Robert Reich (Why We Shouldn't be Selling the Right to Live in America)

Robert Reich (Why We Shouldn't be Selling the Right to Live in America)

I found many more reasons than the ones Reich cites for not allowing foreigners citizenship if they spend 500,000 dollars on real estate purchases in the United States.

The false pumping up of home values can't be sustained because the money used to purchase U.S. real estate did not come from our local economies and infrastructure. 

Additionally, it is more likely that whomever has that kind of money to spend in the U.S. is possibly also looking to set up an IMPORT business so they can simply displace existing local businesses by importing lower cost products from their own country of origin.

When I first heard of this bill earlier today, I correctly guessed that both a democrat and a republican were behind it. I found it interesting that my google search could not find the number of the bill. Now if only I could remember the site that mentions all of the congressional bill proposals.

When Schumer states that this bill is "neutral" for the U.S. government, he illustrates the out of touchness that afflicts so many congress people.

Is Barack Obama a Banker?

Three things that would instantly help main street and the 99%; lower interest rates on mortgages, lower interest rates on credit card debt for anyone that can PAY DOWN their debts, and lower interest rates on student loans as well. 


These three interest rate reduction moves would instantly provide a surge in local economies as people would have more of their own respend money that they themselves EARNED to then re-spend locally even as they continue to pay down their other debts. 


Lower interest rates would in turn would stabilize city, state sales tax revenue streams and property taxes as well. Ironically, lower interest rates would benefit the federal government income tax receipts as well since income tax interest rate deductions would probably slightly reduce.


It appears that Barack Obama is not interested in either reducing mortgage interest rates or extending the time to pay back a mortgage, nor in reducing credit card interest rates for those who can pay down their credit card debt every month! 


Even the new student loan changes really don't deal with the main issue of lower interest rates, only having to pay when one is employed, and no more penalties and fees tacked on to existing student debt along with student debt relief for those who have paid into the system only to see what they owe, rise!


For those who believe in ending the fed, another equally effective approach is for main street to have much less debt to begin with. Less main street debt means the fed and their cohorts won't have their debt claws into the 99% nearly as deep.  


According to congress person Dennis Cardoza, Obama seems to be against reducing the interest rate charges on prevailing types of consumer debt, even when the consumer would then be in a position to actually pay down all of their debts rather than simply tread water or slowly drown because of the interest rates being charged on their debt. 


Obama seems to be in favor of continuing, engulfing debt for the 99%, resulting in massive profits for his friends and supporters on wall street via the interest rate charges and the penalties, fees and foreclosures that result when a consumer falls behind on their payments.


It seems to me that Obama thinks and acts like a banker.

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What is Inflamed Debt? Should Dylan Ratigan run for the 2012 democratic nomination?

INFLAMED DEBT (my phrase) occurs when huge amounts of money are tethered to interest rate charges to create an ever growing debt that cannot be paid down. That is the key. 


At the very least, remove the interest rate charges on anyone who has debt and who is also capable of paying down their debt, and that will free up local economies to begin to grow in a myriad of ways.


In this youtube video, Dylan Ratigan does not use the phrase "inflamed debt", but I think that is what he is actually describing when he proclaims that there may be more debt than money in the world, and that the United States is having it's wealth suctioned out by the banks, trade imbalance, and excessive taxation.


Hat tip to Neil Garfield of "living lies" blog who posted this Dylan Ratigan video on his site.

Ironically, it was MSNBC who chose Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton back in 2008 BEFORE the democratic voters could decide for themselves. Bill Clinton has been the only president in the past 80 years to actually lower the yearly budget deficit for 8 consecutive years, the only president.


I am certain that Hillary Clinton would have done the same as Bill Clinton while also helping the 1%.


I just did a google phrase search and only 56 hits came up when the two words "inflamed debt" have quotes around them, (thereby creating a phrase).

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Sixty Minutes Transcript, Prosecuting Wall Street segment, and a question.

Kudos to Sixty Minutes for printing out the actual transcript of the Prosecuting Wall Street segment. (it's 8 pages long.) This makes it much faster and easier to find important quotes and content than having to wade through the actual video segment. A very nice, time saving gesture from 60 minutes.

Here is a quick transcript edit from two different news articles, see if you can spot the irony. 

From 60 Minutes.... (Quote is on the final page at the end)

Kroft: The perception. I mean, it doesn't seem like you're trying. It doesn't seem like you're making an effort. That the Justice Department does not have the will to take on these big Wall Street banks.

