Archive for the Kleptocracy Category

Bailouts: Out; Bail Ins: In; Slowly Boilin’ The Frog (April 15, 2013)

Posted in Bankruptcy, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Kleptocracy, Law on April 15, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

CD1      “Makes you wonder what we get for today’s tax payment.  The Dodd-Frank legislation states that we the taxpayers will not bail out banks and other connected businesses again for failed derivatives and the like.  So the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve (Fed) admit they cannot do their jobs and force the individual depositor to bail out the banks and other connected businesses.”

CD2      “At least now they claim that they will not take our tax dollars directly but will take our money indirectly.  Banks in America still exist to provide taxpayers with regular opportunities to bail them out.  And to pay huge and undeserved bonuses.  And on occasion to finance an upstart organic neighborhood grocery stand.”

CD1      “While individual states serve as laboratories for social and economic experiments, other countries provide insight into responses to social and economic problems.  The response in Cyprus to the banking crisis that afflicts every country today is revealing.  Instead of the taxpayers bailing out the bank, the banksters took deposits from individual depositors to cover shortfalls.  A ‘bail in’ rather than a ‘bailout’ is the way they brand it.”

CD2      “That has been the official policy in the United States and England since December 10, 2012.  The FDIC may promise to insure deposits up to $250,000, but that promise may be repudiated or supplanted or modified by the FDIC’s new formal and promulgated confiscatory policy.  They title their marching orders ‘Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions.’  The Federal Reserve joined in the task and in effect issued a joint press release stating:  ‘Your Deposits Are No Longer Insured.  Get Your Money Out Of Banks Now.’  Taxpayers cannot say that the government did not properly warn them.”

CD1      “The only event that really threatens the banking system is a literal run on the banks.  News broadcasts will have a field day interviewing those in line if they stay in line and the outraged ‘man on the street’ demanding his deposit.  However, by privately stealing funds from the public, there is no single public event to steel public attention and ire.”

CD2      “Failing banks were always taken over by a receiver and the small depositors recompensed by the FDIC.  However, if a bank fails today, the derivatives that doomed and continue to doom the economy are afforded super-priority status.  Ordinary depositors are booted to the back of the line.”

CD1      “Or the ordinary depositor is kicked completely out of the creditor’s queue and given worthless stock in the failed bank.  Four months have passed without an uncompensated failure.  A fortnight will pass and perhaps another four years without incident, but this banking fraud cannot go on forever.” 

. . .

CD1      “The insurance on up to $250,000 in deposits ostensibly provided by the FDIC has exacerbated the ‘moral hazard’ by disconnecting the individual investor from the process.  Individuals do not even make a cursory inquiry into the viability of a financial institution.”

CD2      “Should the depositor be obligated to do so or should the banking system be regulated and monitored by the government.  The answer is that the banks are inadequately regulated and monitored by the government, so by default it is ‘depositor beware.’”

CD1      “If depositors were rational as rationality is defined by economists and in the face of near zero transactions costs, they would transfer their funds to a credit union.  The National Credit Union Association (NCUA) has not joined the ‘bail in’ scheme publicly at this time.”

CD2     “A depositor who is rational as defined by economists realizes that interest rates are near zero and thus the benefit of leaving money in a bank is near zero unless the money is safe.  The potential costs are far more than zero and thus the depositor should transfer the money to a safe location such as a safe located in the basement.”      

. . .

CD1      “They say that if a frog in a pot of water is brought to a slow boil, it will not know or respond to what is happening, but if the frog is thrown in a pot of boiling water, it will jump out.”

CD2      “MF Global is forgotten.  They are slowly turning up the heat without response.”

CD1      “At least the frog reacts.  I’m tired of ‘bailing out’ and now ‘bailing in’ banks and am bailing on banks.”

. . .

[Peruse the government scheme titled “Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions” at http://www.fdic.gov/about/srac/2012/gsifi.pdf and the similar policy in New Zealand at http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/finstab/banking/4430900.html.]

[Reflect on the discussion in http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/national-planning-cyprus-style-solution-greens/5/150410, http://www.publicbankinginstitute.org/ and http://webofdebt.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/winner-takes-all-the-super-priority-status-of-derivatives/.]

