Foreclosuregate Explained: Big Banks on the Brink
Thursday 28 October 2010
by: Peter White, t r u t h o u t | Report
(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Steve Hoang, Kevin Anderson, E Dina)
Scandal is spreading across Wall St. like a very bad case of poison ivy. A rash of fraudulent home foreclosures has exposed some of the nation's biggest banks to an even worse condition ... bankruptcy.
Until late 2007, the money boys on Wall St. made a bundle in the housing market. After the bubble burst, they were just itching to cash in on the down side, calling in all those bad loans they made and selling off millions of repossessed homes. According to RealtyTrac, Inc., which compiles such data, lenders foreclosed on 3.2 million properties in the last three years, 288,000 in the last quarter, the highest number on record.
But evidence came to light, first in New York, then Florida, Maine, Ohio, and other states that lenders were taking shortcuts to speed up foreclosures. Law firms hired so-called "robo-signers," some of whom have admitted in depositions that they routinely signed off on thousands of foreclosure papers they had never read and sometimes forged signatures of notary publics who were not present.
"Why don't we have Mickey Mouse sign the thing, instead of having a human being sign it? I mean it becomes meaningless," New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Schack told PBS "Newshour."
Legally meaningless maybe, but not without consequence for hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been evicted from their homes, many of whom have no jobs, and who were snookered into sub-prime mortgages in the first place.
In the wake of mounting public outrage, attorneys general of 50 states and the District of Columbia have launched a joint investigation into what financial writers are calling "Foreclosuregate." Industry spokespersons have downplayed the controversy surrounding foreclosure mills and "robo-signers." Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase are conducting internal reviews of thousands of foreclosures, but say they believe all the underlying facts in their foreclosures are true and that any potential issues will be quickly addressed.
However, Bank of America and GMAC stopped foreclosures in all 50 states and Chase stopped them in the 23 states where a judge must approve foreclosures. Other lenders like PNC Financial and Litton Loan Savings followed suit in what amounted to a national moratorium on foreclosures. But it only lasted a couple of weeks. Bank of America and GMAC have since started up foreclosure suits again despite the bad press, pressure from bondholders and even the Federal Reserve, which wants big lenders to start buying back the bad mortgages on which they are trying to foreclose.
"The bottom line is not that those properties won't be repossessed. They simply won't be repossessed as quickly," said Rick Sharge, vice president of RealtyTrac. But others predict that if GMAC and Bank of America stick to their guns, they just might go down in smoke.
"This is not simply a glitch in paperwork," wrote Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is heading up the states' joint investigation into the mortgage paper fraud mess.
"This was an industry wide scheme designed to defraud homeowners," Florida attorney Peter Ticktin told The Associated Press.
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray filed a lawsuit against lender GMAC in October that aims to stop sales of all repossessed homes foreclosed with robo-signed documents and to reverse judgments on those foreclosed homes that have not yet been sold. In addition, the suit seeks damages for homeowners and a $25,000 fine for every fraudulently filed court document.
In Kentucky, Heather McKeever filed a class action lawsuit against GMAC on behalf of homeowners there alleging the giant lender, a recipient of $16 billion in federal bailout money, violated the RICO Act. "This is organized crime by people in suits but it is still organized crime," she said.
If other states file similar lawsuits like those in Ohio, Kentucky and Mississippi, it could mean billions of dollars in damages and fines, criminal perjury prosecutions of "robo-signers" and disbarment for the lawyers who filed the fraudulent papers. Some analysts say the potential liability of major banks is so large, another financial crisis is a real possibility.
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The fraud allegations raise the question of who actually owns the bad loans. If banks cannot show an unbroken chain of title from the original borrower to themselves, they have no legal right to foreclose. At least that's the argument defense lawyers are making.
"When they tried to industrialize the loan securitization market, which is really what they did, they tried to automate everything they could. They started digitizing loan documents and shredding originals.... and, of course what that means is, we have no clue who owns what," foreclosure expert Walter Hackett told PBS "Newshour."
Hackett turned into a consumer advocate after nearly three decades on the inside. He knows exactly where to bite the hand that used to feed him. And he was referring to a private database lenders have relied on for years to track loans that would be bundled into investment vehicles called mortgage-backed securities (MBS), which are traded back and forth between investors daily.
