This is a short documentary which will speak to any of you who were ever a "revolver", i.e., the number one "mark" of Banksters who use debt to keep you trapped in a circle of hell. If you are reading this, you are lucky. You are already empowered. Many people have no clue what to do when they are ensnared in the Money Trap.
This documentary looks at one man who took his life and the effect it has had on his family.
A British bank executive blows the whistle on the evil which Banksters use to entrap the unsavvy consumer:
Showing posts with label Banks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Banks. Show all posts
26 November 2012
08 June 2012
11 January 2012
Guess who is raising money for Romney?
Retail sales weak, jobless claims up
Home Depot To Hire 70,000 Seasonal (Spring) Workers
Archer Daniels Midland Cuts 1,000 People From Its Payrolls
Air Force lays off 44 civilian jobs at Alaskan airbase
Up to 150 layoffs in Lorrain, OH schools
Sikorsky to layoff 20% of its workforce
Realty Trac Expects a 25% Jump In Home Foreclosures In 2012
Why Zombie Banks Do Not Want Transperency
Chrysler To Begin Selling Natural Gas Trucks In 2012
17 September 2011
14 September 2011
09 September 2011
15 July 2011
20 June 2011
While Molotov cocktails burn on Athens’ streets, more vitriolic battles yet are blazing over Greece’s debt crisis behind the scenes, as financial markets and eurozone politicians fight their ground17 June 2011
Peter Schiff's take on Chancellor Merkel of Germany caving in to the demands of socializing losses while privatizing gains in the Greek mess.
I'm with Schiff on this one. Let the bond holders get wiped out if needs be. It is outrageous that German taxpayers will be coming to the aid of the banks and hedge funds which took on the risk. All Merkel's cave in will do is to increase Moral Hazard in the investing banks and hedge funds.
Schiff also explains why he believes QE3, QE4, QE5, and so on are slam dunks as the Fed invents a new way to print money to buy Treasuries, i.e., the Fed will simply no longer call it "Quantitative Easing" with a set amount of money to be printed. Instead, as Schiff points out, the Fed will target interest rates in the USA and will do so by printing whatever amount of money is needed to keep them low. That amount will not be trumpeted up front in the media. Instead, it will be printing presses rolling 24/7, some days faster than others, depending on interest rates. Schiff points out that both he and Bill Gross of Pimco believe this is how the Fed will continue to pump money into Wall Street without calling it "Quantitative Easing".
I'm with Schiff on this one. Let the bond holders get wiped out if needs be. It is outrageous that German taxpayers will be coming to the aid of the banks and hedge funds which took on the risk. All Merkel's cave in will do is to increase Moral Hazard in the investing banks and hedge funds.
Schiff also explains why he believes QE3, QE4, QE5, and so on are slam dunks as the Fed invents a new way to print money to buy Treasuries, i.e., the Fed will simply no longer call it "Quantitative Easing" with a set amount of money to be printed. Instead, as Schiff points out, the Fed will target interest rates in the USA and will do so by printing whatever amount of money is needed to keep them low. That amount will not be trumpeted up front in the media. Instead, it will be printing presses rolling 24/7, some days faster than others, depending on interest rates. Schiff points out that both he and Bill Gross of Pimco believe this is how the Fed will continue to pump money into Wall Street without calling it "Quantitative Easing".
15 June 2011
Video From Wednesday's (June 15, 2011) Riots In Greece
The first video (NBC News With Brian Williams) is a brief look by Tom Costello explaining why interest rates on Greek bonds are now 18% and why a default could reverberate as dominoes such as Ireland, Spain, and Portugal fall next. There is also a bit of footage of the street riots in this report.
The next four videos are all clips showing in more detail what the riots look like from street level and from balconies overlooking the battleground.
The next four videos are all clips showing in more detail what the riots look like from street level and from balconies overlooking the battleground.
Housing Continues To Crash And Could Cost Too Big To Fail Banks More Billions
Alpert points out that this number could be understated as the Top 4 banks in America are sitting on $1.1 Trillion of real estate paper which no one knows the real value of.
