Implode-Explode Heavy Industries news feed

Updated Consumer Relief - The Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight

Wed, 22 May 2013 05:14:27 GMT

``"Since the Settlement was announced, I have released three prior progress reports that detailed the banks' self-reported consumer relief data on a quarterly basis," said Smith. "I believe it is important to continue to share this data with the public, and, accordingly have done so on my website. However, I have not prepared a full report on this data because I am focusing my time testing the banks' year end consumer relief claims and giving them appropriate credit as outlined in the Settlement. This allows me to provide the public with credited reports as soon as possible. "The four banks that have not yet been credited have requested that I determine their consumer relief progress through the end of 2012," said Smith. "I will release my review of their work in the coming weeks to the Court and the public. At that time, I look forward to engaging in a public conversation about their progress."''

Monitor Checking Into Violations of Mortgage Settlement

Wed, 22 May 2013 05:13:40 GMT

``The announcement that Smith is looking into potential violations comes a week after New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he would sue BofA and Wells over complaints they did not provide fair and timely service to homeowners seeking relief.
Smith and others attorneys general have been looking into the same issues. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Tuesday her office found "an alarming pattern of potential violations of ‘servicing standards.'" For example, she said that in 60% of files surveyed, banks failed to notify borrowers within five days of missing documents in their applications.''

Jamie Dimon Survives Shareholder Vote

Wed, 22 May 2013 05:11:57 GMT

``The vote was seen as a test of shareholder power over the operations of large financial institutions. Dimon, the longest-serving chief executive at one of the nation's six largest banks, worked feverishly with his key lieutenants to defeat the proposal -- pointing to the company's profitable track record, its stock price, leading market share in financial services and Dimon's experience in steering the company through the financial crisis.''

Washington Signals Deep Dollar Concerns -- Paul Craig Roberts

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:26:04 GMT

``What does this illegal manipulation of markets by the Federal Reserve tell us? It tells us that the Federal Reserve sees no way out of printing money in order to support the federal deficit and the insolvent banks. If the dollar came under attack and the Federal Reserve had to stop printing dollars, interest rates would rise. The bond and stock markets would collapse. The dollar would be abandoned as reserve currency. Washington would no longer be able to pay its bills and would lose its hegemony. The world of hubristic Washington would collapse. ''

This Time, Gold Bugs May Have a Point - Barron's

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:15:42 GMT

``These improbable moves have made gold bugs suspicious, which isn't unusual... They point to bursts of selling on Friday, April 12, which resulted in prices plunging by more than 5%, and to dumping that resumed the following Monday in Asia, early in the day when markets are illiquid. That culminated in a 9% collapse by the time the New York market had settled. But a seller who wanted to unload a large position at the optimal price would have done precisely the opposite--liquidate as discreetly as possible. Instead, sellers dumped the equivalent of more than 300 tons of the metal in staccato-like blasts during those sessions.''

Rickards: Bernanke Has No Exit Plan

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:57:50 GMT

``"There's a good possibility I may never see another rate hike in my lifetime," says Rickards.''

Federal COA Rulings Could Make 5 Years Of Non-Judicial Fannie/Freddie Foreclosures Unconstitutional

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:52:09 GMT

2 Federal Appellate Courts have ruled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government entities and the ruling could create a constitutional crisis in non-judicial foreclosure states.

"Golden Bullseye" by John Rubino

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:49:52 GMT

``Now, for chartist in a normal market this picture would indeed imply a nice trade setup. But bullion bank traders can see this channel too, and for them it's a bullseye. Just push gold through the bottom of the channel and a whole world of technicians who for some reason think their charts still have meaning will see that the up-channel has been broken, and, like good, dispassionate traders who cut their losses when they're wrong, will sell their futures contracts, their GLD shares, and maybe their mining stocks, tacking yet another vertical drop onto this correction.''

(why) Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange closes its doors

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:45:52 GMT

``The Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange will go ahead with a planned US$100 million rights issue and be ready within months to reapply for the trading licence it handed back to regulators at the weekend after it became clear the struggling commodity trader could no longer meet crucial financial criteria.'' -- A bit more detail on this. High hopes for this being a platform to "bust the paper gold and silver cartel" obviously did not play out. But the Exchange plans to be back. We shall see.

Alabama Slamma' -- Not for Better, Far Worse... As Foreclosures we Chart

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:24:06 GMT

``We seem to be having a national recovery in much of the media, but in the states themselves the numbers are refusing to cooperate. I guess if you can have a "jobless recovery," then you can probably have a national recovery without states being involved.

According to a wonderfully dizzying article on AL.com -- All Alabama, the southern state is facing some roadblocks to the recovery of its housing market. According to words used in the article's headline, "foreclosures are crippling the state's housing market, despite a national trend."

