Post Scripts

Posted by Tina

Turns out the government was one of the lenders making high-interest subprime mortgage loans:

FDIC Faces Mortgage Mess After Running Failed Bank, by Mark Maremont WSJ

Federal officials heap much of the blame for the subprime mortgage mess on lenders, claiming they recklessly made too many high-cost home loans to borrowers who couldn’t afford them. *** It turns out that the U.S. government itself was one of the lenders giving out high-interest, subprime mortgages, some of them predatory, according to government documents filed in federal court. *** The unusual situation, which is still bedeviling bank regulators, stems from the 2001 seizure by federal officials of Superior Bank FSB, then a national subprime lender based in Hinsdale, Ill. Rather than immediately shuttering or selling Superior, as it normally does with failed banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. continued to run the bank’s subprime-mortgage business for months as it looked for a buyer. With FDIC people supervising day-to-day operations, Superior funded more than 6,700 new subprime loans worth more than $550 million, according to federal mortgage data. *** The FDIC then sold a big chunk of the loans to another bank. That loan pool was afflicted by the same problems for which regulators have faulted the industry: lending to unqualified borrowers, inflated appraisals and poor verification of borrowers’ incomes, according to a written report from a government-hired expert. The report said that many of the loans never should have been made in the first place. *** Hundreds of borrowers who took out Superior subprime loans on the FDIC’s watch — some with initial interest rates higher than 12% — have lost their homes to foreclosure, data on the loans indicate.

The article is long but well worth the read.

Posted by Tina

Jack, Here’s an example of low standards and ethics in governement officials meeting up with criminals to create costly havoc in the mortgage industry and tough times for consumers:

Ex-convicts active in mortgage fraud, by Jack Dolan, Rob Barry and Matthew Haffman Miami Herald

During Florida’s housing boom, state regulators allowed thousands of mortgage professionals with criminal records into the industry — costing consumers millions. *** State regulators allowed thousands of ex-convicts to enter a profession that gave them access to the most sensitive and personal financial information: credit cards, bank accounts and Social Security numbers. *** Those criminals went on to commit nearly $85 million in mortgage fraud, the newspaper found. They stole their customers’ identities. They stole their money. They even stole their homes. *** From 2000 to 2007, regulators allowed at least 10,529 people with criminal records to work in the mortgage profession. Of those, 4,065 cleared background checks after committing crimes that state law specifically requires regulators to screen, including fraud, bank robbery, racketeering and extortion. *** During the peak of the housing boom, the Office of Financial Regulation ignored a state law enacted in 2006 that compelled it to perform nationwide criminal background checks on applicants. That failure allowed people convicted in other states — and in federal court — to peddle loans in Florida without any scrutiny.

Posted by Tina

The deputy to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran was now a friend of the US and Israel, Iranian news agencies reported Sunday, July 20 — a day after nuclear negotiations with the West came to nothing. ”Iran wants no war with any country, and today Iran is friend of the United States and even Israel. … Our achievements belong to the whole world and should be used for expanding love and peace,” said Iranian Vice-President Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei – Deutche Welle

Sounds like a turn down the heat game to me. Placing a bet on an Obama win and hoping that would facilitate desires to be less scrutinizedIran would have a real shot at developing Nukes under cover. Ahhh yesthe illusion of peace and safety.

Posted by Tina

In La Marque, one shop is offering $5,000 signing bonuses and $90,000 annual salaries to skilled machinists. Even at those terms, its having to dicker with candidates from as far away as Chicago. In Texas City, refineries desperate to fill $28-an-hour jobs are snapping up college students before theyve earned their process operator degrees. In Hitchcock, a petrochemical engineering and construction management firm is locked in a recruiting war with competitors

DEMAND has that effect on the markets. Anybody qualified that needs a good paying job should head on down to Texas for a look see.

Posted by Tina

The war has been fought in many ways and on many fronts as is indicated by this Spanish newspaper report:

The Mossad secret service was involved in the operation to free hostage Ingrid Betancourt from Colombian rebels, AFP quoted a Spanish newspaper as reporting on Sunday. According to the report, American and French secret services were also involved. ‘Mossad, the US, and French intelligence services worked for more than a year with the Colombian authorities to develop the plan,’ Jerusalem Post (Israel)

In many ways, on many frontsand NOT unilaterally!