[See the “e-ssays” titled Money “In The Bank” Or “Under The Mattress” (October 8, 2012) and Boycott Big Banks – Vote Your Dollars (November 21, 2011).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

I am not so much concerned with the return ON my money as I am with the return OF my money.  Attributed to a number of wits.

“An efficient path for returning the sound operations of the G-SIFI [Globally Active, Systemically Important Financial Institution] to the private sector would be provided by exchanging or converting a sufficient amount of the unsecured debt from the original creditors of the failed company [meaning the individual depositors who were previously assured their deposits are insured] into equity [meaning worthless stock].  In the U.S., the new equity would become capital in one or more newly formed operating entities.”  Page 3 at Paragraph 13 of the publication “Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions.”

Your Deposits Are No Longer Insured.  Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Get Your Money Out Of Banks Now.  Federal Reserve

The most condign resolution is to attach the salaries and retirement payments to the employees and retirees of the Fed, the FDIC, the SEC, the OCC, the CFTC, the DoJ, the BoE, the BoA, AIG, GS, S&C, C&B and others to fund any bank shortfalls.  And Congress, the President and the Supreme Court.  Problem resolved. 

“Open Bank Resolution”  “Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name.”

If banksters were branded terrorists, would there be prosecutions?

42

Holding The Raters Accountable? (February 11, 2013)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Drones, First Amendment, Judges, Kleptocracy, Perjury, Perjury/Dishonesty, Rating Agencies on February 11, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

NNN     “So the government is going after the rating agency Standard & Poor’s for its grossly inflated ratings of toxic mortgage securities.”

OOO    “It is a start, yet they were among the bit players in the grand fraud.  Madoff made off with millions from connected characters who were not willing to let him off.  Corzine still has enough stroke as a former Senator to avoid prosecution.  The banksters and the brigands and the big players at the core got away with it and are getting away with it and no one in power does anything about it.”

. . .

NNN     “Some bonehead judges have looked for an excuse to let them off and resorted to the First Amendment.”

OOO    “The First Amendment is a limitation on government restrictions on speech not a source of individual rights, so a person does not have ‘First Amendment rights.’  The government did not restrict or regulate Standard & Poor’s speech in any way.  Standard & Poor’s is seeking to avoid prosecution for what it said not for what the government would not allow it to say.  That ends the First Amendment inquiry.”

NNN     “When S & P spoke, they lied and intended others to rely on the lies; they are culpable.  The government must start somewhere.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled Rating The Rating Agencies And The Courts That Should Berate Them: FFF (May 3, 2010) and other “e-ssays” under the Category titled “Rating Agencies.”]

[The charges against Standard & Poor’s are discussed at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/opinion/standard-poors-stands-accused.html?_r=0.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

FFF:       Rating Agencies

The Kids (At The Fed) Are Not Alright (January 30, 2012)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Federal Reserve, Greenspan, Kleptocracy, Prison/Criminology, Society on January 30, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “They sound like a bunch of seventh graders snapping their towels in the locker room and squealing at each other.”

J          “Seems that the model of adult life as ‘high school writ large’ has degenerated into ‘junior high school writ large.’”

K          “Civilization may be on the retrograde as our society slides into collapse.  Our national destiny may be heading toward a state of ‘kindergarten writ large.’  Too many of our politicians have problems ‘playing well with others.’  At least at the Fed, the clowns were all playing ‘Ring Around The Rosie’ with each other while disregarding the decline outside.”

J          “The Fed should be required to release transcripts every year rather than after five years.  What is transpiring and conspiring is too important to wait.”

K          “Years ago, the notion of ‘Groupthink’ was trendy.  The idea is that a group may be more concerned about maintaining harmony that developing a realistic perception of the situation they confront.  You wonder if even one of the Fed economists was writing internal e-mails warning of what was obvious to anyone who looked outside.”

J          “And got together after work with a friend over a beer and despaired about the situation.”

. . .

K          “Grab a sheet of paper and jot down the names of three individuals, trained as economists or not, who have a clue about what is going on in the economy.”

J          “. . .  How about two?”

K          “Two will do.”

J          “. . .  I am working on it.  . . .  How about one?”

K          “One is a start.”