To collect fees from those trades, Wall Street relies on the Mortgage Electronic Registry System (MERS), which had three million loans listed in its database in early 2001. Today, it has more than 62 million and virtually all of the home loans made in the US since 2005. But since MERS is essentially Excel spreadsheets shared between bankers and brokers, it is really just a bunch of numbers. MERS was designed to make money out of the mortgage market, not parse exactly who owes what to whom.
One foreclosure expert estimates that just 6 to 7 percent of the loans made in the last three years can produce properly recorded title transfers from borrower to final lender. Legally assigning, or recording title transfers was much too slow and cumbersome for the fast-paced trade in MBS, so most banks just ignored those requirements, according to testimony, analysts and consumer advocates like Hackett. On many mortgages, the loan owner's name was routinely left blank, the titles never recorded and title transfer fees not paid.
Banks invented an investment vehicle in 1987 called REMICs (Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits) to allow them to profit from MBS trading. A Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit is what the name implies - an empty pipe that allows banks to collect fees as trustees of MBS' without owning any of the assets that back them. It also allows them to avoid taxes and title transfer fees since they only pass through titles to property held as collateral for the MBS' they sell.
But this is clearly a convenient fiction for huge consumer lenders like Bank of America and GMAC, which are trying to have things both ways. REMICs were a real sweet deal for banks until the bottom fell out of the housing market in 2007, triggering the worse recession in 75 years. Banks soon found themselves going to court to repossess property they had been claiming for years they never owned.
They hired foreclosure mills to retroactively produce documents showing the chain of ownership ended with them. In many cases, foreclosure mills provided affidavits of lost mortgage notes attempting to prove banks' control of mortgages in hopes of winning a favorable judgment.
Banks are in a big pickle. If they can prove they own the title to properties they want to foreclose on, they are liable to the IRS for unpaid taxes and penalties. If they don't, the are liable to be sued by bond holders for lack of due diligence in the bundled mortgages they sold to investors.
This is good news for homeowners facing eviction, and there has been an increase in the number of contested foreclosures in Florida, ground zero of the foreclosure scandal.
Both Bank of America and GMAC got billions in federal bailouts, so playing hardball with borrowers when the Obama administration put up an additional $75 billion to persuade banks to refinance troubled loans may jeopardize their "too big to fail" status in Washington.
Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan told reporters in Washington last Wednesday that the federal government would act soon to force banks to offer loan modifications for mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration. (How many?)
Meanwhile, investigations are underway not only by the states' attorneys general, but also by federal banking regulators, the US Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission. A number of lawsuits have been filed in Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, and other states, and all this attention may force banks to renegotiate their loans with more affordable terms for borrowers.
But banks are not heading down that path, instead, they are redoing questionable foreclosure papers they hope will pass muster in court.
"There has been an attempt by some of the major services to indicate there are no problems," Iowa Assistant Attorney General Patrick Madigan, told The New York Times.
"We're not at the end of this process. We're at the beginning," he said.
Only time will tell how the foreclosure scandal plays out. Federal regulators say their investigation won't be completed before the end of the year. And several foreclosure experts agree with Madigan that the fight over foreclosures is just beginning.
Reporting assistance by Ellen Brown.
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Gee thx, Ayn Rand & Co. That
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 15:26 — Anonymous (not verified)Gee thx, Ayn Rand & Co. That super-efficient free market is really doing a swell job at self-regulation. They really get the job done right, don't they?
Don't they?
Don't blame a few bad apples
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 15:46 — Anonymous (not verified)Don't blame a few bad apples for a sound system based on conflict, greed and self-interest!
You can't blame the free
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 15:47 — hiding (not verified)You can't blame the free market. Just the people who took advantage of it. It's like giving fireworks to children and blaming the children for blowing up their fingers. Gee it was the fireworks fault...no it was the fingers fault. How about the hand that had all of the fingers...maybe 10 is just too many fingers?
De-regulation only works in a perfect world. Ours seems to be imperfect. The free market only works if everyone starts out with the same number of tokens. When de-regulation hits and you aint got no money...well how are do you think you will survive??? I hope the dopes in trailers who have promoted their own demise get it soon. Darwin was right in so many ways...he just didn't account for the poor folks who get sucked in by the lesser minded when they start to drown.
