Seriously. I don’t know why I blog. It takes Jon Stewart 7 minutes and 6 seconds to capture the essence of a problem in a way that is both clearer and more entertaining than anything that I cold ever do.
Month: October 2010
The Inevitable HR 3808 Veto Downfall Parody
At least until the studio hits YouTube with a takedown notice:
No Bank Failures This Fridays
Not sure if things are turning around, of if regulators are trying to avoid influencing elections, or they are just running out of banks.
Here is the pretty graph pr0n:
The Employment Numbers are Out, and We Are Boned
Unemployment remains at 9.6%, and non-farm payrolls fell by 95,000, driven largely by cuts in state and local governments.
The Obama administration is arguing that the growth of 65,000 jobs in the private sector show an (anemic) recovery, but this won’t help in November.
The numbers suck, they have sucked, and initial weak tea stimulus is running out.
Not good.
Economics Update
Click for full size
The paradox of thrift continues
It’s jobless Thursday, and initial unemployment claims fell out of the 450K-485K sweet spot that they have been bouncing around in for most of the year. Initial claims fell by 11,000 to 445,000, better than forecast, with the 4-week moving average falling by 3,000 to 455,750, with continuing claims falling by 48,000 to 4.46 million, and emergency claims rising by 257K to 5.14 million.
So fewer people are losing work, but hiring has not picked, so overall unemployment has increased (257K – 48K – 11K = 198K more people collecting unemployment).
We also had good news on the retail front, with better than expected same store retail sales in September, though I am unclear how consumers are financing this, since wages are stagnant, and consumer credit fell in August. (See graph pr0n)
I guess that it could be that people took out their credit cards more in September, and that the conflicting figures are simply the result of month to month changes.
In Europe, both the Bank of England and the ECB held rates steady, and the BoE says that it will continue quantitative easing (printing money).
ECB bank president Jean-Claude Trichet went further full inflation idiot in statement to the press, tut-tutting other central banks easing moves, andstating that the ECB will be, “gradually phase out its non-standard liquidity measures.”
Yes, we are seeing more pronouncements from the pain caucus about austerity, and the most vocal of these folks, Tory PM David Cameron, has apparently succeeded in pushing UK house prices down by 3.6% in the month of September.
Note that I am not talking about a -3.6% annual rate, I am talking about a £6,000 drop in home prices in just that month. (!)
UK home prices -3.6% in a month (!)
Veto
The White House has announced that Barack Obama is vetoing HR 3808, the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act, which created a South Dakota/Delaware credit card processing style race to the bottom, only this time with forged foreclosure paperwork.
They are actually claiming that it is a pocket veto, but they are also sending it back to Congress with a notice of disapproval, since the Senate is entering into pro forma sessions, making that whole “pocket veto” thing dicey, as you can only pocket veto a bill when Congress is in recess.
This is his second veto, his first was when he vetoed a stop-gap spending bill when the regular bill came in on time, so this is his first real veto, the last one was about cleaning up the bookkeeping.
I would note that there is an important lesson here: If you hold the White House’s feet to the fire, the Obama administration will do the right thing ……… at least occasionally.
It’s why the Fanboi who maintain that it’s all eleventy dimensional chess are so wrong.
Were it not for the firestorm that erupted in the past 72 hours or so, largely due to the efforts of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, not only would have Obama not vetoed it, but he probably would likely have seen it as an innocuous bill streamlining interstate commerce.
If there is not vigorous criticism from liberals directed toward the White House, then they will continue to follow the path of least resistance and do the wrong thing when they can.
Full statement from the White Houseafter the break:
Why President Obama is Not Signing H.R. 3808
Posted by Dan Pfeiffer on October 07, 2010 at 01:15 PM EDTToday, the White House announced that President Obama will not sign H.R. 3808, the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010, and will return the bill to the House of Representatives. The Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010 was designed to remove impediments to interstate commerce. While we share this goal, we believe it is necessary to have further deliberations about the intended and unintended impact of this bill on consumer protections, including those for mortgages, before this bill can be finalized.
Notarizations are important for a large range of documents, including financial documents. As the President has made clear, consumer financial protections are incredibly important, and he has made this one of his top priorities, including signing into law the strongest consumer protections in history in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. That is why we need to think through the intended and unintended consequences of this bill on consumer protections, especially in light of the recent developments with mortgage processors.
The authors of this bill no doubt had the best intentions in mind when trying to remove impediments to interstate commerce. We will work with them and other leaders in Congress to explore the best ways to achieve this goal going forward.
Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director
Politics Trumping Science In the Obama Administration
Yet another Bush policy that Obama has doubled down on.
In this case, we now have a report showing that the Obama administration actively suppressed science based reports from the NOAA during the BP oil spill:
The White House blocked government scientists from warning the American public of the potential environmental disaster caused by BP’s broken well in the Gulf of Mexico, a report released by the national commission investigating the oil spill said yesterday.
The report, produced by a panel appointed by Barack Obama to investigate the spill, said that about two weeks after the BP rig exploded scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asked the White House for permission to release their models showing their worst case scenarios for the spill.
The White House office of management and budget, which is a traditional clearing house for decisions, turned down the request, the report said, quoting interviews with administration officials.
The report, one of four released today by the commission, provides the most compelling evidence to date of direct attempts by the White House to spin the BP oil spill disaster.
I’ve been a cynic about Barack Obama since he started embracing gay bashers in late 2007, but his full court press to embrace and protect BP is something that has managed to disappoint me, and my expectations for him are remarkably low.
Judge Says Torture Evidence Inadmissible
Actually, he did not say torture, he said “harsh interrogation”, but he also said that any information arising from the CIA’s torture of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was inadmissible.
I believe that the term is “fruit of the poisoned tree,” and by harsh, he does not mean what Jon Steward did to Jim Cramer, he means torture:
In the months since Mr. Ghailani was brought to New York from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of United States District Court in Manhattan has rejected defense requests to dismiss the case because of violations of Mr. Ghailani’s right to a speedy trial and because of accusations he was tortured.
But just as the trial was to begin on Wednesday, Judge Kaplan ruled that he would not allow the witness to testify. He noted that the government had acknowledged that it had identified and located the witness through interrogation of Mr. Ghailani when he was earlier held in a secret overseas jail run by the Central Intelligence Agency. His lawyers have said he was tortured there.
Judge Kaplan said he was “acutely aware of the perilous nature of the world in which we live.”
“But the Constitution is the rock upon which our nation rests,” he went on. “We must follow it not only when it is convenient, but when fear and danger beckon in a different direction. To do less would diminish us and undermine the foundation upon which we stand.”
It really is remarkable how the torture fetish of Bush and His Evil Minions™ continues to f%$# up everything that it touches to this day.
This is why we need prosecutions of both the torturers and those who authorized torture, because when this sh%$ goes down, it hurts all of us, and without consequences for the criminals, more people will be encouraged to break the law.
I Gotta Check This Flick Out
I want the torch and pitchfork concession.
It will sell better than popcorn
This looks like a documentary that I want top see.
Somehow I think that it will be difficult for me to convince my kids that we want to see this on movie night though.
And the Winner of the Economics Prize Is
The executives and directors of Goldman Sachs, AIG,Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Magnetar for creating and promoting new ways to invest money — ways that maximize financial gain and minimize financial risk for the world economy, or for a portion thereof.
They are, of course winners of the 2010 Ig Nobel Prize, who, in 2009, awarded the prize to, “The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks — Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank, and Central Bank of Iceland — for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa — and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy.”
I so want to get one of these prizes, but I think that I lack the requisite imagination.
There is a Hallmark Card for That
Jon Stewart at his best.
Least Surprising News of the Day
Former HHS Secretary nominee, and enthusiastic free rider Tom Daschle* has let slip that Obama cut a deal with pharma and insurers to kill the public option at the start of the healthcare reform process.
Eleventy dimensional chess, my ass. We are dealing with someone who has created faux reform because he does not want real reform.
*The great Matt Taibbi noted, when he talked about his lobbying activities, “Tom Daschle would suck off a corpse for a cheeseburger.'”
Your Bank Foreclosure Fraud Update
Alan Grayson connects the dots
The lede here has to be that the Ohio Attorney General has sued GMAC mortgage:
This is big news. I just got off a conference call with Richard Cordray, the Attorney General for the state of Ohio. He has filed a lawsuit in Lucas County (Toledo) Common Pleas Court against GMAC Mortgage and their parent company Ally Financial, in a suit which names Jeffrey Stephan, the infamous “robo-signer” who signed off on up to 10,000 foreclosures a month across the country with affidavits, without verifying the information in the foreclosure documents. The lawsuit alleges fraud on the part of GMAC, along with violations of the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act, in filing false affidavits to mislead the courts in what they describe as “hundreds” of Ohio foreclosure cases. And, the Attorney General is treating every single false affidavit filed in an Ohio court as a separate violation, with a fine of up to $25,000, plus additional restitution for the homeowner of an unspecified amount.
