"I Wish the Law Had Worked": A Dispatch from the Land of Unintended Consequences

Banks Accused Of Breaking Into Homes
Arriving at her home in Truckee, Calif., Mimi Ash found it had been cleared of her possessions New York Times: TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the word...

What Will It Take?
By John Ballard When I saw a Tweet linking this story my first response, of course, was RT. But then it hit me: This is obscene. Stories such as this are proliferating like rats in a landfill. This is not one of those local stories that clutter the news -- Drug Busts, apartment fires, C-store robberies, police chases, Traffic Jams... This is a national plague that has been unfolding over what will soon become three years. Have we have become so deaf and blind to the wholesale ugliness of it al...

Banks Break Into Homes, Not Always Legally
Banks have made the occasional huge mistake in the massive home Foreclosure crisis of the last decade, including illegally ordering home break-ins once in a while. When Homeowners are behind on their Mortgage payments, or attempting to modify their home loan, or even on occasion fully paid up but lost in the bureaucratic shuffle, they are in danger of having their home broken into and their possessions removed by the banks. A New York Times report details the occasional terrible mistakes banks h...

U.S. expects foreclosure probe results next month
WASHINGTON | Mon Dec 20, 2010 5:12pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Obama administration Task Force examining allegations of Fraud in the Mortgage Foreclosure process will deliver its findings next month, two Top Officials said on Monday. "We expect the results of the investigations will be presented to us next month," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a joint statement after meeting with the task force. "The Task Force will t...

In California, Homeowners at Risk Struggle to Find Lawyers
In California, where Foreclosures are more abundant than in any other state, Homeowners trying to win a Loan Modification have always had a tough time. Gregory Royston, a Real Estate attorney, said winning modifications to Mortgages was never easy and often impossible. Now they face yet another obstacle: hiring a lawyer. Sharon Bell, a Retiree who lives in Laguna Niguel, southeast of Los Angeles, needs a modification to keep her home. She says she is scared of her bank and its plentiful resou...

Federal Reserve Blocks New Foreclosure Regulations
WASHINGTON -- Top policymakers at the Federal Reserve are fighting efforts to rein in widely reported bank abuses, sparking an inter-agency feud with the FDIC and the Treasury Department. The Fed, along with the more bank-friendly Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is resisting moves to craft rules cracking down on banks that charge illegal fees and carry out improper Foreclosures. The FDIC supports such rules, according to an FDIC official involved in the dispute. The new regulations ...

States accuse Bank of America of widespread fraud on homeowners
Source: NY Times That's the Boschian hell that one family in Chino Valley, Ariz., was put through by Bank of America, according to a Lawsuit (PDF) filed last week against the firm by the state's Attorney General, Terry Goddard. It's just one of numerous equally nightmarish tales detailed in the complaint, and in a similar one filed by Goddard's Nevada counterpart, Catherine Cortez Masto. The twin lawsuits, from two of the states hardest hit by the bursting of the Housing Bubble, accuse Bank of A...

Unintended Consequences
Please read our About Page, our Disclaimer, and our Comments Policy. Please note: InformationLiberation is neither liberal or conservative. When one takes the time to research the "liberal elite," whom the Conservatives oppose, and the "conservative elite," whom the liberals oppose, one finds both "elite" are one and the same. "Liberal" or "Conservative" is not a substantive choice, it is only the carefully crafted illusion of a choice, for both parties come together when they are instructed to....

The House GOPs New Constitutional Authority Rule And The Law Of Unintended Consequences
The House GOP’s New ‘Constitutional Authority’ Rule And The Law Of Unintended Consequences Late last week, the House GOP leadership circulated a memo announcing their plans to impose a new requirement on all Legislation introduced in that body: The Pledge to America released by House Republicans in September of this year included a commitment to “require every bill to cite its specific Constitutional Authority.” To implement this proposal, the Transition Team and the Ele...

Unmasking The Unintended Consequences Of US Central Planning
, today's is one which analyzes the plethora of Unintended Consequences that emerge as a result of the government's centrally planned tinkering. As always, it is a must watch, even if one does not agree with the NIA's overarching theme that government policies will ultimately result in uncontrollable price moves following the destruction of the reserve currency. Among the 'myths' debunked are: Cash for Clunkers was good for economy and the environment The Inflation tax generated by government ...

Unintended Consequences | National Inflation Association
Bit of an odd start to this NIA video, with the Offshore Drilling angle, but it gets better. Creators key in on critically-flawed economics programs like Cash for Clunkers, and the Taboo topic of foreign wars. Nothing revolutionary for the data junkies out there, but good to see efforts like this under way. Hat tip Daniel. Tweet Share If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. ...

Independent Women's Forum - Position Paper No. 33: The Unintended Consequences of the Paycheck Fairness Act
This November, the Senate will likely vote on Legislation known as the Paycheck Fairness Act, to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938[i] and the Equal Pay Act of 1963[ii], in the name of giving women extra protection against Sexism in the workplace. Proponents of the Act suggest this Legislation is needed to close the Wage Gap between working men and women, arguing that the gap is evidence of persistent gender-based Discrimination. Yet, this assertion is misleading. Research shows that the...

Purpura v. Sibelius series
The Essex County Conservative Examiner maintains a series of articles on New Jersey's unique contribution to the litigation involving the healthcare-reform law: Purpura et al. v. Sibelius et al. Nicholas E. Purpura and Donald F. Laster Jr have filed this Lawsuit without the aid of a lawyer. Perhaps on that account, federal officials, not to mention the US District Court for New Jersey, have consistently behaved as though they believe that if they just ignore the case, it will go away. But this c...

