15 comments

  1. kravitz

    Oh my goodness, Yves….Maxine Waters is destroying these people from OCC, Treasury, FHA and the banks. She’s asking if anyone understands what happens when a homeowner calls for help.

    LOTSA DEAD AIR…

    She describes a scenario with a customer, Miss Jones, and the issues of what happens from her first phone call with the bank, how the call is processed. After Phyllis Caldwell, from Treasury, suggests they understand there are problems…

    “If you understand it, why can’t you do something about it?” Maxine asks.

    But I gotta say, you have to see how Rep. Waters rips them a new one. Priceless…. (11:30 ish)

    She’s being more ruthless than anyone on Tuesday. You have to check this out.

    http://cspan.org/Watch/C-SPAN3.aspx

  2. Lori Kelly

    This is really good. Go Maxine! Not one of the panel members has any clue what it takes to call a bankster and ask for assistance.

    This is very refreshing and hopefully with msm attention, something will be done to bring the housing market down so that it will be stabilized and with any luck at all, a chance to start an upward trend.

    No jobs will be created, the economic will continue its downward spiral until the housing market is corrected.

    This hearing is great. The OCC is worthless. No penalties, no fines, no threatened of charter revocation. They need to do their damn jobs and do it now.

    1. Francois T

      “The OCC is worthless.”

      The sun rise from the East. If by “do their job” you mean helping the American people, then the OCC cannot do its job, since they consider that sucking the banksters’ kingaling while protecting their profits at all costs is what they ought to do.

      It goes without saying that Congress is just fine with that; after all, where does the bulk of campaign money come from?

  3. Tazmanian Devil

    Great Job! Hopefully more news outlets will begin covering the “little people” that are losing homes instead of taking the side of TBTF banks! Wish that they had spent some more time exposing the fraud and perjury that is taking place on a daily basis in court! There is a great article in Rolling Stone that everyone should read on Foreclosures!

  4. Lori Kelly

    This website is very resourceful and I thank you for the wonderful work you do here.

    We are sharing comments and ideas on this subject and many others involving the middle class at beingmiddleclass dot org.

    We invite you to join our discussions and look forward to hearing your opinions.

  5. Lori Kelly

    How did you like this part?

    Maxine: Has OCC taken any enforcement action?

    Panel: We have certainly issued supervisory requirements on matters requiring….

    Maxine: Have you levied any fines?

    Panel: I do not believe that we have.

    Maxine: Have you issued any .. orders?

    Panel: I don’t believe there have been any public actions.

    Maxine: Have you threatened to revoke any charters?

    Panel. No.

    Maxine: Do you think the servicers really believe you mean business if they don’t fear consequences?

    Panel: I think the consequences are clear and ….

    Maxine: But you haven’t done that. You haven’t done any of that. Why should they take you seriously?

  6. Fuck you Capital One

    The OCC is more then worthless, they were actively helping the banksters, here’s a little history on the subprime lender’s best friend, former OCC Chief, John Dugan:

    “When Darrell McGraw, the attorney general of West Virginia, decided to sue Capital One Bank in 2005, alleging credit card abuses, his office expected to face a phalanx of high-priced defense lawyers.

    What it didn’t expect was that Capital One would get a hand from the federal government. As Mr. McGraw tells it, his legal team was thwarted every step of the way by Capital One and the OCC.”

    Here’s John continuing in his role as a bank lobbyist while he was Chief at the OCC:

    “he has opposed efforts by state officials who try to crack down on abusive consumer-lending practices, arguing that national banks aren’t in their jurisdiction. At the same time, he rarely imposes serious penalties related to consumer protection, particularly against the big banks.

  7. ayatolla of rockandrolla

    Sorry to disappoint you guys – but Maxine Waters ain’t gonna help out with this situation. Neither is Carl Levin. Neither is Dennis Kucinich. THEY ARE ALL IN ON IT. But please, don’t let me interupt your bread and circuses. Sure they might shout on the CSPAN broadcast (that NO ONE is watching). They might even ask some slightly uncomfortable questions, and make the CEOs squirm a little. But ask yourself, did they do this is the hearing about the 2008 financial collapse/TARP hearings? Did they do this in the AIG bailout hearings? Yeah, they did they same s**t in every one of them… has anything changed? Do we know much more about the AIG bailouts? Did BoA really have to settle with share holders over the Merril deal? Is Rattner going to get punished from bribing the NY state pension fund for this Wall Street buddies? NO. NO. NO. NO.