26 December 2010
Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism: Loan Servicing Biz Explained - Foreclosures On People Who Never Missed A Payment
Yves Smith and her blog "Naked Capitalism" are one of my weekly "must reads" and I've been linked to her blog on the Watchworld ever since our inception.
My Notes from the above interview of Yves Smith:
The Mortgage Servicing industry is a new industry sprung up around this new process of doing mortgages today called “securitization”.
In the old days of banking, the borrower would go to the bank and get the loan, and the loan would remain with the bank.
The change we had, which started in the 1980s, and which has now become the predominant way . . . at least for the way first mortgages are done . . . is you go to the bank, you might even go to the mortgage broker, and you’ll get the loan with them, but instead of keeping the loan, they will sell it. And this (loan the borrower took out) will usually not go to just one party, but it will go to a series of parties. Eventually the loan will end up with a series of investors in a legal box called a “Trust”.
Now this means someone has to somewhat play the role the bank of the old days used to play in collecting payments on the loan. So the Mortgage Servicing industry is the party which gets the payments, its the party which credits the payments, it is the party which takes all the cash from all the people the banks are dealing with and makes sure the cash is properly sent to all the parties the way the contracts are drawn up.
Lending Process Servicing Company is the company which most of the time intercedes for a bank to begin foreclosing. This company gives a lot of support to the lending Servicers in the foreclosure field. For instance, this is the company which hires a “foreclosure mill” to begin foreclosing on a homeowner.
What normally happens is the Servicer normally notifies the borrower that they are behind . . . only very late in the process. The supposed payments behind have gotten so large that the borrower is usually very surprised by the large amount of money being demanded by the Servicer . . . if its because of the compounded fees that they are in that unenviable position
Here, we get to see Yves go through the paces on the foreclosure fraud mess, focusing mostly on the Loan Servicers link in the chain of the foreclosure mess. She more than adequately explains why foreclosing on people, instead of modifying their loan, is the top priority for Loan Servicers.
Below this video are my notes on what Yves sets down. It is not an absolute transcript, but reasonably close.
My Notes from the above interview of Yves Smith:
The Mortgage Servicing industry is a new industry sprung up around this new process of doing mortgages today called “securitization”.
In the old days of banking, the borrower would go to the bank and get the loan, and the loan would remain with the bank.
The change we had, which started in the 1980s, and which has now become the predominant way . . . at least for the way first mortgages are done . . . is you go to the bank, you might even go to the mortgage broker, and you’ll get the loan with them, but instead of keeping the loan, they will sell it. And this (loan the borrower took out) will usually not go to just one party, but it will go to a series of parties. Eventually the loan will end up with a series of investors in a legal box called a “Trust”.
Now this means someone has to somewhat play the role the bank of the old days used to play in collecting payments on the loan. So the Mortgage Servicing industry is the party which gets the payments, its the party which credits the payments, it is the party which takes all the cash from all the people the banks are dealing with and makes sure the cash is properly sent to all the parties the way the contracts are drawn up.
Lending Process Servicing Company is the company which most of the time intercedes for a bank to begin foreclosing. This company gives a lot of support to the lending Servicers in the foreclosure field. For instance, this is the company which hires a “foreclosure mill” to begin foreclosing on a homeowner.
What normally happens is the Servicer normally notifies the borrower that they are behind . . . only very late in the process. The supposed payments behind have gotten so large that the borrower is usually very surprised by the large amount of money being demanded by the Servicer . . . if its because of the compounded fees that they are in that unenviable position
Keep in mind it is the Trusts (which shelter Investors) which hires the Loan Servicers. The sequence runs like this:
Yves goes on to point out one diabolical thing a Service will do. She says suppose a borrower already has one late fee. In many cases, these late fees are not bona fide late fees as the servicer applied the payment late as it circulated through the intestines of the servicing "factory". More insidious, Servicers have also been found to “hold” payments sometimes so as to purposefully make the borrowers late.
