in the USA noticed anything the least bit fishy. And now all that epic rot has eaten through the last hanging tendrils of the banking system. And the whole shootin' match is fixing to seize up and blow like a Chevy Big Block Super Stroker 632 engine that some clown has poured karo syrup into.
But, sadly, I can only return to the trope of cranial rectosis. And when your head is in such a dark place, it's hard to see the truth, let alone tell something you can't even see. And sadly too, the truth is that this ghastly mortgage fiasco was a fraud that the whole nation perpetrated on itself in a tragic rush to get something for nothing. Since the failure of authority is complete, it's now up to nature to act as the arresting officer. She's a harsh mistress. She's going to kick our ass.
I'm sorry, but I don't see anyway out of this. With fraud absolutely everywhere in our banking system, like some advanced metastatic cancer, financial metabolism comes to a sickening stop. Nobody can buy or sell property. Nobody can trust any American financial institution. Money can't circulate. Nobody will be able to get any money. It won't be long before that translates into nobody getting any food. We may be a nation of clowns, but as Lon Chaney famously observed a while ago - when explaining his technique of horror movie-making - "...there's nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight...."
h/t Ian
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Robo, the FED MBS conversion is around $400B for FY2011. QE2 = even $1T on top of this the FED will have to buy alot of issuance. Over 35%. This is a potential problem area for the FED. The FED purchases will exceed this, and at some point the balance sheet will not hide the fact. It is another stall for time.
Mark Beck
When the banks are backed into a corner, the trouble can come incredibly fast. Review 2008. Looked like 1 rusty nail, it was guaranteed 'contained to very small sub prime' back porch which no one used much anyway, suddenly in days the house fell and markets plunged over 50%.
BTW, LMFAO at the ultra-blatant criminality and fraud on todays Skynet stick save close.
Time to give a little whistle !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ
Agree it does not have to be the end of civilization as we know it, but as this unfolds it will prove to be quite a mess, and has the potential to bring down some TBTFs. We have only scratched the surface of the implications of the f-ed up documentation problem, as the story slowly grinds out this week. Wait till a foreclosure mill dimes out someone at a TBTF: "They knew they didn't have the notes, and told us to do whatever it took. That someone had to pay, but it wasn't going to be them."
Yep and wait till that TBTF finger pointer starts pointing fingers at the very top, and at prominent 'chairmen'. It will get ugly overnite and I just hope Robo and Leo are all-in.
< I'm sorry, but I don't see anyway out of this. >
obama did not say he wouldn't sign a bill like the Get out of Jail Free card he just vetoed. he just said he wanted to see more debate on the issue before he would sign the bill. a "fix" passed by a corrupt congress, signed by the prez, and upheld by bank-friendly courts is far from out of the question.
There are no 'fixes' left at this point and everyone knows it. If sub prime was a disaster, then this is 1,000 times worse and there is no fitting name for what it is.
Doubtful, if this explodes I'm betting on some false flag distraction event.
Exaxtly Xedus. No one ever foresees the jets flying towards the buildings until the last second. Up until then, nothing bad can ever happen.
On the other hand, people are desensitized to this stuff nowadays. Just today I was running at the gym and on tv there is some C4 in a cemetery and nobody even blinks.
This is straight up Jeff Dunham/Achmed stuff
It's fucking pathetic. Somehow its always "Military Grade" too. Can't believe people fall for this shit.
They won't touch it -- they got outed trying it and they all know they will get their ass handed to them right now or in two years. You're talking about individuals who are basically spineless -- they aren't going to take one for the banks on this unless they can do it without it getting noticed (ie, what they thought they were doing with AIG)
< unless they can do it without it getting noticed >
unfortunately i disagree. the first vote for TARP members on the D side (i only know D's, dunno what went on for the R's) were told to vote their conscience and the bill was voted down. then they got a lil fear in em courtesy of a begging paulson and financial terrorists and they didn't even have to be whipped for the 2nd vote. so it was passed and they all claimed they saved the world. so it was and so it will be again when the ponzi falters.
But with question marks hanging over the legality of many foreclosures, the bomb could be about to go off in the US.
As Hugh McLernon at IMF, who has been an avid observer of the subprime crisis, said: ''The central question in any foreclosure is whether the person seeking foreclosure has the standing to ask for it. This is usually done by producing to the court the documents showing that the applicant made the loan and is entitled to the mortgage rights, including the right to foreclose and sell when the borrower stops paying interest.''
For McLernon, the answer is to change the legislation so as to dispense with the need to produce documentation, which is the ad hoc position so far adopted by the court system without legal authority. However, with elections looming in the US, the speedy passage of difficult laws will be difficult.
The alternative is to clog the courts and erode the fragile confidence in the US government and the US financial system. With such a mess bubbling away, the release of consumer sentiment figures, trade figures and US consumer prices is a sideshow to the true health of the US economy.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/foreclosures-the-real-us-time-bomb-201010...
This is what theses scumsuckers deserve,when a contract ( a legal contract), can be overturned,this is where you end up.
The TBTF, just shot their wad,they are coming down.
Hide and Watch.And with that, the Gov't as we knew it.
