European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 15 October | 141 comments (141 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

First Topic of the day: Foreclosures
Robo-signers: Mortgage experience not necessary Yahoo! Finance (Mortgage servicers hired hair stylists, Walmart floor workers and installed them in "foreclosure expert" jobs. Here's a quote from one of these experts: "I don't know the ins and outs of the loan, I just sign documents." Gee, I wonder who will be the fall guy here. )
U.S. Home Seizures Climb to Record as Banks Review Foreclosure Practices Bloomberg
A Look at How Unregulated Servicers Are, and the Consequences for Leaving this Crisis Mike Konczal
Emptywheel on the Stress Tests, Servicing Fraud as a Counter-Cyclical Diversification Strategy Mike Konczal
Florida's 30-Second Foreclosure Dash Hits Wall of Fraud Claims Bloomberg
The enormous mortgage-bond scandal Felix Salmon
The Real Foreclosure Crisis: Who Owns the Mortgages? HuffPo (note that Yves has said the MERS issue is secondary. She says the issues created by the RMBS are not easily remedied.)

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

by Melanchthon on Thu Oct 14th, 2010 at 02:36:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Economy and Finance (none / 1)

From Melanchton's Empty Wheel link, which discussed the promises made to Elizabeth Warren's Congressional Oversight Panel regarding the bank's loan servicing business:

For what it is worth, I'm sure those conducting the stress test knew that this conflict existed and knew that it was very profitable to the banks. Servicing is considered a "hedge", because as the origination business dries up foreclosures will increase and servicing income would go up, something Countrywide and others loved to talk about.

So a hedge turns into a thicket!

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Fri Oct 15th, 2010 at 12:17:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 15 October | 141 comments (141 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)