Making banks into GSE’s

TBTF will be the law of the land for the chosen few:

Too small to be bailed-out? Prepare to be absorbed.

Why do we even need banks if 95 percent of the mortgage market is directly subsidized by the government?

A good question, asked and expounded upon by Dr. Housing Bubble:

“95 percent of the mortgage market is now backed by the government. As we know, a large part of this growth also occurred with highly risky FHA insured loans that are now imploding at record levels. Last month in Southern California 36 percent of mortgages were FHA insured loans. Now applying the Stockholm syndrome, it would appear that many instead of being angry and calling out the banking fraud for what it is, are starting to believe in what the abductors are pushing. They say things like, ‘ see, the banks are now holding off on the shadow inventory to help the market. Prices are now going up! ‘ As if the banks are concerned about the average American with some banks charging 79.9 percent on credit cards before dealing with the tougher legislation coming in 2010. As you can see from the above chart, the mortgage market is the government which raises the question, why do we even need banks if 95 percent of the mortgage market is directly subsidized by the government?.“

His very graphic graphic (not for the squeamish):

“In fact, there have been a few articles talking about the ‘ brain drain’ because of compensation limitations on Wall Street! You have got to be out of your damn mind! People mistake ‘ intelligence ‘ in kleptocracy, cronyism, and financial engineering with actual smarts. They are smart at screwing over our economy so this brain drain argument is absolute insanity. It would be one thing if they were creating life saving drugs or consumer goods but instead, they are an albatross on the rest of the economy sucking taxpayer dollars into their balance sheets. Yes, let us feel sorry for our financial kidnappers. How can they live on a few million dollars (note: read DeanBaker’s rant) a year after all the good they have done? Let us allow them to have the same system that gave them the key to drive our economy off the financial edge.”

That last paragraph was directed at the so-called “brain-drain” by Hank Greenberg’s new firm from the pool of ready able and willing AIG co-conspiratorshorts, which as you know like GMAC is having trouble paying back the taxpayer bailout that saved their nasty-asses (the perpetual bailout that is never gonna take, they’ll keep coming back for more and more throwing good money after bad, until we realize the only solution is to take ‘em out back and shoot the poor old mangy critters).

Ever get the feeling that you’re being gamed?

“Oh no! Our top commanders are leaving the ship. As it turns out, they were on their laptops all day ignoring the financial iceberg ahead. When it came time to jump ship however, they were the only people with lifesavers.”

…

–
“Children need encouragement. If a kid gets an answer right, tell him it was a lucky guess. That way he develops a good, lucky feeling. ” -Jack Handy

Could not have said it better myself

More:

Naked Capitalism Market Ticker

Reverse Bank Heist

Dark Pools and Other Matters

H/T

The Hat Trick

Ambitious realtard fraudsters with a most odious and ambitious disposition.

The charges:

1. RE Investor Fraud
2. Defrauding Lenders
3. Rent-to-own fraud

[the report]

That leaves, well let’s see… weeell nooooo, actually I think that about covers it. Next victim!

“the accused deceived more than 130 investors with assurances of a legitimate and worry free investment system requiring little or no capital investment and virtually no involvement in the transaction or in the subsequent management of the investment.

“One such assurance, a rent guarantee, allegedly promised that the investor would receive rent every month, whether it was collected or not. Another alleged incentive was the low out-of-pocket cost to the investor – a maximum of $1,000 to purchase a property. “

Such a deal! Is it any wonder they had people lining up around the block with terms like that? Of course, if the suckers could be bothered to read the docs… ah, who we kiddin’, it wouldn’t have mattered one iota. They failed to apply the first test, the one of smell… and the second, requiring the ability to perform complex addition and subraction formulas such as:

mtg pmt + taxes – rent = profit(loss)

OH! My brain is all hurty. No way does my brain have enough power left to figure in depreciation, maintenance, vacancy.

Is it any surprise that RE ‘professionals’ <spit> were the evil-doers here?

I didn’t think so.

That is why around here we refer to them as realtards.