Here’s what happens with these late fees:
Let’s call the month when a first late fee payment is assigned Month #1:
Now here are the reasons why it is more profitable to push into foreclosure:
Normally, whenever you have a borrower get in trouble, in any type of lending, the first thing the lender says is “Should I liquidate the loan, should I take what I can get, or is there some way we can restructure the loan?” Yves comments, “I’m always better taking half a loaf . . . if the borrower has enough income, I’d be better served by taking less and restructuring the loan.
Hence in our above case, the Investor(s) would be better served by having the loan restructured; however, the Servicer is having to advance principal and interest, the Servicers do not get paid for modifying loans (hence they have no Economic incentive to modify the loan), and the only way for the Servicer to recoup the money it has been sending to the Investor(s) is to foreclose on the borrower. The reason for this is the Servicer can foreclose on the house, sell it for whatever they can get, take their fees out of the sale before anyone else, and send the remaining money to the Investors.
All the incentives for the Servicers favors foreclosure. None of the incentives favor loan modification.
Yves goes on to say that academics have covered many, many stories about people being foreclosed upon and they haven’t missed a payment. She contends the reason lenders will make up fraudulent documents to take away an on time borrowers home is there is more money to be made in the foreclosure process than remediation.
Yves says banks want to paint the problem as one of where borrowers are deadbeats, and she acknowledges that many borrowers can no longer afford their homes due to loss of jobs, a medical emergency, etc. On the other hand, a very significant amount of the people who are actively fighting foreclosure are victims of Servicer error and they can’t get it straightened out . . . OR . . . they have actually filed for bankruptcy, and in bankruptcy, everybody who has filed to collect money from the borrower is supposed to wait ‘til the court sorts it out.
Yves says Servicers keep trying to take the house before the bankruptcy process has been worked out fully. She says many unsophisticated borrowers and unsophisticated borrowers’ lawyers . . . they will make deals with banks the first time banks come for the house, and the deals are very unfavorable to the borrower who might have had grounds to hold on to their house.
Lastly, the banks are drawing out the process of foreclosing s-l-o-w-l-y because the banks don’t want to sit on all this Shadow Inventory all at one time.
1. The Trusts hire the Servicer.
2. The Servicer’s imperative is not whether someone is to be foreclosed upon. Instead it is focused on “keeping costs down”.
3. The Servicer does its work inside a big office like factory where processes are mostly automated.
4. And the Servicer has imperatives to Maximize fees. Foreclosures happen to be more profitable than routine servicing of a loan.
5. Hence, Servicers have no incentive to help people from getting in trouble. In fact, they have incentives to get people in trouble.
Yves goes on to point out one diabolical thing a Service will do. She says suppose a borrower already has one late fee. In many cases, these late fees are not bona fide late fees as the servicer applied the payment late as it circulated through the intestines of the servicing "factory". More insidious, Servicers have also been found to “hold” payments sometimes so as to purposefully make the borrowers late.
Here’s what happens with these late fees:
Let’s call the month when a first late fee payment is assigned Month #1:
1. The late fee will not be applied until the next month’s bill, or Month #2.
2. Currently, the borrower tears out another payment slip from his/her mortgage payment books and sends in their Month #2 payment. At this moment, they have no idea they are being assessed a late fee by the Loan Servicer . . . which for this example, let’s say is $75.00.
3. Eventhough the borrower sends in their regular payment for Month #2 on time - which by Federal law is supposed to go against mortgage principal and mortgage interest - the Loan Servicer instead will subtract the late fee from Month #2’s on time payment . . . which makes the second month’s payment short. This shorting of Month #2’s payment by the Servicer also makes Month #2’s . . . in theory . . . late . . . because it is (in the eyes of the Servicer) not PAID IN FULL.
4. Thus, in this example, another late fee is applied on top of a bogus late fee. And maybe an extra fee is charged on top of that.
5. Well, when a borrower has been late twice under the agreement, the investors require the Servicer to get something called a “Broker’s Price Opinion” (which Yves claims is kind of worthless). All this is is some broker drives by the house and makes some opinion about the real price of the house during his drive by.
6. This “Broker Price Opinion” costs somewhere between $150 - $250 for this “drive by”. This “Broker Price Opinion” is supposed to be charged to the investor(s) in the Securitization. Many times, the Loan Servicer has been found to “double dip” and charge the borrower also.
