Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Yves Smith will be on Harry Shearer’s Le Show today (Sunday)

Yves Smith will be on Harry Shearer’s Le Show today (Sunday), originating at 1 pm ET live on many public radio stations, and aired on many others throughout the day. Good streams are available all day, each hour, at publicradiofan.com. The topic is the Independent Foreclosure Review fiasco. (check local listings here…)

The Great Recession captured in 1 minute of comedy

Just watch this.  It is 1 minute long. Could it be anymore surreal? HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS? HOW MANY FREAKIN’ TIMES DO WE HAVE TO LEARN THE LESSON? Obviously, the lesson has not been relearned since at least sometime before 1992.  If it had been relearned, we would not be […]

First take on AG agreement on foreclosure

Naked Capitalism posts today on the AG agreement in Settlement Breakdown by State Plus Other Official Propaganda: This agreement is very significant in how it addresses the fraud that these banks committed against many homeowners across our state,” said ___.“ This agreement not only provides much needed relief to (STATE) [Ha ha, fill in the […]

Cleveland = The New India?

My Economics Professor in MBA School, Peter Klein, lectured fondly of the Indian (as in subcontinent, not AmerInd) “entrepreneurs” who risked life and limb going through rubbish heaps looking for scrap metal and other items that could be sold. Despite the risk—I’m not writing metaphorically when I say “risked life and limb”—it was the best […]

Foreclosures and Mass. Attorney General make the news

From Boston.com comes news of: Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is suing five major US banks for allegedly seizing properties unlawfully and failing to help struggling borrowers keep their homes by lowering mortgage payments. The civil lawsuit — filed yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court — targets Bank of America Corp.,Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase […]

Home Values: Delusional Buyers, Bank Squeezers and Zillow

by Mike Kimel Home Values: Delusional Buyers, Bank Squeezers and Zillow Via Barry Ritholtz, a link to a post at Time Moneyland post which led to a post at the Zillow blog: Zillow recently compared the asking price of 1 million for-sale homes with those homes’ previous purchase price, then factored in the change in […]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

As the title indicates, this will be a more than usually confused post.The stimulus was the now famous grief over elementary fairness which errupted when “[Judge] Scott Fairgrieve of Nassau County District Court, wrote that ‘swearing to false statements reflects poorly on the profession [of law] as a whole” and fined lawyer Steven J Baum […]

Make yourself heard on mortgage abuses

Naked Capitalism points us to a letter to ‘sign’ today in support of the FDIC and Congressman Brad Miller’s advocacy for servicer regulation: This time, though, there is a way to stand up against the banks. And the reason is because in this case, Sheila Bair at the FDIC actually wants to do the right […]