If we "dispense with the need to produce documentation", then what exactly stops me from foreclosing on my neighbor's house? Because quite frankly, I would probably do it. He has a pool.
That's a good point. What gives Entity A more right to foreclose than Entity B, or C.. ?
Call me when the shooting starts.
Land line, cell or HAM?
300Hz Amplitude Modulated Signal
HAM. 2 meter. 146.xx mhz.
There is no fraud in the banking system, the finanical system you have is the fraud.
Once you start down this path, you always get to the final conclusion.
- System starts and expands
- System peaks
- System unable to expand
- System collapses
- System liquidates
You are still living in the good times, wait till the liquidation process comes around.
"And sadly too, the truth is that this ghastly mortgage fiasco was a fraud that the whole nation perpetrated on itself in a tragic rush to get something for nothing."
Well, the fraud is the same fraud you put in this article, there is no mortgage and yet you pretend there is one. Banks do not lend and do not fund lending, it would be illegal for them to lend their credit.
This fraud is exactly like the last time they ran the program, and the same as time before that. The only thing that has changed is the number and names of the stupid lemmings that think they can beat Math.
Principal + interest is always greater than money in circulation. Fiat paper loans pay off fiat- paper loans until there's a big default or the currency goes bad.
Expansion, peak, collapse. Try to stay in power. Repeat.
Is this what you mean, Mako?
Confined within a finite physical reality, exponential functions always collapse. Reading history shows this over and over.
Deer herds get too big, natural resources cannot suustain the herd, disease, starvation and low birth rates ensue until the herd is reduced to a sustainable population, or the herd or part of it moves on to find new area with resources to start the cycle again.
We humans have probably run out of new lands to move to and exploit, running out of the favorite energy that fuels our growth...
That's my take on Mako's perspective (there is more that I get, I am just staying at the 15,000 ft view as I digest the closer view), and history would tend to substatiate it, imo.
Confined within a finite physical reality...
Agreed, unless the 'deer food' we're talking about is a fiat currency. In which case the supply is not constrained by anything finite; it can go zero to 100 quadrillion in under 10s.
ie Mako's error is in failing to realize that an infinite system is not subject to the rules of a finite one; there is no math to be beaten.
Allow me to save you the time it takes to cut and paste your broken record responses Mak0:
"Fume, hiss... deflation this... liquidation that... lemmings... Ben Bernake's helicopter...FRN's are God's gift to the middle class...rant...rave" -Mak0
(or a slight variation of the above)
Regards
"unless the 'deer food' we're talking about is a fiat currency. In which case the supply is not constrained by anything finite; it can go zero to 100 quadrillion in under 10s."
Once it does that, it ceases being "deer food" as it has no nutrient value (faith) as no one will trade something of value for it...witness Zimbabwe and gold or dollars for bread, not Zimbabucks, witness the collapse of the Soviet Union, barter.
That is when the ptb or whoever enter and liquidate and own/take everything, and start from scratch with new system/fiat scam for future generations to play
just my 2cents while processing all this...:)
Once it does that, it ceases being "deer food" as it has no nutrient value (faith) as no one will trade something of value for it...
Indeud.
Pretty accurate imitation of MAKO, GoinFawr...but you left out:
"we're all doomed and you are all frightened of what I'm telling you. But I'm not going to be specific about what I'm telling you.
P.S. We're all doomed, no point in breathing any more today--save yourself the time."
ARCH ENEMY - My Apocalypse (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZM-d2qD15E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkmmg64dREM&a=GxdCwVVULXcMsrp81t73oSRCwDCZHt1v&list=ML&playnext=1
Nice.
Metal will be the music of the Zombpocalypse. :)
Amon Amarth- Fate of Norns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJF9yfuExCU
I like my metal a smidge softer, like gold and silver. :-) I wonder if we will have to come up with Steam Metal...Too many lights, too much power, to make these shows happen.
Tried to find you some NIN "Where is Everybody" (kind of mainstream and melodic compared to your offerings) but the copies I found really did the song a disservice. Phatest bass opening I ever heard. They laid down 29 tracks on top of each other to get that sound. Deadly badassed. Love it.
These guys are making good old fashioned heavy metal.
HAMMERFALL - Bloodbound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDsYmZREwo
Intentionally blank (oops)
HR 3808 will be back, under another number and in a even more virulent form. Obama will sign. All will breath easier--banks, government, homeowners. Back to business as usual.
good night. move on.
Bingo! This will disappear as quickly as the oil in the Gulf did.
Yes everything just disappears and is 'bullish for stocks' all the time.
You're sorta half correct there. Think about all of the potential doomsday bombs that have been listed at ZH day after day, week after week, that disappear into thin air. And the market muddles its way a bit higher as the year progressed.
So, yes, everything (as in doomsday scenarios) do "just disappear" and the market creeps upward, as it probably should be in a slow macro economic situation.
But they dont disappear, they just keep getting swept under the rug until now and that rug looks like an elephant under a postage stamp.
Actually, believe it or not the bottom of the cycle will be when when Goldman Sachs goes belly up. Not a damn thing anyone can do about it either.