20:26 — Anonymous -- you
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 15:47 — Anonymous (not verified)20:26 — Anonymous -- you hit on the problem. They were too self-regulated, they didn't trust the market enough.
I wonder how many
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 15:49 — Anonymous (not verified)I wonder how many Republicans know someone, or find themselves in the crosshairs of Foreclosuregate? Would they still believe in "too much government regulation" fits in with not taxing the rich?
What goes around, comes
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 16:02 — AnonymousDV (not verified)What goes around, comes around! Condo associations are getting tired of waiting for banks to foreclose on freeloaders who, by not paying association due, are putting their burdens on the backs of their neighbors. Reverse foreclosure is the only effective remedy. I wonder how that process is being effected by foreclosuregate?
Isn't it the Right that
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 16:17 — Dr. Bill Bushing (not verified)Isn't it the Right that wants to build more prisons? They should... to house all their friends when they get sentenced.
White collar crime should be treated even worse than the person who, out of destitution, robs grocery stores of food for their family. Of course violent acts of robbery deserve harsh treatment, but not those driven to non-violent crime by the economic conditions we face today... caused by greed in bankers, mortgage firms and consumers.
Let those "too big to fail" go the way of the dinosaurs and let's return to some sanity where mortgage originators actually hold onto the paper and are therefore responsible for the risks involved.
I'm tired of those receiving excessive incomes or profits from doing nothing but moving paper around. Let them WORK for a living!
The free market system as
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 16:20 — farmertx (not verified)The free market system as envisioned by the Shrub's handlers could never work in this age of unbridled greed.
Even he had to face that when he admitted that he was having to abandon free market principles to save the free market system.
A free market can work in this Country only if there are some regulatory oversight to prevent such abuses.
We can't trust the culture of greed that the Republican Party seems all too ready to embrace to operate in any other manner than what it did after 'deregulation'.
The RICO statutes do apply
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 16:50 — fredboy (not verified)The RICO statutes do apply to many such schemes.
It is time the government pursue corporate crime--the most truly "organized" crime out there.
what is true for states
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 16:52 — NIZZZZEE (not verified)what is true for states (like California) in which deeds of trust and assignments thereof never got recorded...
How can MERS be the beneficiary of a loan?
And the principal balances of ALL loans issued in 2002-2008 are greater than the fair market values of the properties which are supposed to be the security for those loans......
ALL PRINCIPAL BALANCES MUST BE DROPPED TO THE FAIR MARKET VALUE - and it must be done now to stop the foreclosures.... that is what the banks will get any way.. so the fed should step in and force the banks to recognize that which they say is an asset on their balance sheet is NOT. Just drop the principal balance and let the original trustor, borrower stay in the property and start paying based on that balance... This would stop the foreclosures..
Educate me please, Author,
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 18:23 — Peter White, not author of this article, Albion California (not verified)Educate me please, Author, or other: Is it correct that 1) The "too big to fail" banks got trillions of taxpayer dollars in late 2007 and 2008? 2) That the same banks are refusing workouts with debtors/homeowners at reasonable, now, today market value terms? 3) Upon foreclosing at below-note, less-than original debt, or the originally lent amounts, that the banks are being reimbursed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (are these taxpayer dollars or federal government guarantees?) up to the original values or amounts of their now "bad" loans? 4) Is it correct that countless transfers, assignments, recordings and recording fees have not been actually been made in the counties of the debtors' origins and the banks have eluded significant costs paid to those regional city, county or other governments to properly complete legal "chain of title"? Again, please educate me. And thank you.
To paraphrase Sarah Palin -
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 18:32 — goobagooba (not verified)To paraphrase Sarah Palin - I never thought I'd use her words for anything - as far as Prop 13 in CA is concerned, "How's that workin' for ya?"
Time to get rid of it, air-pocket that it is, and get back to people taking responsibility for what they bought. The ONLY people who profited from that boondoggle were commercial landowners, and they put it out there as a taxpayer's rebellion. Buncha hucksters.
But they're all about the bottom line right now. No thought to the future, except how much more they can accumulate of what they already have. And no thought about how it affects anyone outside the club.
