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Move Over Vampire Squid, Enter Rocket Docket - Matt Taibbi Takes Fraudclosure Mainstream

Tyler Durden's picture




 

The man who made Goldman Sachs a household name (using some very helpful and lurid imagery), has found a new target: Bank of America, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and Citi.... And the "Rocket Docket." Quote Taibbi: "The Rocket Docket exists to launder the crime and bury the evidence by speeding thousands of fraudulent and predatory loans to the ends of their life cycles, so that the houses attached to them can be sold again with clean paperwork. The judges, in fact, openly admit that their primary mission is not justice but speed." And here comes the trademark Taibbi visual: "the foreclosure crisis is Too Big for Fraud. Think of the Bernie Madoff scam, only replicated tens of thousands of times over, infecting every corner of the financial universe. The underlying crime is so pervasive, we simply can't admit to it — and so we are working feverishly to rubber-stamp the problem away, in sordid little backrooms in cities like Jacksonville, behind doors that shouldn't be, but often are, closed." Pure genius.

From Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners: Retired judges are rushing through complex cases to speed foreclosures in Florida, from Rolling Stone Magazine

The foreclosure lawyers down in
Jacksonville had warned me, but I was skeptical. They told me the state
of Florida had created a special super-high-speed housing court with a
specific mandate to rubber-stamp the legally dicey foreclosures by
corporate mortgage pushers like Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase. This
"rocket docket," as it is called in town, is presided over by retired
judges who seem to have no clue about the insanely complex financial
instruments they are ruling on — securitized mortgages and laby­rinthine
derivative deals of a type that didn't even exist when most of them
were active members of the bench. Their stated mission isn't to decide
right and wrong, but to clear cases and blast human beings out of their
homes with ultimate velocity. They certainly have no incentive to
penetrate the profound criminal mysteries of the great American mortgage
bubble of the 2000s, perhaps the most complex Ponzi scheme in human
history — an epic mountain range of corporate fraud in which Wall Street
megabanks conspired first to collect huge numbers of subprime
mortgages, then to unload them on unsuspecting third parties like
pensions, trade unions and insurance companies (and, ultimately, you and
me, as taxpayers) in the guise of AAA-rated investments. Selling lead
as gold, shit as Chanel No. 5, was the essence of the booming
international fraud scheme that created most all of these now-failing
home mortgages.

The rocket docket wasn't created to investigate any of that. It exists
to launder the crime and bury the evidence by speeding thousands of
fraudulent and predatory loans to the ends of their life cycles, so that
the houses attached to them can be sold again with clean paperwork. The
judges, in fact, openly admit that their primary mission is not justice
but speed. One Jacksonville judge, the Honorable A.C. Soud, even told a
local newspaper that his goal is to resolve 25 cases per hour. Given the way the system is rigged, that means His Honor could well be throwing one ass on the street every 2.4 minutes.

Foreclosure lawyers told me one other thing about the rocket docket. The
hearings, they said, aren't exactly public. "The judges might give you a
hard time about watching," one lawyer warned. "They're not exactly
anxious for people to know about this stuff." Inwardly, I laughed at
this — it sounded like typical activist paranoia. The notion that a
judge would try to prevent any citizen, much less a member of the media,
from watching an open civil hearing sounded ridiculous. Fucked-up as
everyone knows the state of Florida is, it couldn't be that bad. It
isn't Indonesia. Right?

Well, not quite. When I went to sit in on Judge Soud's courtroom in
downtown Jacksonville, I was treated to an intimate, and at times
breathtaking, education in the horror of the foreclosure crisis, which
is rapidly emerging as the even scarier sequel to the financial meltdown
of 2008: Invasion of the Home Snatchers II. In Las Vegas, one
in 25 homes is now in foreclosure. In Fort Myers, Florida, one in 35. In
September, lenders nationwide took over a rec­ord 102,134 properties;
that same month, more than a third of all home sales were distressed
properties. All told, some 820,000 Americans have already lost their
homes this year, and another 1 million currently face foreclosure.

Throughout the mounting catastrophe, however, many Americans have
been slow to comprehend the true nature of the mortgage disaster. They
seemed to have grasped just two things about the crisis: One, a lot of
people are getting their houses foreclosed on. Two, some of the banks
doing the foreclosing seem to have misplaced their paperwork.

For most people, the former bit about homeowners not paying their
damn bills is the important part, while the latter, about the sudden and
strange inability of the world's biggest and wealthiest banks to keep
proper records, is incidental. Just a little office sloppiness, and who
cares? Those deadbeat homeowners still owe the money, right? "They had
it coming to them," is how a bartender at the Jacksonville airport put
it to me.

But in reality, it's the unpaid bills that are incidental and the
lost paperwork that matters. It turns out that underneath that little
iceberg tip of exposed evidence lies a fraud so gigantic that it
literally cannot be contemplated by our leaders, for fear of admitting
that our entire financial system is corrupted to its core — with our
great banks and even our government coffers backed not by real wealth
but by vast landfills of deceptively generated and essentially worthless
mortgage-backed assets.

