Do you pay taxes? Bank of America doesn't

Why don't our politicians address the lack of corp tax revenue being avoided? The loopholes and breaks given these companies via self serving politicians and lobbyists are creating a devastating hardship upon individuals. The theory that by giving business tax benefits (not even including the manipulation of the tax laws by corporations) they will funnel their savings down to the American workers has been undeniably disproved over the past 30yrs of the test period. Wages are down. Companies profits are up. Individuals are forced to work longer for less money. Corp leader pay is through the roof including stocks, bonuses, and wages. And Americans buying power has been considerably reduced.

It's time for a movement. It's time to claim our country back from the self serving troglodytes and their paid for political ilk to stop riding the rest of us for their personal gain and power grab.

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Chris Hayes talks with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David Cay Johnston

Now more than ever

As our political leaders try to come to a solution for this problem it is now more urgent than ever that we pay attention and hold bankers and politicians accountable for what has happened.
Apathy and disinterest has brought us here it's time to wake up and demand change and fight for the rights of every individual who doesn't have enough money or power to be wooed by those in positions to regulate. Its time to take a stand and stop fighting with your neighbor; it's time to fight alongside them to take back our country from those who would use it to serve only themselves.

We need to open our eyes to whats going on... We can't afford to sit idly by and allow those who will take advantage of us to continue. Collectively we need to assert ourselves into the conversation and force our voices to be heard. The process of designing regulations and laws to benefit those of the financial minority has to stop but it won't until we demand it.

I love my country and the fact that everyone has an opportunity to succeed but without a level playing field that gives everyone access to reach their potential we are deluding ourselves with false promises.

Please fight back. Tell your friends and neighbors and let's get some of our passion back and fight these elitists that are trying to monopolize success.

Angry Yet?

Enjoy... Hopefully it makes you mad enough to take action and protect your interests and the interests of your family. If we as a country are willing to sit idly by and allow this to happen we will have it on our hands as well.

Dont you see it too?

Why do politicians attack so aggressively the benefits and strengths of the the American middle class? Instead of blaming the middle class and their unions for the downfall of the American economy and the detriment of our country. It seems the biggest and most obvious issue associated with our country today is not middle class protections but the 30yr attack on the majority of American people through the destroying of financial regulations and top tier tax discounts that have allowed corporations to run over individuals by placing an over adjusted tax burden back onto the middle and low class of American wage earners as well as creating market bubbles that's advantages are entirely accessed by the top 10% or less of wage earners. By creating a system using the clever "trickle down" theories of gov't we have been stood upon by all those who wish to do nothing other than benefit themselves and their personal interests. There is a surprising lack of altruism in corporations and politicians everyone is playing a personal angle to get future advantages whether money or influence as both are peddled regularly at our expense. We have media that is owned by corporations and apologetically slanted and biased despite their tag lines which encourage via hyperbole and scare tactics those who are unwilling to think critically to regurgitate the absurd positions thus enraging and confusing the public. It's all a game. And it's at our expense. Both sides of the aisle play it and frankly it's getting ridiculous. Take a stand on something you believe in. Stand up to abuse and take some power back.

The Big Short... What's been done?

I know the Goldman short has been addressed repeatedly in housing finance circles over the past 6 mos. but I'm still amazed that the general population hasn't really grabbed it. It's infuriating and such an obvious answer to so many questions that those first addressing the housing bubble may be asking. There are many individuals who setup too big to fail companies to bubble and burst in order to generate personal wealth. See that was easy to understand wasn't it? Insiders created all the necessary element in order to create the perfect storm and they bought all the influence they needed to facilitate it. Now, those same individuals are still running amok in gov't and finance and nobody is being held accountable. Can't wait to see what they are cooking up next for us. When will enough be enough for the American people? When do we finally get mad enough to pay attention and demand action?

Here's an article from July of last year just to remind us of how we've been played and how nothing has been done about it.

tgolferman:
Why did the SEC rush into a settlement with Goldman Sachs (GS) over fraud charges pertaining to its ABACUS CDO for 550 million dollars on Thursday? Could it be because there is enough evidence in the public domain to prove that the SEC under William Donaldson and Christopher Cox committed FINANCIAL TREASON by aiding and abetting Goldman Sachs, a select group of firms, and privileged individuals with the largest insider trading scheme, which will heretofore be known as "The Big Short", along with the Federal Reserve and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)?

First, lets get to the name "the big short." During the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearings, emails and internal correspondence were provided to the Commission. Below is a part of an annotated email from Goldman Sachs CFO David Viniar from July 25, 2007:

"Tells you what might be happening to people who don't have the big short." 1

What is or was "the big short" (TBS)? Act one of TBS was the systematic expansion of the residential and commercial real estate - stock market bubbles using the 2004 Net Capital Rule Waiver, which would allow the biggest investment banks to take capital held in reserve for market losses and invest it in the market in any way they saw fit. 2 The second act was softening the rules on Complex Structured Financial Transactions (CSFT) which would allow GS and similar companies more leeway in creating ABACUS and similar investment vehicles. 3 Act three or popping the bubbles to guarantee TBS paid off was done via implementation of FAS-157 by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). 4

Understanding what group within FASB was pushing for 157 and who was in the group is important to understand the Big Short:

In 2003, it created a User Advisory Council, which includes representatives from individual and institutional investors, equity and debt analysts, lenders and credit rating agencies. 5

Mr. Robert Ehudin - Managing Director - Credit Risk Management Advisory Group - Goldman, Sachs & Co. 6

In a Chief Financial Officer magazine September 1, 2006 article Robert Herz the head of the FASB states:

Herz concedes that numerous issues surrounding fair value need to be addressed. But important users of financial statements are pressing him to move forward on fair value without delay. 7

You see, GS and others pushed FAS-157 knowing the rule change would force firms to re-value assets on their books which would in essence create paper losses that would cause further distress in an already troubled real estate market full of toxic mortgages which would eventually bring down the stock market where the real money was going to be made considering the hyper inflated stock price values to earnings multiples.