Breuer: Steve, I get it. I find the excessive risk taking to be offensive. I find the greed that was manifested by certain people to be very upsetting. But because I may have an emotional reaction and I may personally share the same frustration that American people all over the country are feeling, that in and of itself doesn't mean we bring a criminal case.

Kroft: If you had said two years ago that nobody was gonna be prosecuted on Wall Street for the subprime mortgage scandal, I think people would think, "It's not possible."

Breuer: Sometimes it takes a number of years to bring these cases. So I'd say to the American people, they should have confidence that this is a department that's working hard and we're gonna keep working hard, so stay tuned.

From the New York Times...

....Especially when mortgages were securitized and sold off to investors, he said, senior bankers turned a blind eye to shortcuts...

...One memory particularly troubles Theckston. He says that some account executives earned a commission seven times higher from subprime loans (versus) prime mortgages. 

So they looked for less savvy borrowers — those with less education, without previous mortgage experience, or without fluent English — and nudged them toward subprime loans.

These less savvy borrowers were disproportionately blacks and Latinos, he said, and they ended up paying a higher rate so that they were more likely to lose their homes. Senior executives seemed aware of this racial mismatch, he recalled, and frantically tried to cover it up.

Theckston, who has a shelf full of awards that he won from Chase, such as "sales manager of the year," showed me his 2006 performance review. it indicates that 60 percent of his evaluation depended on him increasing high-risk loans.

End of New York Times Quote.

So isn't that enough to prosecute?

Wouldn't a mass wall street plea deal offer right now cause hundreds of wall street executive rats to come running and confess their crimes rather than be found out later and possibly receive a sentence that will be much much longer?

How about a Wall Street ad by the Justice Department, "Wall Street Bankers, confess your illegal activities now and receive a sentence that will only be 25% as long as what it will be if you wait until you are found out, tried and convicted. Confess now and get a 2 year sentence, wait, and you will get no less than 8 years - guaranteed". 

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Notary who blew whistle on foreclosure fraud found dead

Notary who blew whistle on foreclosure fraud found dead.  

LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) -- The notary who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a massive robo-signing scandal case was found dead in her home on Monday.

The notary, 43-year-old Tracy Lawrence, was supposed to be in court at 8:30 Monday morning for her sentencing hearing. When her attorney did not hear from her for more than an hour, Sr. Deputy Attorney General Robert Giunta asked for a bench warrant to be issued for Lawrence. The judge denied the request. 

Read the rest of the story at the link provided above.

JP Morgan Chase Disgrace, the never ending tale of the damage Chase Bank has done to their customers over the past several years.

Just start reading some of the comments about Chase Bank and their banking practices and it makes you want to fume. Or, Occupy.   


If Justifiable Debt Restructure were allowed, ALL of these people could have fought back. Right now, they have no tools to fight back.


Read it and weep, get angry, occupy, but remember that this is what people have been dealing with for the past several years.


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Irish Banks Face Mortgage Strikes.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid billionaires and trillionaires. 
Let it go. 
Reasonable interest rates or just die. Seriously. Do us all a favor and either accept reasonable interest rates, or just die. Click here to go to the story below.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ABOVE STORY.

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Why did the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Government step aside 10 years ago and let Wall Street and their "investors" run the home mortgage show over the past Decade?

(Edit note Sat. Nov. 12, 5:16:00 pm, I have changed the title of this article to more accurately reflect the content that was created).


Why did the government and the federal reserve step aside and allow wall street to move in and become the direct beneficiary of mortgage securitizations while also allowing wall street's "investors" to be the direct underwriters of home mortgages as well?


If the federal reserve (a non governmental agency), or the U.S. government had offered mortgage securitization bonds to wall street, homeowners would have still been protected and insulated from the past 10 years of wall street investment shenanigans because they would have been PROTECTED by our own government from such dangerous nonsense.


Instead, a little over ten years ago it appears the government and the federal reserve simply stepped aside and allowed wall street's influence and their investor's money direct access to the homeowner. Wall street and wall street investor's "profit at all costs" agenda was diametrically different to the federal reserve and our own government's home mortgage track record.

Our own government might see the value in restructuring a mortgage so that the homeowner can keep making regular payments on time. Wall Street didn't care, and our entire economy caved in even as Wall Street rewarded itself with obscene amounts of bonuses.