You've heard of Too Big to Fail — the foreclosure crisis is Too Big
for Fraud. Think of the Bernie Madoff scam, only replicated tens of
thousands of times over, infecting every corner of the financial
universe. The underlying crime is so pervasive, we simply can't admit to
it — and so we are working feverishly to rubber-stamp the problem away,
in sordid little backrooms in cities like Jacksonville, behind doors
that shouldn't be, but often are, closed.

And that's just the economic side of the story. The moral angle to
the foreclosure crisis — and, of course, in capitalism we're not
supposed to be concerned with the moral stuff, but let's mention it
anyway — shows a culture that is slowly giving in to a futuristic
nightmare ideology of computerized greed and unchecked financial
violence. The monster in the foreclosure crisis has no face and no
brain. The mortgages that are being foreclosed upon have no real owners.
The lawyers bringing the cases to evict the humans have no real
clients. It is complete and absolute legal and economic chaos. No single
limb of this vast man-­eating thing knows what the other is doing,
which makes it nearly impossible to combat — and scary as hell to watch.

What follows is an account of a single hour of Judge A.C. Soud's
rocket docket in Jacksonville. Like everything else related to the
modern economy, these foreclosure hearings are conducted in what is
essentially a foreign language, heavy on jargon and impenetrable to the
casual observer. It took days of interviews with experts before and
after this hearing to make sense of this single hour of courtroom drama.
And though the permutations of small-time scammery and grift in the
foreclosure world are virtually endless — your average foreclosure case
involves homeowners or investors being screwed at least five or six
creative ways — a single hour of court and a few cases is enough to tell
the main story. Because if you see one of these scams, you see them
all.

(Continue reading here)

 

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Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:37 | 720656 Montgomery Burns
Montgomery Burns's picture

BWHAAAAHAHAHAAA!!

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:48 | 720683 xenophobe51
xenophobe51's picture

FAIL.

The Catholic Church is a Vatican City institution.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:04 | 720722 snowball777
snowball777's picture

God's own ponzi.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:17 | 720753 Spalding_Smailes
Spalding_Smailes's picture

eassssssssssssssy.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:39 | 720802 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

We are all God's Ponzi schemers.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:46 | 721050 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

+!

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:44 | 720820 High Plains Drifter
High Plains Drifter's picture

Wasn't it GHW Bush who finally granted Vatican City , official recognition as a state?

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:37 | 721032 merehuman
merehuman's picture

pedophile patricians. hoho

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:14 | 721127 kujo
kujo's picture

funny

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 17:25 | 723364 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

ha ha

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:28 | 720630 Dapper Dan
Dapper Dan's picture

American-Standard  maker of fine toilets,  oh wait... they are made in Mexico now.

Sorry, thought I had one but no.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:32 | 720636 McMia
McMia's picture

The Girl Scouts?

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 00:48 | 721306 jeff montanye
jeff montanye's picture

go brownies!!!!!!!!

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 06:34 | 721541 Jendrzejczyk
Jendrzejczyk's picture

I got thrown out of the Boy Scouts for eating.....

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:37 | 720655 Spalding_Smailes
Spalding_Smailes's picture

The Chicago Democratic Party

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:13 | 720744 Boba Fiat
Boba Fiat's picture

USMC?

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:19 | 720756 TuesdayBen
TuesdayBen's picture

Uhm, apple pie?  Hamburgers?

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 17:26 | 723366 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

Well....

Maybe apple pie. :-)

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:00 | 720951 blindman
blindman's picture

impossible.  all institution is based on metaphor

which is the original corrupt substitute for the truth.

"art is the lie that reveals the truth". p.p.   corruption is

the element that empowers the institution. 

everything else is personal.

the founding brothers may have known this which

i suggest is why they tried to protect personal effects /

privacy and demanded certain individual rights be protected

from all institutions.  this "idea" may be the only uncorrupted

"institution" but "our" recent legislative efforts have corrupted

this too.  truth is a personal affair first, then perhaps shared

among people, but only a facsimile of it can be institutionalized.

imo. 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:40 | 721194 Gully Foyle
Gully Foyle's picture

ATG

"Quick, name an American institution uncorrupted"

The Peyote ceremony.

Only real American institution, everything else comes from illegal immigrants.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 00:51 | 721318 jeff montanye
jeff montanye's picture

they were immigrants too.  earlier (and certainly less devastating to the world they found).

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 17:30 | 723374 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

hmmmm.... interesting.

But is peyote purchased, which could be a problem due to possible low quality or contamination, or hunted for and picked (is it picked or manufactured?) by the ceremonialist? If not all handled by the ceremonialist, possibility of corruption.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:16 | 720609 celticgold
celticgold's picture

 hells bells

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:23 | 720620 bugs_
bugs_'s picture

If you don't have faith in the system, then you have to also not have faith that they can speedclose this away.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:35 | 720796 Thanatos
Thanatos's picture

Exactly.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 17:32 | 723377 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

Seems like it has to be the exact opposite, that if I don't have faith in the system (I don't), I would be quite sure of their ability to speedclose this away (I do believe it will be speedclosed) but I hope you're right.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:51 | 720632 Cistercian
Cistercian's picture

.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:29 | 720633 ZackAttack
ZackAttack's picture

Taibbi's writing is a thing of beauty, sort of a modern HST (except he probably doesn't sneak into a judge's driveway at night and spray-paint obscenities on his car).

