Is the Mortgage Settlement Deal Starting to Unravel?
The Administration had thrown its weight behind getting the mortgage settlement deal done shortly after the State of the Union address. Eric Schneiderman joining a Federal task force that seemed unlikely to accomplish much, given its staffing and the history of Federal investigations, seemed to secure it getting done, as Schneiderman, the de facto leader...
More on the Role of Second Liens and the Mortgage Settlement as Stealth Bank Bailout
Readers who missed the post over the weekend entitled "Schneiderman MERS Suit and HUD’s Donovan Remarks Confirm That Mortgage “Settlement” is a Stealth Bank Bailout" are advised to read it first, since it provides important background and context for this piece, which clarifies some issues I skipped over.
Philip Pilkington: Facebook – The Second Birth of a Mighty Titan or the Withering of a Weary Giant?
By Philip Pilkington, a writer and journalist based in Dublin, Ireland
Over the past few days Facebook has once again been getting an awful lot of attention. The Facebook company, of course, loves the attention. After all, Facebook’s business model is almost entirely built upon the amount of attention they can garner for themselves....
Quelle Surprise! New York and California Attorneys General Look Ready to Sign on to Mortgage Settlement
The New York Times reports that two attorneys general of states regarded as important for the Obama Administration to declare the mortgage settlement a success have rejoined the negotiations, which says they are likely to sign the pact.
Kamala Harris, the California AG, was widely seen as "political" and therefore was not seen as...
Schneiderman MERS Suit and HUD’s Donovan Remarks Confirm That Mortgage “Settlement” is a Stealth Bank Bailout
In case you had any doubts about what the mortgage settlement was really about and why banks that were so keenly opposed to it are now willing to go ahead, the news of the last two days should settle any doubts.
As we had indicated earlier, one of the many leaks about the settlement showed...
Fannie Ignored 2006 Warnings About Widespread Mortgage Abuses (Updated)
Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times reports on an ugly bit of mortgage market history: that Fannie Mae was told in 2006 to address the derelict behavior of its servicers and foreclosure mills yet chose to do pretty much nothing about it.
Links 2/4/12
A ton of today’s links come from Lambert, including the antidote. If it’s interesting and not attributed to a reader, assume it was due to Lambert.
Yes you were right Charles: Plants really can communicate with one another In the Stone Age...
Exponential Finance
Yves here. As much as the overall thrust of this guest post has merit, I'm always leery of forecasts that amount to "trees grow to the sky."
