Housing

if many countries were in the cast of “The Biggest Loser,” the US would be among the fattest competitors. Thus, with this report, is the US now able to say, “See here, we are going to go work as hard as the rest of you to slim down”? Maybe…

Jonathan R. Laing reports in Barrons that the exposure of U.S. banks to liability for putbacks of defective MBS (mortgage backed securities) is greater than the $52 billion reported last week from the findings of the COP (Congressional…

Randall Wray advises us to support Representative Kaptur's bill and restore the rule of law Every link of the home finance food chain promoted fraud—from mortgage brokers and appraisers who conspired to overvalue property to stick buyers…

by John Lounsbury Buried 72 pages deep in the latest COP (Congressional Oversight Panel) Report is the following table: (Click on table for larger image.) The significance of this table is explained in the report: The…

Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke predicts at least two more years of foreclosures at current rates and gives specific details about exposures of the current crisis.

I found this video by David Fry with Janet Tavakoli as guest very enlightening. Tavakoli takes the same view that I have regarding how fraud is toxic for any banking system and must be rooted out. However, her most compelling statement had…

Over the past several years, Bryan Bly, Crystal Moore and Dhurata Doko have signed thousands of mortgage assignments as vice presidents of Citi Residential and other major lenders. Yet when asked in a recent deposition what a…

Price declines have the strongest effect on foreclosure rates; unemployment is secondary. The foreclosure document mess is temporarily slowing foreclosures.

Here are Andrew Ross Sorkin and Joe Nocera of the New York Times having a video debate about the foreclosure crisis.  Nocera thinks this is a key economic issue. Sorkin thinks the issue is overblown. My take: For political reasons,…

William K. Black is an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a white-collar criminologist and was a senior financial regulator. He is the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own…