Too bad it isn't going to matter a single flying fuck at a rolling donut.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:32 | 720637 traderjoe
traderjoe's picture

The PTB depend upon the feeling that no one person or movement can cut them down to perpetuate the oppression. In reality, they depend more upon us then we do upon them. 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:00 | 720969 Bob
Bob's picture

TJ, your comments greatly appreciated tonight!  Defeatism is indeed our worst enemy and the banksters' primary weapon. 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:47 | 721052 traderjoe
traderjoe's picture

Fellow 11/5'er - I intend to apply and leverage certain energy to end the privately-created debt-money system, before my children are ensnared as debt-slaves and are forced to join the hamster wheel created by the banksters...

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 17:35 | 723379 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

Well, they have their gazillions to keep them warm, but I see promise in what you say, because if we stop working, stop paying taxes, and stop owning property, they suffer. I know, I know, I'm a broken record but I'm feeling very contentious, and want to stop giving them what they need to stay alive. Every one of us can do without better than they can.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:33 | 720641 Cistercian
Cistercian's picture

 I approve of spray painting the judges car.

  It may even be a duty to do so......

 Rocket docket....what a vile banana republic development.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:44 | 720671 cossack55
cossack55's picture

Rocket docket......rocket target may be more appropos.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:58 | 720691 Cistercian
Cistercian's picture

 That was my first thought actually.The glorious explosions!The actual justice!

   I hope justice comes without it devolving to that.But you never know....

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 17:40 | 723399 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

Coming from somone using such a nome-de-plume as yours, I'm shocked!! But your phrases "the glorious explosions, the actual justice"... they excite me!

In a very lawful way, of course. And as you say... we never know...

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 17:37 | 723385 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

 

Cossack:

Mmmmm.... right thinking!

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:04 | 720725 Dr. Sandi
Dr. Sandi's picture

 I approve of spray painting the judges car.

If some motherfucking judge took my home away because the bank refused one month's check, as in the story, I believe I'd do more than spray paint his car. But then, I AM insane.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:41 | 720811 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

No, sane, you are sane. They are insane. They have gaslighted us all.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:13 | 721124 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

Gaslight, great analogy, great film

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:46 | 721204 Gully Foyle
Gully Foyle's picture

MsCreant

"No, sane, you are sane. They are insane. They have gaslighted us all."

No we have. Each and every individual had a chance to choose just which direction they wanted their lives to go.

Satan can ONLY tempt, people accept the offer.

Ever watch The Hustle?

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikiquote/en/wiki/Hustle

The Rules of the Con
  • You can’t cheat an honest man
  • Never give a sucker an even break
  • Feed the greed
  • Always give the mark an out
  • It's all in the detail
  • Always look out for No. 1
  • Always have a Plan B
  • It's not just about the money
  • Don’t have anything in your life you can’t walk away from in a second
Confessions' [2.2]
Mickey: (Voiceover) God made a garden for man and woman and he told them 'Do not eat the fruit from that tree.' A serpent visited the woman and offered her an apple from the tree. He told her the apple would give her knowledge. He was very pursuasive. And mankind has been paying the price ever since... All because we were tempted by something we didn't need. The serpent was the first grifter.

 

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 00:08 | 721236 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

Since when has perfection been a hallmark of human thought process?  Sounds like you're attempting to sell the concept that absent perfection the crap are the just rewards deserved by loser of all but humanity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoo2kUgBp14

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:46 | 720828 High Plains Drifter
High Plains Drifter's picture

So if you saw this judge in Walmart and you hit him in the face with a lemon custard pie, would that be considered assault with a deadly weapon?

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 21:24 | 720902 Joe44oz
Joe44oz's picture

Why not use a horse sperm pie like Matt Taibbi did?:

Lost Exile

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 00:10 | 721243 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

Can't damage a lemmonhead with a lemon pie  :)

h/t Gucci Mane

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 17:49 | 723432 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

I'll bet that there'll be cases when NO payments have been missed.  If there haven't already. I believe there was at least one, so probably there'll be more or already are more.

Do you remember when someone in government made the statement that the government owns everything? (Presumably including us and our kids.) This means that private property is a chimera.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 17:51 | 723440 dizzyfingers
dizzyfingers's picture

Dr. S, I'm with you, I think it's eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and so on. Mere spraypainting doesn't work for me.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:40 | 720806 Thanatos
Thanatos's picture

I recently deployed and used a new sensor system used to prevent tagging by bangers.

It can detect the aural signature of a spray can hissing from almost 100 meters (with low backround noise) and send an e-mail or SMS message instantly. It worked to catch a particularly recalcitrant banger/tagger within 36 hours... Hehe... Roach motels should work this good.

I would steer clear of spray painting anywhere near the Courthouse.

Just my 2 cents.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 00:10 | 721245 dogbreath
dogbreath's picture

It  would be interesting to test the security.  Walk quietly along with a can of air.  The kind used to blow off computerscreens and such. Tst TstTssssst.  See what shows up.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 02:15 | 721424 Thanatos
Thanatos's picture

Would work to test it.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 08:55 | 721601 Bob
Bob's picture

Use a dishwashing liquid-type bottle, then?

