The vampire squid has agreed to a pay a “$2.4 billion civil penalty, as well as $1.8 billion in relief to underwater homeowners, distressed borrowers and affected communities.” It’s being announced as a $5 billion settlement, but that’s misleading, as all these settlement announcements have been up to now. Once again, you can blame the Republicans for this:
Since the initial JP Morgan deal that sparked outrage over tax deductions, consumer relief wiggle room, and other fine-print details that make such deals cheaper for companies than press releases indicate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and other lawmakers have tried to force federal and state lawyers to stop the doublespeak. Warren and (former) Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) have pushed for the Truth in Settlements Act since early 2014.
The measure would require federal agencies to clearly delineate between deductible and non-deductible settlement costs, and include an estimate of the actual corporate costs of such deals in their formal communications about them. It passed the Senate in September, but hasn’t moved out of any of three separate committees with jurisdiction over it in Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) House.
According to GovTrack.Us, the bill actually passed in the Senate by unanimous consent, meaning that there is no roll call of the vote, but also that there was no dissent. So, despite being universally approved by a Republican-controlled Senate, no committee chairs in the Republican-controlled House can be bothered to act on it.
Of course, Goldman Sachs employs Ted Cruz’s wife, so they basically pay his mortgage. They also loaned Cruz the money he needed to begin his race for the presidency, not that he or they volunteered that information to anyone despite the requirement that Cruz do so.
They call Goldman Sachs the vampire squid because its tentacles go everywhere, so we will hear about the six-figure speeches Hillary Clinton gave to Goldman executives in Lower Manhattan.
It’s nice to see some money extracted from them and given back to some of the people they defrauded, as well as some folks in underwater mortgages.
It’s be nicer still if we could take these settlement announcements at face value.
How much of that fine will trickle-down to those who are in default on their mortgages? Or underwater due to the excessive interest rate charges and fines?
I think they’re going to be doing a lot of loan restructuring, although all I really know is that there’s $1.8 billion earmarked for “underwater homeowners, distressed borrowers and affected communities.”
There’s probably a fact sheet available somewhere that spells it out somewhat more clearly, although I doubt that can be taken entirely at face value either.
This might inform your readers a little more…
“…a former DOJ officer, Billy Jacobson, has gone on record as saying that the fines don’t pay for coffee and donuts for investigators. Instead, the money has to go the U.S. Treasury. Restitution for victims is rare, and constitutes a trivial amount of what the DOJ brings in. In 2011 the DOJ took in $2 billion in judgments and settlements, and only $116 million went to restitution.”
http://www.alternet.org/economy/bank-fines-and-crime
Haven’t many many people already LOST their homes forever? I suppose this may assist them if they’re still beholden to banks or mortgage companies, but this seems too little too late to make much of a difference for a lot of the commoners.
I’m all for this happening, and if I’m missing something, please enlighten me. But just seems like a lot of home owners have already lost their homes, and some of them are probably just now living in the streets (not snark).
So…? How does this help them??
Probably anything they manage to get is garnished beforehand to some collection agency…just to be a downer about this news.
In case you think I exaggerate:
“Since the economic collapse that swept millions of Americans out of their jobs and homes, Goldman Sachs has moved aggressively to recover its losses. The firm is pursuing marginally qualified borrowers into state courts federal and bankruptcy across the country and seeking to seize their homes. McClatchy examines one couple’s multi-year attempt to get Goldman to admit that it had purchased their mortgage.”
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24561376.html#storylink=cpy
Well, this post should be headlined “Random Bullshit About Big Bad Bank,” but let that pass. Like the other “settlements” mentioned, the news on this one contains nothing useful to parties affected, directly or indirectly. The damage done notwithstanding, the large banks directly responsible for the 2008 crash have reaped untold windfalls as a result of their criminal actions, without consequence. These pittances, paid to settle, are nothing, but you wouldn’t know it from the information provided. Neither here nor there.
