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Terminated CBO Whistleblower Shares Her Full Story With Zero Hedge, Exposes Deep Conflicts At "Impartial" Budget Office
Earlier today, we suggested that in the aftermath of the Greg "Muppets" Smith NYT OpEd, contrary to assumptions by Jim Cramer, a bevy of potential whistleblowers would step up to tell their tale of fraud and corruption across all walks of life - from Wall Street to, far more importantly, Washington, consequences be damned. This was paralleled by an alleged JPM whisteblower describing to the CFTC the firm's supposedly illegal activities in the precious metals space, which while we initially dismissed, we now admit there may be more to the story (stay tuned), even though we still have our doubts. What we are 100% certain of, however, is that yet another whistleblower has stepped up, this time one already known to the general public, and one that Zero Hedge covered just over a month ago: we refer to the case of former CBO worker, Lan T. Pham, who, as the WSJ described in early February, "alleges she was terminated [by the CBO] after 2½ months for sharing pessimistic outlooks for the banking and housing sectors in 2010" and who "alleges supervisors stifled opinions that contradicted economic fixes endorsed by some on Wall Street, including research from a Morgan Stanley economist who served as a CBO adviser. As part of the review, Sen. Grassley's staff is examining whether Wall Street firms or others exert influence that compromises the office's independence." As we observed in February, "what is most troubling is if indeed the CBO is nothing but merely another front for Wall Street to work its propaganda magic on the administration. Because at the core of every policy are numbers, usually with dollar signs in front of them, numbers which have to make sense and have to be projected into the future, no matter how grossly laughable the resultant hockeystick." As it turns out, somewhat expectedly, the WSJ version of events was incomplete. There is much more to this very important story, one which has major implications over "impartial" policy decisionmaking, and as a result, Ms. Pham has approached Zero Hedge to share her full story with the public.
As we stated earlier, we will present any and every whistleblower's statement in its entirety, and without editing, and so we will, however we want to bring our readers' attention to several key aspects of Ms. Pham's termination from the CBO, because it may have substantial implications over the enacted $25 billion robosigning settlement. The reason for this is that Ms. Pham was fired because of her work voicing skepticism over precisely the same 'chain of title' validity issues that snarled foreclosure to a halt for much of 2011, which as Adam Levitin has said present a "potential systemic risk to the US economy" and which have necessitated the recently enacted Robosettlement to avoid massive losses for the banks (and in the process yet another shadow taxpayer bailout for the Too Big To Fail banks).
The bottom line is that the CBO was warned at least by Ms. Pham (and possibly others) over the dangers of precisely the issue that Attorneys General are scrambling to shove under the rug in exchange for a wristslap to all mortgage originators (i.e., the same banks that somehow are now getting bailed out by taxpayers and the GSEs on an annual basis). And just like every other issue that merely gets a cosmetic and very transitory liquidity facelift, nothing ever is actually fixed. As Ms. Pham says: "It is unclear how the recent State attorney generals’ agreement to a proposed yet unpublished terms of the $25 billion robo-signing settlement would repair the chain of title issues that continue to mutate. In January 2011, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed the foreclosure actions of two banks for lacking proof of clear title, followed by a decision in October 2011 that a buyer who purchased a house that was improperly foreclosed upon does not make the buyer the new owner of the house; the sale does not transfer the property."
While we are confident that even more contract laws will be terminally bent and broken simply to avoid some more balance sheet impairments for America's already insolvent financial system, the message here is clear: the CBO, and arguably other "impartial" policy advisors, will only focus on the established institutional opinion, preferably that set by Wall Street itself, and retaliate (in some cases with physical force) over anyone who provides a dissenting opinion.
Such as Ms. Pham.
Below is her full story (pdf).
Following the Wall Street Journal story, “Congress’s Number Cruncher Comes under Fire,” I realized that the true nature of the issues would not come out. Therefore, I am making public the letter that I wrote to Senator Grassley (Feb. 23, 2011) regarding circumstances that led to my firing after 2.5 months by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), particularly my writing about mortgage fraud and its roots in mortgage securitization that CBO sought to deny was a problem.
For clarification, the WSJ did not give proper recognition to some individuals. My “supervisors” was Dr. Deborah Lucas, who was CBO chief economist and assistant director, and is currently tenured professor of finance and economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT Professor Lucas was called by the President to serve in a leadership role at CBO. Morgan Stanley economist and CBO advisor, is the Vice President of Economics Research at Morgan Stanley, Richard “Dick” Berner, whose policy framework for refinancing stimulus was to be incorporated into my writing. Dr. Lucas also shared with me analyses from Goldman Sachs, also on the CBO’s distinguish panel of economic advisors, on the housing market such as the banks’ limited risks on mortgage buy-backs.
As a Congressional senior staffer, financial economist, my initial responsibilities were to write a brief (paper) to Congress on the state of the foreclosure crisis and the alternative policy options, as well as cover banking and housing. Almost to the exclusion of other policy options, CBO Assistant Director Lucas and senior management worked around Morgan Stanley’s policy framework and related ideas to present to Congress as the policy choice (One would be correct to point out that CBO does not make policy). Below are excerpts from my letter to Senator Grassley:
I was repeatedly pressured by the CBO Assistant Director, Deborah Lucas… to not write nor discuss issues in the banking sector and mortgage markets that might suggest weakness in these sectors and their consequences on the economy and households...