David Viniar of GS in a December 15, 2006 email wrote the following:

On everything else my basic message was let's be agressive distributing things because there will be very good opportunities as the markets goes into what is likely to be even greater distress and we want to be in position to take advantage of them. 8

GS and everyone on the FASB User Advisory Council knew what FAS-157 was going to do to assets on the books of companies around the country. Massive write downs were magically going to occur and being net short on mortgages, debt, and the stock market should be where the SEC should be doing insider trading short selling investigations. Unfortunately, since it was money that played a role in who controlled the SEC before the collapse, it has been the same money stolen in the collapse that has been controlling them up to now. Just like a judge recusing himself because of a conflict, the SEC should not be allowed to conduct investigations of firms whose alumni are working at the SEC. Nor should the SEC be allowed to investigate frauds related to rules changes it had a hand in changing.

In a November 2007 CFO magazine article just before the official enactment of FAS-157, after some companies had already been recommended to make their 157 accounting adjustments before the actual enactment it stated:

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group estimates that U.S. banks and brokers, already under massive losses caused by the collapse in the subprime credit market, potentially face hundreds of billions of dollars in write-offs because of what are called Level 3 accounting rules, according to Bloomberg.9

It is very easy to understand how "The Big Short" could produce trillions upon trillions of dollars of profit for individuals that knew when the write downs would begin to occur. The beauty of the entire operation was to focus attention on the firm and away from individual investors. The firms obviously had varying degrees of success and failure, which is the perfect smoke screen which has kept the spotlight off of insiders that knew what to short, when to short, and for how long to short.

GS knew what was going to happen when 157 went into full effect. Daniel L Sparks of GS writes in this February 22, 2007 email concerning Paulson:

I will not want us to trade property derivatives until we get much closer to home as it will be a significant distraction from our goal.

This is a time to just do it, show respect for risk, and show the ability to listen and execute firm directives. 10

Getting closer to home is basically making sure you have all your bets laid off. Since the upper echelon of GS knew how TBS worked, during this critical time they would not want traders going out and trying to be hero's. From this point forward the FIRM would make sure it made some money on TBS. The real money though would be made by insiders shorting everything in sight and when the time was right they would be given a sign to extricate themselves from their shorts and go long.

The man that would decide how to manage the big short was none other than Ben Bernanke, the Great Depression expert hired to take over for Alan Greenspan. His role would be to better control this operation in order to prevent a total collapse, like what occurred during the Great Depression, while trying to preserve the power of those who had worked so hard over the past 20 to 30 years deregulating the financial markets. I have not uncovered the sign he gave the insiders to exit their short positions; however, considering the stock market began moving upward before Bernanke gave his blessing to adjust fair value accounting or 157.

In a September 30, 2008 Bloomberg article highlighting the resistance of the SEC and FASB to suspend FAS-157 despite nearly a full year of economic collapse in the real estate, credit, and stock markets, it stated the following:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and other proponents say removing the rule would erode confidence that firms are owning up to losses. 11

Ben Bernanke must have given a signal to close short positions because the stock market began to rise and then he gave his blessing to adjust the accounting rule:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday argued that regulators should make some improvements to controversial mark-to-market accounting rules at the same time as lawmakers create a systemic risk regulator that will fill in 'shocking gaps' in regulatory oversight. 12

Shortly thereafter FASB adjusted 157 in April 2009:

The Financial Accounting Standards Board, pressured by U.S. lawmakers and financial companies, voted to relax fair-value accounting rules that Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. say don’t work when markets are inactive. 13

TBS was over for now. The stock market stabilized, job loss trends had been reversed. But, trillions of equity in real estate, most of which was the result of a highly rigged and leveraged market, was lost in a period of years. Pension funds had lost billions if not trillions resulting in reduced retirement benefits. Trillions and trillions of dollars had been skimmed out of the stock market.

What happens to a national or global economy where a small minority of people steals trillions of dollars from the majority of people, with the help of the governments financial market regulators? Can the financial markets ever re-establish trust if those who engineered this collapse and those who profited from it as insiders are not brought to justice? I hope we aren't that dumb and susceptible to propaganda.

Finally, GS hasn't granted me any interviews, so much of my analysis of the facts can be written off as speculation. However, I will leave you with one last bit of evidence that clearly highlights the treasonous actions of GS, the Bush SEC, the Bush FED, and the Bush FASB.

Fabrice Tourre of Goldman Sachs wrote in an email on January 23, 2007 concerning his involvement in the ABACUS CDo some roughly three months before it went public:

standing in the middle of al these complex, highly levered, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all the implications of those monstruosities!!! Anyway, not feeling too guilty about this, the realpurpose of my job is to make capital markets more efficient and ultimately provide the US consumer with more efficient ways to leverage and finance himself, so there is a humble, noble and ethical reason for my job ;) amazing how good I am convincing myself !!! 14

This is why the SEC settled with GS. Since both were involved in TBS they both wanted the news media spotlight to shine elsewhere.