Wall Street seemed to have created quite the mortgage ponzie scheme. If homeowners make their mortgage payments on time, wall street would profit handsomely from wall street mortgage securitization investment deals that were already in place. If the homeowner failed to make their mortgage payments on time, Wall Street had other investment schemes in place in which they would also profit handsomely based on homeowners' failing to make their mortgage payments! 


Mortgage servicers also started profiting from the excessive fees and penalties they tacked onto struggling homeowners for the most minor of infractions. One homeowner lost his home over a 13 cent mistake! This would never have happened when the government and the federal reserve were directly involved in all mortgage agreements.


So why did the federal reserve and the government not keep doing what they had been doing for well more than half of a century?  Was the rescinding of Glass Stegall the reason that the government and the federal reserve seemed to become disinterested parties regarding what went on with home mortgages?                                                

Just because Glass Steagall was rescinded does not excuse the U.S. government or the Federal Reserve from becoming disinterested in the home mortgage industry, yet that is exactly what the federal reserve and our own government did to the american people.

Maybe allowing the federal reserve and our own government to print money without parallel responsibilities makes having a working relationship with homeowners...kind of boring??? 

Why have a working relationship with the 99% if you can just print money at will and hand it out to your billionaire and trillionaire friends and let them do the work for you! And we all know that every billionaire and trillionaire out there earned their all of their wealth in a completely righteous and honest manner. (sarcasm alert).

Did our own government and the federal reserve simply get out of the home mortgage business so they could get into the "print money for wars" scenario instead? Did the government stop being directly involved in home mortgages so they could print money for other purposes such as war? Did our own government and the federal reserve aid and abet specific companies that profited handsomely from war and who may have then contributed to the politicians who made them rich? If this is the case, people need to be tried, convicted, and jailed.  


Welcome to the Occupy Movement.


Who approved absolving the federal reserve and the U.S. government from directly backing U.S. mortgages?  Did the U.S. government and federal reserve's lack of responsibility when it came to backing home mortgages rise to the level of conspiracy against U.S. citizens?


Presently, debt restructuring first requires a default by the debtor, no doubt because that is what wall street and their greedy  investors wanted. Yes, you are a greedy investor if you happily forced homeowners to pay huge penalties and fees on poorly constructed home loans, or cause the homeowner to lose their home if they didn't pay the huge penalties and fees.


Our own government's direct involvement in home mortgages would have afforded more flexibility in offering justifiable debt restructuring without first requiring a default by the debtor, especially when it became clear that the economy was not doing well.

So again it must be asked, why did the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve step aside and expose homeowners DIRECTLY to the seedy hands of wall street and their investor's "profit no matter what happens" scenario almost 11 years ago?

The 99% needs to fight to get a debt restructuring without a default declaration passed into law plan or millions more americans will unfairly lose their homes to the same unseemly wall street characters that caused their need for debt restructure in the first place. 


If our government and the Federal Reserve continues to drag their feet over justifiable debt restructuring without a default, they too need to be put on trial.


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Trillionaires, Billionaires, Higher Taxes, and interest rate charges are to blame for the world wide economic problems.

The more corporations are taxed, the less they will spend on new employment, even less than they currently do.


I believe our economic issues are entirely related to interest rate charges. The endemic belief that interest rate charges are normal and ongoing is destroying everybody but the trillionaire's wealth base.


Democrats like to talk about how past taxation created successfully run government public jobs programs over the past 85 years. However what fails to get mentioned is that whenever the government used taxation to create a public jobs program, that program actually helped increase the efficiency of some aspect of our industrialized nation.  


Whether it was making roadways, laying down sewage pipes, phone lines, building the Hoover Dam, dredging the Mississippi River or buildinga new suspension bridge where one did not exist before, anytime the government converted tax money into job generation they were creating new and more efficient ways for small and large businesses to create commerce.


85 years later, and much of the country and the world is built out. The types of government projects that resulted in increased commerce 85 years ago either are now too costly to perform or would directly compete with businesses already doing the same kind of work. 


The answer to our present economic woes is for all the trillionaires and billionaires to accept the concept that their money is NO LONGER NEEDED. Trillionaires and billionaires no longer need to be getting the highest rate of return on their deposits or investment opportunities. 


Until lower interest rates returns on secured bank deposits happens, the trillionaires and billionaires are to blame for the present economic destruction of main street. Trillionaires and billionaires should be getting the LOWEST rate of return on their secured bank investments.