Banks Accused of Illegally Breaking Into Homes
TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. Arriving at her home in Truckee, Calif., Mimi Ash found it had been cleared of her possessions. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words &ldquo...;

More Illegal Foreclosure Bank Break-Ins
I wonder if you could go to a Bank CEO’s home, break into his house, and throw out all of his personal possessions — family heirlooms, photos, awards — then claim a paperwork error. That is the excuse they have been using: “In an era when millions of homes have received Foreclosure notices nationwide, Lawsuits detailing bank break-ins like the one at Ms. Ash’s house keep surfacing. And in the wake of the Scandal involving shoddy, sometimes illegal paperwork that has b...

New group steps in to save Bucks County Playhouse
The curtains are going up on a brighter future for the Bucks County Playhouse. The New Hope landmark, a symbol of the county's artistic and literary heritage where luminaries such as Grace Kelly and Neil Simon cut their teeth, has been rescued by a consortium of Broadway professionals and community leaders, it was announced Tuesday. "The entire theater community was aghast at the idea of permanently losing this legendary venue and picturesque piece of theater history," said the Broadwa...

Wells Fargo agrees to modify California ARM loans
Wells Fargo Bank has agreed to make $2 billion in loan modifications for California Homeowners with risky pay-option, adjustable-rate Mortgages that Wells purchased from other banks, and to pay $32 million to 15,000 borrowers who had similar loans and lost their homes to Foreclosure, according to an agreement with the California Attorney General's office. "Customers were offered adjustable-rate loans with payments that mushroomed to amounts that ultimately thousands of borrowers could not aff...

Home sales rise 5.6% in November
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Existing Home Sales picked up steam in November, though they are still down nearly 30% from this time last year. Sales of previously-owned homes jumped 5.6% in November to an annual rate of 4.68 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. The rate was down 27.9% from 12 months earlier, when a homebuyer Tax Credit helped lift sales to a two-year high of 6.49 million. Email Print Comment The report came in slightly better than expected. A consensu...

Wells Fargo Agrees to $2 Billion in Loan Modifications
Source: Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to provide loan modifications worth more than $2 billion to California Homeowners who have “pick-a-pay” loans, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said. Wells Fargo, the largest U.S. home lender, also will pay $32 million to borrowers whose homes were lost in Foreclosure, Brown said today in a statement. Pick-a-pay, or pay option adjustable-rate Mortgage loans, allowed borrowers to make payments at various levels, according to Brown. The highest l..

Existing Home Sales Come At 4.68 Million, Miss Estimates Of 4.75 Million, Home Inventory At 9.5 Months Supply
home sales, which came at 4.68 million units, a slight improvement to the almost all time lowest number posted in October (4.43 million), a miss to expectations of 4.75 million, and 27.9% off the cyclical peak of 6.49 million from November 2009, when the first-time buyer Tax Credit expired, and was shockingly not extended. The data follows this morning atrocious MBA numbers which showed a plunge of 18.6% in Mortgage applications, and 24.6% drop in refinancings. But if you listen to Goldman, the ...

Banks to Homeowners: Were In Ur Houses, Changin Ur Lockz
Photo: iStockPhoto Bank of America might be on edge about what would happen if BrianMoynihanSucks.com gets into the wrong hands, but they're not afraid to look like the bad guy. According to a federal Lawsuit, Bank of America not only wrongfully foreclosed on Mimi Ash's ski home, but they also broke in, changed the locks, and threw out all her possessions, including a wooden box inscribed with the words Together Forever that held the ashes of her late husband, Robert. Alan Jaffa, chief executi...

Weekly Audit: Republicans Poised to Declare War on Welfare State
Senate Republicans scuttled a Bipartisan $1.2 Trillion dollar spending Omnibus Bill last week. Now, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is scrambling to pass a temporary funding bill to keep the Federal Government’s lights on. The GOP abruptly pulled the plug on the omnibus, a massive piece of Legislation that Republicans and Democrats had collaborated on for months. Why? Because the Republicans want to start over in the next session of Congress when they will control the House and pick up...

On self-regulation in banking
I spoke to Max Keiser recently about a number of issues in a wide-ranging interview featured below. In the video, Max and Stacy Herbert talk about some of the hot button issues of the day like the banking sector in Ireland and the lack of criminal prosecutions in the US for the first 13 minutes or so. In the last half of the video I talk to Max about a lot of topics including gold, Mortgage Fraud, Wikileaks, currency revulsion, and Sovereign Debt. Let me focus on one: fraud. It is astounding whe...

Will The Housing Market Continue To Decline?
. The quick answer to the headline of this article seems to be yes. The volume of housing that is in Mortgage trouble is rising as prices drop in vulnerable markets around the country. There isn't a sufficient floor of buyers in those markets to stop further declines and Foreclosure sales that appear to be on the horizon. It depends on the market. For example, the recent Case-Shiller 20 cities report shows that coastal California has had a positive trend: Los Angeles +4.4%; San Diego +5.0%, and ...

A Visit From St. Bernanke
; The Economy was flung by Timmy without care, In hopes that St. Bernanke soon would be there; The Regulators were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of trannies danced in their heads; And Obama in his ‘kerchief, listening to his rap, Had just started contemplating the US Debt trap; When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, Tea partiers? Femen? What was the matter? Away to the window Obama flew like TARP cash, Which even Kashkari now admits was too rash. The buffoon with ...