7. So now, we many times have a borrower who is tagged with two late payments(and maybe another surreptitious hidden charge on Month #2’s supposed late payment) AND many times they are assigned a “Broker Price Opinion” charge which legally the Investor(s) are supposed to pay, not the loan borrower.
8. These usurious, illegal fees compound.
Now here are the reasons why it is more profitable to push into foreclosure:
1. When the borrower goes into foreclosure, the Servicer is allowed to charge more and bigger Servicer Administrative fees.
2. These new fees for foreclosing come right off the top.
3. Also, if the borrower gets seriously delinquent, the Servicer still must continue to make the payments to the Investors as if the borrower were still making the payments on time.
Normally, whenever you have a borrower get in trouble, in any type of lending, the first thing the lender says is “Should I liquidate the loan, should I take what I can get, or is there some way we can restructure the loan?” Yves comments, “I’m always better taking half a loaf . . . if the borrower has enough income, I’d be better served by taking less and restructuring the loan.
Hence in our above case, the Investor(s) would be better served by having the loan restructured; however, the Servicer is having to advance principal and interest, the Servicers do not get paid for modifying loans (hence they have no Economic incentive to modify the loan), and the only way for the Servicer to recoup the money it has been sending to the Investor(s) is to foreclose on the borrower. The reason for this is the Servicer can foreclose on the house, sell it for whatever they can get, take their fees out of the sale before anyone else, and send the remaining money to the Investors.
All the incentives for the Servicers favors foreclosure. None of the incentives favor loan modification.
Yves goes on to say that academics have covered many, many stories about people being foreclosed upon and they haven’t missed a payment. She contends the reason lenders will make up fraudulent documents to take away an on time borrowers home is there is more money to be made in the foreclosure process than remediation.
Yves says banks want to paint the problem as one of where borrowers are deadbeats, and she acknowledges that many borrowers can no longer afford their homes due to loss of jobs, a medical emergency, etc. On the other hand, a very significant amount of the people who are actively fighting foreclosure are victims of Servicer error and they can’t get it straightened out . . . OR . . . they have actually filed for bankruptcy, and in bankruptcy, everybody who has filed to collect money from the borrower is supposed to wait ‘til the court sorts it out.
Yves says Servicers keep trying to take the house before the bankruptcy process has been worked out fully. She says many unsophisticated borrowers and unsophisticated borrowers’ lawyers . . . they will make deals with banks the first time banks come for the house, and the deals are very unfavorable to the borrower who might have had grounds to hold on to their house.
Lastly, the banks are drawing out the process of foreclosing s-l-o-w-l-y because the banks don’t want to sit on all this Shadow Inventory all at one time.
Banks don’t want to be responsible for paying taxes and insurance on these houses and want to keep those losses off on Servicers until the last minute. It’s better for banks in destroyed Real Estate markets to stay in the house, to maintain the house, to pay the RE taxes and insurance, than it is for the bank to take it back, add it to stealth inventory, and have the house sit empty eating a hole in the banks’ books.The Mortgage Servicing industry is a new industry sprung up around this new process of doing mortgages today called “securitization”.
31 August 2010
30 August 2010
"OVERDOSE", The Movie About The Next Deepening Financial Crisis Due To The Bailout Bubble
OVERDOSE - Part 1 of 3
OVERDOSE - Part 2 of 3
OVERDOSE - Part 3 of 3
OVERDOSE - Part 2 of 3
OVERDOSE - Part 3 of 3
24 August 2010
Business/Economic/Housing/Layoff News for August 25,2010
Mish: Japan's Finance Minister Threatens Yen Intervention to Halt "One-Sided Movement"
Elliot Spitzer: They Still Don't Get It
Santander Analyst Made Insider Trades Before BHP Bid for Potash, SEC Says
Burger King 4Q net income falls 17%; sales slip
Apple Said to Prepare New 99-Cent TV Show Rental Service
Traders Freaking Out Over WSJ Report On The Fed: Here's Why
U.S. Existing Home Sales in Record PlungeEconomy Caught in Depression, Not Recession: Rosenberg
Ireland Long-Term Sovereign Credit Rating Cut by S&P
Yes Folks, Hindenburg Omen Tripped Again. . . Creator Of Hindenburg Gets Entirely Out Of Market
The Automatic Earth: "How Low Can We Fall This Fall?"