Higher taxation and paying the highest interest rate of return to the trillionaires and billionaires puts too much pressure on wall street and other investment portals to find higher profit margin investments. 

The result is a strong and steady U.S. companies are blindsided by wall street and the investment fund managers who then try and create the same company in other countries where profit margins are higher and the work force is paid much less. All in the name of meeting the profit requirements as dictated by the trillionaires and billionaires. 


NOBODY ever talks about interest rates dividends and charges and the destruction they are teeming on a global scale, and it just freaks me out.


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Hat Tip to Zero Hedge for exposing the Chase Bank, "Housing, a Time To Buy" investment document.

Zero Hedge found this interesting Chase Bank Document called, "Housing, a Time to Buy", by Dr. David Kelly and David Lebovitz.


The excerpt I found particularly revealing was the revelation by Chase Bank that "Since the first quarter of 2006, the value of home equity (in the United States) has fallen from 13.5 trillion to 6.2 trillion, a 54% decline".


U.S. Homeowners have lost 7.3 trillion in home equity between the first quarter of 2006 through 2010. Factor in that at least 5 million homeowners were foreclosed upon during that time period and that it was a new homeowner that benefited by buying the home at a fraction of what the prior homeowner had paid for the home. 


The argument could be made that the loss of home equity was even greater than 7.3 trillion since the banks have repossessed so many homes.


In some instances, employees of the banks could have prioritized placing their own families, friends or business associates into homes that had been repossessed and were incredible values.


So it is possible that the 2006 homeowners lost even more than 7.3 trillion, perhaps as much as 8 to 9 trillion.


Meanwhile, the ratio of Credit Card debt to home equity has doubled, crippling the buying power of main street. 

Yet, to this day, no debt, be it credit card, student loan, or home mortgage, can be restructured unless the debtor is first defaulted upon by the banks.

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Why the Economy won't get much better anytime soon, and yes it's entirely the bank's fault.

I was watching Conan Nolan on KNBC in Los Angeles less than an hour ago and UCLA economist Jerry Nickelsburg said something that I found amazing, and very troubling as well.

The UCLA economist said "When you restructure debt, that's technically a default".

View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

You can find the exact comment at 3 minutes and 26 seconds. I set the embed code to that point but it does not appear to be working. However you can scroll to that spot if you like. Maybe you can, or maybe not.  NBC seems to have 2 to 3 month curve before they fix problems like this. It's really sad actually.

Well, there it is, the bible of what makes banks tick, and how they are ruining the planet. "When you restructure debt, that's technically a default".

There are hundreds of millions of people who lost half of their wealth in a relatively short amount of time back in 2008. While bankers can argue that what these millions of people lost was falsely inflated wealth, these millions of people borrowed money knowing they had the assets to back up their borrowing.

Once a tremendous amount of assets were lost almost overnight, the debt people had taken on still existed. 

Assets were cut in half for millions upon millions of law abiding citizens, yet according to the narcissistic banking and governmental interests, the debt and the interest rate on the debt stays the same. And lets not forget it was the banks that created the false rise and real crash of wealth worldwide.

One simple banking rule, that restructuring debt is considered a default, is paralyzing the world's economy.

Ask anyone who applied for HAMP if they were not first required to default before they could even apply for a Home Affordable Mortgage Payment.

In 2008 and 2009 Chase Bank changed terms on a few million of their own credit card customers who had life of the loan low interest rate agreements, yet Chase Bank denied it had defaulted.

Chase Bank's Change in Terms robbed their customers of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in SAVINGS by forcing the customers to pay off their Chase Bank low interest rate card before their higher interest rate cards.

Somebody needs to step in and slap the bankers and change the rules. Bankers and the government use the term default to destroy people's credit ratings and force them into higher interest rate loans if they simply (edit note, Jan 28, 2013, "simply" was a poor word choice. I should have linked it to a "dire circumstance", there are certain situations in which a dire circumstance, perhaps not even of the person's choosing, could cause them to ask for a change in terms.) ask for a change in terms on an existing agreement.

To use the term default ANYTIME a consumer requests a change in terms, when bankers themselves change terms all the time with no punishment, is creating a double standard that needs to change.

Change anyone?

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Homeowners not underwater may face greater loss of wealth than those who are underwater.

