Oversight and Investigation: "Why Should They Take You Seriously?"
Yves Smith has a post laying out one of the most troublesome aspects of the response to the revelation of foreclosure fraud. As she explains, to conduct an "independent review" of its PR-servicing "review" of its own servicing practices,…
House Committee on Homeland Security Expressed Concerns about "Gate Rape" on September 22
Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie Thompson sent Transportation Security Administration Director John Pistole a letter on Friday expressing concern that the TSA did not review privacy and civil liberty concerns before implementing…
Trash Talk: The Parity Before The Lock-Out
So here's some things to contemplate about this week in the NFL. The Jay Cutler-led Bears already won this week (it helps to play a team the week after they got cleaned out of QBs), putting them, for the moment at least, half a game ahead…
Debbie Stabenow to Chair Agriculture Committee
Finally, some good news coming out of November's election.
Debbie Stabenow has been selected to replace the outgoing Blanche Lincoln as Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. (There had been some concern that Big Ag would oppose someone…
Both Dodd and Frank Call on Admin to Use Powers of Dodd-Frank
DDay has a really important post that--along with a great interview with Brad Miller--includes a letter from Miller and other members of Congress, urging the Financial Stability Oversight Council to take action to prevent the foreclosure fraud…
Crist's Morrison Pardon: 21st Century Fox In A Lizard King's Henhouse
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bmazCharlie Crist makes noises about freeing the soul of Jim Morrison. He should do it.
CIA Secretly Breaking the Law with Impunity Again
Apparently, the Jan Schakowsky's House Subcommittee completed its investigations of all the times the CIA failed to inform the Gang of Eight about covert ops and in other ways broke the law. Apparently, that investigation found "several instances"…
Rattner's Pump Dump
When Steven Rattner published this piece on the GM IPO in HuffPo, he had not yet been sued by NY's Attorney General for allegedly being "willing to do whatever it took to get his hands on pension fund money including paying kickbacks, orchestrating…
Happy GM Day.
Wall Street and the Administration are hailing the GM IPO and claiming victory.
General Motors Co GM.UL pulled off the biggest initial public offering in U.S. history on Wednesday, raising $20.1 billion after pricing shares at the top of…
We Convicted a Guy the Bush Administration Tortured
More like this please:
"So, we tried a guy (who the Bush Admin tortured and then held at GTMO for 4-plus years with no end game whatsoever) in a federal court before a NY jury with full transparency and international legitimacy and -- despite…
Ahmed Ghailani Guilty of Conspiracy, But Not Murder
The jury in Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani's trial for his role in the 1998 embassy bombings has found him guilty of conspiracy, but not the charges of terrorism he was accused of. With the one count, however, he may still face a life sentence.
It…
Expect Our Banana Republic-Like Access to Justice to Get Worse
Not long ago, an independent group showed that the access to justice for the average American rivaled that of a banana republic. And no one is making much of an effort to fix that problem. As DDay reported last week, while the Dodd-Frank bill…
Unemployment Insurance Keeps Middle Class Families Out of Poverty
As Arthur Delaney reports, CBO just came out with analysis that shows unemployment insurance kept an extra percent of the population out of poverty last year (which would work out to be around 3 million people).
Extended unemployment insurance…
Fed Orders New Stress Tests
One of the things the Congressional Oversight Panel recommended the other day was new stress tests for banks, given the mounting evidence that botched securitization may make them insolvent (okay -- that last bit is my shorthand).
Today,…
Chris Dodd Uses Hearing to Call on Geithner to Do His Job
Chris Dodd didn't have many questions in yesterday's hearing on the foreclosure crisis. But he did use the opportunity to call on Tim Geithner to convene the Financial Stability Oversight Council to prevent this crisis from blowing up the…
About that AG "Investigation" and "Settlement"
About four hours ago, Iowa's Attorney General Tom Miller testified to the Senate Banking Committee it would be months before the combined AG "investigation" came up with a settlement (he also suggested that there were new aspects that were…
Liveblog: Senate Banking Committee on Foreclosure Fraud
See Part One of this liveblog here.
Shelby was actually pretty good, but then Johanns and Bennett went to some length to try to pretend the banksters weren't doing what they were doing.
Johnson: Does the law need to be change?
Levitin:…
The Bankster's Stenographer Claims Credit for Private Equity
For some reason, Andrew Ross Sorkin felt the need to weigh in on the debate over whether Rick Wagoner or Team Auto should get credit for GM's turnaround.
He probably shouldn't have, seeing as how some of his evidence against Wagoner is that…
TARP Oversight Panel: Securitization Mess May (Re)Crash the Economy
The TARP Congressional Oversight Panel just released a report dedicated to the foreclosure fraud problem and the securitization mess underlying it. They conclude that the problems may represent a significant problem for the housing market and…
Binyam Mohamed Wins Settlement for Being Tortured
Binyam Mohamed and a number of other detainees will be paid millions by the British government to compensate for their role in torturing him.
Around a dozen men who accused British security forces of colluding in their transfer overseas are…