You're right, of course - it is possible to sweep this somehow under the rug. But BP was one big oil spill - this is lots and lots of little ones all over the place. And these foreclosures require lots of coddling, lots of documents being available, and "sign offs" by people on their way through the system, and the little sign-offs happen to carry penalties for perjury if intentional and false. I'm not sure this is going away, and it can get worse since it is not a "national" problem but one faced in every courthouse in every county in every state, each with its own little particular view of how to handle the little oil spill. Difficult to centrally manage.
The key is to realize this isn't doomsday but could be the end of some TBTFs.
Well, I for one clearly remember the last time Harry was this bullish...
April - May time frame ... Anyone ?
He was not seen again for months thereafter....
Just saying Harry ;-)
May was when I went short via SDS. I announced it several times here. Again, I own lots of precious metals and occasionally trade some of the big movers solid movers like AAPL.
And, I never went anywhere. Been posting here all summer/fall.
+1; got some bittah shorts here...
Using disinformation to make a point about your disinformation. Classic.
http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/
Catherine Austin Fitts of the Solari Report has been saying for years that the big boys gave up on the US as a going concern in the 90s. That is when they moved their permanent investments to Asia and began asset stripping the US.
Since then it has been one bubble after another as they clean out the stock market,mortgage market, the big banks, real estate, pension funds etc. Once they get finished there will be nothing left but an empty shell of an economy, fit for the third world country the US has become.
Are they taking the battle groups and divisions with them?
Could be a flaw in the plan.
Those folks generally want paid. Some are all in for the whole patriotic scam, but most want cash and bennies. If you don't believe me, "go ask the Spartans" and then go ask the Romans, then the Germans, Brits, French, Russians, etc......
War for profit is not an unknown concept.
See Alexander.
This bullshit experiment of fighting for minimum wage has about run its course.
The military is a paper tiger. It has no depth and without an insane amount of resources for logistics is basically worthless. The dollar dies and within a few months the military will be selling gear off to bidders ala USSR, or be deployed to suppress the USA. On the bright side because of the ravenous consumption of the military without the dollar it would be hard for them to keep that beast in the field for very long against the people. Unless of course they were totally criminal and promised land and goodies in exchange for supplied then we are well and truly screwed.
I agree Shameful. I like your posts too. I like Mako's posts, but for reasons you are citing, I think he's wrong about the tanks. Tanks are f'n expensive to run.
Without the fiat-money engine behind it, the military will break down. Which means, no more worthless adventures.
Was unaware of her saying that, but it's what s plainly visible. It was time for an empire change. There is still some assets left so it's not totally time to pull the plug but at the speed they are moving can be done in as little as a year to a few more years if they take their time. Americans will be the immigrant wave of the future. Think we will see a lot of skilled Americans go overseas to try to find jobs.
Yeah the consumers were adding almost $1 trillion per year in debt, almost 10% of GDP and the FED kept interest rates low. Where was their charter for price stability then?
Agreed trust and pricing to cash flow is the only way out, this farce is going to end badly.
Man, I wish I had a buck for every post that ends with "this ____ is going to end badly." I bet that line is used hundreds of times per week at ZH.
Meanwhile, the economy muddles along. No great growth, just a trickle. As it will for some time into the foreseeable future. And the market (remember it's only up 3% this year) will muddle right along with it.
No bankers in jail, no volcano eruption, no Gulf water dead zone, no other real estate shoe to drop, etc., etc. Just a slow muddle for a long, long time.
There are entire networks devoted to the rosy outlook, if that is what you want. What you call muddling through I call staggering from one disaster to the next. What you call 'growth' I call currency debasement.It's been years now, and things aren't getting better, except for the bankers.
I think the patient is dead Harry, and all the APPL shares in the world won't revive him. It's ovah.
I'm staggering because I think that's twice in one day I agree with the ITG.
You been reading Mauldin again Wanger ?
Right, its obviously going to end well. Well...that is if you can live like Jeremiah Johnson in the 1850's, you'll be ok.
For a long time? For certain values of "long" as I like to put it.
They just don't make long like they used to, is my sense of it. Long enough to empty the vaults is an outside guess. Probably, not even that long.
Right...all is well Harry...isn't there an AAPL forum that you should be visiting instead.
It has ended badly fucknuts. 43 million Americans are on food stamps. Fraudclosures are rendering people homeless. The throngs of jobless are growing. Trillions have been put on the line to save the Banksters.
oOPEN YOUR BEADY LITTLE EYES, ASSHOLE.
Nice reply. Look, I grew up in a big family in inner city Detroit in the 70's. My dad worked in a mill. Never a union guy - he hated them. Somehow we managed through all the bullshit of Detroit and the horrific economy of the 70's.
You want to see open eyes, stare right in these, pal. There's some real anger in here. This bullshit you guys whine about, actually hope for, is all relative. I lived through it and it inspired me to go to college and move on. That's what my father instilled in me. Put the system in your own hands and quit hoping for collapse.
Nice post, Harry.
It is very difficult to convince someone that the world isn't ending if, in fact, their world has. I get the impression that most of the apocalypse freaks around here have had the life sucked out of them in one way or another - all they have left is a bitter, cynical shell. A collapse of the system would vindicate their broken egos and lost spirits.