CBO: Robo-signing, foreclosure fraud as “hype in the press”
When I wrote about the emerging foreclosure problems in September 2010, CBO Chief Economist Lucas maintained that robo-signing was media “sensationalism,” “the kind of event of the moment where we should be adding skepticism, not just repeating the hype in the press”; CBO wrote that my writing about it “lacks judgment about what is important.” Exploring this further in the letter,
…Issues at the heart of the foreclosure problems pertain to securitization….and the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), which purports to have legal standing on electronic records of ownership on about 65 million…mortgages… MERS…facilitated Wall Street’s ability to expedite the pooling of subprime mortgages into MBSs by bypassing standard ownership transfer procedures as the housing bubble escalated…
The implications have profound financial and economic consequences that would be of compelling interest to Congress and the public, but the CBO sought to silence a discussion of such risks, that in reality have been materializing. These risks put into question the ability of investors or bondholders to make claims on the collateral (the homes) that underlies trillions of dollars in MBSs, the bulk of which are now guaranteed by …Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This affects $10 trillion in residential mortgage debt outstanding, of which $7 trillion in mortgage-backed securities (MBSs)…
…
The CBO dismissing such issues prevents an analysis of the risks, so that the public may be forced again to shoulder the consequences for which they have not been a given a voice or a choice.
A month later after being told by CBO Chief Economist Lucas to not repeat this media hype, Georgetown University Law Professor Adam Levitin, Special Counsel to the Congressional Oversight Panel and scholar at the American Bankruptcy Institute, raised essentially the same issues in his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee:
“The chain of title problems are highly technical issues, but they pose a potential systemic risk to the US economy. If mortgages were not properly transferred in the securitization process, then mortgage-backed securities would in fact not be backed by any mortgages whatsoever….
These problems are very serious. At best they present problems of fraud on the court, clouded title to properties coming out of foreclosure, and delay in foreclosures that will increase the shadow housing inventory and drive down home prices. At worst, they represent a systemic risk that would bring the US financial system back to the dark days of the fall of 2008.” [Executive Summary, first page]
Essentially, the chain of title on securitized mortgages appears broken, whether or not there is a foreclosure. This would pertain to most homebuyers in the past 10 years as most mortgages were securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac providing the guarantees, and the largest banks (“The $7 Trillion MBS Problem – Foreclosure Problems and Buybacks”). Recall that these same entities founded MERS, which expedited securitization and purported to have foreclosure authority from its electronic records of ownership on about 65 million mortgages. “Robo-signing” emerged as fraudulent or defective documents were used or created to establish the legal authority to foreclose as MERS faced legal challenges; as of July 22, 2011, foreclosures could no longer be initiated in MERS’ name. At last year’s pace, some figures suggest it could take lenders in New York 62 years to clear their foreclosure inventory, 49 years in New Jersey and a decade in Florida, Massachusetts, and Illinois.
It is unclear how the recent State attorney generals’ agreement to a proposed yet unpublished terms of the $25 billion robo-signing settlement would repair the chain of title issues that continue to mutate. In January 2011, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed the foreclosure actions of two banks for lacking proof of clear title, followed by a decision in October 2011 that a buyer who purchased a house that was improperly foreclosed upon does not make the buyer the new owner of the house; the sale does not transfer the property.
A striking little mention fact of the Massachusetts foreclosure case was that the lenders could not show that the two mortgages were part of the securitization pool. Let’s consider a thought exercise. Others have the raised the question: if the entity that has been taking the homeowners’ mortgage payments is not the real owner, what happens when the true owner(s) of
the mortgage shows up? Are homeowners on the hook again for those ‘missed’ mortgage payments? It was not uncommon for mortgages to be sold multiple times, and it is my understanding that loans were intentionally not given unique identifiers as it moved from origination or purchase through to securitization.
In response to the WSJ story, Director Elmendorf issued a public statement maintaining the integrity of CBO’s work, an excerpt which reads:
“…We have the utmost confidence in the objectivity of our work and devote considerable time and energy to explaining the basis of our findings as clearly as we can to help Members of Congress understand the work that we do.” (Bolded emphasis is CBO Director Elmendorf’s)
In early November 2010, a stunning example was CBO Director Elmendorf’s, a Harvard Ph.D. economist, view that employment growth in housing construction would spur economic growth, in his discussion of inputs into CBO’s macroeconomic forecast model. A question about the assumption was met with Director Elmendorf asking why they were “pessimistic” about such assumptions.
After my termination, Director Elmendorf stated that I should have followed directions from the more knowledgeable and experienced Chief Economist Lucas, taken the opportunity to learn from her. Director Elmendorf saw no ethical issues in her direction, but shifted to perhaps we had a difference of professional opinion. As I understand, Director Elmendorf and MIT Professor Lucas first claimed to Senator Grassley’s office that they could not speak about my termination due to personnel privacy protections, when none exists for Congressional employees. When given full immunity to speak freely to Senator Grassley’s office regarding my termination, they refused to speak.
It has been suggested to not mention these things in polite conversation, but I admit there were oddities following CBO’s termination. After CBO fired me at the end of the day saying “we do not know whether or what you know about economics, economic theory or finance,” I returned to my office to make a phone call. Everyone had left, but there was a silhouette of a man standing in the dark in an office across the courtyard watching me during the 15-20 minute phone call. Later, I came home to find some papers had been moved and could no longer find some important documents pertaining to this case. I attempted to retrieve these documents from my office at CBO, but the power to my office was shut down precisely as the documents from my computer were about to be e-mailed to me; the entire floor and building were unaffected. At about 3 a.m. during a week day, there was sudden a loud crash into my front door followed by complete silence. Perhaps it was just a complimentary early wake-up call.