J          “. . .  Can I have until tomorrow?”

K          “Take your time.  Larry Summers’ statement about women in scientific disciplines may be 180 degrees from the truth.”

J          “Summers is reliable because he is reliably wrong especially about the ‘dismal science.’”

K          “The only individuals who have a clue in our society about our economic circumstances are women – Brooksley Born, Sheila Bair, Elizabeth Warren, Yves Smith, Nicole Foss, Gretchen Morgenson, Terry Gross, Christine Lagarde, etc.”

J          “That is because women care.  When you think about it, the forte of our fellow males is starting wars and filling prisons.  When you get right down to it, the males who start the wars should fill our prisons.”

K          “Talent is a mix of a tutored and sage intellect, personal and intellectual integrity, and good old-fashioned courage.  America simply does not have talent at the top.  The élite is not élite.  And the current feeder system of universities, foundations and fellowships is designed to ferret out the same charlatans and promote them into positions of power in America.”

. . .

[See the article and comments in “The Washington Post” discussing the delusions at the Federal Reserve Bank six years ago at http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/greenspan-image-tarnished-by-newly-released-documents/2012/01/12/gIQAvh0mtP_story.html.]

[See the “Frontline” program titled “The Warning” discussing the shenanigans of Greenspan, Summers, Rubin and their ilk and the courage of Brooksley Born at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/.]

[See the “e-ssay” uploaded exactly six years ago to the minute titled “Greenspan’s Legacy – Apres moi, Le Meltdown (January 30, 2006).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The nerds won, but not the smart or courageous ones.

What clothes is the Emperor not wearing today?

Plus ca change . . .

Standing Up In America (December 5, 2011)

Posted in "Fiat ______", Bailout/Bribe, Banks and Banking System, Courts, Credit Unions, Crime/Punishment, Housing, Kleptocracy, Law, Locke Gary, Perjury/Dishonesty, Politics on December 5, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L          “We now learn that while he was Secretary of Treasury, Henry Paulson tipped off some of his hedge fund buddies of the Fannie Mae bailout.  Everyone in power is quick to proclaim that his statements and actions are not illegal and declare that nothing can be done.  His statements and actions are illegal, but those in power refuse to enforce Title 18, the criminal provisions of the United States Code, because they do not want to bring charges against their compatriots in power even their competitors in the other party.”      

O         “They cop out and refuse to send the cops out.  Because otherwise someone could bring charges against them some day.  The Great Ruling Class Truce.  And no one asks any follow-up questions or demands answers.”

L          “However, a federal judge in New York, Jed S. Rakoff, took a stand from his seat on the bench and rejected a settlement between the Big Banks and the SEC that would have let the Big Banks substantially off the hook.” 

O         “I read a blurb that the state attorney general in Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, took a stand and demanded that the Big Banks follow standards.  The lawsuit may put the Big Banks on the hook.”

L          “And in developments overseas, America’s standard-bearer in China, Gary Locke, is America’s stand-up guy in China.”

. . .

[Henry Paulson:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-29/how-henry-paulson-gave-hedge-funds-advance-word-of-2008-fannie-mae-rescue.html]

[Jed S. Rakoff:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/11/28/142856070/judge-blocks-citigroup-sec-settlement]

[Martha Coakley:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/massachusetts-attorney-general-sues-big-banks-over-foreclosure-practices/2011/12/01/gIQAgwnUIO_story.html.  See the “e-ssay” titled Fire Your Attorney General (November 7, 2011)]

[Gary Locke:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/gary-locke-is-star-in-china-as-first-us-ambassador-of-chinese-ancestry/2011/11/28/gIQA703DEO_story.html?hpid=z2.  See the “Category” denoted “Locke, Gary”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

America Is Exceptional / When America’s Exceptional

Take a stand

Take a few fiat dollars out of your credit union and put them in your pocket for safe keeping.

An “Occupy Primer” (November 14, 2011)

Posted in Bailout/Bribe, Banks and Banking System, Economics, Kleptocracy, Law, Occupy Movement on November 14, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

?          “The Bonus Marchers sought what?”

!           “Bonuses owed to them by the government.”

?          “The civil rights advocates sought what?”

