lower98th

Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser tells the bank's policy forum of two lessons he's learned from the crisis: Moral hazard and too-big-to-fail continue to loom large. And regulators aren't perfect, so excessively stifling the market with regulation will fail; market discipline must be made more effective. (earlier this week)

Can we start with the Fed and the regulators not being bought and paid for by the banks? Regulatory capture on steroids.

Can Monetary Policy Be Too Tight if the Fed Does Nothing?

Or since M and V has been abdicated by the Fed to the sole discretion of TBTF Banks, who prefer to keep it, lets refrain from any meaningful legal structure or policy action and just keep priming (slathering, to quote Warren) the same ineffective pump.

How to Fix the Fed - A Lesson from AIG

The Fed has shown itself to be arm of the Wall Street speculative banking culture, with no allegience to the solvency of the Country.

In an op-ed this weekend, Ben Bernanke worries about leading proposals in the Senate that would strip the Fed of its powers: "These measures are very much out of step with the global consensus on the appropriate role of central banks, and they would seriously impair the prospects for economic and financial stability in the U.S."

Earth to Bernanke: The Global Consensus is that central banks are a corrupt, self-serving relic, inconsistent with free markets and democracy.

The Troubled Role of Government in the Economy

I should have said "failed trickle down economics." Thanks for the clarification. Except that the transfer of wealth upwards has been more like a torrent than a trickle.

It's beyond me how the financial media/elite can, with a straight face, talk about the deadbeat poor, when they (us?) have created a society where nearly half the workforce are employed at a wage insufficient to qualify them as taxpayers.

The Truth Behind the U.S Government's Stealth Stimulus Plan

Though there is currently a relatively high vacant/abandoned component in defaulted houses, your analysis is perfectly logical. And I know a couple of households in just that situation...one, a tenant, whose landlord cannot be found (and bank does not wish to foreclose/evict yet), and one an owner working through a predatory lending action (disclosure document summary says fixed rate, fine print says unless the sun rises) who has been allowed to stay until some future judicial ruling....Both have been in this limbo for a year. The tenant is saving his rent, hoping the bank will let him buy. Not everyone in the situation is a deadbeat, but the cash flow advantage cannot be denied.

The Troubled Role of Government in Our Economy -- An Overview.

Isn't it trickle down?

Douche Bag Of The Year Award

This is too great. I can just imagine the conversation at SA about publishing it. While not in the same league as top honors, I would like to nominate some douche-bubble-ettes...... from CNBC. Think they will carry your results?

The Supreme Court of South Carolina issues Admisitrative Order Suspending Forelcosure actions and sales citing HAMP Law

I'm not sure about getting in the way of contract law: From FNMA website "– the servicer must modify absent fraud or a contract prohibition."

HMP foreclosure obstacles, like the EMC (electronic transfer) fiasco provide an avenue for foreclosure relief, but it is far from universal. The loan must be FNMA, etc owned. The property must be owner occupied (vacant/tenanted houses not eligible...so could we please get those through the sytem?). Generally the borrower must qualify at 31% of income - happily in some cases the rate can be as low as 2%.... And someone help me here...principal modification can be up to 30% of the loan, but the principal is added to the back end...not forgiven, so the homeowner is still underwater...unclear as to what happens to interest on that portion of the principal. Also the NPV of the cash flow of the new loan has to be equal to or better ($5,000 fudge factor) than the original. Someone with access to the NPV/FNMA underwriter could make that clearer...I don't have access so that input/output has been through the black box. Net: I haven't seen many that worked. And owners have a problem with still being underwater, even with a better payment.

I vote for the Fed loaning homeowners recapitiliztion funds at ZIRP, letting homeowners invest at 5%, and use the income to pay off the mortgage. Oh...and give themselves annual bonuses for their brilliance (sarcastic).

Two Unfortunate, Possible Consequences of Our Deficit Hysteria

It isn't the amount of the stimulus, or Tarp. It is the evidence that this supposedly populist President is willing to stand by and watch the continued destruction of the middle class. There is widespread dismay that Obama's Congress is less about real change than about silencing the masses through the charade of passing regulation intended to be useless.

Its time Americans got something for their money other than the dribble from the Wall Street's hindquarters. There is no reason for the public to support continued handouts to the financial sector in order to further their continued pillage of the real economy. Many educated and successful people, not just your "chattering masses," will continue to oppose corporate welfare and bailouts until there is meaningful reform.

NY Times lashes out at Lloyd Blankfein's (GS) non-apology for "participating in things that were clearly wrong and we have reasons to regret." Times wants Goldman to give "a multibillion-dollar gift to the federal Bureau of the Public Debt... The donation can come from the bonuses; that way, it would not harm shareholders, because they only get their cut after the bonuses are paid."

Or that the Goldman flash-trading program is the government's proof that transaction taxes are ok, as wall street skimming has proven benign.

NO MORE TIME.

To the Administration's chagrin, I think heads will roll, which can only be good for long-term US fiscal prospects.

Or.....".My fellow Americans. I, in good faith, supported the Bush/Bernanke/Greedspa... status quo in the belief that they were patriots, and that stabilization of the economy was their goal. I was wrong. It is time for us to chart a new path, free of the deception of Wall Street and its minions."

Is the Fed Getting Real About Valuation and Bubbles?

But to rebuild confidence, he took his campaign
> to the masses, attending townhall meetings and meeting the public
> like a campaigning first term congressman.

Too much of that campaign seemed contrived to silence the population, conceal the facts, and enrich financial monopolists. We HOPE Bernanke is a man of character, and courage. We HOPE our President's campaign message to the middle class was more than just (snake) oil on troubled waters.

We desperately need Statesmen, not just politicians. But the jury is still out - barely.

Why Too-big-to-fail = Too-big-to-exist

Obviously the could profit from "crappy" loans, CDS's etc. because the lenders (predators) anticipated no consequence from bad behaviour.....that they could force the government to socialize any losses.


On Nov 22 01:28 AM acttang wrote:

> Were sub-prime loans not a result of over competition? If you were
> a bank and you could dictate your terms, why the hell would you want
> to lend to crappy borrowers at rates only justifiable to the most
> credit worthy? You had to because everyone else and his mother was
> doing the same thing. Not that big banks are good things, but to
> assume that competition doesn't create its own fiasco is also naive.

Our Slow-Motion Crisis

A government too compromised to courageously enforce simple law, resorts to complex and intentionally ineffective regulation to conceal its cowardice.