The truth is still what it is.
As I have come to learn, the issue of foreclosure fraud ‘robo-signing’ seems to be spoken in hushed tones near the powers of Washington D.C. CBO has the ear of Congress and can make or break policies that affect the nation with its analyses.
Who is the CBO serving?
Lan T. Pham, Ph.D.
And her full letter to Chuck Grassley can be found here - pdf.
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red or blue?
Ya, and if you give him a paper dollar it'll royally phuck-up his system for a good century or so.
It really is high time that we got a win for our side maybe this will be the catalyst. These guys have been ripping people off for years with nary a slap on the wrist.
Sleep with a loaded 45 under your pillow and always have one eye open Dr. Pham, they're doing God's work.
You one of these anti-education types or are you simply not aware that not all people with PhDs are FED economists like the Bernanke?
That's true! I know people who have PhD's in perfectly respectable professions, like basket-weaving.
I had plenty of Forestry PhD professors whose sole work in "Industry" consisted of a summer of planting trees for the Forest Circus.
And plenty more that their only "Industry" experience was pumping toxic waste into the craniums of impressionable, gullible, emotional, softened youth.
My Financial Theory professor tried to convince me to pursue a PhD in Finance by giving himself as an example and explaining how easy life is on campus.
I was convinced.
I looked into his eyes and could see a miserable lifeless soul. Then I witnessed how he responded to questions that were outside of the curriculum. His answers were "According to CAPM, ..."
No PhD for me.
I'm glad this is coming out concurrently with the Robo Fraud farce settlement. Good timing.
Whistleblowers are unsung heroes.
And BTW, WTF are we paying those fuckers for if they need to have advice from JPM? It is really an outrage. The CBO is supposed to be a source of impartial advice so our esteemed congressional assholes can make informed and impartial decisions.
What a fucking farce, yet again.
rotflmao! ... THAT TAKES THE CAKE!
+ eleventy trillion
Thank God for Zero Hedge....Chris Whalen painted a pretty bleak picture of our Wall St banks on todays Capitol Account, so I for one am hoping to see more of this whistle blower stuff.............
I initially made the mistake of thinking that Lauren Lyster is just another ridiculously pretty airhead (heaven knows there are enough of them fronting 'news' programmes) - while she is, undeniably, very pretty, she's also VERY smart, and Capital Account, with her, Demetri and Shannon is now on my list of daily watches.
http://www.youtube.com/user/CapitalAccount#p/u
DavidC
Perhaps RT will give Ms Pham her own show!!
She's smokin' hot!
(someone had to say it)
When she is on the screen I find it hard to pay attention to the topic.
Is she smart too?
Awesome.
Does she steal her lines from tyler or vice versa, that was scary.. She is easy on the eyes however..
@DavidC
Lauren Lyster. Impressive.
Lauren Liyster
Tyler in drag ??
The government doesn't just employ mindless drones sometimes a few thinkers who are still humanlike
... but they don't stay long, if they have any self-respect.
Bravo, Ms Pham! Asian women are formidable! (in both the English and French senses of the word).
Vietnamese ladies with nothing to lose! I guess she never landed a fat white veteran to shower her with the leftovers of the disability payments.
America, gotta love it.
Well we made it to about 20 comments before someone made the predictable douche move. I kinda hoped it would have appeared a little further down.
Can't wait for the witty retort, {edited out of respect}
It's apparent shes a class act.
Busy getting her doctorate, and furthering her career, unlike the American gold digging way
It's apparent you have zero class
Let's have a throw down, Ms. Pham vs. dolph9. I'll put two silver eagles on Ms. Pham.
OK, you're an asshole and all, but I gave ya a greenie because the fact is that's some funny shit.
Outrage is a pose.
I wonder if she blows a whistle with revolutionary enthusiasm.
She love you long time.
I am Chumbawamba.
I'd tap it.
What's not to love about a courageous, intelligent, honorable woman?
Herpes?
Damn, 13 up, 13 down, so you guys are saying she's a 5?
Kudos to yet another mouse that roared!
It is more than funny, as well as sobering, to see the panicked reactions of the lions of Wall Street in response to a (so far) handful of mice --- who just happen to have seen the true filth residing in the lions' den and masquerading as "the king of beasts".
Gravitas bitchez
lift rock look under
Rinse, repeat.
Did that once. Snake hiding under it bit me, cause me to drop the rock on my toe.
I'll never do that again.
Wait... Is this article implying that there is something wrong with the financial system, and that the CBO has been fudging the numbers to cover it up?!
I'm absolutely shocked!
Global Debt Crisis
The greatest private fraud of human history.
Who are the great fraudsters who are becoming the murderers of the human kind? How does the economy "illness" threaten Democracy and the freedom of people?
http://eamb-ydrohoos.blogspot.com/2012/01/global-debt-crisis.html
----
Something serious should have taken place, so that the “Superpower" owes 14.5 trillion dollars. Such a "broke superpower" has never been before. The world has never seen before "World rulers" who surrender to pain because cancer medication costs. World rulers, who, when they lose their jobs, go straight to the “garbage”, have never existed not even in the years of Genghis Khan. There should be a problem somewhere and that’s what we are seeking.
.
World War III - The First Private War in History
http://eamb-ydrohoos.blogspot.com/2012/02/world-war-iii.html
Authored by PANAGIOTIS TRAIANOU
lol, looks like Trav was wrong on silver ONCE AGAIN.