[H/T]

–
How many homedebtors read their loan docs? How many congresscritters read the bills they vote on? Exactly. We get the politicians we deserve.

Glad to see you go-go-go-goodbye

Cerberus restructuring offers investors few quick exits

Firm’s hedge fund faces redemption requests for at least half of assets

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Cerberus Capital Management LP unveiled a  restructuring of its main hedge fund late that offers few ways for  redeeming investors to get their money back quickly, according to two  people familiar with the situation.

The plan, described in a Friday letter from the firm, means investors in  Cerberus Partners LP will probably get about 5% of their money back by the  end of 2009 at most, the people said on condition of anonymity.

Cerberus is offering investors in the hedge fund two main choices. One option involves shifting their stakes into a special-purpose vehicle which will be liquidated over two to four years, the people explained.

[Market Watch]

OOH! an SPV! Can I get a piece of that action?!?

Cerberus are the fuckers who bet big on debt-ridden heavyweights GMAC and Chrysler. They were part of that same group of people who, as Joe Biden says, “didn’t see this coming.”

So it is not a stretch to say theirs were the dimmest bulbs in the room.

What else would you expect of company that would hire Bob Nardelli? And… Dan Quayle? C’mon!

So the sad here story is the investors got screwed out of >95% (hmmm, still a better return than Madoff), but the happy news is the partners (just like the Madoff fund-of-funders ‘Madeout’ like Walt Noel, who keep their ill-gotten gains) made bonus!

…

–
I’m sure Joe Biden didn’t see it coming.

Fly at your own risk

Story du jour:

Aircraft repair jobs performed by unqualified illegal alien workers, displacing qualified Americans; previous experience, speaking English not required

If you own a house, it’s probably gone down in a value.  There isn’t much of anything that you can do about that and if you are like many homedebtors, you probably prefer to crack open a Burgie(tm) and ignore that particular problem until it goes away (or the market turns around- heh).

Kind of the adult version of making like an ostrich: you just don’t want to know or think about it. La la la la fucking la.

Besides, if you still have a job, you can pay the mortgage- after all we all need a place to live.

And unless you attract disaster, chances are nothing will crash into your house. I’ll take those odds (knocks on wood).

If you are a frequent flyer, you might want to read this story (with video for the weary) out of a Dallas TV station. Or, after reading the headline you might just prefer to just ignore it.

After all, what can you do about it?

Perhaps it’s not as bad as it sounds.

The problems are probably blown all out of proportion by the media, and are most likely contained to an entirely different segment of the market than those you frequent.

It’s just one news story, and not even out of a major market. Why hasn’t the NY Times covered it? Must not be important.

We can still trust that regulatory authorities are doing their job, and haven’t taken any bribes or lined up a cushy office job after their retirement from the FAA or ICE with the companies they oversee, to occasionally look the other way.

Even with early retirement and a juicy double-dip escapade beckoning, a federal official would never neglect their sworn duty while in office and place American people at risk.

No sirree Benny.

[WFAA.com]

HT: Mish

…

–
Who regluates the regulators?

Madoff’s Ponzi Partner Roams Free

This guy is one of apparently many accomplices that benefited (and perhaps helped direct) such massive fraud. They are doing everything in their power to stay off the radar.

Let’s hope the Madoff “victims” continue to keep the cross-hairs zeroed on Bernie’s fellow Ponzers.

After reading this account of Jeffry Picower’s involvement (let’s call it bezzling) with big pharma (see this series of articles on Milken too), I am starting to come to the conclusion that the games these investor types  (among their cohorts: Martha Stewart) are playing with pharma is but nothing better than a very advanced shell game.

He isn’t under investigation, he isn’t answering questions, he’s laying low and and he’ll do everything he can to stonewall any and all inquiries until people just lose interest. And he’ll likely keep every cent (and then some) of his billion-dollar bezzle proceeds.

Clawback Now! Disgorgement is the Way Forward!
…

–
Dem snake oil salesmen have come a long way, baby.

Benron is just getting tired of his shit