Fri 2010-10-08 21:34 EDT

Improper GMAC Affidavits Leading to Charges of Document Fabrication to Change Title >> naked capitalism

Yves Smith

...the web emanating from the GMAC affidavit improprieties extend much further than most may realize. Although GMAC continues to maintain that having its ``robot signor'' officers like Jeffrey Stephan provide affidavits on matters they know nothing about is a mere technical problem that they can remedy. In fact, an affidavit is a statement of someone with personal knowledge of a matter. Stephan signed as many as 10,000 documents a month and clearly could not have personal knowledge of the underlying situations. Deliberately preparing and submitting inaccurate documents in a legal proceeding is a fraud on the court...So as much as GMAC and its fellow servicers no doubt hope there little document mess will fade from public view, attorneys are using it as a new weapon to fight questionable foreclosures or force servicers to negotiate principal mods...

CHANGING TITLES; charges; Document Fabrication; Improper GMAC Affidavits Leading; naked capitalism.

PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM Mon 2010-09-20 09:57 EDT

WHITHER CHINA?

Simon Hunt

In all likelihood, China has entered the most critical and taxing period since the country was reopened to the outside world in the 1970s. Domestically, there are a slew of issues, any one of which could create instability...Few can know the full story of what goes on within the State Council, but there appears to be a battle royal being fought over the real estate sector. There are those within the leadership who are concerned that average home prices have gotten too high for most first-time buyers (see our previous visit report). They want to see average prices fall by 10-20% across the country. Against this group are not just real estate developers but local governments and many others within Beijing...In effect, what is being seen is a battle between central and local governments. In our view, this is a fight that central government cannot afford to lose...against a background of cheap money and plenty of credit, house prices across the country have become unaffordable to most first-time buyers...if these price developments continued unchecked the leadership would risk encountering social instability...we doubt there will be any easing of policy until average house prices fall into the 10-20% range. China is transiting into a very difficult period as focus shifts towards sustainable domestic growth and away from short-term measures to defend the 8% GDP mantra. This transition is occurring when the existing leadership is preparing to give way to the new set in 2012, when social stability could be threatened if there are policy mistakes...

China; PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM.

New Economic Perspectives Fri 2010-07-16 14:28 EDT

Goldman Vampire Squid Gets Bitch Slapped: JP Morgan Bitch Slaps the Dow; and Geithner Tries to Bitch Slap Elizabeth Warren

L. Randall Wray

Ok here were three pieces of news today. First, Goldman Sachs was fined $550 Million for duping customers...For Goldman it was a tiny slap on the wrist--it still controls the Obama administration, with its moles, Timmy Geithner and Larry Summers still in charge of fiscal policy, thus prepared to funnel whatever money is necessary to prop up their firm--and the fine amounts to just 14 days of Goldman's earnings...The other remaining investment bank, JP Morgan announced that its profits rose by 76%. Funny thing is that in all banking categories, JP Morgan's results were horrendous...the profits supposedly came from ``trading''. In reality they mostly came from reducing ``loan loss reserves''...Our favorite Timmy has weighed in on Elizabeth Warren...Timmy Geithner (let me repeat that: Timmy! Geithner!) the most incompetent and conflicted public official since ``heck-uv-a-job'' Brownie has dared to oppose Ms. Warren to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...Actually I agree with Timmy. Elizabeth Warren ought to be gunning for Timmy's job. Fire Geithner. Now. Elizabeth Warren for Treasury Secretary! And in 2012, Warren for President...Time for a new face in the White House. Elizabeth is our man, or woman.

Bitch Slap Elizabeth Warren; bitch slaps; Dow; Geithner trying; Goldman Vampire squid; JP Morgan Bitch Slaps; New Economic Perspectives.