Under duress (whether fair or not), some people focus while others fold. There are a million reasons to find life intolerable and unjust, and there are an equal number of reasons to find beauty in it all - always has been, always will be.
Oh..and one other thing...No matter what you look for, you'll find - and that has nothing to do with fortune cookies or supermodels in your bedroom.
Red, you said that perfectly. Once of the best posts I've read at ZH.
I'm sorry to disagree with your assessment, Harry, but that post was AfterSchool Special, pop-psychology, Dr. Phil horseshit.
There are sometimes very good reasons to be anxious, concerned, or angry, and it irritates me that our culture has reached a point that anger is no longer considered a valid response to something outrageous, but rather a symptom of some underlying psychological break.
And for the record, I'm a doomer. Not because I just remembered my father molested me or because my wife is screwing my neighbor, but simply because I am good at math, and there is no escaping our mathematical situation. The anger comes from the understanding that this mathematical trap was engineered by other men, most of whom will never be held accountable for it.
Frankly, if I could take the other pill and go back to my Ignorance is Bliss existence of windsurfing and the occasional blunt, I would. Being angry is exhausting and understanding the dynamic at play certainly saps some carpe diem type fun from life.
But just because it sucks to be angry, does not make it any less valid an emotion. Maybe vice versa.
Standing Clapping Speaker.
Harry, A simple math course taught by THE best.
This, believe it or not is the most important video you will EVER see.
Arithmetic, Population and Energy - 3 - a talk by Al Bartlett http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG_PL-dRMA0&feature=related
Oh, and part IV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3LryW47B_M&feature=relatedThere are sometimes very good reasons to be anxious, concerned, or angry, and it irritates me that our culture has reached a point that anger is no longer considered a valid response to something outrageous...
...just because it sucks to be angry, does not make it any less valid an emotion.
You should try to respond to comments that were actually made - it furthers the discussion by adding clarity, relevance and cohesion.
Never once did I say that anger wasn't warranted. Not once. In fact, we should all be angry about a lot of the shit that is routinely exposed on this forum; hopefully that anger will lead to change.
Some people take their anger and stew in it; others take their anger and change their life and the life around them. As a self-professed doomer, you are obviously someone who waddles in a boiling broth of the doom and gloom soup. Your choice.
Anger is perfectly reasonable. The gloom/doom, apocaplytic deathwish that so many carry on their shoulders around here is not - at least if you're concerned with having a reasonably fulfilled life.
Let me give you some perspective:
1. The world's been ending ever since the Garden of Eden fiasco. God has been pissed at us ever since, yet the wheels on the bus go around and around.
2. You cannot measure the fate of the United States using mathematics. So despite your self-professed acumen with numbers, you should probably leave your skills in your book of soduko.
Sorry...I've got more to say, but my girlfriend (who has a remarkably hot ass) just walked in from 24-hour fitness, and I really want to fuck her.
See you tomorrow...(if we all don't die first)
Harry, I typically read/enjoy your posts because I like getting the alternative view.
But this one has to be called out. First, RNR's role on ZH is to be the foil. He says what will piss the most people off, or might just pull you into a comment to enjoy the irony of agreeing with someone that makes comments merely for the attention. Sort of the Andy Kaufman of ZH. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Kaufman
44 million Americans on food stamps. 17% under-employment. A 9-year inexplicable war in Afghanistan. Trillions in government debts. 1 out of 7 mortgages delinquent.
Apple might go up and it might go down, but there is real pain and suffering in America. Perhaps the gloomers are too gloomy, but a sense of dissatisfaction with the lies, manipulations, and ineffectiveness of our government, imho, is much more 'healthy' then a rosy satisfaction with the status quo.
-good post
The illusion of what we were "taught" growing up is crumbling, some elect to play along, others do not.
Myself, I vacillate between anger and bemusement (especially at myself for buying into it, though I always had a feeling that there was something not right).
Since I do not know if this will play out quickly, or drag on for years, I try to hedge against the most likely possibilities. Hence, the garden, gold and guns theme, in addition to continuing to maintain a good fico (ha, I know, I know) and paying my mortgage, in addition to a tiny wee bit of "fukkit, eat drink and be merry" ( eg, I bought a '73 boat for cash, the kids love it, their happiness of the moment has value to me) and trying to get to know my neighbors and find ways to help the community.
I have chosen to disengage as much as possible (no new consumption, only used), trade/barter as much as possible, earn less than I am capable, etc, and not feed the system. The illusion is gone for me and I maintain some involvement, knowing its nature.
Others choose to participate in the illusion, knowing it is that, maybe even profit by it, that is their choice, and for all I know maybe the correct one. I just do not want to support the lies and manipulation anymore as much as I am able.
Others cannot/do not/will not see the illusion, and go about their lives as if nothing could be wrong.
I am teaching my children the nature of the illusion, lies, etc. Hopefully they won't be fooled later in life.
An aside, kinda "funny" how this robbery/marketing campaign started getting cranked up as the "depression generation" started dieing en mass...less grandparents to remind us brash, culpable young ones of the past, so we could repeat it. Seems their just taking smaller, though more frquent bites (2 or so bubbles and retirement thefts in 10 years).