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:34 | 720647 cossack55
cossack55's picture

As in "Fear and Loathing in LV", or updated "Fear and Loathing in LV and anywhere else there is a mortgage".

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:26 | 720773 ZackAttack
ZackAttack's picture

Well, I was really thinking more of that scene in, I think it was, Curse of Lono, where he and Ralph Steadman take a dinghy into the harbor where racing sailboats were at anchor, with the intention of spray-painting "F* the Pope" on the side of one of the boats, just above the waterline.

But as soon as he shakes the Krylon can in the silent harbor, the whole place lights up.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:49 | 720685 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

The only thing that might matter is the fact that fifty Attorneys General have the opportunity to gain political power from all of this, so their self-interest might actually present a formidable weapon.

Especially if everyone sends this article to them.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:51 | 720688 Shameful
Shameful's picture

Or at least give the AGs some leverage to shake some campaign funding out of the to big to jail.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:27 | 720783 ZackAttack
ZackAttack's picture

It strains credulity to imagine that 50 AGs aligned on something so very quickly. I suspect it was because the banksters realized this was the highest possible level at which it could be contained. There'll be a settlement; all is forgiven in return for some plum that benefits almost no one in the general public.

 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 21:03 | 720866 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Yes, of course... The plum is easy enough to guess, given the finances of the states. For instance, come Jan. 1st, they will have to start making P&I payments on the unemployment funds they borrowed.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:37 | 720799 impending doom
impending doom's picture

+64 silver dollars for properly pluralizing Attorney General.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 21:52 | 720950 Withdrawn Sanction
Withdrawn Sanction's picture

.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:45 | 721201 Alienated Serf
Alienated Serf's picture

the AGs will settle for a few million per state and call it a billion dollar victory.   

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:33 | 720640 AUD
AUD's picture

"Selling lead as gold, shit as Chanel No. 5"

Ha, ha, ha. The dream of all bankers everywhere always, or was that alchemists?

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:37 | 720657 Yophat
Yophat's picture

Gotta luv Matt for puttin it straight!  Just waitin for the riots to develop....about 6 months behind Europe!

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:48 | 720832 High Plains Drifter
High Plains Drifter's picture

Yep that is one trick they never pulled off yet. Of course now, they have made up some real high quality gold plated tungsten bars ......

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:39 | 720661 AUD
AUD's picture

"and even our government coffers backed not by real wealth but by vast landfills of deceptively generated and essentially worthless mortgage-backed assets."

And yet the USD remains 'money good', you can even still buy gold with it!? Not that I'm saying the Australian dollar is any better.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:42 | 720668 Shameful
Shameful's picture

Another example of our fine lBanana Republic.  A place where the little guy is always a criminal and the big guy can openly commit fraud and all manner of crimes without fear.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:46 | 720679 cossack55
cossack55's picture

Color me ....not shocked.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:46 | 720676 chockl
chockl's picture

Americans keep sitting on your fat asses.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:31 | 720678 Mercury
Mercury's picture

Matt Taibbi can close the circle for us and write up the Washington's larger role in the housing bubble any time now.

Rolling Stone would never publish something like that of course, being big believers in the magic of government and all.

This is what the endgame of a massive government social engineering project gone bad (and most do) looks like.  Because Operation Boost Home Ownership essentially all revolved around finance the whole drama happened -beginning to end - rather quickly.  If The War On Poverty  or The War On Drugs or The Great Society programs could be viewed at high speed and  condensed into a few years they would look about this ugly too.

Get angry at the cockroaches if you must but at some point you have to clean up the kitchen.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 21:32 | 720915 Papa Boule
Papa Boule's picture

If I may express the minority leftist position here...

 

The idea was noble. And right. The execution was disastrous. The government should have been directly subsidizing the mortgages from the start instead of dumping it all off on a nearly unregulated financial industry -- where they creatively found a way to, um, capitalize.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:05 | 720980 TuesdayBen
TuesdayBen's picture

The Gubmint - via Fannie and Freddie - was directly involved in the 'financial industry'.  The ongoing crisis never would have happened had the Gubmint not entered the housing finance biz, which they now virtually control.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:42 | 721042 Papa Boule
Papa Boule's picture

Still comes down to making bad loans (and all the repackaging that followed) instead of just directly subsidizing mortgages. Half-assed liberalism wound up more costly than socialism.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:37 | 721177 Mercury
Mercury's picture

Well, you understand the problem (at least) and that does put you in the minority.

To the extent that the government should be directly subsidizing home ownership is a political discussion best left for another venue (or that's been my experience anyway) but it should be pointed out that the big push to substantially increase U.S. home ownership rates enjoyed broad-based liberal and conservative support when it was kicked into high gear.

Decades of Great Society type programs had failed to alliviate many kinds of multi-generational poverty but hey (it was pointed out) one HUGE difference between people who build up a nice chunk of wealth over a lifetime and those who don't is home ownership. So making that happen for a greater segment of society was considered a big "win-win."   Conservatives liked the idea because it encouraged responsibility and fostered a "stakeholder" society.  Liberals liked it because it involved the government helping poor people to become richer. 