Culture of Life News Thu 2010-05-20 16:57 EDT

Imbalances In World Trade Cause Tectonic Shifts In Power

Elaine Supkis

...Very, very soon, China will be the world's #1 oil buyer and shortly after this, the yuan will suddenly displace the dollar as the currency which determines the value of oil deals. Then, the yuan/dollar peg will vanish. And we better prepare for this day: it is INEVITABLE. We will suddenly find out where all those many trillions of US dollars are hidden in various foreign FOREX accounts and then hyperinflation will rage...for the US dollar, not the Chinese yuan...

Culture; imbalances; Life News; Power; World Trade Cause Tectonic Shifts.

naked capitalism Thu 2010-05-20 15:44 EDT

Germany's Short Selling Bans: Prudence, Populism or Bank Protection?

...Now why do the Germans in particular feel a tad nervous? Well, Germany, like the UK and Switzerland, has a banking system so large relative to its economy that it cannot credibly backstop it if it goes seriously off the rails. The problem is more acute in Germany because it does not control its own currency (as it cannot simply throw whatever it takes at the banks and if need be, ``print'' later; by contrast, the risk to the UK and Swiss banking system comes from its banks' foreign currency exposures)...The bailout plan shifted risk from the periphery to the core of Europe, and the core, upon examination, does not look too solid. Prepare yourself for a rough ride.

Banks Protected; Germany's short-selling ban; naked capitalism; population; prudence.

Jesse's Café Américain Sun 2010-05-09 08:30 EDT

Guest Post: The Perils of Credit Money Systems Managed by Private Corporations

Jesse

...The paper system being founded on public confidence and having of itself no intrinsic value, is liable to great and sudden fluctuations, thereby rendering property insecure and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain.The corporations which create the paper money cannot be relied upon to keep the circulating medium uniform in amount. In times of prosperity, when confidence is high, they are tempted by the prospect of gain or by the influence of those who hope to profit by it to extend their issues of paper beyond the bounds of discretion and the reasonable demands of business. And when these issues have been pushed on from day to day until the public confidence is at length shaken, then a reaction takes place, and they immediately withdraw the credits they have given; suddenly curtail their issues; and produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of the circulating medium which is felt by the whole community. The banks, by this means, save themselves, and the mischievous consequences of their imprudence or cupidity are visited upon the public. Nor does the evil stop here. These ebbs and flows in the currency and these indiscreet extensions of credit naturally engender a spirit of speculation injurious to the habits and character of the people...Recent events have proved that the paper money system of this country may be used as an engine to undermine your free institutions; and that those who desire to engross all power in the hands of the few and to govern by corruption or force are aware of its power and prepared to employ it... Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837

Credit Money Systems Managed; Guest Post; Jesse's Café Américain; peril; private corporations.

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis Mon 2010-04-05 14:50 EDT

UK Business lending Falls At Record Pace; UK Mortgage Lending Drops 32% to 10 Year Low; Bundesbank Fears Second Wave of Credit Crisis; Party's Over

Michael Shedlock

Recent data shows the economic slump in the UK and Eurozone is accelerating to the downside at a rapid pace...The European recovery is on its last legs. The global recovery will soon follow. Prepare for an economic relapse.

10-year low; Bundesbank fears; credit crisis; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; Party s; record pace; UK Business lending Falls; UK Mortgage Lending Drops 32; wave.

Fri 2010-02-26 16:47 EST

'Buy farmland and gold,' advises Dr Doom - Times Online

The world's most powerful investors have been advised to buy farmland, stock up on gold and prepare for a ``dirty war'' by Marc Faber, the notoriously bearish market pundit, who predicted the 1987 stock market crash.

advises Dr Doom; Buys farmland; gold; time online.

Jesse's Café Américain Tue 2010-01-05 19:05 EST

Is the US Goverment Preparing the Lifeboats for the Next Financial Disaster?

