The latest federal lawsuit over alleged mortgage fraud paints an unflattering picture of a doomed lender: Executives at Countrywide Financial urged workers to churn out loans, accepted fudged applications and tried to hide ballooning defaults.
The suit, filed Wednesday by the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, also underscored how Bank of America’s purchase of Countrywide in July 2008, just before the financial crisis, backfired severely.
The prosecutor, Preet Bharara, said he was seeking more than $1 billion, but the suit could ultimately recover much more in damages.
“This lawsuit should send another clear message that reckless lending practices will not be tolerated,” Bharara said in a statement. He described Countrywide’s practices as “spectacularly brazen in scope…”
Category: Worshipping Mammon
Big Oil vs. clean energy: no contest
The more money they make, the more they want:
…Koch Industries and fossil fuel groups are mobilizing to defeat the extension of modest tax incentives for wind energy, even though oil tax breaks are permanent. The American Energy Alliance, which has Koch ties, aims to make the credit “so toxic” for Republicans it would be “impossible for John Boehner to sit at a table with Harry Reid.” The Koch-funded Americans For Prosperity is also campaigning against wind energy. Meanwhile, the industry has argued its own century-old tax breaks are necessary to maintain, despite years of record-breaking profits…
Tinted windows (a pre-debate rant)
The Odd Man is down but not out, despite an ongoing reversal of fortune that has left him uninsured and in debt. Just thought I’d let you know, in case you wondered why I post so infrequently these days.
In a nutshell, I’m a writer who no longer gets paid to write. I’m one of millions of workers sidelined by corporate bean counters who know that cutting jobs — through outsourcing, attrition, and making each remaining employee do the work of three — is the quickest route to higher profits for the one-percenters, and so what if the long-term consequences of a permanently downsized workforce are disastrous for the economy.
To make ends meet, I work a job that’s the 21st century equivalent of selling apples in the Great Depression. The other day a passer-by wearing a STUD MUFFIN shirt told me to get a real job. “Have a nice day,” I replied. My restraint was something to feel proud of, like not spitting on the car with tinted windows that rolled past me later that same day. I can’t abide tinted windows…
Church and State, Episode 3: Romney’s Abortion Hypocrisy
It’s time for another episode of Church and State. Today’s episode: Mitt Romney’s abortion hypocrisy.
Or, “what’s Mr. Pro-life doing raking in cash from abortions”?
Sheila Bair: Geithner was Citigroup’s go-to guy
And don’t forget, this creep is still in Obama’s Cabinet:
Former financial regulator Sheila Bair says that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was primarily concerned with shoring up Citigroup and other banks in his response to the financial crisis, rather than holding those banks accountable.
Bair went on a media tour on Tuesday to promote her new book, “Bull by the Horns,” about the government’s response to the financial crisis, which she experienced firsthand as a top financial regulator. Bair criticized Geithner in the book, and she aired some of that criticism in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
“He was in constant communication with [Citigroup CEO] Vikram Pandit throughout that whole process, and I felt like he and Vikram were figuring out what they were going to do and then trying to jam it on me,” said Bair, who served as chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) between 2006 and 2011. “I do think that a lot of the policy decisions that were made were made through the prism of what Citigroup needed.”
Thanks for a perfectly awful candidate
From the always quotable Matt Taibbi:
Romney is an almost perfect amalgam of all the great out-of-touch douchebags of our national cinema: he’s Gregg Marmalaard from Animal House mixed with Billy Zane’s sneering, tux-wearing Cal character in Titanic to pussy-ass Prince Humperdinck to Roy Stalin to Gordon Gekko (he’s literally Gordon Gekko). He’s everything we’ve been trained to despise, the guy who had everything handed to him, doesn’t fight his own battles and insists there’s only room in the lifeboat for himself – and yet the Democrats, for some reason, have had terrible trouble beating him in a popularity contest.
But let’s not be too sure Dems won’t find a way to make this race go down to the wire. Taibbi’s article is as much about the incompetence and cowardice of the Democratic establishment as it is about the Romney’s lack of charm.
Church and State, episode 2: Mitt Romney and Immigration
Jesus Christ is back, and he’s pissed.
Well, not so much pissed, but troubled with Mitt Romney’s less than Christian stance on immigration. And why would He not be? Isn’t it a fact that Jesus’s parents fled Bethlehem for Egypt, after King Herod ordered the execution of all babies under the age of 2? Isn’t it true that when they returned, it wasn’t to Bethlehem, but to Nazareth?
You’d figure preachy ol’ Mitt Headroom and Paul “the Objectivist Christian” Ryan might realize that. And you would be wrong.
Continue reading “Church and State, episode 2: Mitt Romney and Immigration”
Piggie of the Week: Mitt Romney
Here’s our latest Piggie of the Week. It is none other than everyone’s favorite head of hair, the man who thinks Americans are not entitled to basic shelter and sustenance, the man who makes Montgomery Burns look like a philanthropist, the man who stole his entire schtick from M-m-m-m-m-Max Headroom, THE MAN WHO IS BETTER THAN YOU AND 47% OF THE REST OF THE COUNTRY: Willard “Mitt” Romney.
…and boy does that cocksucker deserve it.
Church and State, with your Heavenly Host, Jesus Christ
We’ve added a new program to our roster over at Woodshop Films, hosted by your friend and mine, Jesus Christ. It’s called Church and State, and whether you’re a Christian or not (and for the record, I’m not), I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Rove: Don’t forget to vote white
From The Raw Story:
Republican strategist Karl Rove says that part of Mitt Romney’s plan to win the White House has to include getting “white Democrats” not to vote for President Barack Obama.
During a discussion with Politico’s Mike Allen on Monday, Rove made it clear that politics had actually become more racialized since the country elected its first black president.
“Obama has no chance of carrying Indiana,” the Fox News contributor explained. “I was having dinner with [Indiana Gov.] Mitch Daniels this spring, and I said, ‘Mitch, is there a white Democrat south of Indianapolis who’s supporting Obama who’s not a college professor in Bloomington?’ And he stopped for a minute over his green beans and says, ‘Not that I can think of…’”
“You know, Indiana’s gone,” he insisted, adding that North Carolina is also “gone” because “New South independents” — which The Atlantic‘s James Bennett says is code for “white independents” — and “racial moderates, economic conservatives, who in 2008 said this would be really good for our country, let’s put the issue of race behind us,” but now they are saying “we did the right thing” and the experiment failed…
Rove’s implication is that Obama has proven himself to be anti-white — an appalling lie by a vengeful nerd who is spending hundreds of millions of dollars of billionaires’ money to make the big lie resonate. Let’s hope most voters will understand that the Turd Blossom’s appeal to white people is nothing more than a tactic to help elect those who represent the obscenely rich.