It turned out though that *surprise* not all real estate is created equal and things like credit scores and loan to value measures actually imply information about risk. On Wall St. (and in FRE, FNM and S&P/Moody's) the apples that were yesteryear's heavy due diligence mortgage loans were used as a track record to sell the rotten oranges that were the contemporary sub-prime crap....in addition to other alchemy.  In most cases I would say pretty much everyone involved is deserving of significant blame or at least guilty of thinking their lunch could be had for free.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:01 | 721085 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

Bullshit.  The "gubmit" got involved in housing because it was directed to by the winners of "capitalism".  Remember, the winners gain control of a nations sovereignty while the losers seek the protection of the state from the rigors of predation.

Wanna blame FNM/FRE on someone?  Blame trickle down commercialism that renders never forget to a tired old Madison Avenue ad slogan.

TuesdayBen, I suggest switching flavors of that Gerber you're slurping up.  Spewing that banana flavored goop is stinking up the joint

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:29 | 721073 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

Pardon my intrusion .. These programs were simply created to re-channel the energy of the war generation and their kids.  It was all designed specifically to spend vastly more on infrastructure and getting folks to chase their own tails than to actually do anything worthwhile for broad society.  Worthwhile for those leading society in that the plans to use these efforts to spurn the concept of humanitarianism or simply humanity from the human race as simple waste byproducts of this glorious age are on track and progressing as expected.  Left or right matters not.  All profit from this process, except the governed of course.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:49 | 720684 putbuyer
putbuyer's picture

He is the only liberal worth listening to.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:24 | 720770 island
island's picture

IMHO - Chris Hedges, Bill Black, and Michael Hudson are all worth listening to as well.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:35 | 721178 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

... while "conservative" commentary is led by Palin, Hannity and Nordquist.  ROFLMAO at all of 'em, and those who still cling to the concept that what any of the ponzi's acolytes direct is worthwhile for anything more than some quality WB7.

In this Black et al are simply reporting on what can't or won't stay burred

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 02:48 | 721449 blunderdog
blunderdog's picture

It's just as deceptive to call the Republican blowhards "conservative" as it is to call the Democrat blowhards "liberal."

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 05:20 | 721513 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

Indeed.  Card carriers have always been just what they are  Parasites at court.  The very rare exception for true fight clubbers in any age.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv2oM5DE1Mk

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:52 | 720689 I Am The Unknow...
I Am The Unknown Comic's picture

Can we all make a pact right now that if you are the first to arrive at the FEMA camp that you set aside a section for ZH commentators and establish a welcoming committee for the rest of us that doth protest too much? 

These kinds of "subversive ideas" represent a clear and present danger of domestic unrest that threatens to undermine the very monetary system necessary to ensure domestic stability (I forget the source where I am quoting that from....I think it is Dept. Homelyland Insecurity, but it may be Dept. Und Da fences! - DUD).

I fully expect a top bunk and at least one extra days rations from the welcoming committee.  Please also press for married barricks so that I might be so lucky as to ever see my wife again.

 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:00 | 720711 Homeland Security
Homeland Security's picture

ZHs will be first to arrive and buried beneath the FEMA camps.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:33 | 720792 Cistercian
Cistercian's picture

 If that comes to pass, it would be better than giving in to our retarded  doltish masters.

  But no worries, we will actually win this one.The femmes that steal via banking are soft targets...and the environment now is target rich.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 18:19 | 723509 Joe44oz
Joe44oz's picture

I'll be hanging out with Jesse Ventura near the beer garden. 1 silver Oz buys one microbrew...

Should be an interesting show tonight:
Bombshell: FEMA Camps Confirmed

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:07 | 720732 snowball777
snowball777's picture

It'll be much easier to comply if we know what you look like... ;)

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:17 | 720755 I Am The Unknow...
I Am The Unknown Comic's picture

SHHHHUSSHHH!!!!!!   I am IN COGNITO......yep I am masquerading as Brain Sack!!!  

I'm your POMO Playah, babay!  

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 00:33 | 721281 snowball777
snowball777's picture

That would explain your plumage constructed from AAPL certificates. Snazzy!

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:29 | 720769 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

When the current system is predicated upon self acceptance of imposed home confinement what difference does it make where, or if one is buried?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8xC-RQ1W3g

http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayCover.cfm?url=/images/20090...

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:48 | 720831 kathy.chamberli...
kathy.chamberlin@gmail.com's picture

dust in the wind is really quite beautiful, Miles. i am very thankful to be here with you.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 21:32 | 720899 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

Thanx .. as we discover what it means to observe and respekt that dichotomy of the most very private public.  peace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obP8CSxYYrQ

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:41 | 721040 Rusty Shorts
Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:42 | 720814 Fred Hayek
Fred Hayek's picture

You're gonna be like William Holden's character, Septen, in Stalag 17, aren't you?

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:51 | 721212 Gully Foyle
Gully Foyle's picture

I Am The Unknow...

"Can we all make a pact right now that if you are the first to arrive at the FEMA camp that you set aside a section for ZH commentators and establish a welcoming committee for the rest of us that doth protest too much? "

Hahaha. Dude they will ALL narc at the first chance. Only the low boy on the totem pole, the slow thinker, the one with no one to shop will be in the camp.

So you and a bunch of mouth breathers will be eating the government cheese.