Louis Navellier: 9 Mega Cap Blue Chip Stocks To Dump Immediately
Gross Says Mortgage Yields Would Soar Without Government Aid
PIMCO's Bill Gross on "Deep Demographic Doo-Doo"
Former Countrywide CEO Mozilo faces more allegations
Home Prices: They're Not Quite What They Seem
NYT: "The Overconfidence Problem In Forecasting
Realty Check: The Experts Failed To See The Housing Crisis Coming
The Two Gangs Of Economists Warring Over The Causes Of High Unemployment
Deal between Miami Beach and CWA Union falls apart putting 450 jobs in peril
Between 600 to 1,000 workers to be laid off in Arkansas Whirlpool Plant
Pfizer: 150 plant workers to lose jobs in December
Income Inequality and Financial Crises
21 August 2010
Weekend Roundup - Aug. 21 & 22, 2010
28 July 2010
Business/Economic/Housing/Layoff News for July 29, 2010
Target To Close All 262 Of Its Gardening Centers Nationwide
Asian shares down on new signs US economy slowing
AP survey: A bleaker outlook for economy into 2011
Countdown to Gold's $1,300 assault
Chris Martenson . . .What Should I Do?: The Basics of Preparation (Part I)
Foreclosures up in 75 percent of top U.S. metro areas
Don't hold your breath for a bounce in home prices
Mish: "New Home Sales and Bear Market Math"
It Looks Like This Recovery Is Already Over
Fleckstein: "Deflation Crisis Doesn't Exist"
Five cities near Army bases to receive federal grants to build housing for homeless veterans
Independent Alternative World News from A1A News
How Warren Buffet "Destroyed" The Market
John Mauldin: "Deflation Dissected"
Schwarzenegger declares California fiscal emergency
What I've learned from market bubbles: "The Last Gasp of government.com"
The inventor of Mortgage Securities says these bundled up pieces of sliced and diced crap were not behind the Housing Crash
More Builder Evidence of Tax Credit Goose, Post-Credit Bust
Government Mortgage Mods: Failure, or Just Flawed?
Northern Coast - San Diego : Amid crash, house rentals surge
Closing the Door on Homeowners
Alternative Energy - Engineers race to design world's biggest offshore wind turbines
U.S. wind power installations drop in first half of 2010
Duke Energy - The Amazon of Energy?
U.S. “Home Equity” Loans Revealing
Americans Tap $8.3 Billion in Home Equity, Least in a Decade
On too big to fail banks - "Let Them Eat Losses"
Outrageous! How Insurance Companies Profit Off Surviving Family Members Of Dead Soldiers
Atlas Didn't Shrug: Uncertainty In The Markets Forces Many Business People To Sit On Their Hands
Durable Goods Orders "Unexpectedly" Sink; How did Economists Blow the Call?