Posted by Tina

New target in Colombias drug war: ecofriendly US users, by Murray Carpenter Christian Science Monitor

The Shared Responsibility program aims to educate US and European cocaine users about the environmental damage of cocaine production. *** Millions of Americans use cocaine, but few of them consider the millions of acres of forest that have been cleared by coca growers in all corners of Colombia or the blue-billed curassow, a turkey-sized bird that is losing habitat to coca farming. *** Ana Maria Caballero believes that many recreational cocaine users are well-educated professionals who also recycle, drive hybrid vehicles, and buy fair-trade products, but that they just dont understand what cocaine is doing to Colombias environment. *** Ms. Caballero works for Shared Responsibility, the Colombian governments effort to raise consumer awareness of cocaines impact on one of the worlds most biodiverse nations. The project is led by Vice President Francisco Santos Caldern, who has more than a passing interest in narco-traficking he was once kidnapped and held for months by Pablo Escobars Medelln Cartel. *** Colombias decades-old, drug-funded, armed conflict is complicated, says Caballero, but environmental devastation is apolitical. When you talk about deforestation, when you talk about a specific species being threatened because coca is encroaching upon its sole habitat, theres no political argument there, she says. Its absolutely black and white. You are destroying natural treasures that belong to the world. *** According to Shared Responsibility, 43 square feet of forest are cleared to produce one gram of cocaine, and coca growers have cleared an area the size of New JerseyClandestine cocaine laboratories, which use an array of toxic chemicals, pollute once-pristine waters in remote areas. And slash-and-burn clearing for coca farms is one of the countrys largest sources of air pollution. The clearing also accelerates global climate change, which is shrinking Colombias mountaintop glaciers.

The debate over legalizing drugs continues. This effort, to create awareness, has proven effective in the anti-smoking and green movementswill it work for (guilt ridden) eco-friendly drug users?

Posted by Tina

Corn prices fell, capping the biggest weekly drop in 12 years, after Argentina revoked escalating taxes on some grain exports, ending a dispute with farmers that had disrupted shipments. Argentina is the world’s second-largest corn exporter. Futures are down 19 percent from a record in June. (Snip) This week, the price tumbled 11 percent, the most since July 1996.

Cutting (or ending) taxes that punish business helps businesses AND consumers!

Posted by Tina

GENEVA – The United States said on Saturday after inconclusive international talks with Iran’s nuclear envoy that Tehran must choose between cooperation or confrontation and give up sensitive nuclear work. “We hope the Iranian people understand that their leaders need to make a choice between cooperation, which would bring benefits to all, and confrontation, which can only lead to further isolation,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement after the talks. – MSNBC

Will Iran choose a cooperative path or one fraught with confrontation and struggle? (Werent we just talking about that in terms of American politics?) Consequences that follow choices in life can be quite severe. Stubborn adherence to an uncooperative stance will always lead to confrontation. Iran is asking for troublebegging for a fight and determined to be right. (Sounds a lot like many progressives in America.)

Posted by Tina

Mexico City – Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday that U.S. intelligence led Mexican forces to a small submarine captured this week packed with 5.8 tons of cocaine. Chertoff called the vessel’s seizure Wednesday off Oaxaca state in southern Mexico ”a great example of our cooperation.” ”We shared information with the Mexican navy, but the Mexican navy acted alone in actually executing the seizure,” – AP

Posted by Tina

Jerry Browns War on California Suburbs, by Joel Kotkin WSJ

, Mr. Brown is taking aim at the suburbs, concerned about the alleged environmental damage they cause. He sees suburban houses as inefficient users of energy. He sees suburban commuters clogging the roads as wasting precious fossil fuel. And, mostly, he sees wisdom in an intricately thought-out plan to compel residents to move to city centers or, at least, to high-density developments clustered near mass transit lines. *** Mr. Brown is not above using coercion to create the demographic patterns he wants. In recent months, he has threatened to file suit against municipalities that shun high-density housing in favor of building new suburban singe-family homes, on the grounds that they will pollute the environment. He is also backing controversial legislation — Senate bill 375 — moving through the state legislature that would restrict state highway funds to communities that refuse to adopt “smart growth” development plans. “We have to get the people from the suburbs to start coming back” to the cities, Mr. Brown told planning experts in March. *** The problem is, that’s not what Californians want.

This article both informed and inspired me as you will discover in my post, Urban Sprawl Aint Bad.