I wonder if these whistleblowers will have any real effect, or will we simply shit (Edit:lol, freudian slip--meant to say shift) to an openly corrupt society?
tm - liked your posts better when you weren't fixated on trav - just saying.......
Not to necessarily defend tmosley, but I was not nearly as annoyed by Trav's posts before HE became fixated on bashing silver (and silver owners) and espousing his uniquely vile brand of racism. That twisted wreck of a man deserves all the opprobrium heaped upon him here.
not that I care, but you ought to know that every time you use that pathetic word "racism," you erode its meaning even more.
It has no power, no effect. You can't cower me with that silly shit, bitch.
Wait for it....
I'm coming for you, man...
.
Well DUH! Of course I can't!
You being a complete narcissist and racist pig with no pretensions of morality, why would I expect any criticism of your laughable delusions of grandeur, or your vile collectivist mentality, no matter how cutting or well-justified, to have any effect on you or your quivering basket of neuroses and psychoses? The obvious lack of a conscience, or of critical self-reflection, is the very essence of sociopathic personality disorder, which you demonstrate here daily, in spades --- and that is quite aside from your clear anger-management problems, which are profound.
Please get professional help before you kill someone.
+1 for use of opprobrium. Of course I'm still psyched to learn of Fimbulwinter here on ZH.
Hardly fixated. He made the comment only a few hours before the above post.
This is maybe the second or third time I have refenced him when no-one else was talking about him, or when he wasn't posting upthread.
HUH?
wtf does this article or case have to do with silver? answer: nothing
The crack has destroyed your short and medium term memory, I see.
I mean, Christ, don't read the second sentance of the article or anything.
you people are so fucking easily led, goddamn what a bunch of fuckin lemmings.
Did you read anything AROUND that stupid statement? Like the sentence right after it?
Your stupidity and greed are your downfall, all of you.
"Did you read anything AROUND that stupid statement?"
Such as...?
There is nothing there that contradicts the fact that you jump to conclusions in a millisecond when they fit your dumbshit bias against silver.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
MY Biases?
Mr. would fuckin believe ANYTHING HE READS even if it is fucking a LAUGHABLY OBVIOUS fraud, just because it tells him what he wants to hear?
you are TOO EASY, Cliff.
You still haven't figured it out yet, have you? I don't hate silver...I despise silverbugz. You people are contemptible just for your unadulterated stupidity. And you, Cliff, are a very special brand of stupid.
I notice you didn't respond to my post. Could it be because this mythical "next sencance" that supposedly negated my argument doesn't exist?
Also, where did I say that I beleived it? The first post I made about it was pointing out that Tyler didn't think is was real. I have expresed no opinon on the subject because GASP I am waiting for PROOF.
Best take another hit off the crackpipe. The world is too painful--better to just accept the sweet oblivion of the drug for a little while longer.
Blacks are just really smart.
Get over it trav.
You seem obsessed with blacks, just bringing something like that up out of the blue.
Perhaps you are having a craving of some sort? One that could be filled in a public park restroom?
lulz
"Your stupidity and greed are your downfall, all of you."
That's just precious.
Trav, you evil eyed mother f***er!
Tell him!
Tyler(s),
It has been said that ZH is perma bearish (indeed, people have said the same about me although I've been bullish gold for the last ten years!), but caring about the truth and realism rather than lies and fiction is NOT bearish.
True adults need facts and truth in order to make a rational, logical decision and I thank ZH for (what I, at least, consider to be) providing facts and truth.
DavidC
Facts are bearish. Humans are generally self-destructive narcissists. Its easy to be bearish once you realize that.
Facts are it is not so easy to walz in here and say "I bought BAC today at $6.25 or I sold SLV at $42.
Nevermind that I fucking hated every minute I even thought about buying FAS or selling SLW $3 short the peak. Point is, no one wants to have to write a fucking dissertation explaining that I got a stack of metal that'll make most of you SICK. I don't want to have to EXPRESS that every time I look to sell some PAPER.
I own CHEVRON since oil was $38 bucks. I played DXO. I sold DXO. I don't look forward to receiving an "education" on inflation every time I feel like selling. CapICE-A- bitchez!
They scalp from me? I want to scalp from them. Want to know when I'm selling and when I'm buying???? Then save the "let me teach you something about fraud" speech.
WE GET IT. THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE. To the rookies... You;ll get an education... But ON YOUR OWN. Throw yourself into the fire and start learnin'. Want to counter Trav? Then start by reading Jared Diamond.
As for me, I'm under no illusion that white men can jump. No matter how many basketball courts are built in Sprinfield f'n Virginia. We are different... SO FUCKING WHAT. I actually appreciate it.
Jared Diamond is an anti-white ideologue. Perhaps that is why he is so overrated.
Commendable bravery here.
God Bless
No one in their right mind will listen to her. She is too hot
Thank you Ms. Pham.
This lady is Phamtastic!
looks like very soon the shit is gonna hit the pham baby !
You go girl!
ZH, great article.
Deception and corruption seems to be the way of life of too many bureaucrats and politcians in the Washington DC area.
So if the manipulation of PM's is proven.... do we see gold at $5000 ? .. Any thoughts on price action?
No US 'budget director' has produced a real budget for decades ... if ever.
As with military and sickurity documents, there are "public version" documents, and the classified and protected real versions, which we will never be allowed to see.
And I'm not sure if they even bother to make a real 'budget' document any longer .. not much point.
bahahaa.. Wallstreet is Big Brother (inner party), and government is the outer party. I had it backwards.
