Going After The Banksters

Sept. 2nd, 2011

From the NY Times:

"The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Maeand Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits, which are expected to be filed in the coming days in federal court, are aimed at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among others, according to three individuals briefed on the matter.

The suits stem from subpoenas the finance agency issued to banks a year ago. If the case is not filed Friday, they said, it will come Tuesday, shortly before a deadline expires for the housing agency to file claims.

The suits will argue the banks, which assembled the mortgages and marketed them as securities to investors, failed to perform the due diligence required under securities law and missed evidence that borrowers’ incomes were inflated or falsified. When many borrowers were unable to pay their mortgages, the securities backed by the mortgages quickly lost value.

Fannie and Freddie lost more than $30 billion, in part as a result of the deals, losses that were borne mostly by taxpayers."

Read more HERE

What About Derivatives?

July 20th, 2011
F. Grey Parker

The foggy world of derivatives, the same non-transparent mechanisms that nearly led to a global rollover three years ago, is still fundamentally opaque. They almost drove us into total depression before and that was without the intentional brinkmanship and economic sabotage now being seen from some of our own "conservative" representatives.