Now, since many of the insiders bought their way into the Obama inner circle of economic advisors, I would have to say that he has been played like we all were played. So, what does he do now? I would first demand the resignation of Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner to show their sponsors that I wasn't going to be played any longer. Then, I would call on the House and Senate to quickly remove us from the southern half of NAFTA, withdraw from the WTO, and suspend China's MFN status and to quickly erect tariffs on goods or services coming from any country with a standard of living below that of the U.S. and that has a trade surplus with America, and force any U.S. multinational corporations wishing to sell product in the U.S. to bring back their productive capacity and begin employing Americans. The chances of the House and Senate doing this would be very slim; therefore, I would issue an executive order requiring an end to the southern half of NAFTA and a permanent suspension of China's MFN status. Next, I would direct my justice department to begin an immediate investigation into the roll of the FED, SEC, and FASB in the roll of the collapse and to bring any and all parties to justice. This would require a massive expansion of the financial crimes division of the Justice Department. I would then issue another executive order to nationalize the FED and remove its leadership and replace it with a team with the likes of Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Peter Morici, Elizabeth Warren, and Brooksley Born to name a few. While this would be a very turbulent time, I think it is the only thing that President Obama truly can do to restore confidence in our financial markets and to save the Democratic Party in November and his job in 2012.

Time's a wasting Mr. President.

Sources:

1) http://documents.nytimes.com/goldman-sachs-internal-emails#document/p9/a3
2) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/business/03sec.html?_r=1
3) http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/8509345?f=search
4) http://www.fasb.org/jsp/FASB/Pronouncement_C/SummaryPage&cid=900000010271
5) http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/8505758?f=search
6) http://www.fasb.org/user_advisory_council/uac_members.shtml
7) http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/7851757/3/c_7873404?f=related
8) http://documents.nytimes.com/goldman-sachs-internal-emails#document/p25
9) http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/10097878?f=search
10) http://documents.nytimes.com/goldman-sachs-internal-emails#document/p29
11) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=agj5r6nhOtpM
12) http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bernanke-we-need-improvements-fair-value
13) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=agfrKseJ94jc
14) http://documents.nytimes.com/goldman-sachs-internal-emails#document/p80

(TGOLFERMAN http://tgolferman.newsvine.com/_news/2010/07/17/4699618-the-big-short-why-did-the-sec-and-goldman-rush-a-settlement-on-abacus)

No Money in Modification

This video is a bit dated but it is an accurate representation of how these purchases are generally sold and it shows why most servicers and "owners" prefer to foreclose rather than modify. In addition to profit margins they are also incentivized to foreclose because they understand that they don't have legal standing to claim the asset and if they modify the original note they still leave that elephant standing in the middle of the living room who could potentially crush their new flat screens and sofas they purchase with ill gotten gains. By pursuing foreclosure they eliminate the potential of a legal standing issue and generate greater revenue. It's good to be the king!

Neil Garfields Livinglies.wordpress.com

Editorial:

I worked on Wall Street and I was an investment banker. I know the mentality. If money is sitting there, they will take it and worry about it later. This article is the tip of the iceberg and it belongs on Page 1. I agree with the NY Times editorial staff about how important this article is. It didn’t get blocked because it was about Bear Stearns, which is defunct. But the story is the same for all the mega banks. They screwed the investors, stole the money, then screwed the investors again, along with the homeowners, and stole the house. And it is still going on.
The “secret pocketing of money” is no secret amongst those who work on Wall Street. To them it was a game and they won and each time a news article comes out missing the point again they have another laugh. Unfortunately the regulators and legislators are buying the spin in the media instead of investigating the facts.
Fictitious “Bonds” (i.e., non-existent) were sold by fictitious “trusts” or “SPV’s” (i.e. non-existent) on the CLAIM that each SPV or Trust consisted of a fictitious pool (i.e., non-existent) each pool containing fictitious “assets” consisting of the fictitious (i.e. non-existent) obligations of homeowners who had been “loaned money” from a fictitious company pretending to be a bank or lender. The practice on Wall Street was called “selling forward” which means you are selling something you don’t have, like selling short, which is selling a stock before you buy it.
THEN a fictitious transaction (i.e., non-existent) was recorded and reported between the party pretending to be a lender but who was acting, at most, as a mortgage broker (unregistered and unregulated). This was the promissory note and mortgage deed or deed of trust. The transaction described in the note and mortgage never happened and was never meant to happen. All the “securitized”loans were table funded, so none of the “lenders” were creditors. They were fee based servicers. The REAL transaction was never committed to writing or recorded or reported.

The pretender at the closing merely transmitted a flat data file like a spread sheet with various pieces of data that the originator inserted manually. If they changed the date of the loan from the closing date tot eh recording date, they now had a second loan to sell to a second loan aggregator, who knew what was going on because they were giving the orders on what to write, when to write it and who to send it to.
The ACTUAL TRANSACTION between the homeowner and the ACTUAL source of funds was never disclosed to either the lender nor the borrower nor ever committed to writing. Hence the representation that there ever was a secured loan was false, and through no fault of the borrower. The documentation from the closing was neither lost nor destroyed but often described as one or both. The sole reason they didn’t want to produce the original documentation was that it would not conform to the deal proposed to the investor and did not conform to the deal made with the borrower. Better to say you lost it or accidentally destroyed it than to admit criminal fraud.
The effect was obvious. The investment bank took the money from the investors and the money paid by borrowers and the money paid by third parties through insurance, credit default swaps, and under cover of cross collateralization and over-collateralization kept the money, obscuring the fact that they were neither paying nor allocating money received to the investor who was the payee of the money nor the borrower who was the obligee.
Thus neither one knew the true status of the loan. The investor was kept in the dark about the continuing receipt of money by the investment firm, and the borrower was kept in the dark (a) about the real lender not being paid money that came in and which was required to be paid against the borrower’s obligation and (b) about the ALLOCATION or ACCOUNTING for the money that the investment bank was receiving and disbursing in the name of the payor (borrower) and payee (lender/investor).
On an arbitrary basis, computations were made an strategies employed to give the appearance of a normal mortgage market but in fact that was all a fiction. The end result is that the investors and insurers were defrauded out of billions fo dollars on losses that never occurred and paid to parties who had no insurable or ownership interest. The very existence of Notice of Default, Acceleration and Notices of Sale, Complaints for foreclosure was and remains a fiction that cannot be supported by the facts. The strategy employed by the pretender lenders is to use the documents describing fictitious transactions as a substitute for alleging real facts and THEN introducing the documents as proof of those facts alleged.
Judges relying on their law school days or when they practiced law before this historical scheme was developed, are ruling on the basis of presumed facts that do not exist. They are presuming those facts based upon documents that describe transactions that do not exist. The sole hook on which they hang their hat is whether the borrower received the benefit of the loan. But Judges to themselves, the judicial system and most importantly the title recording system a disservice when they presume that the documents are anything more than ink on paper without any value, derived or otherwise.