This trickle of truth syrum will become a flood as Govt crumbles in debt and loyalty to Govt collapses for a sense of responsibility to the public at large
I trust ZH is prepared for a torrent of whistlblowers in the months and years ahead because we never tire of hearing what a shambles the Govt is in every facet of its (in)operation
Thanks Ms Pham
Tis the season for things whispered in the ear to be shouted from the rooftops. Methinks we'll be seeing more of the likes of courageous Ms. Pham.
Out with the lying liars and their damnanble lies!
A very brave & principled young woman. If only there were more with her courage & honor.
I'm proud to associate myself with zero hedge. Now could someone tell me what all this means?
Shocking the Americans have less and less confidence in their insitutions and governments.
And they try and sell the idiots amongst us the notion that terrorism is the real problem.
Goldman isn't the problem. Goldman is the sympton. And as long as the main stream media and the sheeple that follow them continue to focus on the symptom's the real problem continues to fester, grow and pollute all public insitutions.
The Rule of law at the heart of democracy and property rights is being subverted to keep the banks alive.
I don't just blame Obama, this started long before he took office. The crisis of 2008 just made it more tangiable.
Broadcast News (1987):
“What do you think the Devil is going to look like if he’s around? Nobody is going to be taken in if he has a long, red, pointy tail. No. I’m semi-serious here. He will look attractive and he will be nice and helpful and he will get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation and he will never do an evil thing… he will just bit by little bit lower standards where they are important. Just coax along flash over substance… Just a tiny bit.”
Thank you Ms. Pham.
We will always hide the divine truth from them, that we are all one.
This they must never know!
They must never know that color is an illusion, they must always think they are not equal.
Drop by drop, drop by drop we will advance our goal.
We will take over their land, resources and wealth to exercise total control over them.
We will deceive them into accepting laws that will steal the little freedom they will have.
We will establish a monetary system that will imprison them forever, keeping them and their children in debt.
When they shall band together, we shall accuse them of crimes and present a different story to the world for we shall own all the media.
We will use our media to control the flow of information and their sentiment in our favor.
When they shall rise up against us we will crush them like insects, for they are less than that.
They will be helpless to do anything for they will have no weapons.
We will recruit some of their own to carry out our plans, we will promise them eternal life, but eternal life they will never have for they are not of us.
The recruits will be called "initiates" and will be indoctrinated to believe false rites of passage to higher realms.
Members of these groups [Editor´s Note: the Illuminati] will think they are one with us never knowing the truth.
They must never learn this truth for they will turn against us.
For their work they will be rewarded with earthly things and great titles, but never will they become immortal and join us, never will they receive the light and travel the stars.
They will never reach the higher realms, for the killing of their own kind will prevent passage to the realm of enlightenment.
This they will never know.
The truth will be hidden in their face, so close they will not be able to focus on it until its too late.
Oh yes, so grand the illusion of freedom will be, that they will never know they are our slaves.
When all is in place, the reality we will have created for them will own them.
This reality will be their prison.
They will live in self-delusion
@Blotto, The Secret Covenant of The Illuminati...and a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8IyN2TV300
edit: you left out the poisoning of air, food, and water parts
Where was this woman when the CBO gave the fiscal obliterator otherwise known as Obamacare a "deficit reducer" label? A brand new middle class entitlement that two years in has already doubled in cost? A program whose savings rely on Congress ending the doc fix (LMFAO)?
This woman can go fuck herself.
Did you even pretend to read the article before posting your idiotic comment: "I was abruptly fired after 2.5 months at the CBO"
And also, for those with short attention spans, here is the summary: the CBO only does what Goldman tells it to do (what is below a muppet on the Goldman food chain? the CBO). The best an employee has to look forward to if dessenting with the likes of Jan Hatzius is immediate termination and potentially breaking and entry.
Tyler Durden: Keepin' them honest.
He was apparently too blinded from all the sparks generated by his furious ax-grinding to focus on and digest the finer nuances of the article.
It would be useful to know where her PhD is from and the subject of her dissertation.
She has a PHD from the University of Minn, Dept of Applied Economics, and her dissertation was on access to finance in vietnam
I am having problems finding out any other information though.
That's reassuring. English is maybe not her first language, so the absence of smooth writing is meaningless.
The University of Minnesota does not just hand out PhDs. She likely earned it and knows what she needs to know.
The administration is desperate to get housing freed up in this timeframe. Everything they are juggling is very timing related now, as November approaches. One wonders who appointed those people above her.
Oil is the wildcard, of course.
Tyler Durden asked:
Of course he didn't read it. He's a "mission poster". Expect more paid political shills to come out of the woodwork as more of the rot is exposed.
This is clear to those who took the time to read the article. What is also clear is Dr. Pham's courage, a concept unfamiliar and foreign to raving and drooling mission posters like trillion dollar deficit.
Im glad I scrolled to the next page and saw your response Tyler. It meant I didnt have to call him out on that point.
edit- I removed my subsequent blast of trillion_dollar after seeing he recognized his mistake.
Although he gets an additional down arrow for not also apologizing to an obviously classy lady.
Let me be the first to say it doesn't sound like she's the problem. Who knows if she even worked on the Obama scam. We all know the democrats obfuscated the whole damn mess. They had both houses and there wasn't a damn thing that could be done to stop the president.
Now we have to hope the Supreme Court throws it out.