Jesse

The fraud and mispricing of risk in the US financial system has become pervasive and epidemic, such that a good stiff headwind could have taken it all down, and because of a lack of serious reform, still can. Rather than fixing potential causes of the next disaster, the Obama Administration seems content to block the escape routes and issue priority passes to the big Wall Street banks and a favored few...The only constraint on the Fed's printing money is the acceptability (marginal value) of the Bond and the dollar, which is the bond of zero duration. And the people making the decisions about printing and distributing those dollars are more unworthy of holding such power than you might imagine, even in your lowest expectations.

financial disaster; Goverment Preparing; Jesse's Café Américain; lifeboat.

zero hedge Thu 2009-12-31 11:52 EST

Shadowstats' John Williams: Prepare For The Hyperinflationary Great Depression

John Williams, who runs the popular counter government data manipulation site Shadowstats, has thrown down the gauntlet to deflationists, and in an extensive report concludes that the probability of a hyperinflationary episode in America over the next year has reached critical levels. While the debate between deflationists and (hyper)inflationists has been a long and painful one, numerous events set off in motion by the Bernanke Fed (as a direct legacy of the Greenspan multi-decade period of cheap and boundless credit) may have well cast America as the unwilling protagonist in the sequel of the failed monetary policy economic experiment better known as Zimbabwe.

Hyperinflationary Great Depression; John Williams; prepared; ShadowStats; Zero Hedge.

The Economic Populist - Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time Wed 2009-11-25 11:23 EST

Societe Generale - How to Prepare Yourself for a Global Economic Collapse

Commodities Bugs are ecstatic with the French firm Societe Generale's Worst Case Debt Scenario Report...On the first page you will see as the number one thing to do to project yourself: Sell your dollars

economic populist; global economic collapse; Mind 2 Cents; prepared; Societe generally; speaking; Time.

Jesse's Café Américain Fri 2009-10-23 08:54 EDT

Preparing for the Next Crash: Now Is the Time

Jesse

The Extinction of Ethics in Finance -- The Fallout, by Greg Simmons: ...I could probably write an entire thesis about the utter abandonment of morality by today's so-called investment community. I mean, does everybody have to cheat each other to make a dollar? The subject literally brings into question the human thread that binds our social fabric together...

Crash; Jesse's Café Américain; prepared; Time.

Calculated Risk Sat 2009-10-10 13:33 EDT

FHA Bailout Seen

CalculatedRisk

From Bloomberg: FHA Shortfall Seen at $54 Billion May Lead to Bailout...The Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages with low down payments, may require a U.S. bailout because of $54 billion more in losses than it can withstand, a former Fannie Mae executive said. ``It appears destined for a taxpayer bailout in the next 24 to 36 months,'' consultant Edward Pinto said in testimony prepared for a House committee hearing in Washington today. Pinto was the chief credit officer from 1987 to 1989 for Fannie Mae...

Calculated Risk; FHA Bailout Seen.

Jesse's Café Américain Sat 2009-10-10 13:07 EDT

Why the Feds Seized the Gold in 1933

Jesse

...The Feds acted on gold because at the time it WAS the currency of the country, and the government had some proper claims on it. When the US left the gold standard it relinquished all such claims, as gold became purely private property. Except perhaps if you are holding gold American eagles, which bear the patina of 'currency.' It should also be noted that the sole action of the government was to ask for the gold, to withdraw convertibility of gold notes from the domestic public, and to monitor the activity of safe deposit boxes taking certain categories of gold, and essentially nothing else. There were no investigations, searches, or even active prosecutions for non-compliance. The purpose of the confiscation was to prepare the way for a formal devaluation of the dollar while it was still on the gold standard.

1933; Feds seize; gold; Jesse's Café Américain.

Ambrose EvansPritchard Finance and business comments Thu 2009-10-08 17:07 EDT

China calls time on dollar hegemony

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

You can date the end of dollar hegemony from China's decision last month to sell its first batch of sovereign bonds in Chinese yuan to foreigners. Beijing does not need to raise money abroad since it has $2 trillion (£1.26 trillion) in reserves. The sole purpose is to prepare the way for the emergence of the yuan as a full-fledged global currency. [dollar losing reserve status]

Ambrose EvansPritchard Finance; Business Comment; China calls time; dollar hegemony.