Reminds me of a floor manager at a Ralph's supermarket in my neighborhood. After the recent brouhaha they went through, where the unions took the lower path and down-graded new hires, she was asked what she thought of the agreement. "I don't care. It doesn't affect me," she said. "I'll be out of here in three years with what I have. Not my problem."
So much for union solidarity.
Lots of wishful thinking
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 18:33 — Mike Johnston (not verified)Lots of wishful thinking here. "Too big to fail" is a nice way to say "too big to prosecute". These guys already own the government, I really don't think there will ever be any meaningful prosecutions. Just a few corporate fines and maybe some more government money to help the banks pay those fines so the executives don't lose their bonuses...
Look for other websites -
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 18:58 — Foreclose on Geithner (not verified)Look for other websites - and get educated, they have familiar names: Yves Smith gets naked. As William K Black suggests: the FDIC should put Bank Of America Into receivership, and every exec should be axed. Look on HuffPo
A Major problem is Obummer, whose Wall Street bought administration hasn't considered cramdown or a moratrorium on foreclosures, even with the explosive evidence of fraud.
@Hiding 20:47. Huh ? You
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 19:21 — mysterioso (not verified)@Hiding 20:47. Huh ? You mean we shouldn't have laws because most people don't break the laws? WOW ! We shouldn't have stoplights at corners for everyone just because a few "bad apples" want to speed through the intersection? We shouldn't have life jackets on ships just because a few people don't know how to swim? We shouldn't have seat belts in cars because most people don't get in accidents? Just when you think you've heard everything from the right wingnut apologists, another insane idea crawls out of the slime.
I warned for years about
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 19:54 — Cathy (not verified)I warned for years about Wall St. I warned about the housing bubble. I was told I was F$#@en insane. Wall St. commits no crime, neither does the RE market! As someone who had a R.E. license in the late '70's I knew that properties don't appreciate like they were doing. There was NO good paying jobs boom, like after WWII. In fact wages have been & are being pushed down as I type this.
I knew that when our government deregulated the banks & Wall St. it was just a matter of time. By the way I warned about Wall St. more than 10 years before the collapse!
Unless these fraudsters are
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 20:15 — Robert Walters (not verified)Unless these fraudsters are duly prosecuted, the United States can no longer hold itself out to be a "nation of laws." What seems particularly incredible is that the overt control frauds have been exposed, the mortgages/real estate titles are all clouded, forgeries have been uncovered, etc., etc., and yet NONE of the perpetrators has been arrested, let alone prosecuted. And the banksters are pooh-poohing the notion that there is anything but minor "paperwork glitches" involved! Wonder how it would fly with a DA for a check-kiter to characterize his/her actions as "mere paperwork glitches?" It will take years to clarify the chains of title to so much real estate across the country, and even then, it may NEVER be cleared up. Black and Wyatt are correct as to what is needed. Foreclose on the foreclosers.
When the revolution comes,
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 20:22 — Juan Zapatista (not verified)When the revolution comes, the blood of the opressors will flow on the fine marble floors of their banks.
The federal reserve is the
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 20:26 — Anonymous (not verified)The federal reserve is the root cause of this problem. They set interest rates based on the idea that they could "run" the economy rather than letting rates be set by the credit-worthiness of the borrower. Real estate and the financial sector are two of the most heavily regulated areas in existence. How this could be mistaken for the free market is beyond me,
CAN'T WAIT HOPE THEY ALL GO
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 22:40 — Anonymous (not verified)CAN'T WAIT HOPE THEY ALL GO DOWN.EVERY LAST BIG BANK,AND THEY CAN TAKE THE ILLEGAL FEDERAL RESERVE WITH THEM.THE BIGGEST SCAM IN HISTORY.
For a whopping good listen,
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 23:54 — Floresta (not verified)For a whopping good listen, check out NPR's Fresh Air broadcast from 27 October. Gretchen Morgensen of the NY Times really 'splains it for ya. I had an honest-to -god 'driveway moment.
The well suited criminal class just might get taken down this time.
the federal reserve is
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 23:56 — kris (not verified)the federal reserve is illegal. a bank mortgage is a promissory note and is made up out of the thin air, just a keyboard entry into a computer. youtube "moeny as debt" and "creation of money" and "federal reserve".
