Category Archives: Credit markets

PIMCO, NY Fed Pressuring BofA to Repurchase Dud Mortgages (Empty Threats Edition)

As dramatic as this headline sounds, there is much less here than meets the eye. In addition, either the article that discussed this development is confused, or the underlying legal pressure is not well framed. First, let’s get to the report, which certainly sounds serious. BusinessWeek reports that PIMCO, BlackRock, and the New York Fed […]

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Stiglitz Bashes QE

The comment by Joseph Stiglitz in the Financial Times lambasting the Fed’s expected move to quantitative easing is certain to have no impact on the central bank’s course of action. His article nevertheless is proof that this idea is not as well received as the officialdom would like you to believe. It isn’t merely Stiglitz’s […]

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Guest Post: Mortgages Were Pledged to Multiple Buyers at the Same Time

By George Washington Bank of America alleged in a court filing this June: It appears as though many loans and other mortgage-related assets have been double and even triple-pledged to various constituencies . Boa Answer to Freddie Objection in Re Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. April Charney – a consumer lawyer with Jacksonville Area […]

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Investor Alert: It Isn’t Just Borrowers That Are Suffering At Servicer Hands

By MBSGuy, a securitization expert In comments to my post yesterday, “So Why Did the Mortgage Servicers Use ‘Robo Signers’?“, reader Justica pointed out another element of servicer misbehavior, namely, investor lack of confidence in the reports, and therefore the disbursements, that servicers are giving them. From “Investors Grumble Over Flawed Remittances” at Asset-Backed Alert: […]

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Goldman Launches PR Campaign to Burnish Its Tarnished Image

The Wall Street Journal has a report on Goldman’s new efforts to rebuild its damaged brand. The problem, of course, is that this is certain to be just that, a branding/marketing exercise, not an plan to make fundamental changes. And why should it be? Goldman, even with the heat it received and the fines it […]

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Guest Post: 5 Myths About Rape – And How They Relate to TARP

By reader Jackrabbit, hoisted from comments on “Tim Geithner’s Magical Mystery Tour Of TARP Propaganda Has Little Use For Truth“: 1. If you don’t say “no” it isn’t rape TARP was presented as the ONLY way to avert a melt down. The rapist used a gun. A more thoughtful approach would have at least extracted […]

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Guest Post: So Why Did the Mortgage Servicers Use “Robo Signers”?

I received an e-mail from a correspondent I’ll call MBSGuy and I thought readers would find it informative. He’s been an expert witness in quite a few securitization cases (which is an area with relatively little in the way of case law, in contrast to real estate). And in case it isn’t obvious, to serve […]

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Guest Post: Foreclosure Counterattack – Propaganda, Pseudo-Legality, and Thuggery

By Russ, aka Attempter, a sustainability activist trying to help figure out solutions to America’s crisis, who blogs at Volatility As Foreclosuregate, the legal crisis, looms ever larger and becomes a major political issue, the banks and government have scrambled to mount a counteroffensive against the consequences of their crimes. We can see how flat-footed […]

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Has the Fed Painted Itself Into a Corner?

A couple of articles in the Wall Street Journal, reporting on a conference at the Boston Fed, indicates that some people at the Fed may recognize that the central bank has boxed itself in more than a tad. The first is on the question of whether the Fed is in a liquidity trap. A lot […]

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MSM Distancing Itself From Bank Party Line on Foreclosure Crisis

We’ll see next week whether two articles, one in the Wall Street Journal, the other in the New York Times, are a sign of a sea change in the media posture towards the banking industry’s spin efforts, at least as far as the securitization mess is concerned. Let’s face it, the banks have lied so […]

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Foreclosure Crisis Finally Hitting Banks Where it Hurts: Their Stock Prices

I’m surprised it has taken this long for Mr. Market to wake up and smell the coffee. Major bank suspending foreclosures in a whole passel of states, overwhelming evidence of fraud on courts (commemorated in sworn testimony), and increasing evidence that these developments are mere symptoms of much deeper problems had been spun by the […]

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Guest Post: Tim Geithner’s Magical Mystery Tour Of TARP Propaganda Has Little Use For Truth

By Dr. Pitchfork, an iconoclast who writes at Daily Bail. In “5 Myths About TARP,” Tim Geithner joins Steve Rattner and Herb Allison in the parade of Washington insiders who have gone out of their way to tout the great success of TARP, calling it the “most effective government program in recent memory.” If you […]

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Extreme Measures: Currency/Trade Tensions Rising, Will Action Follow?

After the in retrospect not that terrible first acute phase of the financial crisis, August-September 2007, this blog began taking note of Extreme Measures. These were proposals by respectable people for dealing with the burgeoning mess that were usually very creative and had zero chance of happening. The fact that so many normally sound people […]

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