    They aren’t going to do anything other than the cathartic little charade you are watching right now on TV. After the lights and cameras go off, they will all get together at a little dark bar around the corner and have some drinks – and laugh.

    1. DownSouth

      In The Limits of Power,, Andrew Bacevich asserts that “a citizenry that looks to the White House for deliverance is assured of disappointment.”

      Perhaps we should broaden that statement a bit to: “A citizenry that looks to any politician for deliverance is assured of disappointment.”

  8. ayatolla of rockandrolla

    Yeah – I guess I agree.

    I didn’t expect deliverance really, just a half-assed effort to do their job. Really. I am not that demanding. BUT, I just feel like it is all a complete farce. Like they don’t even bother to hide it anymore. S**t like the story below makes me wonder what I will tell my kid when he’s a bit older…

    http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/rattner-is-sued-by-cuomo-settles-with-s-e-c/?hp

    “Well son, you can’t just take other people’s money – unless, of course, you take a whole lot of it, then it is okay. You may be fined – but the fine will be a pittance compared to the profit.”

  9. Barbara Ann Jackson

    Questionable or fraudulent foreclosure is IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT an Officer-of-the-Court (a lawyer) filing civil, as well as bankruptcy judicial pleadings!

    The current Congressional hearings on Hearing on Mortgage Services and Foreclosure Practices will accomplish little without including a THOROUGH probe of the LETHAL role of lawyers regarding mortgage and real estate repossessions!! Hearings’ / investigations EXCLUDING the very lawyers who file court pleadings has appearances of a dog and pony show.

    Lawyers are required to prosecute legal claims by means of law, rather than predilections! Even if / when mortgage lenders instruct lawyers to file inappropriate or unlawful documents, a LAWYER is obligated to advise what can and cannot be lawfully done!

    For a very LONG time people such as Professor Elizabeth Warren, Professor Katherine Porter, and Gretchen Morgenson-NY Times (and even me!) have sounded alarms about PREDATORY, sometimes irreparable outcomes from UNREGULATED, IGNORED debt collection ILLEGALITIES.

    Our nation’s mortgage crisis has finally caused serious pondering of factors that indicate a mammoth creature (I’m certain it is the judicial elephant!) might be the driving force for this incredible Banking debacle! For myself, and people who ask me to help, I HOPE a graphic TRUE STORY, spelling out methods that judicial systems are utilized to accomplish fraudulent real estate conveyances, and unlawful collections, is a catalyst for needed CHANGE. The epitomizing foreclosure story is found here:

    Foreclosure Fraud Assault – A Cry For Help http://newsblaze.com/story/20101116120222nnnn.nb/topstory.html

    “A foreclosure that entails savagery, fraud, corruption, greed, intrusion, peril, trauma, desolation, shocking deviation from established law and court rules and procedures, and reprisals for whistleblowing and for not relinquishing one’s home to sham foreclosure is a riveting story worth being told.

    . . .story comes with a plea for humanity to rise to a duty of raising awareness, and not merely for the sake of aiding this one victim. It is for the sake of calling attention – and hopefully “making a difference” by requiring lawmakers to make changes in what appears to be third-world judicial systems of shocking perversion and inequality, harmful to the entire economy.
    * * *
    Wells Fargo turned over the modified loan debt to a foreclosure mill debt collection lawyer who used a defunct lender’s identity to foreclose, as well as demand unfair fees. At some point after foreclosure had been filed, the victim discovered that the modification consisted of a contract between the homeowner and a fictitious lender. . .”

  10. ayatolla of rockandrolla

    If they can go through everything that has happened since 2008 without perp walking anyone at any of the large investment banks – I am CERTAIN they will find a way around this. National security, banking system melt-down, they WILL find a way.

  11. razzz

    I think it was Jim Sinclair saying on today’s Wall Street, that if you have money left over after the fines then it is considered good business practice. Certainly aren’t going to do jail time.

    Congress created this mess and now it’s the pot calling the kettle black as in just a reminder to cough up the re-election contributions.

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