It take a fair degree of skill to pen a journalistic story that hews to the appearance of objectivity yet is out to sell a point of view. The lead article in the Journal tonight, “Niche Lawyers Spawned Housing Fracas” telegraphs its bias in its headline: the foreclosure crisis is merely the creation of two […]
Read more...By Yiping Huang, Professor of Economics at the China Center for Economic Research, Peking University. Cross-posted from VoxEU. On 19 October, the People’s Bank of China announced a series of rate hikes. This column argues that the moves were aimed at combating domestic inflation and avoiding the mistakes of Japan in the 1980s. On 19 […]
Read more...From Bloomberg: New York state courts will require lawyers in residential foreclosure actions to certify they have taken “reasonable” steps to verify the accuracy of documents submitted to the court. The new rule, released in a statement by the New York state Unified Court System, is effective immediately. Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman introduced the requirement […]
Read more...Most readers were not happy when I didn’t buy into the mainstream presentation of a the widespread news reports that a letter sent on behalf of a group of investors constituting approximately $16.5 billion (per the Wall Street Journal) of $47 billion (presumably face amount) of bonds was a Really Big Deal in terms of […]
Read more...Hat tip reader Darby Shaw, via Detroit News: GMAC Mortgage resumed foreclosures in 23 states Tuesday after it had halted practices earlier this month following an employee’s admission of approving thousands of foreclosure notices without reading the paperwork. “As we review the affected files in the 23 judicial states and take any needed remediation, the […]
Read more...Lawyers who defend homeowners against foreclosures, even when their client has a good case, like servicing errors, often run into bank-friendly judges. The plaintiff’s argument typically boils down to, “We’re a bank, they are a deadbeat.” It looks as if banks are increasingly hoist on their own petard. There has been so much coverage of […]
Read more...Wow, this is getting wild. Admittedly, the Cook County sheriff has taken a firm stand in the past on foreclosure evictions, but this is a more sweeping action in the past. Telling the banks that admitted they used improper affidavits but now insist that everything is fine isn’t good enough is a bold more. At […]
Read more...At least some legislators are taking the foreclosure crisis seriously. Representative John Conyers, Marcy Kaptur, Raúl Grijalva, and Alan Grayson wrote to Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to ask that he investigate foreclosure fraud and conduct an audit of GMAC, Fannie, and Freddie. SIGTARP is a full fledged prosecutor, […]
Read more...New fronts are opening in the foreclosure mess. A lot of people have wondered why no one has gone to jail over what by commonsense standards is fraudulent activity. The possibility that the violations were indeed criminal is finally being investigated. From the Washington Post: Federal law enforcement officials are investigating possible criminal violations in […]
Read more...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 […]
Read more...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 […]
Read more...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 […]
Read more...CNN reports that Bank of America is resuming foreclosures in 23 states (hat tip reader Glen S): Bank of America reviewed 102,000 foreclosures in the 23 states where a court must sign off on the proceedings, and it is now restarting the process on those cases, the company said Monday. The company said the first […]
Read more...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: […]
Read more...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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