This was the biggest heist
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 00:04 — Seattle Mike (not verified)This was the biggest heist in the history of the world.
It was white collar crime on a level that makes the mafia look like a preschool class.
It was a systematic pillaging of the bottom 98% of America. And all the money went to a few rich people at the top.
And these few rich people started the Tea Party whole cloth out of thin air, and now they are trying to convince people to elect the criminals once again and finish off the rape they started.
I'm repeating and seconding
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 04:31 — racetoinfinity (not verified)I'm repeating and seconding this important comment:
Thu, 10/28/2010 - 21:50 — fredboy (not verified)
The RICO statutes do apply to many such schemes.
It is time the government pursue corporate crime--the most truly "organized" crime out there.
I think it's quaint how some
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 06:04 — Anonymous (not verified)I think it's quaint how some people imagine there will be any kind of justice served to these white collar criminals.
In case anyone hasn't really been paying attention, America is an Empire of Crime run by SPECTRE.
I've had it with morons who
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 08:16 — Anonymous (not verified)I've had it with morons who blame the "free market" for this. Dumbshits... free market is NOT synonymous with lawless. What you peckerheads just can't seem to understand is that government in collusion with corporations write and pass "regulations" so that they can skirt around the law. The law being "Thou shalt not steal".
"free market is NOT
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 09:07 — Anonymous (not verified)"free market is NOT synonymous with lawless"
HAHAHA! You're funny!
The free market is synonymous with property, and property is theft of the commons for the benefit of the few.
Dumbshit.
Banks = "Too big to
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 09:19 — Anonymous (not verified)Banks = "Too big to fail"
People = "Too small to matter"
Lawmakers = "Too easy to bribe"
Hope the Corporations that are, according to SCOTUS, 'people' are as upset as I am.
“Foreclosure Frauds, Wells
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 10:31 — Barbara Ann Jackson (not verified)“Foreclosure Frauds, Wells Fargo-the Fox in Charge, and Victimization”
Wells Fargo’s announcement about refiling 55k foreclosures is probably because covering up wrongful foreclosures is no longer effective. Wells Fargo can’t trusted to fix its foreclosure wrongdoings, no more than an addict can be trusted to self-reform. . .
Mortgage lenders are not required to know laws - attorneys are! The attorneys made severe errors - sometimes intentionally, since errors help keep the billable tab going, and commit the very frauds that provide basis, defenses, and reasons to attempt negotiating mortgage . . http://newsblaze.com/story/20101028181052lawg.nb/topstory.html/
And the REpugs want to take
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 10:33 — granny (not verified)And the REpugs want to take over again, so they can continue lining their own pockets and those of the richest of the rich and the most corrupt of the corrupt.
Thank you, Ronald Reagan and everyone who has followed in his cheating, lying footsteps.
For the last 30 years, we
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 11:21 — Jim Poplin (not verified)For the last 30 years, we have set the stage for this financial disaster by relentless deregulation. The belief that unregulated free markets regulate themselves is false. The proof is staring us in the face. Over this same period we saw the collapse of one industry after another and now a financial crisis with hundreds of bank failures and a mortgage industry that is so hapless it can't prove it is the owner of a simple mortgage.
Our nation has never seen such a succession of man made catastrophic events since the Great Depression. One author recently documented that the investment banks actions since 2000 are basically the same taken by banks in the 1920s. Will we turn our backs on the lessons of history again?
Congress must get back to work to produce legislation to force the financial system to do due diligence in making loans. Somehow losses of defaulted loans must be assigned to the originators, banks, and investment firms that created these fraudulent securities. If mortgages can be saved, the borrower should be allowed to re-negotiate terms (with court supervision) that permit the loan repayment. Without legislative regulatory language, the banks and the Federal Agencies will just return to their bad behavior once a new administration is in power.
Just hold the attorneys
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 11:28 — Anonymous (not verified)Just hold the attorneys accountable,and you'll see how fast this is fixed.
Interesting how the Title
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 13:25 — Anonymous (not verified)Interesting how the Title companies are escaping the spotlights shining down on all the other liars and thieves who've profited greatly from their criminal fraud.