!           “Civil rights.”

?          “The women’s rights proponents sought what?”

!           “Women’s rights.”

?          “Those who sought to end the war in Vietnam sought what?”

!           “To end the war in Vietnam.”

?          “Those in the Occupy Movement seek what?”

!           “Simple.  They seek to end a game that is rigged at every step against everyone except a very small elite.  They seek to change a political and financial and legal and schooling scheme that is corrupt and decadent from top to bottom and from right to left.  They seek a build a future but suspect that there is not one.  They seek to replace the current vacuous kleptocracy with a viable democracy.  They seek to start a discussion and a dialogue among equals in an outdoor Academy to supplant the lies foisted on them from those in power.  That type of stuff.”

?!         “They want a fair chance.  I get it.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” titled Occupy America (October 10, 2011) and Occupy America: The “Bonus March/Chicago Police Riot/Kent State” Of 2011? (October 17, 2011)]

[See the “e-ssay” titled America Recycles Day, November 15 (November 15, 2010) and celebrate “America Recycles Day” tomorrow by doing something.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

We are the 99.9%

Occupy Jenkins Hill; Occupy Capitol Hill

Occupy [our small burg]

(Neoclassical) Economics – “The Dismal Religion”

(Neoclassical) Economics – “The Delusional Religion”

I won’t believe that a corporation is a person until Texas executes one

Fire Your Attorney General (November 7, 2011)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Courts, Crime/Punishment, Health Care, Housing, Kleptocracy, Law, O'Bama, Occupy Movement on November 7, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

U          “A state attorney general represents the people of the state in legal matters.  The attorney general is your attorney representing you as a citizen.  What are all these state attorneys general doing maintaining frivolous litigation against Romney – O’Bama Care?  They are tying up the courts and wasting tax dollars.”

V          “Their acts of commission are matched by their acts of omission.  Too many attorneys general are ready to give immunity to banks for all their crimes and fraud rather than doing their job and taking the banksters to court.  We need to fire the state attorney general before he can do more harm.”

U          “In my state, do we need to fire her or will she do her duty?”

V           “Do we need to fire the Attorney General?”

. . .

[See Gretchen Morgenson, “A Deal That Wouldn’t Sting,” The New York Times, October 29, 2011 at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/business/a-foreclosure-settlement-that-wouldnt-sting.html?]

[On Saturday, good citizens withdrew their funds from national banks and deposited them in credit unions and community banks as part of “National Bank Transfer Day.”  See the “e-ssay” titled “Boycott Big Banks (February 1, 2010)” and the “e-ssay” titled “Carefully Courting “Romney – O’Bama Care” Through The Courts (August 15, 2011).”]

[Wall, Berlin – 8-13-1961 – 11-9-1989]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Boycott Big Banks

Divest nationally; invest locally   

Fire your attorney general

Occupy America: The “Bonus March/Chicago Police Riot/Kent State” Of 2011? (October 17, 2011)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Boycott Series, Economics, First Amendment, Journalism, Kleptocracy, Newspapers, Occupy Movement, Politics, Society on October 17, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

a          “They will only tolerate it as long as they regard it as harmless.  When they regard it as a threat to their domination, they will do harm.”

A          “Another inevitable repeat of history.  But when the Chicago police rioted in ’68 outside the Democratic National Convention and beat and tear gassed the populace, at least they only used night sticks and tear gas as weapons.”

a          “There are videos you can download to your tube with a few clicks.  You can see that the police even beat the press.  Back then, the press got it and got in the way and got it from the police.”

A          “Today, the authorities are armed with far more dangerous armaments and arsenals.  Even toll booth operators and beach patrols sport their own SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) Teams equipped with grenade launchers and flame throwers.  In an old black and white tv show, Barney Fife, a deputy sheriff in a small North Carolina town, carried one bullet, probably a .38, in his shirt pocket and was required to ask Andy, the sheriff, before he could even chamber it.  Different times.”

a          “Not many police officers realize that the kids are trying to protect the police union while the governor is trying to kill it.  When the federal government begins providing Homeland Security grants to allow local libraries to acquire armed drones, will anyone care or comment.”