(Neil Garfield @ Livinglies.wordpress.com)

Stay Calm, Remain in Your Homes

This is standard advice in times of emergency.  The principle is simple and logical. Authorities are dealing with limited resources in a critical environment where every second counts.  The fewer events and people they need to deal with, the more effective they can be.
If you know me, you know that I am upbeat and positive by temperament and challenges don’t faze me.  I’m pretty level-headed, and I do my own thinking.  Though curious by nature, I don’t give much credence to conspiracy theories and usually can explain away most government ineffectiveness by mind boggling stacks of stupidity heaped upon layers of incompetence.
Lately, however, I have been starting to wonder just who is involved in shaping the events of our time.  Is there really a plan to swap our prosperity and independence in favor of global profiteering and the new world order?
First, we exported manufacturing so that other nations, even our enemies, wound up with our jobs.  Ross Perot warned us of the plot behind NAFTA.  We have allowed all of the power to fall to a handful of global elitists who profit from failure and misery.
Consider the implications of this; there are fewer Americans with jobs than in 2000 but there are eleven million more workers. Nearly fourteen million are officially unemployed and the number of people who have given up looking for work, the self-employed owners of failed businesses don’t even show up in that.
According to Stars and Stripes, “In January, the unemployment rate among vets between the ages of 20 and 24 was 24.1 percent, compared with 17.7 percent for the same age group in the general population.
Recent college grads are entering the workforce at a time when employers project they will be hiring 22% fewer college graduates this year.
And now, with increasing frequency, the unintended consequences of a global asset bubble are coming home to roost.  And, there is no stopping them.
The convergence of numerous events is creating what I fear will be emergency type conditions that will become routine for many Americans.  Think post Katrina, soon playing in cities everywhere.
According to The National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association, 8.9 million households are expected to qualify for financial help to heat their homes this winter, up from 8.3 million last winter.  It’s the third year in a row the number of households needing assistance has set a new high.  Nearly nine million people are having difficulty just staying warm.
By now, if you haven’t felt it directly, someone close to you has; a dramatic downturn in the quality of life, for many, a complete reversal of fortune.  Whether we feel bad for them or are happy to see their decline instead of ours, their loss of prosperity erodes the prosperity of everyone.  They go from contributor to the community to a drain on the community.  Many are boomers who worked all of their lives and are now seeing their golden years turn to rust.
The pension funds they contributed to have been looted by financial intermediaries, and although many of the funds are going to court, there isn’t enough money on the planet to pay back the shortfall.  The institutions they are seeking relief from are technically insolvent.  And, the device intended to protect pensions, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, is upside down and sinking.
According to the Washington Post, “During fiscal year 2010, the PBGC paid $5.6 billion in benefits to participants of failed pension plans.  That year, 147 pension plans failed, and the PBGC’s deficit increased 4.5 percent to $23 billion.  The PBGC has a total of $102.5 billion in obligations and $79.5 billion in assets.”
And, it’s only starting.  It will get worse every year until there will be no way to bridge the gap.  The PBGC only insures one in seven pensions; the rest may have no recourse whatsoever.
We must remind ourselves that we aren’t talking about the effects of just mortgage securitization, but a massive global Ponzi scheme that leveraged bad and even nonexistent debt instruments into the biggest transfer of wealth in history.
And, it goes on.
The money, a lot of American household net worth combined with an amount equivalent to the national debt, is stashed in off shore accounts and beyond the reach of recovery.
Equity in boomers’ real estate holdings has been systematically stripped by the leveraging up of appraisals followed by the pushing down to affect more strategic defaults.  And, it’s working.  One quarter of all homes are worth less than is owed on them.  That didn’t happen by accident, it was part of a business plan.
Where will these boomers go to live when they have no money?  What choice do they have?  They will be in tax payer funded shelters and tent cities with communities struggling to pay the medical costs of this aging poverty class.  It will be expensive and unpleasant.
Nationwide, six million families have lost their homes as a result of an international Ponzi scheme.  The myth is that after that they “rented an apartment that they could afford” and lived happily ever after…within their means.
The major impediments to this rosy scenario are lack of income, bad credit, kids and pets.  Fortunately, government has been working on a large part of the housing problem with a mind-boggling prison construction program.
All of this will have a negative trickle-down effect on everyone.  Note how life changing emergencies may have recently resulted from a lack of resources for mental health care and probation follow-up.  We knew the individuals had problems, but there is no funding to treat them.
Predictions of State and Cities financial collapse are being forewarned by layoffs in the most protected jobs, teachers and emergency responders.
The total neglect of our infrastructure during our false prosperity is now colliding with our ability to even make emergency repairs, as evidenced by the collapse of a relatively new bridge in Minneapolis.  Things are starting to get that third world feel.  Parks are being closed or ignored, codes aren’t being enforced, pot-holes don’t get filled, and trash blows through the weedy parking lots of long ago whitewashed shops.
In Vista, California, where years of financial mismanagement have led to a severe budget shortfall, emergency workers are telling the public to expect longer response times due to a reduction in the number of ambulances.  We have them; we just can’t afford to use them.
In March, the city will turn out the street lights.  So, at a time when we have fewer resources to respond, life will be getting a lot more dangerous for residents and visitors. Not that it matters, I recently dialed 911 to report an accident to which I was the only witness.  According to the call timer on my cell phone, it was nine minutes until they answered.
Cities are primarily dependent on property and sales taxes, and when property values were rising and consumers were spending, Vista administration went on a spending spree and hired all of their friends, built new buildings, and put tax payer’s money into an ill-advised, redevelopment scheme.
Some of the jobs have survived despite the fact that the city no longer performs the function the individual carries out.
The first step was to eliminate the services that all of those people were hired to deliver. A perfect example was Vista’s sign compliance program.  Several staff were hired, and for two years they photographed and cataloged commercial signage that was out of compliance with the code.
But, now that all of the preliminary work is done and paid for, the compliance part of the program was scrapped because there was no money to pay for it.
Given the size of the budget shortfall in Vista, the only alternative is a massive reduction in wages and benefits.  Cuts in senior administration aren’t likely so that means that city workers, the people who actually do anything, the lowest paid and most vulnerable, will be let go first.
Most communities are facing these same problems, but some are better prepared than others.  Those that failed to prepare for a decline in revenue will soon be switching to crisis mode.  The numbers tell the tale.  And, until we come up with 11 million jobs and stop evicting families from their homes, things won’t get better.
We are facing a crisis that is already tearing at the principals on which this country was founded.  Due process is routinely being denied in cases where borrowers have proof that documents were forged.
Stay calm, remain in your home.  The last thing that any of us needs is to have these unlawful foreclosures continue.   Even if you have been foreclosed on, do everything you can to stay in your home.  You do not want to be out on the street, and we don’t need any more vacant houses.  In San Bernardino, Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago the banks aren’t bothering to take title to the property.
What should you do?  Do what authorities always advise in terms of emergency. Remain calm, stay in your home…no matter what.  Do not let them take your home. Every day you can remain in your home is another day to get closer to long term relief.
The unlawful foreclosures taking place in America’s communities are compounding an already dire situation.  It doesn’t need to continue.  We must all resist the efforts by unknown foreign entities to steal our homes.
You must fight your own fight, but you needn’t fight alone.  You must learn everything you can about your own situation, but the information you need is all available on my blog.
If you won’t join the movement in the streets, join it here, at Protect Americas Dream http://www.gwmantor.hersid.com/.  If you will not draw a line in the sand, draw one at your front door.
Never give up.  The very worst thing anyone can do is surrender their home without resistance.  Stay calm, remain in your home.