OOPS .... :(
From the article:
"As a Congressional senior staffer, financial economist, my initial responsibilities were to write a brief (paper) to Congress on the state of the foreclosure crisis and the alternative policy options, as well as cover banking and housing."
Wham bam thank you Pham!!!
http://youtu.be/zLnPd7lzT4g
My first actual LOL of the day! Thank you!
LOL ~ That reminds me of back in the 70's I was driving my sister & her stoner friends to a David Bowie concert at the old "Capital Center" in Landover, Maryland...
Driving the 495 Capital Beltway, I passed by a sign that said "Bowie" (exit with an off arrow)... Bowie, Maryland is about one beltway exit stop from the Landover exit...
One of the stoners got all freaked out and yelled... "Yo dude... DUDE!... "Bowie"!... you missed the turn"!
Good to know peeps are just as stupid now as they were back then... That dude probably works for the CBO right now...
who hear who has been reading zh since before it went to the 'new' layout , who has been watching wall street for at least 5 years , has had ANY faith in the 'independence' of ANY federal agency associeted with economic forecasts or reporting.
seriously? not only ISNT this NEWS but its NOT going to lead to any big changes. chuck grassley? really? you are going to trust that guy who is on the payroll of wall street to look into this?
no---the only thing that this proves is that the system is hopelessly unable to rectify itself because there are no longer any semblence of checks and balances. the question is how long till the next collapse and what happens after it. and that question will be different depending on what and how the collapse comes for you and affects you afterwards. its different for everyone. but you can be sure to read the the collective narrative of pain and suffering right here on zh. kudos!
Yeah, this is news. It confirms the sort of stuff people figured was happening but didn't/couldn't know was going on.
Insiders are speaking out. To quote the Vice President, "This is a big fucking deal."
Very cool, Tyler and thank you Ms. Pham.
I tell you all, this only ends with guns. I have been sayin' it for a whole God Damn year. Those fuckers entrenched in these towers of corruption will very unwillingly bend. There will be more whistleblowers, and probably a lot of staged sucicides and "car accidents".
The MUCK we have in the CE Officers and BOD, and "Leadership" in this country are a bunch of ethic challegened pieces of human filth. Think you can "reason" with these fucks? NO way. These whistleblowers need PROTECTION and that is from the JPM, GS and CBO.
We are just going to come to the realization these fuckers will nor vacate their positions of power because they ALL know they will be in jail after loosing that power. Collectively the sooner we come to that realization, the sooner the "99%" will arm themselves and have these fucks piked. Hank Paulsen was just the first swinging dick that presented istslf. What happened? They did waht he wanted. MF global? NOTHING, but we got a new term for theft... "VAPORIZED"! We need to start vaporizzing these sick fucks at the tops of power.
Nothing else is going to work. Nothing.
The only ticket for the sick fucks is a toe tag.
@Everyman
Agreed, though I haven't been as convinced as you until recently. When freedom gives way to inequality, it is the forerunner to violence.
Consider: in the USA, the Feds actually don't have to "come for us."
When that ceases being true, it'll be too late to worry. Pay attention.
I respectfully disagree. I think the "violence" is deserved as a punishment against those that would subvert freedome for a fucking dollar. Violence isn't always bad, expecially when it is the only option left for the assclowns that refuse to accept that they are fucked up peices of putrid human filth. They are "earning it", and it will be a great day to see someone like Blankfiend or those other assholes bleed out.
That would be a GREAT day for freedom. A tyrant overlord dead.
@Everyman
I don't see any disagreement, other than I didn't address who deserved what. When insurmountable inequalities build up in a society, there will be violence. It is usually directed at hte entrenched elites, but there is no controlling where it ends. French Revolution is a great example.
Very True words. I haear them. Wish others did.
riding the wave of smith and pham....
rpaul and ows....
ROCKY! ROCKY ! ROCKY! ROCKY !ROCKY! ROCKY !
justice party 2012.
Seems to me the real, big story here is ZH getting the scoop.
Let's hope this is a sign of things to come.
We need a Mc.Carthy era type hunt to knock the parasitic fraud peddling pencil pushers back at least a couple of thousand basis points. This type of action is a good start. Thank you!
So yesterday's "US banks are finally out of the woods" was off the mark?
I am calling my congressman about this again. I hope someone gets their arse in a sling, but no one has gone down yet...
justice=just us
wow. just fucking wow. What a great story. Apparently, If Wallstreet can control the analysis of the CBO, it can indirectly control policy.
Stalin would be proud with this type of maneuvering!
Indirectly control policy?
What planet are you on?
With 5 financial service lobbyist's for every congressperson, and Super Pac's, they are directly writing policy and controlling how it is voted on.
Welcome to Democracy Yank style.
...and controlling how it is reported on!
If we're not careful, bankers might write legislation like Dodd Frank!
Wait, check the document for fingerprints! Oh, and lets give a pop quiz to Dodd and Frank to see how well they remember and understand what they wrote.
While this article is pretty damning, its one year too late. She should have stepped up soon after her firing.
Thank you Dr. Pham for bringing this out in the open in hopes others follow in your footsteps.
Quoting Ms. Pham:
Ms. Pham, thank you for taking a principled stand. If you do not already have one, might I suggest you get a handgun? Maybe the Glock 19 for starters, although it lacks stopping power for the determined predator. Regardless, you will be in my thoughts and prayers.
Ms. Pham, pay attention. Don't let strangers bump into you. Unfortunately, paranoia is your friend now.
MS. Pham, I'm standing and applauding. Thank you for coming forward.