A          “Not to worry, they are closing the libraries.  It might be Oak Park, it might be Oakland, it might occur on some other park or land that will become part of our national lore.”

a          “Even if the kids keep their heads, the authorities are going to bust them.  The problem is that one person may make a threatening comment that will provide the police with a pretext.  An undercover police officer could make a threatening comment to one of his colleagues and provide the pretext for a police riot.”

A          “A few young Boomers got their heads busted and then when older busted a booming economy.  Now the Boomers will bust some concerned youngsters’ heads – the youngsters who must endure the long bust but will never experience a lingering boom.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Ohio – Not Forgettin’ Ohio; The Battleground State Battles On (May 2, 2005)” and the “e-ssay” titled “The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Do you want the kids to be activists or pacifists?

Occupy Mayberry, R.F.D.

Kids (and older kids) who know and care are doing something

The kids are alright

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” – John F. Kennedy

Occupy America (October 10, 2011)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Boycott Series, Economics, First Amendment, Journalism, Kleptocracy, Newspapers, Occupy Movement, Politics, Society on October 10, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A         “Commentators are having a hard time because there isn’t one spokesperson to interview nor one manifesto to mine.”

a          “Most commentators don’t understand what has happened in America over the last decade, so I don’t expect them to understand what is going on today.  I am aware enough to know that something’s clearly wrong, yet it is hard to describe.  What I do know is that I don’t have a future.”

A         “It’s simple and obvious.  The ruling class is strip mining the middle class.  And then accusing those who dare to point out the obvious truth that the astute observer is instigating class warfare.”

a          “They are clearcutting the kids.  They are not allowing a college grad let alone the ordinary Joe to immanentize the eschaton, although they are immanentizing the eschaton in a big way at my expense.  I really don’t have much hope of improvement or advancement.”

A         “Listen carefully.  That may be the big difference this time – an underlying absence of hope and a more pronounced sense of desperation.” 

a          “Hope died a few years ago.  Hope is so 2008.  Yet what do you have if you don’t have hope.”

A         “When hope totally disappears, an individual who can’t take it often takes one of three paths.  At the extreme, he takes his life, takes someone else’s life, or takes someone else’s life and then takes his life.”

a          “Someone sure took the life of the American Dream.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Boycott Big Banks (February 1, 2010).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Occupy Wall Street; Occupy Our America

You don’t need a sportscaster to know which way the ball bounces.

Carefully Courting “Romney – O’Bama Care” Through The Courts (August 15, 2011)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Constitution, Crime/Punishment, Health Care, Kleptocracy, Law, O'Bama, Supreme Court on August 15, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

Y          “I don’t really like it either.  But it is constitutional, isn’t it?”

X          “Yup.  No big deal, really.  The Constitution does not create a likeability test.  The Constitution establishes a constitutional test.  Governments have been requiring individuals to acquire automobile and other insurance and to undertake duties for decades without whining.  No one opts out of fire protection and thus we all pay for it.  If each of us is left to obtain private fire insurance, all of us must be compelled to obtain and pay for fire insurance.  At its core, health insurance policy clearly involves interstate commerce.”

Y          “It really is about personal liberty and property.  If you don’t have health coverage, I must pay for your health coverage because other laws not challenged as unconstitutional mandate that you receive health care.  Making me pay restrains my liberty and deprives me of my property.  And you know me, a proud taxpayer.  Why all the fuss?  And why all the rampant litigation?”

X          “Someone observed that we are dealing with judges trained in American law schools who want to play legislator without running for the legislature.  More judicial arrogance.  More judicial activism.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

– 11 + 6 = 5:  The Eleventh Circuit says NO*; the Sixth Circuit says YES; the Five Supremes will enact health care policy

A 207 page decision?  Not even 207 words are required.

What are all the state attorneys general doing pursuing the legal challenge to Romney-O’Bama Care while capitulating to the Big Banks and surrendering the major legal issues?

There is no law, there is only ideology

I hope laughter is the best medicine – it is all I can afford

Is A “Strategic Default” Of A Mortgage Now A Moral Imperative? (February 28, 2011)

Posted in Bailout/Bribe, Banks and Banking System, Courts, Crime/Punishment, Economics, Housing, Kleptocracy, Law, Society, Supreme Court, TARP on February 28, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

S          “You have heard of them.  A ‘strategic default’ is a default by a person who could make the monthly payments on the mortgage yet elects to cease making the payments because the property is underwater financially.”

