naked capitalism

kravitz says:

Gretchen Morgenson quoted you, but didn’t link to you. She also didn’t note the ‘there’s no terms document’ part.

The Deal Is Done, but Hold the Applause
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/business/mortgage-settlement-leaves-much-to-be-desired-fair-game.html

The LA Times didn’t quote you, but did mention the no terms thang.

Mortgage settlement is great — for politicians and banks
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-hiltzik-20120212,0,7852934.column

just me says:

Yves’ first Le Show interview with Harry Shearer, December 5, 2010, here:
http://harryshearer.com/news/le_show/player/?id=773&start=0:08
with transcript here: http://harryshearer.com/article/?auid=8gGDo2536R6FbV

Second interview October 2, 2011 here: http://harryshearer.com/news/le_show/player/?id=838&start=0:04
with transcript here: http://harryshearer.com/article/?auid=VsXWE45984Sok7y

(It’s how I got to be a fan of both of them :-)

(Harry’s website’s a little tricky — you have to search Le Show for the audio and News/What’s New for the transcripts, and the transcripts aren’t dated/numbered. But it’s all there if you know to look.)

The first interview included in-depth discussion on MERS — I haven’t seen this point made quite like this elsewhere…

HARRY SHEARER: How many employees does MERS have?

YVES SMITH: Uh, 47, and I think it may be up to 48.

HARRY SHEARER: (laughs)

YVES SMITH: So they’ve outsourced all the database, I believe, to Electronic – EDS, Electronic Data Systems, so it’s really almost a virtual company and they have this very bizarre corporate structure which has been described as unorthodox to the point of being virtually fraudulent where the MERS members will temporarily put on a MERS hat and say, “Oh, even though I work full-time for _____ – again, say Wells Fargo – I’m going to temporarily be a MERS signing officer and do all these things in the name of MERS even though MERS never paid me a nickel. I mean, it’s just – there’s this whole crazy set of arrangements they’ve come up with which now that people have looked at it, they are beginning to question the legitimacy of a lot of the ways that it does business.

HARRY SHEARER: How many people have signed documents as supposed MERS officers?

YVES SMITH: Well, it’s kind of hard to know, because again MERS won’t tell us, but at any one point in time MERS has over 20,000 signing officers authorized on its behalf.

HARRY SHEARER: (laughs) Twenty thousand officers! And 47 employees. If you took it at face value, you’d say that’s a rather top-heavy organization, wouldn’t you?

aletheia33 says:

here’s shearer’s page listing various stations where you can get le show at different times today:

http://media.harryshearer.com/syndicates.html