(Taken from 4closurefraud.org George W. Mantor)

Are we the "unpeople"

We must recognize that based on the statistical composition of the foreclosure data that we are not looking at a homeowner induced epidemic.  Clearly the issues are systematic even if you base it solely on pure numbers of foreclosures and expectations of future foreclosures.  The system is flawed is the only reasonable and definable explanation for the sheer numbers we are looking at. 

For those who want to continue to attempt to blame individuals, whether a third party or yourself, all you have to do is consider the nature and mass of the epidemic in order to see the truth.

No unorganized mass of individuals without combined structure or intent could have begun such an enormous influence.  You, as a homeowner, are clearly not at fault for the systematic abuses that are the real base for the situation you each independently find yourself in.  Please stop blaming yourselves and start defending yourselves.  You must look after YOUR FINANCIAL INTERESTS because nobody else is taking up the cause.

Commentary from Noam Chomsky follows:

The many Americans whose lives have been damaged by financiers' single-minded focus on short-term profits at the expense of everyone else are only a harbinger of what is to come. Financial elites remain in charge, as evidenced by recent "financial reform" legislation that does not even reinstate the Glass-Steagall law separating investment and commercial banking. New York magazine has described how Obama officials blocked even inadequate reforms, let alone the stronger proposals from Nouriel Roubini, one of the few major economists to foresee the economic crash. Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Simon Johnson tells us "our banking structure remains -- and the incentive and belief system that lies behind reckless risk-taking has only become more dangerous," thus setting the stage for an even worse crash than that of 2008. And, as U.S. competitiveness continues to decline and it cannot afford its endless wars without drastically cutting social spending, countless more Americans will find themselves paying the price for U.S. elites' imperial mentality.

In today's system, Chomsky explains, to "stay in the game," CEOs must maximize their own short-term profits while treating the costs of doing so as "externalities" to be paid by the taxpayer.

Chomsky thus argues that human survival requires changing the system, not merely periodically replacing those running it. His "Hopes and Prospects" covers President Obama's first year in office and the many "hopes" that he has so profoundly disappointed because of a system that virtually requires "doublethink" of its leaders. Obama was undoubtedly as sincere when he spoke of "our fidelity to the rule of law and our Constitution" at West Point on May 22 as he was six months earlier when he secretly approved Gen. David Petraeus' proposal for a "broad expansion of clandestine military activity" worldwide that "does not require the president's approval or regular reports to Congress."

Obama also presumably holds two contradictory opinions when he continues Bush policies he so recently criticized and promised to change: extending executive power to indefinitely imprison people without trial, torture (though by allied rather than U.S. torturers), indiscriminate killing (particularly by escalating in northern Pakistan, as described in Truthdig, "Unintended Consequences in Nuclear Pakistan"), and supporting Israeli policies precluding a two-state solution. Chomsky also observes that Obama could not have been elected in the first place, given his greater need for campaign funds from above than fidelity to his voters below, had he not been prepared to continue these imperial policies.

Chomsky's explanation of the American system's imperial mentality also illuminates a seeming mystery: How could decent people like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama commit so much evil? Our concept of evil is shaped by such paranoid psychotics as Hitler, Stalin and Mao, who all hated their victims and openly lusted for power. We do not yet understand that in today's American system the problem we face is not so much inhumanity from the mad and evil as "ahumanity" from the sane and decent.

