Jesse's Café Américain Mon 2010-01-18 09:56 EST

Franklin Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address: A Fitting Reminder For Our Crisis Today

Jesse

...I never read it in full, but like most people just remember the famous quote about fear. It's worth reading this. It shows a mindset in terrible, overwhelming times that was determined to set things right, not to take care of business, but to address the business of the people directly, and not only the immediate concerns of the crisis but the long term problems that caused the financial collapse in meaningful ways...

Crisis; fitting reminder; Franklin Roosevelt's; inaugural addresses; Jesse's Café Américain.

Tue 2009-10-27 13:06 EDT

Courthouse News Service

Bank of America and Countrywide Home Loans destroyed mortgage documents, and "recreate" them by "insert(ing) data as they see fit," to cover up their own failure to keep records - or their fraud - according to a federal RICO class action. "To cover up the servicing mistakes and fraud and misrepresentation in the servicing of a consumer escrow, Defendants 'recreate' letters, insert data as they see fit, and fail to produce the entire HUD complaint form. This way, a consumer is left in the dark about the fraud that occurred to them," the complaint states. Lead plaintiff Kim Gorham says that when she sent a letter seeking information about her escrow account, she was informed that it had been "destroyed by a letter opener."

Courthouse News Service.

Jesse's Café Américain Mon 2009-10-26 09:52 EDT

The US Power Elite: An Alliance of Convenience or a Ménage à Trois?

Jesse

"I submit that our spendthrift government, the Federal Reserve System and the TBTF banks together now comprise the paramount political tendency in America today. This tripartite "Alliance of Convenience," let's not call it a conspiracy, fits beautifully into the corporatist mold that seems to be America in the 21st Century - but only viewed by the elites in cities like New York and Washington. Many Americans of all political descriptions oppose this corrupt and unaccountable political formulation." Chris Whalen, Institutional Risk Analytics

alliance; convenience; Jesse's Café Américain; Ménage à Trois; power elites.

Rick Bookstaber Sun 2009-09-20 14:30 EDT

Regulation in Defense of Capitalism

Rick Bookstaber

Will regulation hobble capitalism? I think the opposite is true. Properly done -- and I think most of the financial regulation that is envisioned fits into this camp -- government regulation of the financial industry will move the industry closer to the capitalist ideal. By capitalism, I mean where those who take the risks and put up the money get the fruits of their labor. And, importantly, where those who take the risks and put up the money actually do take the risks, bearing the full costs of failure as well as success.

capitalism; defense; Regulators; Rick Bookstaber.

Minyanville Sat 2009-09-05 11:47 EDT

Why Hanging On to UNG Is Risky Business

People have been up in arms for months now about the troubles at the United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG) the ETF designed to track the price of natural gas. And as far as I can tell rightly so. ETFs were meant to be a nearly frictionless relatively simple alternative to the clunky closed-end funds (CEFs) and managed products that our parents and grandparents had to contend with. But UNG recently traded at a 19% premium to its net asset value (NAV) -- behavior far more fitting a CEF...But since hand-wringing over UNG seems to be the consensus approach, here's a contrarian thought: UNG has, to date, tracked natural gas futures (NG) fairly well.

hang; Minyanville; Risky Business; UNG.