D          “There are a flood of them today.”

S          “A strategic default may be de rigueur today.  Look at the law.  Start with the indoctrination process in law school.  Young law students are taught the theory of ‘efficient breach’ which counsels one to breach a contract if breaching the contract is worth more than performing the contract.  That is defined as ‘efficiency.’  The students who answer obediently get on the law review, clerk for the Supreme Court and make millions representing banks, big businesses and insurance companies.”

D          “And assist in running them into the ground.”

S          “That’s the plan.  They don’t even understand ‘efficiency.’  In practice, the party breaching the contract is not spawning a more efficient use of global resources.  The breaching party simply does not want to pay or perform and usually has far more money and can overwhelm the non-breaching party in court.  The party not receiving payment or performance loses big and usually has little judicial relief.”

D          “With a few exceptions, the legal system seems to exist to protect and serve the interests of the wealthy and the well-connected. I’ll take my direction from no one other than the MBAs at the MBA (Mortgage Bankers Association) who recommend defaulting on your mortgage if it is not working for you.  The banksters decided not to pay the mortgage on the MBA office building in D.C. (Washington, D.C.), even though the group had the funds to pay.  The banksters strategically defaulted.”

S          “They are indeed an example for all.  When the government bribed and bailed out the banks and other institutions, some contended that the government could not breach the contracts providing for unwarranted and illegal bonuses.  How un-American.  The government should have disregarded every contract and required the banksters to bring suit.  How American.”

D          “Allowing the banksters to file suit would allow them to file in a sympathetic Republican Federal District Court and possibly steer the case to a receptive judge.”

S          “Always a risk in the legal game.  However, before the banksters brought suit, their legion of lawyers would remind them that they could confront defenses and counterclaims.  In court, the government could assert a dozen affirmative defenses and also counterclaim for fraud, deceit, perjury, conspiracy, embezzlement, racketeering, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, obstruction of justice, etc.  Some of the banksters would not file suit which is the least expensive and, yes, the most efficient way of reaching a just resolution.”

D          “Seems that the courts are stacked against the public.  Nonetheless, there is a small chance that an independent judge might hear some of the cases and hold that the bonuses are illegal.  An affirmative award against the banksters is improbable but not impossible.”

S          “Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats ever intended to bring criminal charges against the criminals.  We seem at times to be alone in a lawless world with millions of laws on the books.  We in America have moved from a democracy to a kleptocracy.”

D          “And no one to throw the book at them.  Except that the law and morality are clear.  Homeowners are morally obligated to default on the payment of their mortgages if the property is underwater financially.  The government is morally obligated to default on the payment of the bankster’s bonuses.  In today’s amoral America, a strategic default is both an economic necessity and a moral imperative.”

S          “Perhaps a provision should be added to Title 18 of the United States Code making it a crime not to strategically default if the property is underwater financially.  Not to strategically default is so un-American.  And inefficient.  We just can’t have that.”

D          “Strategically defaulting immanentizes the eschaton.”

S          “Indeed.”

. . .

Mortgage Bankers Association Defaults:  http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-october-7-2010/mortgage-bankers-association-strategic-default

Home Sales Data Is Overstated:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476604576158452087956150.html

“Three years after a horrific financial crisis caused by massive fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that’s wrong.”  Charles Ferguson upon receiving the Oscar along with Audrey Marrs for the Best Documentary for the movie “Inside Job.”

“Almost everyone counted publicly each and every single day of the event known as the ‘Iran hostage crisis,’ yet no one is counting publicly the days that have passed since September 15, 2008 without a single major criminal indictment of the banksters and their ilk who caused the financial crisis that continues to plague this country today.”

[See the “e-ssay” titled “1000 AUSAs (February 9, 2009).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Do as I do not as I say

Mortgage Bankers Association: Strategically Default Today

Free $1000 an hour legal advice:  Strategically Default On Your Mortgage Today

Efficiency uber alles

Efficiency is Inefficient

If your property is underwater, should you plant seaweed in the front yard this spring?