Barbara Ann Jackson
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 17:06 — GT66 (not verified)Barbara Ann Jackson "Mortgage lenders are not required to know laws - attorneys are! "
As so many bureaucrats like to admonish, ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Obama is clearly working for
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 22:18 — Anonymous (not verified)Obama is clearly working for the corporations, not the electorate, so he cannot be trusted with this mess.
The electorate must push for repeal of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, re-enactment of the Glass-Steagall Act, and for a modern-day Pecora Commission, this time headed by Bill Black, who put 1000+ banksters in jail during the S&L scandal.
Let's see, I've paid my
Sat, 10/30/2010 - 09:42 — POC376 (not verified)Let's see, I've paid my mortgage for quite a few years now and the lender can not give me a free and clear title in the end! It sounds like fraud to me. I should file a law suit making them give back every dime I've paid them. Fraud is fraud.
With the continued loss of
Sat, 10/30/2010 - 14:27 — sierra (not verified)With the continued loss of good paying jobs everything else is irrelevant..including refinancing or exiting foreclosures, or revamping of loans.......
You people are
Sat, 10/30/2010 - 23:02 — Anonymous (not verified)You people are retarded.
VIRTUALLY EVERY ONE of the actions these banks took was completely and totally ILLEGAL under US law. A great deal of those actions WERE MANDATED BY VARIOUS FORMS OF GOVT INTERFERENCE.
Anyone who ever read Atlas Shrugged would know that the central point of the book is that most corruption comes from govt favoring one company over another, much like how we have giant banks whose sole purpose is to rip off virtually everyone they come into contact with.
If Ayn Rand's dream came true -these scumbags and the sh*thead politicians who let them operate without fear (Barney Frank & Chuck Sh*thead Schumer being prime examples) would never even exist.
Wise up. Your world is collapsing all around you and all you can say is 'it's those other guys fault'.
Read this about how the
Sun, 10/31/2010 - 13:20 — Anonymous (not verified)Read this about how the banks are secretly being bailed out of all these bad loans,( our kids get the bill)
http://financialsense.com/contributors/daniel-amerman/your-savings-will-be-funding-foreclosuregate
And here comes the gm
Tue, 11/02/2010 - 00:01 — Anonymous (not verified)And here comes the gm fraudulette with the bankers in tow next to the admin getting ready to sell that bby to anybody who'll buy. No stipulations in there to save it, so looks like the banks are breaking it up, in lieu of breaking them up of course.
So, dissolve the biggest most successful union this country has ever seen, whilst the unemployment rate soars more, and the worldwide bankers accelerate their wealth extraction from us schleps.
Brilliant, and excellent work mr pres!
After the GOP takes control
Tue, 11/02/2010 - 08:18 — jbw (not verified)After the GOP takes control of the House, and perhaps the Senate, legislation will be passed that makes what the banks and various other parties have done perfectly legal. The Democrats, especially the one in the Oval Office, will heave a great sigh of relief that they are not in charge and won't have to push the most despised legislation in American history through a thoroughly corrupted Congress. The laws are for the little people, as we are reminded every day. When the laws are inconvenient to capital, the laws are changed.
I believe it was Bill Moyers who noted that we are witnessing not capitalism, but capital at work. If Blankfein et al are not in prison for what they have already done, why would anyone expect different now?
GET RID OF THE FEDERAL
Tue, 11/02/2010 - 14:41 — Anonymous (not verified)GET RID OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE .THEY WERE THROWN OUT OF THIS COUNTRY TWICE BEFORE, AND WE WERE A BETTER COUNTRY FOR IT.PLEASE,PLEASE,TYPE IN (THE BIGGEST SCAM IN HISTORY). YOU WILL GET A GREAT HISTORY LESSON,AND HOLD BANKS AND THEIR ATTORNEYS ACCOUNTABLE.THEN YOU'LL SEE SOME CHANGES FOR THE BETTER.
Anonymous on 11/2 at 19:41 -
Fri, 11/12/2010 - 20:40 — Frances in California (not verified)Anonymous on 11/2 at 19:41 - WHEN was the Fed thrown out of this country and what numbskulls brought them back?