Dr. Pham, you join Janet Tavakoli and Brooksley Born on my list of heroes and female role models.
A very heartfelt Thank You and deep respect for your courage and your example.
PS: Please take very, very good care of yourself. You have angered some ugly people who will be feeling your impact.
WHO OWNS WHOM? there's a simple answer.
#
Peter Richard Orszag (pronounced /??rzæ?/; born December 16, 1968) is an American economist who is a Vice Chairman of Global Banking at Citigroup
#
who does prev driector work for? Citigorup..
where will curr director work in future? probably GoldmanSucks
case is closed
alx
Bravo, outta the park, TD. Journalism.
As utterly honest and amazing this article is.. I don't think [The] Tyler(s) are going to get a pulitzer for any of this. Oh well I suppose. This comes with the job of shining a light on the cockroaches that is Wall Street and being told your paranoid and crazy.
Had a discussion with somebody the other day who produced CBO figures to justify his side of the argument. Laugh? I fucking howled.
Naive at best...
Lacking skills is more likely...
Her superiors tried to warn her in a straightforward message of ' leave it alone'. She just did not pay attention to the unwritten lesson like a good student should have and thus her reprimand “we do not know whether or what you know about economics, economic theory or finance,”
Please pay attention people! The lesson is....
The PTB hold complete control of the system through regulatory capture. Anything having to do with your laws and that silly 'Constitution' thing can be quickly swept aside when it could affect their bottom line or control of the system. She choose to focus on something that was clearly going to be 'handled' but choose to make an issue out of it.
Never, ever try to awaken the sheeple or be prepared for the consequences!
I have a feeling things are going to get frosty for the TBTF crowd.
Foreclosure settlement worth $18 million to Gardens woman
I've had the good fortune of meeting Lynn Szymoniak on several occasions, and she is the most affable, altruistic person one could ever meet. People aren't as likely as they once were, to but into this "deadbeat" campaign.
The fucking cronies are the deadbeats and we're getting sick of it.
Blow those whistles! Demand to see you original Note or don't pay anybody.
Go to YouTube and pull up "AG settlement is bad for consumers" and you might have a bit different opinion of that landmark $25 billion dollar settlement.
There is only one part of the settlement errr...sellout I like and that's the part where Lynn gets 18 million dollars.
WPTV | Lynn Szymoniak – Whistleblower Awarded Millions (VIDEO)
Otherwise, I think it is an unconstitutional sham.
I'm using what little influence I have to form a group of private attorneys, at least one from each state, to simultaneously file suit against this thing.
For some reason, one that I have yet to understand, this notion is blasphemous and taboo. I even tried to cajole them into it, but at this point I only have 14 attorneys willing to participate (with varying degrees of enthusiasm).
Harmon Law Continues Jihad on Justice and the Conjured Corporate "Resolution"
Any attorneys out there who aren't afraid to mix it up with the AGs can join the effort by clicking the mailto: link below.
Send Mail
There is a massive wave of righteous indignation coming, it will come to the surface like an unseen magma chamber making it's presence known ... they're busy trying to avoid it and channel it away ... but it's coming anyway ...
This humanity's opportunity to make the best of it, and take the best of a global collapse and regeneration.
These guys are too broke not to fail, and it can't be hidden with any more lies.
They can lie but they are done.
All we get now are trolls saying it was somehow all worth it, to be progressively destroyed from within and enslaved, a great accomplishment.
It didn't have to be like this ... not at all.
Her big mistake was sending or rather counting on Grasselys office to do anything expecially follow through. As I am sure a few Grassley staffers will take a look see here, I have a question. WHAT THE HELL, is going on with fast and Furious our government exported guns to criminals and we are responsible for hundreds of deaths in Mexico. This is not a botched burglary you fools and we are not forgetting.. Oh and Maam, stay away from hot tubs, subway platforms etc..
What if you couldn't tell the vigilantes from the cops?
OT / I cannot type worth a shit.. I almost feel bad for the grammar nazi's, almost.
Another moment of truth for us here at Zero Hedge. I doubt any are surprised. Excellent and factual. Month after month it never changes here. We are given the information and we act on it as we see fit. and I also am not a bear or a bull. I want my Nation back! It is being taken away from us piece by piece and so few are doing anything about it. At least here we can see the light.
Imagine waking up one morning and not finding Zero Hedge. That scares me. If you think it is worth your time, think about a donation to keep the truth flowing. Makes me sleep better at night.
RP
Thanks for the reminder about the donation. I would be happy to make one, but not via credit card. Any suggestions?
http://investmentwatchblog.com/h-r-1489-return-to-prudent-banking-act-of...
Well, finally getting back to the way you worked in 2009. Looking forward to the change from the last two years. There is more to the world than Greece. Who'd da thunk it.
If you are a blogger, and you are holding anything made by Apple, I'll give you $ 10 to shove it up your ass.
So tell us...what is the right computer for people to use and not find themselves at the receiving end of your hatred?
Perhaps you know of a better, kinder. gentler more humanely manufactured computer? Please let us know...
C=64
Lan T. Pham - Thank you.
ZH is the right place for whistleblowers if they want to make sure their ENTIRE statement is put on public display.
Great job.
Big KUDOS to Ms. Pham and ZH. America as it should be.
They ( wretched lying banksters, spineless, craven politicians, etc) will spin this toxic shit until the mutherfuckin' fireballs start coming outta the sky. Then they will run and hide in their underground caverns. They think the'll be able to come back up, morlock-like, to feast on human flesh, but I think we'll be waiting for them.
