From the Rolling Stone:
The obscene greed-and-arrogance stories emanating from Wall Street are piling up so fast, it’s getting hard to keep up. This one is from last week, but I missed it – it’s about the foreclosure/robo-signing settlement that was concluded earlier this year.
The upshot of this story is that in advance of that notorious settlement, the government ordered banks to hire “independent” consultants to examine their loan files to see just exactly how corrupt they were.
Now it comes out that not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal – in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks.
In other words, the government not only ordered the banks to hire consultants who may have gamed the foreclosure settlement in favor of the banks, but the regulators themselves are hiding the information from the public in order to shield the banks from further lawsuits.
To recap: in the foreclosure deal, 13 banks agreed to pay a total of $9.3 billion to settle their liability in a number of areas, including robo-signing, which is just a euphemism for mass-perjury – robo-signing is the practice of having low-level bank employees sign documents attesting to full knowledge of case files in court foreclosure actions, when in fact they were signing hundreds of files per day, often having no idea whether the paperwork was correct or not.
…
The whole thing was a joke. Government orders banks to hire auditors to investigate robosigning, then banks induce said auditors to robosign the investigation! Because that’s exactly what that would mean, if there were financial incentives to finish masses of files quickly. It’s horrible, obviously, but on another level, it’s so ingeniously corrupt, one almost has to tip a cap to whoever thought of it.
…
All of this just confirms what we already suspected about the foreclosure settlement. This whole enterprise was conceived by the government solely as a means of dealing with the explosive problem of containing the private liability of these “systemically important” companies. Not only are we not prosecuting these firms anymore, we’re also actively in the business of protecting them from litigation.No other conclusion is possible from this testimony, which shows that our two primary regulators not only withheld information about bank illegality and errors prior to the settlement, but plan on continuing to do so going forward. There can be only one reason for concealing that information from the people affected by those “errors.”
Good Morning New Jersey
yeah…got the bronze!
In other news, dog bites man.
I read this piece and I am stupider for it. Taibbi is even lazier than he is mendacious.
If there’s a person who believes that this is anything remotely resembling journalism, raise your hand so I can spike your water supply with Norplant.
Icelanders, burdened by more than four years of hardship, are poised to oust the government and return to power the parties that steered the island through a banking-led boom that ended in economic ruin 2008.
Taibbi is annoying. I stopped reading his garbage 7 years ago.
CPS Takes Baby After Parents Seek Second Medical Opinion
http://www.news10.net/video/default.aspx?bctid=2328355917001
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/cps-takes-baby-after-parents-seek-second-medical-opinion/
Chifi,
Über inspecktor is scheduled to check out a place for my mom in east brunswick this month. Gave him your name and this website as a referral.
Thanks! Already a great feeling about working with him.
He is just so earnest. Considering all the sleazy & unprofessional service providers in NJ, it just nice to hire someone on good faith, feel good about how you are treated and the outcome, and feel as if you are being undercharged. Enjoy…..
Afe says:
April 27, 2013 at 2:31 pm
Chifi, Über inspecktor is scheduled to check out a place for my mom in east brunswick this month. Gave him your name and this website as a referral.
Thanks! Already a great feeling about working with him.
I think I need to leave this board because it’s eroding my self-esteem. About a year ago I had to look up Occam’s Razor because I had no knowledge of the reference or concept.
Today I had to look up mendacious, having never seen the word. Thanks a lot Nom! At least JJ makes me feel smart with every one of his posts.
Entertaining gun talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Yw04GHg7U
I could not ever get close to booking the uber inspecktor, he is way too busy.
Expat – don’t leave we are mostly collegial the rest of the internet not so much.
re # 6 – Taibbi just exposes some truths about collusion. If anyone things collusion does not exist in any business or industry is a fool.
Juice,
Agreed. But when collusion involves the government, it falls into a unique category.
[11] expat,
Sorry but it was on the SATs
Gubmint and banksters looking to bleed us dry of what shreds of wealth are left.
They will succeed.
Bow down to your masters, bitchez!
JB – so I stood pat on my offer, 10k apart roughly, and seller refuses to budge despite no other offers. Realtors haven’t even hinted at considering everyone take a small hit to get deal done. So we wait and are going after another property with a bid less than 5% off ask. Definitely anxious, which has me slightly concerned about my ability to stay stout in the process. Dice are shakin.
4: nom is offering free birth control. Sign me up: I do not plan to have any more children…..hmn…Nom is turning into an obamaist. Can I have a free phone with that birth control?
…and seller refuses to budge despite no other offers.
Yet, another “qualified” buyer looking for a lifestyle at someone else’s expense. Their wish is to get pounded up the @ss by a plunger handle wrapped in sand paper. Tell them they have 48 hours to accept your offer. If they refuse, tell the sellers and their agent to burn your number.
I meant to say “qualified” seller, not buyer. :)
Bears for 10k the realtor should take a hit no?
Talked to a realtor today, they said, there are plenty of offers flying around this spring on several properties. Most of them reasonable. Sellers don’t want to budge at all, despite being eager to move out. I think these people just cling to their delusions that their property was the key to their retirement. They want to sell for 500k, move down to North Carolina, and live off the profits. Problem is, their house is worth 400k, and that’s all it will sell for.
JB – I’m not sure I have an opinion on that one way or the other. Practically speaking though, yes, it is a case of the “market makers” being the only thing stopping the market from working.
I would imagine, if your the seller agent, and you truly believe you can get the number your seller wants, then maybe you roll the dice and risk losing the buyer (me) so u can make a few extra bucks. Maybe she’s had a few good weeks and doesn’t need the commission so bad? Who knows. Of course, the seller probably thinks the house is worth 80-100K more than where we are/were at, so I guess there are reasonable ways to explain how these events unfold and get stuck. Who knows?
Problem is, their house is worth 400k, and that’s all it will sell for.
The fat f.ucks will croak while waiting for “their” price. Meh.
To many people, a house sale/downsize is a one time event that signals the beginning of the end. It hard to tell someone that they should compromise on that….so it goes beyond a rational economic/finance decision……but we knew this issue…..
Ben says:
April 28, 2013 at 7:47 pm
I think these people just cling to their delusions that their property was the key to their retirement. They want to sell for 500k, move down to North Carolina, and live off the profits. Problem is, their house is worth 400k, and that’s all it will sell for.
[5] yome,
Is the new party going to pay the Brits what is owed?
[6] libtard,
I didn’t think it possible, but I’m pretty sure you managed to insult garbage.
Taibbi – Foreclosure review a sham | New Jersey Real Estate Report mulberry bags http://mulberry360.over-blog.com/
Now, i love the idea of having a chrome tub caddy until 2 months into having it, it begain to rust. Then the candle holder & the wine glass holder rusted off !!! I am now on the looking out for a plastic covered tub caddy. A caddy is awesome to have but not in chrome !!!
This really answered my problem, thank you!
You did the a great work writing and revealing the hidden beneficial features of
Taibbi – Foreclosure review a sham | New Jersey Real Estate Report celine bags http://www.celine360.com/