While Dow Theory says buy, leading indicators flash warnings
Must read for ETF Commodity Investors: "Amber Waves Of Pain"
Ex-NYC Money Manager Admits To Bilking Over $330 Million From Investors, Some Of Which He Used To Buy Collectible Teddy Bears And Invest In Race Horses
'Glenn Beck': Bell's City Council Pay Scandal
American Safety Razor Files for Bankruptcy With Plan for Sale to Lenders
Must read from Robert Reich - "The Great Decoupling of Corporate Profits from American Jobs"
In Vineland, more than 300 workers agree to furloughs and government will shut down for 12 days
King's Daughter Hospital in Ashland, Kentucky terminates 85 employees and reduces 150 more to part-time status
MTA board OKs public hearings on toll, fare hikes and approves 200 layoffs of token booth clerks
Navistar to cut 340 employees in Columbus as order for Marine vehicles comes to end of production
Hartford, CT: St. Francis Hospital To Lay Off 200 In August
Asian shares down on new signs US economy slowing
AP survey: A bleaker outlook for economy into 2011
Countdown to Gold's $1,300 assault
Chris Martenson . . .What Should I Do?: The Basics of Preparation (Part I)
Foreclosures up in 75 percent of top U.S. metro areas
Don't hold your breath for a bounce in home prices
Mish: "New Home Sales and Bear Market Math"
It Looks Like This Recovery Is Already Over
Fleckstein: "Deflation Crisis Doesn't Exist"
Five cities near Army bases to receive federal grants to build housing for homeless veterans
Independent Alternative World News from A1A News
How Warren Buffet "Destroyed" The Market
John Mauldin: "Deflation Dissected"
Schwarzenegger declares California fiscal emergency
What I've learned from market bubbles: "The Last Gasp of government.com"
The inventor of Mortgage Securities says these bundled up pieces of sliced and diced crap were not behind the Housing Crash
More Builder Evidence of Tax Credit Goose, Post-Credit Bust
Government Mortgage Mods: Failure, or Just Flawed?
Northern Coast - San Diego : Amid crash, house rentals surge
Closing the Door on Homeowners
Alternative Energy - Engineers race to design world's biggest offshore wind turbinesU.S. wind power installations drop in first half of 2010
Duke Energy - The Amazon of Energy?
U.S. “Home Equity” Loans Revealing
Americans Tap $8.3 Billion in Home Equity, Least in a Decade
On too big to fail banks - "Let Them Eat Losses"
Outrageous! How Insurance Companies Profit Off Surviving Family Members Of Dead Soldiers
Atlas Didn't Shrug: Uncertainty In The Markets Forces Many Business People To Sit On Their Hands
Durable Goods Orders "Unexpectedly" Sink; How did Economists Blow the Call?
While Dow Theory says buy, leading indicators flash warnings
Must read for ETF Commodity Investors: "Amber Waves Of Pain"
Ex-NYC Money Manager Admits To Bilking Over $330 Million From Investors, Some Of Which He Used To Buy Collectible Teddy Bears And Invest In Race Horses
'Glenn Beck': Bell's City Council Pay Scandal
American Safety Razor Files for Bankruptcy With Plan for Sale to Lenders
Must read from Robert Reich - "The Great Decoupling of Corporate Profits from American Jobs"
In Vineland, more than 300 workers agree to furloughs and government will shut down for 12 days
King's Daughter Hospital in Ashland, Kentucky terminates 85 employees and reduces 150 more to part-time status
MTA board OKs public hearings on toll, fare hikes and approves 200 layoffs of token booth clerks
Navistar to cut 340 employees in Columbus as order for Marine vehicles comes to end of production
Hartford, CT: St. Francis Hospital To Lay Off 200 In August
01 July 2010
MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan: Need For An Alternative Investment Structure Instead of the Corrupt Stock Market
"Seventy percent of the volume [of trades on the stock market] is computers that are run by the banks playing ping pong with stocks for 10 seconds at at time," Ratigan said.
"The stock market at this point, which used to be a reflection of the future value of actual businesses in this country, has been turned by our government and our banks into little more than a paper shredding facility [about which] we can make up reasons why it goes up and down, but when the computers at the banks are controlling the action, most everything else is kind of silly."
"The stock market at this point, which used to be a reflection of the future value of actual businesses in this country, has been turned by our government and our banks into little more than a paper shredding facility [about which] we can make up reasons why it goes up and down, but when the computers at the banks are controlling the action, most everything else is kind of silly."
12 January 2010
Dylan Ratigan: Grand Theft Geithner
"A crime has been committed against America and its taxpayers. And right now, you sir, Tim Geithner, are standing at the door of the crime scene refusing to allow anybody in to even see any of the evidence. Show us you are not involved, Mr. Geithner. Prove the White House correct in defending you. All we're asking for is the transperency promised by the President you serve."
-Dylan Ratigan's closing words from a broadcast yesterday on why AIG emails should be made public
-Dylan Ratigan's closing words from a broadcast yesterday on why AIG emails should be made public
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