A provocative paper by Brent White, a law professor at the University of Arizona, makes the case that borrowers are actually suffering from a “norm asymmetry.” In other words, they think they are obligated to repay their loans even if it is not in their financial interest to do so, while their lenders are free […]

Tags: $800 fee, ARIZONA, Booth School of Business, CALIFORNIA, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Eric Posner, fee for non-recourse option, Lease, Luigi Zingales, mortgage default, New York Times, non-recorse, Option, pool, recording, Richard Thaler, strategic defaults, sublease, Susan Woordward, swap, University of Chicago, walking away
Posted in bubble, Corruption, Eviction, securities fraud |

The mistake I detect from those who are not faring well in court is the attempt to treat preliminary motions and hearings as opportunities to prove your entire case. Don’t talk about conspiracy and theft, talk about evidence and discovery. every debtor is entitled to know the identity of the creditor, the full accounting for […]

Tags: creditor, David Stockman, DEBTOR, evidence, evidentiary hearing, Federal reserve, full accounting, identity, mediation, modifications, New York Times, off balance sheet, off shore, reconciliation, yield spread premium
Posted in bubble, Corruption, Eviction, securities fraud |

Phil Angelides, the former state treasurer of California who is the commission’s chairman, told Mr. Blankfein “it sounds more like you were selling cars with faulty brakes and then buying insurance on the driver.” Mr. Angelides, who lost the governor’s race in California to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, pointedly compared some Wall Street chief […]

Tags: Amnesty for Everyone, Bank of America, Blankfein, Brian Moynihan, FCIC, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Jamie Dimon, John Mack, KKenneth Lewis, Mark Leibovich, New York Times, Phil Angelides, principal reduction
Posted in bubble, Corruption, Eviction, securities fraud |

“Americans must be told the full story of how Wall Street gamed and inflated the housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin. Without that reckoning, there will be no public clamor for serious reform of a financial system that was as cunningly breached as airline security at the […]

Tags: bailout, Citi, Ferdinand Pecora, financial system, Frank Rich, Geithner, Gretchen Morgenstern, housing bubble, Katrina Brooker, Llyod Blankfein, Mortgage, Mother JOnes, New York Times, paul Volcker, Phil Angelides, profits, Rubin, securitization, Summers, Warren Buffett
Posted in bubble, Corruption, Eviction, securities fraud |

Editor’s Note: Baltimore decided to take on one of the worst “Club 100” players in the mortgage meltdown, Wells Fargo. The thrust of their argument is that Wells Fargo targeted poor people and made a bad situation worse, causing collateral damage all over the city. Baltimore will now file a narrower amended complaint, but the […]

Tags: Baltimore, John p. Relman, Judge J. Frederick Motz, Michael, New York Times, Powell, securitization, subprime mortgages, Wells Fargo
Posted in bubble, Corruption, Eviction, securities fraud |