Oh. And which administration is responsible for these settlements? The great Obama administration. He says his greatest failure was having a spell cast over him by the Clinton he appointed his Secretary of State. Huge lie or he’s daft, probably both. It wasn’t that. Obama’s biggest failure was failing to break up the banks and put all of their operatives and most of their directors in jail. The decisions the man made ruined the lives of millions of us that work our asses off, play by the rules that bankers broke, and have suffered, and will continue to suffer the financial consequences of his failure for the rest of our lives. These pig banks and their banksters do what they do. Democrats, Clintons, Obama, have all been aiding and abetting them. Guess that’s what they do. That’s the story.
you know, you’re right. We should just forget it. Let Goldman Sachs keep all the money and maybe they can be good job creators.
Technically speaking…they are good job creators.
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I suspect you don’t read any economists or you would not still believe that scam.
Oh, my mistake. I thought you meant jobs in the US.
Your behavior is starting to border on trollish, mino.
Ask anyone here in this community if they can remember the last time I banned anyone for expressing an opinion. I give commenters very wide latitude to say whatever they want, even to be harshly critical of me. As long as people are respectful to each other and listen when told to be more respectful of each other, we have no problems. The system works very well.
I won’t tolerate what I consider trolling, however.
Please consider whether your contributions are adding something valuable to the discussion and whether you’re just trying to get some kind of reaction.
Well, I am trying to make a dent in complacency.
Do you really think WS creates jobs?
What does that even mean?
This:
http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/growth-strategies/2015/12/revealing-the-dangerous-disc
onnect-between-wall.html?page=all
http://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2016/01/26/the-action-in-the-banking-industry-is-on-main-str
eet-not-wall-street/#2d11f7c96ddc
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2014/10/29/the-surprising-truth-about-where-new-jobs-come-f
rom/#51f5cd0547d9
QE has not trickled down to Main Street, so they are finding ways around Wall Street. Small business, esp. under 5 yrs old, are the job engines in this economy. As they have almost always been, really.
Wall Street is still doing consolidations via M&A and destroying jobs with free money from the Fed.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1003.lynn-longman.html
and
Today merger and acquisitions outnumber IPOs by almost 36 to 1.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/05/the-fed-is-a-god-that-has-failed-george-gilder-commentary.html
That last one takes a libertarian/conservative slant on the prescription, but his descriptions of actual conditions are pretty good.
You’re citing a guy who’s complaining that Wall Street isn’t creating more jobs because they’re not doing enough venture capitalism, which is a near universal complaint. This is not an argument that capital investment doesn’t create jobs.
Are we debating the banker side or the private equity side of Wall Street? Neither is doing Main Street much good. WS banks have parked their money at the Fed at 0.50% guaranteed return. No risk.
PE is doing the M&A consolidations. The “creative destruction” side of the market. Which kills jobs.
You don’t need WS for capital investment and you don’t need WS to create jobs, which was your assertion.
As one of my links shows, Main Street is finding workarounds. It still is small business that uses that investment to create a great majority of the jobs. In fact, is better to go local in this climate. There is quite a discussion going on about the ways this could play out with chartered state investment banks, postal banks, etc.
Especially given the wide abuses allowed…
CLASS WARHow Secret Wall Street Fees Are Bleeding Our Cities DryZach Cartwright | February 19, 2016
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Cities, counties, and states are all hemorrhaging hundreds of billions, and possibly even trillions of dollars a year in banking fees. The root cause of this extortion has been ignored, until now.
The Public Banking Institute’s (PBI) What Wall Street Costs America project is shining light on the fact that fees paid to private Wall Street banks simply for managing accounts for state and local tax dollars is bankrupting communities across the country. The combined total for all 50 states may be as high as $4 trillion.
http://usuncut.com/class-war/how-secret-wall-street-fees-are-bleeding-cities-dry/
spit
Jesus, are you this negative in your personal life?
Not everything is a downer.
Do you read economists besides Krugman?
I don’t read Krugman.
Careful Boo. Made this point last week, that a lot of folks aren’t doing so bad right now. Calls of revolution, deporting a bunch of people, and just general everything’s-gone-to-shitism aren’t so ringing for them. Several neighbors of mine, right-leaning business minded people, are thinking of voting for Hillary as a result. We definitely don’t want these sell outs on our side.
Now you be careful KC. You’re contradicting the narrative!
.
That only works if it’s Trump or Cruz.
I will pray that is the case.
Kasich will crush Clinton, Ryan would be close
She has something in common with Trump and Cruz.