Let them eat their steaks and wash the blue pills down with a glass of Merlot. They live in a NBC nightly news world where "the One" will fix all ills in the economy with the help of the other professor at the FED. You know the one who studied the "Great Depression I" and has all the moves to get the bubble going again. Just make sure my taxes don't go up, because the wife still want's to go on that cruise next year.
You see for those earning over $150K unemployment is under 3%. They don't go to Walmart, so they don't see the people living in RVs waiting for 12:01 on the first to buy food for their families. They just see their 401Ks going back up, no need to be concerned. No one is being thrown out of their houses in our neighborhood, what is all the fuss about?
Started a construction company in the early 80's. Just a handshake to start, a check when finished. Then came the license, the permit, the inspection, the rules, the financing, the bad checks, the crappy work being done in the trade, the bribes, (bottle of booze at Christmas etc). Finally said the hell with it. Tjings are not and will not get better until the handshke comes back.
Someone I used to work with once pointed out that the Indians (native-americans) had every profession save one represented in their various tribes: Lawyers.
When Laywers are outlawed, only outlaws will be Lawyers.
Bob Dylan was inspired one day to write, "To Live outside the Law you must be Honest." Worked for me. I'm on Indian time and make my rules better than good. You can judge me; I ignore your judgment and admit your existence if necessary beyond "Hi there".
AAPL cannot save us from the derivatives Wanger.
I may be wrong .....didn't this all start with politicians forcing these loans on every one ?
Bad, BAD politicians! Made all those people get a loan! I guess they make all the people mainline heroin too.
I think it was more along the lines of you will grant these loans . It just took the rent seekers twenty five or so years to figure out how to proper fuck all party's actively involved and as an afterthought the taxpayers .
They could drive a fellow to drink too!
Read "The Big Short", by Michael Lewis -- eventually, those CDOs/CDSs were being created out of whole cloth!
When the "smartest" guys in the room tell you to go fer it you'd be a fool not to.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/fed/2004-02-23-greenspan-debt_x.htm
Dont worry, the permabull 'tards believe a bill or something will be signed to make the full blown melanoma just go away. I really cant wait till the morning soon when the banksters have decided to wheel out 'fear and panic' again and the golden calf DOW is opening down about -800.
I think you nailed, the bill will be just like a doctor cutting out a tumor but not radiating the cancer, on the surface it's all good but look down the road and all that's left is a cancer ridden walking corpse.
Just another cycle, "Enron Laundry Hamper Reaches Maximum Capacity" and closes for business. New Enron shell companies form, money circulates freely until? "Enron Laundry Hamper Reaches Maximum Capacity"
Wash, rinse, repeat
Its all been said, but a fun read because of the straight up style.
All I can think is there really is no morality left (and I'm no Bible/Koran thumper) but as in character. You really can't do anything wrong - the only commandment left standing is "don't kill". (let's strike them off - 1&23) "have other Gods before me" - yup materialism is a more powerful force than God, which many bow down to, 4) nope, nothing holy anymore, 5) honor they mother/father haha...have you seen kids these days they tell their parents to f' off (there is no shame left in their souls), the only place parents are revered still is in the East, 7) adultery (it's pretty much the norm, because a contract means s*!t), 8) don't steal ahahahhahahahha our gov/money system steals from the honest man and foreigners, false witness against thy neighbor (i'm pretty sure one of those drummed up wars fits this description), covet they neighbour's house (hahahahhaha), wife (the entire tube is setup to covet and oogle)
Banks can swindle the public for trillions under the weakest of facades (and you have the president and congress setting the stage with histrionics), individuals at those banks can lie and slide fraud, and not to mention the lies we tell ourselves about those wars over there.
When there really is no mortality left, and shit hits the fan look out. You see, in tribal Afghanistan rules are strict because its harsh over there but the people have strong character, strong morality (please don't start with counter arguments from Fox news).
When there was a gas shortage a few years ago here, I got a glimpse into what will happen here at my local Citgo gas station (I almost saw a fist fight, people starting pushing their cars in front of others, it was UGLY).
There is nothing holding the USA together except Washington. How long does that last? It goes with the dollar, all of it.
Remember when cheerleaders said the business of America is business? Turns out the business of America was fraud. Good luck basing a country on that.
LOL
+1
Psst, Tyler, you familiar with this guy's politics?
http://www.321energy.com/editorials/moriarty/moriarty010509.html
Moriarty is spot on in his assessment of Israel's power structure-they are the true criminals. I know jews in the US who agree with his point of view; it's fairly obvious if you remove the constant spin. Israel is running an "Apartheied" state no different from that of south africa. It's deplorable and perhaps the biggest cover up ever orchestrated on the planet. The abundance of natural resources (urea) in the Dead Sea is about the only reason that I see for the geopolitical value of control in that region. Why so many tolerate the conditions for Palestinians is a mystery to me.
Bingo - BTW, I think that was Kuntsler that junked you.