Of course the rest will be slowly slipping into paranoia because they someone else will do unto them as they have others.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 06:54 | 721546 Jendrzejczyk
Jendrzejczyk's picture

"Only the low boy on the totem pole, the slow thinker, the one with no one to shop will be in the camp."

I'm gonna be lonely.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 00:00 | 721229 centerline
centerline's picture

need a secret password... I vote for "Shazam".  That one still makes me laugh.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:05 | 720702 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

It's all fraudulent when justice joins broad government & society as agents of lawful plunder.  No wonder the representations made by leadership at all levels during the housing/financial super debacle were couched in terms reminiscent of the need to impose humanitarianism in commerce.  Disgusting how the imperatives of false philanthropy go hand n hand with lawful plunder

I wouldn't go back now for any amount of money, or anything else

- Miles Kendig

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 09:34 | 721667 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

My dog detests the smell of stupidity. And Fraud.

Isobel

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 16:23 | 722824 Miles Kendig
Miles Kendig's picture

Who says most Austrian's have no sense of humor?  I stand corrected :D

Oh wow, am I happy he only bites those he doesn't like.  Time to set Follet's Fagalars in the chair for snack time. (At least no one will wonder if they're alone)

Cheers

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:57 | 720703 chockl
chockl's picture

Don't take this lying down... hang the bankers.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 19:59 | 720709 MGA_1
MGA_1's picture

And the crisis continues - truly a mess.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:02 | 720713 Timmay
Timmay's picture

America. Fraudulent since 1913.

You either fake it or you vote for it.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 01:34 | 721380 Ckierst1
Ckierst1's picture

Actually, since 1861.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:02 | 720714 Fraud-Esq
Fraud-Esq's picture

BANKS are double dipping. They're selling homes twice. Once to the Fed or agency, next on the market. Twice paid for one property. 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:03 | 720715 tony bonn
tony bonn's picture

more evidence that america is a complete kleptocracy run by the plutocracy to destroy democracy....

there may be no way to fight these evil judges unless people take to the streets but heaven will have the last word on this disgusting filthy cancerous lying sack of shit rot....

of course what did anyone expect in a state controlled by the bush crime syndicate?

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:03 | 720717 chockl
chockl's picture

Another day goes on.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:04 | 720721 laughing_swordfish
laughing_swordfish's picture

It's PAST TIME for guillotines....

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:25 | 720772 island
island's picture

+100

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:04 | 720723 AUD
AUD's picture

"sell oregano as weed to pension funds and insurance companies"

Ha, ha, ha. That one I'm gonna use more often.

And don't people who do that usually get kneecapped? or gunned down in front of their children?

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:04 | 720724 Timmay
Timmay's picture

Let's all agree that when the riots start we have secret symbols on our garages that say "they are one of us, move along to the next one"....

 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:07 | 720730 truont
truont's picture

our great banks and even our government coffers backed not by real wealth but by vast landfills of deceptively generated and essentially worthless mortgage-backed assets

Why doesn't anyone give a $h!t?

Our country has been gutted by the bankers, and everyone couldn't care less?!

We deserve what we get next...

 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:10 | 720737 snowball777
snowball777's picture

The same reason you didn't give a shit when you were voting for the assholes that made it all possible....ignorance and apathy.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:02 | 721098 johnnynaps
johnnynaps's picture

That's a broad generalization now isn't it? I didn't vote in the past 3 elections. Why? Because I do not agree with Runaway Capitalism and Debt Slavery! Our form of government is broke and wrong.......and I don't support it. My time and gas is too precious to waste a drive to the polls to cast a vote that is COMPLETELY worthless nowadays.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 00:36 | 721287 snowball777
snowball777's picture

If you're not voting, but you're still driving and working, then you most definitely ARE supporting it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D68vp9XzbZw

 

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 01:01 | 721343 johnnynaps
johnnynaps's picture

another bad generalization. Unemployed and my wife and I share her car when needed. My mustang sits (don't want to pay the insurance tax) and I have a motorcycle (but it's winter)! Like I said, not supporting this shit by any means. You can keep feeding the BEAST.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 02:10 | 721422 Thanatos
Thanatos's picture

I have been seriously considering reducing my footprint to negligable and pulling all my treasure out of the system.

Would have to quit my fat cushy job that I rather enjoy and work under the table to pull it off.

Just not ready to shit on the system yet... Get the feeling that it doesn't feel the same about me but what can a guy do?

Just keep putting away what will keep you happy and occupied when you dont get to "have it your way" anymore.

 

 

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 01:57 | 721409 Ckierst1
Ckierst1's picture

I give a shit.  I worked for Ron Paul and contributed to his campaign.  I was a Republican State Convention Delegate and worked to advance Tea Party Congressional candidates over establishment incumbents and helped take out a sitting Senator.  I contributed to Rand Paul's and Peter Schiff's campaigns and they aren't in my state.  I ran for State Elector and Republican National Delegate and our slate mostly got submarined by the State PTB.  You win some and you lose some.  If anybody wants to do something worthwhile instead of bitchin' you might try to keep banksta shill Baucus (R-AL) or Royce (R-CA) out of the House Financial Services Committee Chairmanship by pressuring up your Congressmen as Tea Partyists, or whatever, and try to get Ron Paul or Michelle Bachmann in as Committee Chairman(woman).  Who decides who will be the chairman?  Paul is already slated for subcommittee chairmanship but that wouldn't be as powerful.