Fri 2009-09-04 19:05 EDT

Lehman downfall triggered by UK and US mix-up

*** Communication breakdown revealed in first-hand accounts of bank collapse *** Blame game goes on as G20 ministers prepare for crucial London talks A breakdown in communications at the highest level between the US and the UK led to the shock collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers in September last year, a Guardian/Observer investigation has revealed. The downfall of Lehman, which triggered the biggest banking crisis since the Great Depression, came after a rescue bid by the high street bank Barclays failed to materialise. In London, the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority all believed that the US government would step in with a financial guarantee for the troubled Wall Street bank.

Lehman downfall triggered; mixed; UK.

Jesse's Café Américain Sun 2009-08-30 11:59 EDT

US Equity Markets Look Dangerously Wobbly As Insiders Sell In Record Numbers

Jesse

"Investors Intelligence's latest survey of advisory services showed an impressive 51% bullish and a meager 19% bearish...the spread hasn't been that wide since November 2007." Alan Abelson, Barrons, Aug. 29, 2009Next week we move into September, the riskiest month of the year for financial markets, with the federals escalating preparations for a flu pandemic, while Congress considers legislation... ``selling by corporate insiders in August has surged to $6.1 billion, the highest amount since May 2008. The ratio of insider selling to insider buying hit 30.6, the highest level since TrimTabs began tracking the data in 2004.''

Equity Markets Look Dangerously Wobbly; Insider sell; Jesse's Café Américain; record number.

ClubOrlov Wed 2009-08-26 11:24 EDT

Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation

kollapsnik

This talk was presented at The New Emergency Conference in Dublin, on June 11, 2009. ``we all have to prepare for life without much money, where imported goods are scarce, and where people have to provide for their own needs, and those of their immediate neighbours'' ``Most of the wealth is in very few private hands right now. Governments and the vast majority of the people only have debt. It is important to convince people who control all this wealth that they really have two choices. They can trust their investment advisers, maintain their current portfolios, and eventually lose everything. Or they can use their wealth to reengage with people and the land in new ways, in which case they stand a chance of saving something for themselves and their children. They can build and launch lifeboats, recruit crew, and set them sailing.'' 1. Good morning. The title of this talk is a bit of a mouthful, but what I want to say can be summed up in simpler words: we all have to prepare for life without much money, where imported goods are scarce, and where people have to provide for their own needs, and those of their immediate neighbours. I will take as my point of departure the unfolding collapse of the global economy, and discuss what might come next. It started with the collapse of the financial markets last year, and is now resulting in unprecedented decreases in the volumes of international trade. These developments are also starting to affect the political stability of...

ClubOrlov; Definancialisation; Deglobalisation; relocalisation.

Tue 2009-01-06 00:00 EST

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Prepare For Depression Level Unemployment

Depression Level Unemployment; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; prepared.

Fri 2008-12-05 00:00 EST

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: China Prepares for Worst Case As US Prepares For More Central Planning

``the cure is to embrace deflation and stop fractional reserve lending and the serially bubble blowing activities of the Fed''

Central Planning; China prepares; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; prepared; worst case.

Tue 2007-11-20 00:00 EST

Subprime fallout: Preparing for the next financial crisis | vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from Europe's leading economists

Subprime fallout: Preparing for the next financial crisis, by Stephen Cecchetti; standardize securities, encourage exchange-based trading

commentary; Europe's leading economists; Financial Crisis; prepared; research-based policy analysis; subprime fallout; Vox.

Tue 2006-12-19 00:00 EST

Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for peak oil than the US | EnergyBulletin.net | Peak Oil News Clearinghouse

Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for peak oil than the US, by Dimitry Orlov | EnergyBulletin.net | Peak Oil News Clearinghouse

better prepared; closed; Collapse Gap; EnergyBulletin; net; Peak Oil; Peak Oil News Clearinghouse; USSR.