This is a major lawsuit, and as Cordray told reporters, “We’re at the beginning of this, not the middle or end, and we’ll see where it leads us.” For context, approximately 450,000 foreclosures have been filed in Ohio since 2005, and potentially all of them used this robo-signing process. At the outer edge of this, if every one of those foreclosure processes is seen as a single case of fraud, the fines for the entire lending industry would add up to $11.25 BILLION dollars, just in the state of Ohio, not including the extra restitution for homeowners.
Cordray is also requesting information from the other major lenders, and has moved for an injunction against GMC, so it looks like this snowball once he gets to discovery.
Additionally, we have more calls for investigations and a moratorium, with both Nancy Pelosi,the Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper raising concerns. (talk about the odd couple)
Congress has weighed in, sort of, with an unexpected vote in the Senate a week ago approving an electronic notary law which, at least according to Jennifer Brunner, the Ohio Secretary of State, increases the possibility of fraud by creating a credit card style race to the bottom in terms of legal standards.
This growing furor may explain one of the peculiarities of the property meltdown, why banks seem to favor foreclosures over short sales even when the former generate more money.
I was unaware of the fact, but the standards for titles are much lower in the event of a foreclosure sale:
If you know anyone in real estate, you have bumped into countless frustrated agents who were attempting to complete shortsales for their selller clients only to have the whole thing fall apart at the last moment and then they later see the same property go into foreclosure for LESS than what the pre-approved shortsale buyer had offered just weeks earlier. Why, why, why, they moan. Why would a bank or mortgage servicer take less than what they could have had?
Well, now I wonder if one potential answer doesn’t have something to do with the types of deeds that get conveyed in a foreclosure and the tie to title insurance. In foreclosures in many states the buyer obtains a specialized deed – a special warranty deed, or a bargain and sale deed which make fewer guarantees for the buyer than the general warranty deed which is transferred in a normal sale(which I believe a short sale still falls under)
………
Is it possible that the foreclosers realized it was in their best interest to abort short sales in favor of foreclosures in order to pass the more limited deeds conveyed in a foreclosure? Did that decision come back to haunt them once the entire foreclosure process itself became highly suspect and publicized? (There is already a large title insurer who is denying title insurance on some foreclosures.)
Of course, the real elephant in the room is that anyone who has gotten a mortgage in the past decade* is just as likely to have problems with their title.
Foreclosures do not create title problems, foreclosures merely reveal those problems.
This is going to be uglier than David Boehner in a thong.
*Full disclosure, like me.
What is the Difference Between a Cat and a Croissant?
Damned if I know:
Teabaggers Hate Puppies
No, I’m serious. I’m not joking, and it’s not The Onion.
I mean that they have come out in favor of abusive puppy mills in Missouri.
Why are they doing this? Because puppies are just like cattle to Teabaggers, because, I guess, They Eat Puppies!!1!!
Again, really, I’m not joking:
A conservative group in Missouri is picking up the backing of the Tea Party and Joe The Plumber in its quest to stop the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and other animal rights groups from passing “radical” anti-puppy mill legislation.
………
The Alliance For Truth also has the support of some better-known conservative activists, like Joe ‘The Plumber’ Wurzelbacher, who wrote on the Alliance For Truth site that the HSUS is “cowardly hiding behind animal cruelty, lying to our citizens and taking our constitutional rights away – one state at a time.”
He continues:
This bill forces breeders to limit the number of dogs they can own – regardless of care. Think about this a minute . . . . Should the government have the right to limit the number of houses a realtor can sell? Or the number of cattle a rancher can raise?
To serve puppies, it’s a cookbook!!!!!
<Facepalm>
Stewart Spoke on the Firing of Rick Sanchez
And he was really pretty gentle about the whole thing.
It will still leave a mark, but compared to what he did to Jim Cramer, or what he does to Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker’s new show at the end of this clip in under 10 seconds, it’s really gentle.
Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United Case Allows Foreigners to Contribute to US Campaigns
What a surprise. The US Chamber of Commerce is raising millions of dollars in foreign contributions, and spending them on political activities, though they are claiming that they are claiming that it’s on the up and up:
The US Chamber of Commerce has responded to this post in a statement to the Politico’s Ben Smith. The Chamber’s Tita Freeman did not dispute that the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) organization running attack ads receives foreign funds, and simply claimed, “We have a system in place” to prevent foreign funding for the Chamber’s “political activities.”