Moriarty is spot on in his assessment of Israel's power structure-they are the true criminals. I know jews in the US who agree with his point of view; it's fairly obvious if you remove the constant spin. Israel is running an "Apartheied" state no different from that of south africa. It's deplorable and perhaps the biggest cover up ever orchestrated on the planet. The abundance of natural resources (urea) in the Dead Sea is about the only reason that I see for the geopolitical value of control in that region. Why so many tolerate the conditions for Palestinians is a mystery to me.
Even if you aren't a doom and gloomer, you have to appreciate JHK's erudition.
Is it really 'doom n gloomers', or just the few people left with the ability to see yet another collapsed empire? Those who say 'nothin ever happens' are obviously not students of history which clearly shows the earth strewn with a constant parade of once infallible empires which are now just footnotes in time.
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Excellent! I don't often like poetry, but I like that!
I nearly farted, I was giggling so hard. And, I'm at work. This might have so not worked out today.
god bless james kunstler!!!
he forgot moody's, fritsch, and the other criminal rating agencies doing the lord's work...
zh is to be complimented for allowing unfettered freedom of speech. the lack of it elsewhere is a symptom of what kunstler spoke - complete fraudulent, dishonest american elites....like the whore bitch mary schapiro....
the financial terrorists, voodoo economists, and anus lipped politicians who run this country have more education and credentials than all previous generations and yet they have left a chernobyl^100 of financial cancer, radiation, and puke....
fuck the ruling elite....
No thanks, allegedly they are all STD carriers.
Release Date: October 11, 2010
Contact: Katrina Cavalli, (212) 313-1181, kcavalli@sifma.org
SIFMA Calls System Wide Moratorium on All Foreclosures ‘Catastrophic’
New York, NY, October 11, 2010—The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) today issued the following statement from Tim Ryan, president and CEO, on the foreclosure moratorium related to issues in foreclosure processing:
“It would be catastrophic to impose a system wide moratorium on all foreclosures and such actions could do damage to the housing market and the economy. It must be recognized that the mortgage market, investors and the health of the economy are all inter-related. Investors in the housing market—including American workers with pension funds, 401k plans, and mutual funds—would unjustly suffer losses in their savings from these actions. Increased uncertainty in the securitization market would further constrain consumer credit and spending, dampening our already unhealthy economic situation. If mistakes have been made in relation to foreclosure processing, SIFMA firmly believes such mistakes should be corrected. It is imperative, however, that care be taken in addressing these issues to ensure that no unnecessary damage is done to an already weak housing market and, in turn, that there is no further negative impact on the economy.”
-30-
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) brings together the shared interests of hundreds of securities firms, banks and asset managers. SIFMA's mission is to support a strong financial industry, investor opportunity, capital formation, job creation and economic growth, while building trust and confidence in the financial markets. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). For more information, visit www.sifma.org.
http://www.sifma.org/news/news.aspx?id=18584
SIFMA
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, Wall Street's biggest trade group, spent $1.48 million in the April-June quarter lobbying the federal government on legislation overhauling financial regulation and other issues, a disclosure report shows.
That exceeds the $1.25 million that the group spent in the second quarter of 2009 and the $1.39 million it spent in the first quarter of this year.
The organization also lobbied on an array of legislation related to mortgages, federal bailout aid for banks, consumer protection, municipal bonds, retirement investments and taxes, according to a disclosure form filed with the Senate's public records office.
The agencies that were lobbied by SIFMA included the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Commerce Department, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9IEEQS81.htm
GOOD POST SPaulding!
The Securities associations getting into the act is the "other shoe."
+10000
Ya know, I can see lobbying of Congress, and maybe even the Executive Branch. But how does an agency get lobbied without an intermediary? Some firewall should be in place if a lobbyist wants to "speak with" an agency -- and the exact nature of the meeting should be documented, recorded, and placed on line for public viewing. There outta be a law -- or isn't there one already?
These agencies make law, and are not elected but appointed.
SIFMA sees SHTF.
This story didn't happen to be released after the closing bell did it? Must be "POMO Tuesday" tomorrow!!!!
You gotta admit that was funny, I don't care who you are.
Bad news like this only gets worse with time, not the other way around.
I'm so short (financials) I could win a limbo contest standing up straight. The only thing I'm long is Gold.
Fuck it.
While you may be right on paper, isnt that just playing cards with the devil who can change the game at anytime?
Yes. But at the end of the day, it's just paper, right? No more of a gamble than staying in cash...
Rodney Dangerfield alert!
I'm so short the market, I have to go long first just so I can talk about how short I am.
I'm short this market like I'm long on ... your mom.
I'm so short this market that beautiful women look at my crotch and burst out laughing. I laugh with them. I love being this short.
I'm so short this market I accidentally over shot and came up net long for a few minutes. I'm going to have to wash my hands now.
You think you're short? I was trading you short from my longest position, I'm that short.
I'm so short this market they had to invent a new field of mathematics just to quantify how short I am.
Nice, cougar--I like your sense of humor...
"No way out"
Here's how Germany got out of the problem.
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/6720
'merica is no land of Germans of 1920s and 1930s
very different periods
very different state of technology
very different ethnic proportions, germany was mostly that german, america is huge and coast is very different from inland, people are quite divided, germany was united, no real leader on the horizont, obama is a fake puppet, hitler was for real
Seems any of those element could go out the window if either the bread, or the circuses are no longer affordable. Anything is possible.