As the American economy and polity continues to unravel and suffering mounts at home and abroad, however, a mass movement may arise that is capable of saving America and the world. If so, such a movement is likely to attempt solutions of the sort Chomsky proposes. Here are two out of a far larger number:

State capitalism for the many: The American Enterprise Institute's chief declared in a May 23 Washington Post Op-Ed that "America faces a new culture war," between "free enterprise" offering "rewards determined by market forces" and "European-style statism." "Hopes and Prospects" explains at some length, however, why this formulation is absurd. America's "free enterprise" system has always been based on massive government aid, from the Army building 19th century railroads, to the Pentagon's post-World War II role in building the Internet and Silicon Valley, to today's "rewards" to Wall Street and oil companies determined not by market forces, but those companies' political clout. America has been practicing "state capitalism" since the founding of the Republic, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future no matter which party is in office.

The real choice, Chomsky makes clear, is not free enterprise versus statism, but state capitalism for (A) the few or (B) the many. The latter would include breaking up the banks, a focus on job creation and safety net expansion where needed, single-payer health insurance, higher taxes on the wealthy, far lower military spending, public members on corporate boards, greater employee workplace control and, above all, a new public-private partnership to see America become a leader in a clean energy economic revolution.

A Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone and Two-State Solution in the Middle East: Chomsky proposes that rather than continuing to engage in senseless fighting and confronting Iran over nuclear weapons, U.S., Israeli, Arab and Iranian interests would be far better served by the U.S. using its enormous military and economic clout to create a Mideast nuclear weapons-free zone that Iran says it is willing to accept, and a comprehensive and fair Israeli-Palestinian settlement including Hamas' promised recognition of Israel and cessation of rocket attacks. A major benefit to the U.S. would be to reduce the threat of domestic terrorism. For only a comprehensive new policy that addresses the source of anti-U.S. hatred -- U.S. war-making on civilians and support of corrupt and vicious local regimes -- can reduce it.

Fifty years ago, Americans were told that the North Vietnamese communists were so evil that 55,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese had to die, and much of Vietnam had to be destroyed, in order to keep it "free." But for 20 years now, despite the triumph of the communists, Vietnam has been a normal trading partner of the United States and poses no threat to its neighbors. Could the Middle East also be normalized were U.S. leaders to use their enormous power to promote peace rather than war? Maybe, maybe not. But it is obvious that the risks of trying to do so are far less than the present dangers of nuclear proliferation, chaos in nuclear-armed Pakistan, Israel-Iran military confrontation and increasing support for anti-American terrorism within the 1.2 billion-strong Muslim world.

That Chomsky's sensible proposals are not seriously discussed is a measure of the ubiquity of U.S. elites' imperial mentality in mid-2010. Chomsky suggests that John Quincy Adams' fear of divine retribution to America for its cruelty to Native Americans is unfounded, and that "earthly judgment is nowhere in sight." Much of his work, however, suggests otherwise. A U.S. elite imperial mentality that once threatened mainly unpeople is today threatening America itself.

The fundamental tension throughout Chomsky's work is between his belief that organizing and popular movements offer hope of change and the overwhelming evidence he presents of elite power precluding such change. On the one hand, he writes that "Latin America, today, is the scene of some of the most exciting developments in the endless struggle for freedom and justice" as its nations improve their citizens' lives by extricating themselves from the neoliberal regime and elect leaders responsible to mass movements from below rather than financing from wealthy minorities above.

But on the other hand, his description of the stranglehold elites hold over both domestic and foreign policy offers little near-term hope for the kind of systemic changes he believes are needed to save the species. It is true that postwar America has not before faced the kind of economic and imperial decline that now awaits it, and this may produce possibilities for systemic change. But they are nowhere yet in sight.

(Noam Chomsky is an American philosopher emeritus professor at MIT)

The Truth about Your Mod

I’m sorry but I just can’t stop writing about the disaster known as HAMP, which is the government sponsored loan modification program.  It seems like every day there’s a new story about how much of a disaster the loan mod program has become.  In case you aren’t familiar with loan modifications, read on…
A loan modification is when your mortgage lender agrees to permanently or temporarily lower the interest rate of your home loan so the payment becomes more affordable and, in theory, the homeowner can stay in the home without defaulting.  And while the hypothesis is solid, the loan modification program has been a credit disaster for millions of consumers.  HAMP, the government sponsored loan modification program, actually requires that homeowners pay less than what they are contractually required to pay each month just to prove that they can handle a lower monthly payment.  This is leading to severely damaged credit, millions of dollars of late fees, and foreclosures.
Here’s what your mortgage lender will not tell you about your loan modification application…

You never really needed a loan modification in the first place – Many consumers are being solicited for loan modifications as if they were being solicited for credit card offers or home equity loans. The problem is many, if not most, of the homeowners who receive these offers are still quite capable of making their monthly payment and won’t get approved for the modification because there is no hardship.  Of course the lender won’t know this until you’ve gone through the process of applying for the modification and the lender has taken the time to review your application, which is taking around 6 to 9 months in many cases.