I'm not trying to toot my horn here, I'm just trying to say that you have to organize and get your hands dirty to get political power sufficient to actually get something done.  You need to act before the shitheads get into power and you better have a damn good idea what "improvement" is or you're pissing in the wind.  Just cuz they are Republican doesn't mean they aren't part of the problem, and that includes some elements in Tea Party.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:11 | 720738 chockl
chockl's picture

Check out Germany... 50000 protesters.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:40 | 720801 Troy Ounce
Troy Ounce's picture

No protest in the US of A because of the cruel believe into Meritocracy: the ideology that you are chosen on demonstrated ability/intelligence which also would mean that you bring poverty onto yourself. WS won and looks with disgust to all the losers. The sheeple losers go into depression as know they are less intelligent and deserved to lose, so why protest - we are not worthy and we look up to/admire the winners. No such thing in Europe: they are experienced in chopping off heads.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:17 | 721002 SteveNYC
SteveNYC's picture

Nicely worded.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:47 | 721051 merehuman
merehuman's picture

And here i thought it was the lithium in our water.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:11 | 720740 cocoablini
cocoablini's picture

Meanwhile, while Ben goes cowboy on the printing press, Fearless Loser is getting shellacked by South Korea. I mean, who else gets to insult us? West Timor??

Time to COME THE HELL HOME AND DEAL WITH THE FRAUD MISTER PRESIDENT-WHO-DIED -AND-MADE-YOU-GRACE-KELLY-OBAMA.

 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:13 | 720745 unununium
unununium's picture

God Bless you Matt.  I mean that, and I am not religious.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:22 | 720764 chockl
chockl's picture

And the sheeple sleep on.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 00:11 | 721248 centerline
centerline's picture

Junk?  The comment was totally fair game.  Sheeple, sheeple, sheeple.  They are all around us... brainwashed consumer masses that have been pummeled with misinformation and chemicals at such a furious rate that it is miracle most can hold a thought long enough to complete a sentence.  Deprogramming is going to be a bitch and the sheeple are soon going to be naked, cold, angry and awake.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:27 | 720779 Troy Ounce
Troy Ounce's picture

 

Message from Max Keiser: the ultimate strategy to crash JPMorgan, the biggest financial terrorist on Wall St.

GOOGLE SEARCH – CRASH JPMORGAN BUY SILVER

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:27 | 720780 chockl
chockl's picture

Bye... Bye... American Pie.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:27 | 720781 Jay
Jay's picture

Taibi writes:

"Now all of this — the obviously cooked-up documents, the magically appearing stamp and the rest of it — may just seem like nothing more than sloppy paperwork. After all, what does it matter if the bank has lost a few forms or mixed up the dates? The homeowners still owe what they owe, and the deadbeats have no right to keep living in a house they haven't paid for."

First he calls attention to the obvious question that any reader should ask and then he spends the next several paragraphs deflecting attention from this central question.  Real estate law should allow deadbeats to challenge foreclosure proceedings only after they've paid up in full. I think it already works that way in CA.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:24 | 721011 msjimmied
msjimmied's picture

"Mr. Peterson, in a paper with the dry title of “Two Faces: Demystifying the Mortgage Electronic Registration System’s Land Title Theory,” argues that MERS cannot have it both ways, and that it faces problems if it is deemed to be only one of them.

If it is an agent, he wrote, “it is extremely unclear that it has the right to list itself as a mortgagee,” as it does. State real estate laws, he said, “do not have provisions authorizing financial institutions to use the name of a shell company,” in large part because “the point of these statutes is to provide a transparent, reliable record of actual — as opposed to nominal — land ownership.

If it is a mortgagee, Mr. Peterson added, it has the right to record mortgages in its own name, as it did. But since it does not own the actual loan, doing that could be seen as violating a long line of precedents that bar separating a mortgage from the underlying note in which the borrower promises to pay. He quotes from an 1879 Supreme Court decision holding that “the assignment of the note carries the mortgage with it, while an assignment of the latter alone is a nullity.”

If an assignment of the mortgage alone is a nullity, then the mortgage can no longer be enforced. The borrower would still owe the money, but no foreclosure would be possible and the borrower could sell the home without paying off the mortgage. The lender could sue the borrower, but collecting money from distressed former homeowners might be very difficult in many cases."

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39740025

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:49 | 721210 iconoclast63
iconoclast63's picture

Did you even read the article? What an asshole.

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 13:02 | 722385 DarkAgeAhead
DarkAgeAhead's picture

And banks should be able to foreclose only after fulfilling all requirements and obligations pursuant to the original agreement.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:29 | 720786 doggis
doggis's picture

max keiser has it right!! everyone purchase 1 silver coin and pass it on to 5 friends to committ to do the same!  with everyone in america/canada buying just 1 silver coin - the price of 2 movie tickets - JPM will collapse under the weight of its own silver naked shorts. 1 coin people!! i am buying 100 from www.sprottmoney.com    ...... we can bring the ugly cousin of the evil vampire squid down NOW!!!!!!!