.......And now it becomes apparent why all the ah- hhmmmm' "insiders", are leaving the White House and heading to their precious (blanks only) home in the middle east.
You think they figured it out a few weeks ago and saw the writing on the bagel.
The day average 'merican can buy a "mcburger" is the day the revolution might start, but you have to ask yourself, WHAT kind of revolution from a nation of walmart ?
A 5 year starvation period could do wonders to the obesity problems, that not even constantly ice cream eating, queen of the scene michele big jaw bama couldnt solve...
There is shitload of deer in 'merica and bears make good furcoats
Once the currency collapses, the question is: would bama be able to keep police and army on his side ? mugabe zimbabwe style ? if yes, it would be hell, but i hope not (still different kind of hell)
This story is percolating just below the surface of the MSM right now. But it will get bigger because it has to - the banks cannot now liquidate their inventories of "REO". This is yet another asset class that our nations lenders now have to keep on balance sheet. And it means that housing will take longer to find equilibrium.
I know many here believe that congress will do something to give the banks relief but its not clear if they have any real recourse - a nation of plaintiffs attorneys are going to fight this at every step given the stakes. Unless our leaders completely abandon rule of law (and they are at least maintaining the charade for the time being), or change the definition of what constitutes ownership, this is a massive problem.
Banks that cannot establish ownership over thousands, perhaps millions of properties that they believe they have a claim on will translate to the system getting clogged again. How does it not?
either way its not a good outcome, funny how just how a few years ago people were talking companes, brands now its only macro economy (or lack of it)
this is the time for public executions (or public executing each other), its the only outcome i see
"....a nation of plaintiffs attorneys are going to fight this at every step given the stakes."
Plaintiffs' attorneys have been at it since 2007.
btw, this real estate broker held his honor and quit the industry back in '04 rather than engage in fraud (linked from patrick.net):
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/10/10/101751/real-estate-agents-warnings...
~Misstrial
On the road to serfdom and one world order, the FRS running in tandem with the same old European Banking money from the last few centuries, have provided fake "crack" credit and now withhold further fake credit and grab your assets. This is simply FRS-enabled redistribution of real assets up the chain. This is the rope we pissed up, and were well-warned by those born 100-110 years ago. Sadly, we learned to forget; now we must remember to learn.
Strait from CNBC
"Zerohedge predicted that every major mortgage servicer will suspend foreclosures by the end of the week. That looks like a prescient call to us"
Looks like CNBC spies are reading this blog.
i love ZeroHedge, its one of the best sites I have found to this date. After a person spends here at least 2-3 months, you start seeing how the main street media is about 1-2 weeks late or the news is barely mentioned, never fully explained, lied or jsut covered up, ZH is like a crystal bowl, so the future is now
I think you mean a crystal bowel.
CNBC said what?
It's interesting after the last 3 yrs of huge foreclosure numbers that finall one judge in Florida notices that there are problems with chain of title.
Clearly, he never got the memo.
Hahaha :-)
Well said!!!
HFT and lightning 3-card monte: it's a beautiful thing. The copper to silicon transformation of the market was some bad Alchemy.
Let me sum up the entire article:
Q: Do corporations have morals or operate on principle?
A: NO.
In fact, wasn't there an academic who famously said that if they were judged by a human standard they would be considered to be psychopaths.
Isn't it interesting that "Corporations" are legal entities, considered to be equivalent to a corporeal person.
Interesting? Perhaps.
Insane? Absolutely.
I could also add -- lethal -- but that would require a longer explanation than I am prepared to get into right at the moment.
yes and because they have the same legal standing as an individual, they can no longer claim to be an agency of the public trust, and argue their way out of liability. SCOTUS opened a can of worms, which at first seems appetizing to the corporations, but will cause real indigestion. Any individual who was personally responsible for the oil spill in GOM would be in prison for life. Of course corporations go in and out of bankruptcy,and reinvent themselves all the time, but this will get tougher.
It may be interesting to you , but we will not be cured without eliminating such equivalence and keeping the Capitalist Tiger in the cage. It's a good ride, but not so good if the rider becomes the Tiger and sleeps with your family.
Jim Rickards:
“What is a currency war? What they mean is each currency is trying to devalue against all of the others. They all want to devalue but they can’t, it is a zero sum game. Some people can devalue some of the time, but not everyone can devalue all of the time.”
“What is the solution? The solution is to identify a store of value that everyone can devalue against all at once. And there are two obvious candidates. First is gold, and second it is to invent a currency.”
“The preference of central banks is to invent a currency such as the SDR or the Bancor. But, the market’s preference seems to be for gold. So the currency war comes down to a race between gold and the new paper currency. Who will win?”
Central planners are using the currency crisis as an opportunity to move forward with a renewed push for a global currency. As I said yesterday, as the currency wars escalate, it is wise for individuals to have a presence outside of the system by owning gold.
Like a giant cancerous squid sucking the life blood out of the sheeple middle class corporate wage drones twittering what they had for breakfest on their third iPhone.