It’s called money laundering, and it’s illegal.
We also a complaint filed against Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS group with the IRS for misuse of their 501(c)4 tax status.
If Barack Obama really wanted to change the atmosphere in Washington, going after crap like this, where people are not just bending the rules, but are
I am not suggesting that Obama specifically get the FBI on the Chamber of Commerce and Rove, that’s Nixonian, but making it clear to the senior staff of the DoJ that there will be a zero tolerance policy on crap like this is both ethically sound and justified by the facts.
Don’t hold your breath though.
Not gonna happen……
Wouldn’t be prudent.
Barack Obama, Watch This and Learn
Why yes, that is the President of Bolivia, and he is driving someone’s testicles to the top of Nevado Sajama* (0:35)
Someone had the grand idea of having political rivals in Bolivia play a friendly game of football (soccer).
So, when you have political enemies on the field, what happens?
Well, it appears that there was a bit of rough play:
During a soccer match between teams of political rivals in Bolivia, the country’s president, Evo Morales, was caught on tape delivering a swift knee to an opponent’s groin in retaliation for a hard foul.
As Rory Carroll reported for The Guardian, the incident took place on Sunday in the Bolivian capital, La Paz, as the president’s men took on a team led by the city’s mayor, Luis Revilla.
Mr. Obama, the next time that John Boehner opens his mouth, take your cue from Bolivian President Evo Moralez, please.
*The tallest mountain in Bolivia.
Your Moment of Schadenfreude
If there is a bright spot this year it is the meltdown in the Colorado Gubernatorial race, where John Hickenlooper is cruising to victory as Republican Dan Maes and wingnut Republican turned 3rd party candidate Tom Tancredo pummel each other, but I did not think that it was much beyond that.
Well, I was wrong, because Maes appears to be polling near 10%, and if he gets less than 10% of the vote, then the Republican Party becomes a “minor party” in Colorado:
But a big win for Tancredo — or even drawing much closer — could spell a big loss for both the GOP and his adopted third party, the American Constitution Party, for the next four years.
If Republican nominee Dan Maes receives less than 10 percent of the vote in November, the GOP becomes a minor party and subject to rules that could cut in half the amount its candidates can collect in campaign contributions. [Because they cannot get a separate donation for the primary if it is uncontested for state and local positions]
As Republicans absorb the news, leaders of the 2,000-plus-person ACP worry about their potential promotion to the majors if Tancredo exceeds 10 percent at the polls, a status that comes with new and costlyorganizational requirements.
Former ACP chairman Doug Campbell reveled in the GOP predicament, if not that of his own party, which may have to host precinct caucuses throughout the state and mail out primary ballots.
Additionally, it would mean that the party would not be placed in the to ballot spots, but rather would be ranked down ballot on the basis of a lottery with crazies like the Monster Raving Loony Party:
“The effect of the designation of minor party status for the 2012 election would be that our candidate for president will not be in the top two lines which will be reserved for the Democrat and American Constitution Party candidates. We will be left to compete for ballot position with the Greens, Socialists, American Communist Party, Libertarians. Prohibitionists etc.
“Our state house and senate candidates will similarly be relegated to bottom positions. In 2014, when we have our US Senate, Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer etc races, again, we will be at the bottom of the ballot fighting the libertarians etc for ballot placement. As we all know, being at the top or toward the top can mean several percentage points in the vote, enough in a close race to secure victory.”
Admittedly, Maes is polling significantly above the 10% line, he is polling at 15%, and I think that when it becomes clear that neither of them will win that there will be the governor voters will hold their nose and vote for Maes to avoid chaos for the next 4 years in the Colorado Republican Party.
Still, heh.
This May be the Future of America
And Ayn Rand is smiling in hell.
You have probably heard the story, a fire department sitting idly by while someone’s house burns, because the homeowner had not bought a subscription.
The story is not quite as straightforward as it first appears, since the fire department is run and funded by the city of South Fulton, while the resident, Gene Cranick, lives in the county, so this is not a case of a governmental unit failing its citizenry, but rather it’s governmental units failing society as a whole.
Most at fault is Obion County’s Republican dominated government, which has steadfastly refused to create some sort of county-wide system because of the $30 or so a year that it would cost households.
It is Republican governance in a nutshell.