We’re going to tell you to make less than your contractual payment, and then we’re going to report you as paying late to the credit bureaus – One of the more comical aspects of the loan modification programs is the requirement of the homeowner to make a lesser payment while the lender evaluates your loan mod application.  This is called the “trial payment period” and was never supposed to last longer than 3 months.  During this time the consumer, at the lender’s request, is breaking the terms of their promissory note by not making their contractual minimum payment.  The lenders are then reporting this to the credit bureaus as a past due account.  The longer it takes for the lender to deny or approve your application, the more late payments you’ll end up with and the more damaging it is to your credit.
We’ve laid off thousands of employees to save money so it’s going to take at least 6 months to get to your application, if you’re lucky – Evaluating a loan modification package only takes a few hours but getting to your application is going to take several months.  This is, of course, because the demand is outpacing the supply of bank employees to do the work.  Banks can’t hire people fast enough to bring the demand/supply model back in balance, and they likely don’t have any desire to do so.
You have no shot at getting approved – In order to qualify for a loan modification you have to have a hardship worthy enough to justify the lower rate.  The problem is one man’s hardship is another man’s inconvenience.  For example, you’d think that a severe loss of your home’s value is a hardship.  You’d be wrong.  You might also think that a reduction in pay or a child starting college is a hardship.  You’d be wrong again.  The point is the rules are not clear at all so homeowners waste time and money applying for a loan mod when they have absolutely no chance of it getting approved.
While we’re taking at least half a year to consider your loan modification we’re going to charge you late fees – Despite the fact that you CAN make your normal monthly payment you’re not doing so (during the trial period).  This means each month you’re technically paying late.  You’re not late as in you didn’t get your payment sent in by the due date but you’re late as in you didn’t make the full contractual payment.  This means you’ll be assessed a late fee each month your mortgage is past due. 

After we deny your loan modification application we’re going to begin foreclosure proceedings – In the ultimate slap in the face many consumers are getting notices of intent to foreclose soon after they’ve received their loan modification denial.  Of course you can stop the foreclosure proceedings at any time by making good on all of your past due balances, which will be made up of your monthly underage and accrued late fees.  If you’re able to do so it doesn’t save your credit because your credit reports will already have a record of the foreclosure proceedings starting, which won’t be removed just because you bring your mortgage current.  You get to enjoy that for seven years.
We’re not going to remove any of the late payments that WE caused – Every month you were short on your mortgage payment likely resulted in another late payment being added to your credit files.  And regardless of the outcome of the application the late payments are likely to persist for seven years.  The lender insisting on a lower monthly payment, of course, is what caused the late payments.
If it seems like the loan modification programs set the rules in opposition, you’re actually right on.  Pay on time, but don’t pay the full amount on time.  We’re ok with you paying late, but we’re still going to charge you a late fee.  Thanks for trying to do the right thing by saving your home, but now we’re going to foreclosure anyway.  Think long and hard about whether or not you really need or want a loan modification.  The damage of a failed attempt is almost no better than simply walking away from your home.


Taken From (http://www.smartcredit.com/blog/2011/02/08/loan-modifications-more-about-the-failed-program/)

What does it take for people to get mad anymore? Sometimes it seems like any minute perceived affront by stranger or friend can send someone into a death spiral of over analyzed and disproportionate reactions.  We can be so enraged by another person who intentionally or not takes our assumed privileges like parking spaces and seconds of our day.  Being cut off, not being attended to quickly enough in retail stores or being attended too aggressively, waiting for traffic lights or traffic itself, people blocking the aisle at the grocery store, someone taking 20 items in the 15 items or less line, etc.  The list is really quite endless.

The curious part of this little bit of human nature is that when we are truly wronged it seems like it takes far more slight to get us riled up.  Case in point of course is our current financial situations as well as the lack of oversight and protection from those we deemed able to provide it by our votes.

We have an entire financial industry that has taken complete and total advantage of us as investors, homeowners, workers, tax payers, virtually every hat we wear has been affected by this gluttony of greed and yet the anger seems tempered and rationed.  Why is that?

I have to believe that it has something to do with a general lack of understanding of the abuse that has gone on.  It seems that maybe as a whole we are unwilling to believe what has happened; it's just too big to wrap our collective heads around.  Maybe it’s the slant of the media since no media is unfettered from corporate alignment we have no real source of consistent genuine unbiased information.  In order to decipher reality we have to use critical thought which admittedly can be tiring and since John Stewart, David Letterman, and Glen Beck are so much easier maybe it would be OK if we just regurgitate what they feed us as our own and get back to watching reality TV.

Well here's some cold hard truth.  The banks screwed us.  They inflated housing prices intentionally with the purpose of creating a bubble.  They intentionally sold loans that were structured to fail.  They sold these intentionally flawed loans to home buyers and investors and got the ratings agencies to grade them as pure 100% guaranteed products.  They flooded the market with these securities and then as the real market became less interested in them they started creating shell corps to purchase them inside their own companies just to keep the bubble inflated and to keep generating sales commissions.  They knew the securities were crap so they got our politicians to remove legislation which allowed them to short sell all the crap that they were passing on to us and their investors at the same time, thus generating millions in profits for individuals as well as the same companies that were running the operation.  They deregulated securities so the money they pulled off the soon to be collapsing housing market could be funneled into commodities futures thus driving up prices by creating a false supply and demand scenario creating much higher food and fuel costs.  Especially significant for those around the world that depend on grain commodity prices for their survival.  The bankers then took our tax dollars that our elected politicians offered them with blank checks and no recourse.  They continued to blame the housing inflation on investors despite all the mounting evidence.  They crashed the credit markets for small business and retail clients like you and me eliminating many opportunities for local growth and created many job loses. They burst their own bubble intentionally profiting on their short positions and caused countless people to lose their jobs.  They left us upside down in our homes.. They gave borrowers unfamiliar with finance extremely complicated adjustable and interest only loans.  They refused to budge and work in good faith with homeowners who had lost jobs or income based on the bubble they created and popped for their own greed and benefit.  They continue to refuse to adjust loan amounts to compensate for new market value even though they are the ones who drove it up intentionally and knew homeowners wouldn't be able to service their loans.  They use fraud and document preparation companies to create whatever they need to take a home because they have companies ready to pick them up using bid manipulations.  They created a system that robbed municipalities and counties out of billions in revenue and tried to circumvent the 300 yr old property laws that allow for individual ownership.  They created a system in which nobody can claim free title on any piece of property anymore and they pay and manipulate the judicial system to continue to see it their way despite falsified documents and obvious violations of well established law.  They used us! Intentionally! Without concern or empathy!  And you want to get mad at the guy who pulled in front of you during rush hour?