Communism in eastern europe collapsed when I was 19, in 1991. I came to Canada in 1999 thinking north america is the meca of freedom and free market.
Unfortunately Obama is finishing what the others started, CUBANIZATION OF USA. I've come to understand that Canada finished it's Cubanizing process about the time I came here.
Good luck to you americans. Hail the leader.
Let me add a couple of points of skepticism.
Why did Dr. Pham think 'her job' was doing stuff her boss said not to do?
How does anyone with 2 months on the job know anything?
How do emerging, murky legal issues about mortgage signatures bear on macroeconomic analysis per se?
Put another way, this kind of poor performance is routinely met with dismissal in the professional world. The fact that the issues at hand happen to be important and emotionally charged doesn't change the general look of the dynamic here. Imagine that it was a software company and she started writing memos to shareholders about how suicides in Chinese factories could destroy the computer industry. Yeah, but WTF? Really?
I dunno, totally salute ZH for putting the fresh, 100% shit on display, but this particular case is sorta not working for me. The beings in charge are in a psychotic bubble, right, but taking on the robosigning thing as a holy crusade in a macroeconomics division? Doesn't sound like a lot of economics going on.
Ok, Devil's advocacy done for the moment. Thanks Dr. Pham (welcome to Fight Club) for not shutting up and to ZH for distributing.
@Jim in MN
As two of the older Zeroheads, you and I are usually in total agreement. You obviously have my respect and I understand the point you are making, but I don't think it is relevant here. You want her macroeconomic analysis to ignore the 800 pound gorilla starring at everyone in the room? Why do you so casually dismiss that she was directed to include material from Dick Berner, a Morgan Stanley Vice President, in her "objective" analysis? That alone is evidence of regulatory capture and corruption.
Oh I like the issues raised, like them very much. Dr. Pham should be thanked and rewarded, as the focus shifts to the real meat. I have pounded the table on the very point that many policy options that were not only considered but actually implemented in the 1930s, like Federal takeovers of major banks and public officers simply seizing the desks and files of the banksters, or the RFC (look it up), are not even in the realm of imagination in the DC/NY cabal. The so-called Depression experts never discuss what was actually done during the Depression??? Yeah right. It is all part of the painful delegitimization of authority under the Obama administration. Where is the memo that coolly lays out ALL the policy options? Does it not exist? Why not?
But for me this isn't just a reflexive, feel-good story. Rah rah and all that. Let's be serious about shit (while we snark off). It's important to take the warts in the story along with the beauty. Once they are on the table, fine.
I am just a part of the ZH info-ecosystem. :*) Sir, Tylers, Sir!
@Jim in MN
Well, it is Fight Club. Good to see you here tonight.
Umm, is this above post missing a sarc tag?
10 tril in unbacked MBS macro enough for you?
It's legit to question the "two months on the job and lashing out" issue, but this is not a new 21 year old grad with a bachelor's in econ who was lucky to get the job. At the PhD level, you don't have to show up and take a first assignment as polishing the powerpoint slides for your boss until you learn what's going on.
So no, her becoming a thorn in 2 months is not too very bothersome. It's rare, but at the PhD level it's not outright silly.
One does absolutely, however, wonder why in hell a brand new employee was tasked to write briefing papers that would be presented to Congress. One would have thought her initial job would be to fact check the numbers in someone else's briefing paper.
THAT is a tad puzzling.
I am only suggesting that what she thinks her job was and what it actually was may not have been the same thing. And in my experience it is generally not the employee's job to decide, ultimately, what their job is--no matter how senior the post. But PhD econ folk are not known for social skills, at the management or 'line' level. It's very sad really. Doctors can be just as bad....downright scary interpersonal situations are routine.
Your point is taken and completely irrelevent.
So because her point was not in her scope, it should not be considered valid?
Title to mortgage is not a "merky" legal issue. It's at the very heart of foerclosure fraud. You either have claim to the property or not.
Jim in MN,
Understanding comes in quantum leaps. Understanding is one of those proverbial "lightbulb moments". Understanding is binary: you don't know or you do know. Two months on the job is more than enough time to realize that a string of robosignatures represents fraud and that since an entire massive industry segment was built upon that fraud (MBSs, CDOs), all of which has either direct (Fannie, Freddie) or indirect (bailouts of TBTF) taxpayer exposure, it MUST be considered by a public entity who exists to provide background for policy.
As Dr. Pham also notes in her letter, the implications for the ongoing foreclosure problem, even if it did not contain the fraud element, were "common sense". Again, two months is plenty of time, especially for someone well versed in economics, to appreciate that ignoring the implications of a collapse in a $10 trillion market cannot be ignored.
Who is CBO serving, asks the fearless lady.
Barack Hussein Ojackass is who the CBO is serving.
And that is apalling, unfortunate, dangerous, wrong, and sad.
"Morgan Stanley economist who served as a CBO adviser" Oh my God.....
Whistleblowers are the best of people-everything to lose and nothing to gain except a piece of mind and a conscience that's free-
Whistleblowers are very much a part of the cycle of deflation-
.
Why even try to conflate a real-life person with an imaginary delusion?
Good luck waiting for your magically appreciating fiat currency to arrive ... on the back of a unicorn, Mr. Credit=Money simpleton. It's going to be a long, LONG wait.
Good luck waiting for your magically appreciating fiat currency to arrive ... on the back of a unicorn, Mr. Credit=Money simpleton. It's going to be a long, LONG wait.
************
Piss off loud clueless one-