Ready to have some fun? Here goes...

''

Former FHLB Prez: Fed Should Be Broken Up

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:53:46 GMT

``Pollock said the Fed's current operating status could be accurately characterized by the following:
It's too big, with over $3.3 trillion in assets, it's too leveraged at 60 to 1, it's extremely short-funded and it's "a frequent contributor through its interest rate and money-printing action of gigantic systemic risk."

"Therefore, it follows pretty clearly from the same logic that we should break up the Fed," said Pollock... [who] noted that when Congress was setting the foundation for the modern Federal Reserve in 1913, lawmakers "thought they were creating a 'federal' structure of 12 regional 'reserve banks,' not a monolithic central bank."

Exiting QE could 'undermine the recovery', IMF warns

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:51:24 GMT

Central banks, including the Bank of England, strayed into "unchartered waters" by cutting interest rates to near-zero and launching billions of pounds of quantitative easing, and they will find the exit "difficult to control", the IMF said. "The market response [to a rise in interest rates] will be less predictable ... possibly for several months or even years."
...
The IMF also confirmed earlier work by the Bank that warned of large losses on central bank balance sheets. In a shock scenario, under which rates would need to rise by six percentage points, losses on the current £375bn QE programme in the UK could reach 4.5pc of GDP -- or £70bn. Even under a "likely case" scenario where rates rose by four percentage points, the loss would be £50bn.

House Passes SEC Cost-Benefit Analysis Bill

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:25:57 GMT

``The legislation passed despite critics' concerns that the bill imposes overly stringent requirements on the agency, which could slow implementation of the Dodd-Frank law. The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a statement earlier this week warning that its procedures were "onerous."''

JPMorgan Must Face Dexia s Mortgage Suit, Judge Rules

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:24:49 GMT

``The nation's biggest bank will have to face allegations by Dexia, which says it lost hundreds of millions of dollars after buying $1.6 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities from JPMorgan Chase, Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled Friday.''

As Housing Markets Recover, Wall Street Beats Families To Homes

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:23:30 GMT

``These investment firms are acquiring vast quantities of homes, fixing them up, and then marketing them as rentals. They arrive at auctions or home sales bearing cash, which gives them a competitive edge on millions of ordinary would-be buyers like the Gilbertsons, who must finance their purchase using borrowed money. These cash buyers are also more likely to pay above asking price, local brokers say, which is contributing to the overall price increase.
One company, Invitation Homes, funded by the hedge fund Blackstone, has over the past year spent $4.5 billion to purchase about 25,000 homes in formerly distressed housing markets, including 4,000 properties here in the Phoenix area. ''

The slow-going process of compensating victims of housing violations

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:21:33 GMT

``In 2011, Wells Fargo agreed to compensate up to 10,000 borrowers after the Federal Reserve found the bank was steering them into subprime loans even though they qualified for better mortgages. But no borrowers have received money yet.
Last year, Bank of America agreed to pay some borrowers between $1,000 and $5,000 for what the Justice Department called lending discrimination. The agency said the bank illegally asked some would-be home buyers who relied on disability income to provide a doctor's letter verifying the severity of their ailment. But it's still unclear how many people will ultimately be paid. There isn't a full list of the victims.''

Dimon has little to lose in shareholder vote

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:18:31 GMT

``Much better, Dimon could cede a sliver of ego to regain the support of shareholders by accepting their decision. This would leave him with two options. He could relinquish the CEO's duties and just keep the title of chairman. That would clear the way for new blood running the bank day-to-day. Or he could remain as CEO under a new independent chairman.''

Wells Fargo boss takes turn on soapbox

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:17:33 GMT

``Now, though, Stumpf appears to be trying on the statesman hat for size. Quarterly earnings calls are another opportunity for a bank chief to take a stand. Stumpf has rarely used his for that purpose, but during Wells Fargo's latest, he wrapped up his prepared introductory remarks with an attack on the growing outcry for new rules targeting big banks. "Some claim that we receive a subsidy or have an unfair advantage from being perceived as too big to fail," Stumpf said. "We disagree."''

How to have a good argument about economics

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:16:14 GMT

``Rule Two. Forget about the Great Depression. It seems that many economists, from Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve downwards, think that the prime goal of current policy is to avoid repeating the mistakes that were made in the 1930s.''

What Makes a Mortgage a "Bad Loan?" I'm Confused.

Tue, 21 May 2013 02:44:41 GMT

``What makes a loan a "bad loan?" I know there are lending practices defined as being predatory in nature that result in "bad loans," but that's not what I'm talking about.
According to the Center for Responsible Lending, "Predatory lending describes unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent practices of lenders during the loan origination process." So, when we talk about predatory loans, we're talking about loans originated with any or all of the following being involved...''