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:29 | 720787 chockl
chockl's picture

Buy Gold and Silver...And lots of it.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:33 | 720791 Fraud-Esq
Fraud-Esq's picture

I expect Matt will be invited on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, FOX, or 60 Minutes to tell this story soon.

Right? 

Yeah. 

Your first enemy: broadcast television. 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:46 | 720826 Fred Hayek
Fred Hayek's picture

60 Minutes.  Ugh.

Whenever you know much of ANYthing about a story they present, you find yourself infuriated at how superficial their coverage is.  Talk about your institutions coasting on past glories!

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 21:01 | 720862 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

+1

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 21:34 | 720920 TuesdayBen
TuesdayBen's picture

No doubt.  I dumped TV several years ago.  I miss the diversion of TV and am amazed at the crystal clear pictures and would like to have TV in my home again, but I just can't have this shit broadcast in my direction.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:36 | 720797 chockl
chockl's picture

Check... turn tv off.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:40 | 720807 Sean7k
Sean7k's picture

Where does one start with the role call of tragedies perpetrated by the elite of the world? Finance, pollution, education, medicine, food, water, eugenics, democracy, military action, weapons for sale, political oppression, pictures of Hilary and Merkel available to children, Palin for president, Obama as president, the oracle of omaha, the Gates foundation for killing the poor in Africa, species destruction and extinction. 

You start with humans. We have the opportunity, ever present, to change the efforts of a twisted few, terrible, loathsome examples, a people that make our worse imagined nightmares trifling in the extreme. 

Unfortunately, it will cost us something. They are betting our greed for something meager is greater than our willingness to sacrifice that small store of value. That for a few trinkets, we will sell our greatest wealth- our futures, our children's futures and their children's futures forever. So far, they have been right. 

The internet is a wonderful thing, it allows us to vent our frustration, thereby releasing it of any energy, focus or ability to effect change...

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 23:07 | 721109 traderjoe
traderjoe's picture

Excellent post. "...pictures of Hilary and Merkel available to children..." - funny stuff. 

"cost us something" - so true. I just spent some time over at nakedcapitalism discussing Social Security, where many of the anti-governments (but also some bigger governments) where fighting for their SS. In that sense, they have become defenders of the system. Like a sign at a TP rally "hands off my Medicare". 

And yes, to the internet comment. But, as a small defense, the internet is spreading the word...

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:41 | 720812 chockl
chockl's picture

Check... grow  a garden.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:45 | 720823 chockl
chockl's picture

Oil to go to 150 a barrel...Americans to get very upset...

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:46 | 720824 Ruth
Ruth's picture

this is such such a disaster of max. hum. dosage.

there must be such a massive scale of fraud, whoever 'invented' these instruments needs to be shot, the power to solicit them and misrepresent them, crooks, bot regulators, this is tragic and hurd them in and selling 'em again over & over....fees, fees, fees....disease and corruption at the core, bad incentives, moral hazard, endless charges....yep, lives are ruined, people are paid, follow the money

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:58 | 720854 chockl
chockl's picture

we are inslaved to the fed.

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 20:59 | 720857 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

 

"For most people, the former bit about homeowners not paying their damn bills is the important part, while the latter, about the sudden and strange inability of the world's biggest and wealthiest banks to keep proper records, is incidental. Just a little office sloppiness, and who cares? Those deadbeat homeowners still owe the money, right? "They had it coming to them," is how a bartender at the Jacksonville airport put it to me.

But in reality, it's the unpaid bills that are incidental and the lost paperwork that matters. It turns out that underneath that little iceberg tip of exposed evidence lies a fraud so gigantic that it literally cannot be contemplated by our leaders, for fear of admitting that our entire financial system is corrupted to its core — with our great banks and even our government coffers backed not by real wealth but by vast landfills of deceptively generated and essentially worthless mortgage-backed assets." 

These two paragraphs should be read aloud every night on the news, and over the loudspeakers after the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in schools.  This is a superb distillation of what has occurred and what is the problem - I think I'm with Denninger on this one: where are the prosecutors????? 

 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 22:03 | 720975 Fraud-Esq
Fraud-Esq's picture

We could tattoo it on the enemy's ass. What was that Tarintino Nazi war movie where they carved the swastika in the heads? That final scene reminds me of a bankers cutting a deal with the gov. 

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 09:06 | 721616 Bob
Bob's picture

Inglorious Basterds, baby. His best movie, imo. 

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 21:02 | 720865 chockl
chockl's picture

Hah ..Hah..Hah..

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 21:08 | 720875 chockl
chockl's picture

Your living in a banana republic kibish

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 21:30 | 720906 TuesdayBen
TuesdayBen's picture

Thoughts:

1) Florida judges?  Remember the 2000 election, which found Dubya ahead overall and in FL, which the Florida Supreme Court endeavored to switch around to Gore being ahead, until the US Supreme Court intervened? A day without Florida judges is like a day without a rectal exam.

2) If you think there are a lot of foreclosures now, wait until the Gubmint changes the deal you made when you bought/financed your home when they take away the mortgage interest deduction.  Your personal cash flow craters, along with any equity that may remain in your home.

3) "...the [fraudulent] mortgage documents represent a death sentence for the banks..."  These banks must now be executed.

4) this shit is going make some someones homicidal...

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