//hyperbole off//
perhaps this why the chinese have suddenly stopped payments for a raft of resource projects in the mid west of western australia . they range from iron ore and gold mines to infrastructure , rail, port and power . the whole box and dice in fact. This is nothing short of Disaster for the economic powerhouse of Australia..
Like the FRS..return to sender if you mainline hot money. They own the next crop who pick up the pieces; no worries.
Hmmm ... interesting. Got any links on recent (last few weeks) announcements?
The Australian Labour [Fabian Socialist Keynesian] Party floated a "Super Profits Tax" on resource companies just before the recent election, but I thought they had buried it again (ha! bury a new tax ... fat chance!).
"Nobody in the USA noticed anything the least bit fishy."
William Black on Bill Moyer's Journal. Public television instead of American Idol.
"There's nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight", that is a great quote. We chased free money and nobody was watching the store. So now the only way out of this mess is to allow nature take it's course and have the financial implosion that must come.
Implosion? Sort of like what happened to 1 WTC and 2 WTC
and..............drumroll
WTC 7 remember that one...... which Larry Silverstein said
"we had to pull it".
Of course "for the safety of the public' and in no way had anything to do with the tons of evidence in there.
He then argued in court that it was 2 - or 3 seperate events (I can't remember) so he could collect $$ 5 + Billion on the insurance.
These guys are gooooood
http://www.drjudywood.com/
The hero plane was shot down in Shanksville that couldn't make it to WTC 7. The people and passengers are deep in the ocean of lies and other misdirection.
This is the problem with hierarchical organizations, and the bigger the organization the more astronomical the catastrophe. This is why a nation of small businesses and individualist employees is the only healthy economy.
In such an economy, individuals will report signs of fishiness long, long, long before wholesale rot pervades an institution. If the response to their immediate bosses go unanswered, they call a reporter at the local paper and give them a juicy story to write. Result: problem snuffed out while infintesimal (on the scale of a corporation, much less a state, much less a nation, much less the global economy).
However, in huge, deeply hierarchical organizations, potential troublemakers are identified and disabled via the usual carrots and sticks long before they cause significant ripples in the scams that organization developed. And the organization is so large and rich from the sheer magnitude of its operations, that any breach of their "security" can be eliminated with bribes to higher-level predators-that-be. Which in turn makes the most egregious of the predator-that-be "authorities" the most rich and powerful, which re-inforces the corruption, and the ease of further corruption.
One necessary, but not sufficient, solution to the current disaster is a total elimination of "fictitious entities" (that is, organizations, corporations, governments). This only seems like "a big deal", but isn't, since they do not exist (that's what "fictitious" means). To end delusion only has positive consequences for civilized [productive] humans, and we need not worry about the negative consequences suffered by uncivilized [predatory] humans, for they deserve nothing but pain and death.
Got FAZ?
A coalition of as many as 40 state attorneys general is expected Wednesday to announce an investigation into the mortgage-servicing industry, an effort some of them hope will pressure financial institutions to rewrite large numbers of troubled loans.
The move comes amid recent allegations that mortgage-servicers, which include units of major banks such as Bank of America Corp., submitted fraudulent documents in thousands of foreclosure proceedings nationwide.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870451810457554651292297410...
WaPo Headline: "Foreclosure Logjam Threatens Fannie, Freddie".
ummmm........never mind.
A conjecture: somehow the banks have managed to "sell" more mortgages than they "generated." In essence, a fractionalized mortgage system as they employ in the precious metals markets. By way of the derivative instruments they produce, they manage to keep their risk in check provided no one suspects that the number of mortgages sold doesn't match the number generated. Using alchemy like this, increases their profits & bonuses.
There's more to this debacle than just original blue ink notes, supporting documents & sloppy paperwork handling. The shuffling of the papertrail of owners & MERS is being used for some nefarious purpose. The sleuths here will have to uncover the alchemy.
Original posted on 4closurefraud thread, comment 642370
Indeed ... a Fractional Reserve Property System!
What could possibly go wrong?............
I was thinking that delivery would be a problem idog: but then dump trucks full of top soil should take care of that. After all it is not as if most deeds carry mineral rights these days, so the seller would not be obligated to deliver the earth's crust right down to the mantle, right?
Haha! I picked up a bunch of FAZ at 12.50. I consider it a lottery ticket. Either way I don't see bank stocks skyrocketing any time soon so I don't think I stand that much to lose. I just hope they don't halt trading after I've made 1500% or so. But then again, holding gold coins in my hand means I am already "halted" because somehow I would have to get that gold back into the "system" and I know full well, gold bugs will not be considered when the new system appears. Not to mention, it is very easy for governments to incentivize not owning hard currencies through taxation and other shadow means. Already 1099s are going to hit gold dealers in 2012. The dollar is highly elastic, and after this bubble pops, my dollars will buy me more things provided I can sell FAZ and get them out of the bank. A far lower risk than trying to offer gold coins that nobody can "value" (forget your spot price haha) for any type of goods or services. What people don't understand is that it is not the current state of the dollar that matters. The system is elastic. The current state indicates the ammo is running out. It can change OVER NIGHT, and history shows what happens when it does. At least you can eat some of the other commodities, or feed them to your cattle. ;)