It's way past time that we get angry.  I know it's easier to get mad at the grocery clerk who's moving a little slow but let's point our anger at those who truly, honestly deserve every ounce of anger we can muster. 

We may think we are far different from the upheaval in the Middle East right now but it seems like we should be just as angry, just for some reason we've gotten soft... How much further do we need to be pushed?  Taking your job and your house and giving your kids a huge tax burden for years to come all for the greed of the already wealthy?

Think about it.

Ed Schultz: Wall Street's Hand in Causing the Food Crisis in Egypt

Please don't think that it's not always about the money. If you follow the money you will always find explanations for inexplicable behaviors. We need to stand up and stop being apathetic to the strategies that finance and politics are being used to abuse individuals worldwide. It's time to get angry.

Something Large This Way Comes....

And so it picks up steam.  What started in Iceland,  instigated by Wall St,  has now engulfed Tunisia,  Yeman,  Sudan,  Egypt,  Syria,  Jordan and others yet to be made manifest.  Saudi Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has warned the country’s royal family to step down and flee before a military coup or a popular uprising overthrows the kingdom.
Julianne the Apostate can take the credit of kicking this ball down the hill as it was his release of some of those documents which demonstrated selected venality amongst certain countries’ leadership.  It would have happened anyway,  but the Apostate,  it seems,  was the spark.  How this could be to Israel’s benefit is beyond me.
The control system is blowing apart at the seams.  Anyone thinking the unrest across North Africa to the Middle East is part of a planned paradigm has got to be crazy.  Certainly,  there are organizational forces at work trying to ride on top of the chaos,  but all semblance of control is gone.  Israel is isolated,  Saudi Arabia could well fall ,  and soon;  Syria,  Jordon;  Lebanon is already Hezbollah and the Southern Border is laced with rockets which can be set up and bound for the obliteration of whole blocks of Tel Aviv in about 20 minutes.
The United States is in the fourth,  fourth cycle of the four cycles of societal growth.  Every generational cycle since the beginning of this country has been marked with tremendous upheaval.  Before 1776,  this country had been thriving and it wasn’t until the coinage act which mandated use of the king’s coin,  which he wouldn’t allow in country if it weren’t borrowed at interest from the central bank that there was any real impetus to change.
We had the Revolutionary War.
Four score and seven years later,  at another major turning point in the country’s history,  we had the civil war.  Lincoln had his Greenbacks and the International bankers were partially thwarted.
Eighty years later there was another watershed moment for the country which culminated in a depression and two World Wars,  all of which can be lain at the feet of International Bangsterism.
Now,  sixty five years later,  we find ourselves at another watershed moment where America the Great is morphing into something different yet again and the instigating factor is once again,  International Bangsterism.
China and Russia are in ascendancy;   the US/EU domination is failing.  Russia sits between both the Chinese and Europe.  Don’t be surprised to see Russia becoming a pivotal player in the final settlements.  Russia has lots of oil and gas upon which Germany,  France and the rest of the EU depend.
The entire western banking system is on a precipice from the MERS curse – the securitization of Real Estate Assets and the fraudulent bubble the Bangstas pumped into it.  For those who are aware of the true story,  there is head shaking amazement it still stands.  There are ever more assaults upon the gates of predatory capitalism yet to be unleashed.  The edifice shall not stand.  The collapse is a foregone conclusion.
The United States will no longer be the largest imperial power the world has ever seen.  How it moves from here is up to all of us individually and collectively.  Typically,  the fourth turn has involved a war.  The current state of weaponry precludes all out war but there are insane individuals with their fingers on the control levers of power who see insanity and war as preferable to dignity and respect.
What comes next is where the real battle shall take place.  Socially how things work out across the Middle East is yet to be seen.  The shaking is just beginning.  Trust that great powers are at work trying to ride the tiger.
The tiger will probably eat a few of those trying to ride it,  others may survive the ride and come back when the tiger finally goes back to sleep.  International Bangsterism with their handmaidens at Citi,  JP Morgan Chase,  Bank of America,  Wells Fargo,  Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have boxed themselves in and have nowhere to go.  The tiger needs to eat them before it goes back to sleep.
Ultimately,  the cause of all of our worldwide difficulties,  is due to the manner in which money is created.  At the moment,  it is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme which has reached its mathematical limits.  Change the way money is created and all the nightmares can begin to fade.  Dis-honest money demands dis-honest dealings between peoples and nations.  Honest money will go a long way to diffusing that paradigm.

• One of the Duties of the Sovereign is to produce the coin of the realm and in this country the Sovereign are the people as manifested by their representatives.  This primary duty was abdicated to a group of men nearly 100 years ago for their private profit.  That has to change
• Fractional Reserve Banking must be met with severe consequences.
• The Sovereign’s coin can be the only coin accepted in the payment of taxes for all levels of the Sovereign (State,  County,  City,  National)

It really is that easy.  One two three.   Honest money changes everything.
2011 is the year of the counter attack.  We are just beginning to see it unfold.  There will,  of course,  be a great deal of shake up as the collapse of the dominant paradigm continues to play before our faces.  Be aware,  be prepared.  Embrace the coming riot.  Roll with it,  look for Truth,  navigate it as best you can.  Survive.
Something large this way comes.  What exactly it is remains to be seen.  There is much drama yet to unfold.  Nod your head at anyone who tells you they know what is to come then shine them on down the road.  They don’t know,  no more than you or I know.  But this I believe we can all agree on:

Something Large This Way Comes
(taken from http://blog.chinkinthearmor.net/wordpress/?p=632#more-632)