There are MORE HOMEOWNERS who ARE NOT underwater than are underwater. The continual laserlike focus on those who are underwater while not publicizing the plight of those who could lose significant amounts of built up home equity, is a divide and conquer technique that many bloggers appear to have fallen for.

Losing one's job can freeze a homeowners line of equity that may have taken years to create via an initial down payment and years of making monthly payments.

Losing one's job, or perhaps not being employable because one is caretaking for a family member (as 70 MILLION americans presently do) can lead to the loss of WEALTH through foreclosure.

The continual overfocus by the media and bloggers on homeowners who are upside on their home mortgage while virtually NO PUBLICITY is given to those who are actually being robbed of their own earned wealth serves the banking interests.

Not discussing the loss of actual wealth for homeowners who are out of work or are taking care of another family member actually weakens the position of those underwater by dividing and conquering the various homeowner situations that presently exist.

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Standard and Poors confiscates the excessive consumer credit card interest rate profits U.S. banks were charging american consumers.

For years I have been advocating the United States government and banking institutions quit relying on excessive consumer credit card interest rate charges as a way to profit from the poor and middle class. Apparently Standard and Poors agrees with me and they have now confiscated the credit card interest rate profiteering that the banks and our government have been engaging in in ever increasing volume over the past decade and a half, by lowering the U.S. credit rating.

The Standard and Poors U.S. credit rating reduction may result in an annual surcharge of 75 billion dollars against main street and those already in debt. I estimate that every year consumers pay around 100 billion to 175 billion in credit card interest rate charges.

Instead of cutting the interest rate obligation for those who would agree to keep paying DOWN their overall credit card debt, Standard and Poors just stepped in and STOLE what should have been credit card debt interest rate relief for main street.

We live in a time when LESS overall consumer debt IS A GOOD THING, yet the government, news media and wall street continues to bray out loud that main street is desperate for access to additional high interest rate credit card debt. Our own government and wall street has allowed their own credit card interest rate greed to hit main street america once more in the pocket book.

The extra profiteering that the banks and the U.S. government were making off of credit card interest rate charges has just been siphoned off by Standard and Poors. Sadly, bankers, wall street and the government will use the standard and poors U.S. credit rating reduction as an excuse to RAISE interest rates against main street, when it is painfully obvious that those who are in debt need some type of RESPONSIBLE RELIEF.

A reduction in main street's debt would be achieved by lowering credit card interest rates on debt that has already been accrued, which would actually improve the United States economy moreso than raising interest rates in general.

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Consumer Financial Protection Agency hits the ground running, tell them your story.

I emailed the Consumer Financial Protection Agency my story, and they sent me an email back asking if I knew anybody that needed their story told. Here is the response that I got from the CFPA.

"Thank you. We're working to make markets for consumer financial products and services work in a fair, transparent, and competitive manner and your story is invaluable to that work.

Are there others we should hear from? Forward this message to them and ask them to visit https://help.consumerfinance.gov/app/tellyourstory

The information you've given us will help us understand your experiences as a consumer and give us an up-to-date picture of the consumer marketplace.Thank you,Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

consumerfinance.gov--If you need help, file a complaint: consumerfinance.gov"

(End of email)

I suggest that you structure your comments so that it briefly tells your story but don't give every bit of information, and conclude your letter with what you think SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED.

I think you summarizing your letter with what you think SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED, after briefly telling what did happen, is very very important. If you spend too much time in your email being angry, or giving out way too much information, you may lose them before they get to your terrific SUMMARY OF WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED.

When you think about it, the reason you are angry is because you have a sense of what would have been fair, and what you thought would have been fair was IGNORED and possibly not even considered by the bankers.

If you stick to what you think would have been a fair solution regarding how the unmotivated, lazy bankers screwed you, the CFPA can possibly propose solutions based on your experiences!

It's the bankers that hide behind rules and regulations as excuses for why they cannot change anything, yet spend tens of millions (and probably way more) lobbying congress all the time to keep their fat bonuses and salaries, and the CFPA may be our chance to fix what the lazy bankers don't feel like fixing.

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Bank of America agrees to $8.5 billion settlement on fraud claims

World Socialist Web Site reports on Bank of America 8.5 billion dollar settlement with "investors".

Bank of America agrees to $8.5 billion settlement on fraud claims

Please Download the Chase Bank Protest Flyer for FREE, and then all that needs to be done is just give a few copies out, it is really that simple.