SHE IS NOT WANTED
Yep, everyone loves Paul Ryan and John Kasich.
That’s not the point. Look at the close finishes in many Obama states in 2012. Florida was 50-49. Ohio was 50-48. Popular vote was 51-48.
Kasich, maybe even Ryan, could easily deliver Ohio for the GOP against Clinton. She is not as likable or skilled as Obama, and has a Libya stench that is far more pungent than in 2012.
If the Romney coalition rallies behind the non-Trump/Cruz nominee, and the kids stay home or go 3rd party, HRC will not be able to duplicate Obama’s coalition. She will get all the AA votes, but there will not be the AA turnout we saw for Obama for obvious reasons.
If we enter the DNC convention facing a John Kasich, and the DNC nominates HRC, you will be watching a party Jonestowning itself into oblivion.
Yes, Jonestowning is now a verb.
Well, I can’t go crazy at this point in the game. Frankly, I knew Hillary people who weren’t going to vote for Obama but ended up doing just that in 2008. I have to think the same thing will happen regarding most Bernie supporters and Clinton, should she win. Believe it or not, I think Bernie does what Clinton did and urges his supporters to vote for her and the Democrats. After all, he gains more with a Democratic Senate and President than a government controlled by the hard right.
Things are certainly better than they could be. Which is now the progressive creed. I found this interesting, from one of Boo’s WaMo-mates: https://newrepublic.com/article/132407/voters-angry-its-1099-economy-stupid
Apparently, paraphrased:
Thanks. I’m glad you posted this dash of cold water.
I think it’s silly to pretend that progress is never made–and it’s important to celebrate what tiny steps forward we take, to reinforce and incentivize them.
But some days I feel like much of the Left, such as it is, is spending a lot of time saying, “Why aren’t you reporting on all the schools that our troops are painting? You’re so negative! We’re painting schools! Schools!”
Some news about our Gig-Economy….”
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has sometimes conducted a Contingent Worker Survey, but for budgetary reasons, that survey hasn’t been conducted since 2005.
The Secretary of the US Department of Labor, Thomas Perez, announced a few ago that the the survey would be done again in May 2017.
[…]
But more broadly, it appears that those who have been looking for jobs in the last decade or so, or who are looking now, are much more likely to find that the jobs on offer involve a fundamentally different set of employment relationships compared to the common jobs of the 20th century–much less likely to involve an ongoing relationship with an employer.”
http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2016/04/all-job-growth-is-in-alternative-jobs.html
Independent research recently published online…http://krueger.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/akrueger/files/katz_krueger_cws_-_march_29_20165.pd
f
Curious, do you read any economists? Care to share, if so?
I know the question was directed at Martin, but I’d thought I’d throw a plug in for two I read: Brad DeLong and Simon Wren-Lewis.
Dean Baker?
Dean Baker, Joseph Stiglitz and Jared Bernstein on occasion but DeLong and Wren-Lewis regularly.
In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers that it also was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting. Now, a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman’s failure to disclose those secret bets may have violated securities laws.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24561376.html#storylink=cpy
Well $1.8 billion divvied up among 200,000 people that were screwed, works out to $9,000/each.
that is just the tippy-top of the iceberg
Yes, I know — was just putting into some sort of perspective. Doubt that few of those that were the most vulnerable and cheated the most will see a penny. It will end up looking a lot like the Obama administration’s bailout for home owners.
I suspect that Elizabeth Warren doesn’t include ‘quit’ in her vocabulary. However, she does keep score.
When Krugman no longer satisfies your economics reading appetite, try these guys.
Nice, so whether it’s Cruz or Clinton G-S will own the next POTUS.
Or Barclay’s of London,
since they bought the bankrupt remnants of Lehman Brothers,
John Kasich’s day job (faux noise being his night time gig)
between his being a congress critter
and trying to destroy Ohio Koch style.
He doesn’t seem as openly obnoxious as Scott Walker or Bruce Rauner. Is he?
No, his time in congress watching the tan man, bug man and the newtster, taught him to hide his reptilian scales in public
He does go back a long ways, doesn’t he?
Yes, as far back as 1983 in Congress.
I thought career politicians were a bad thingy to the GOtPers?
Oh, yea, right;
IOKIYASR
Isn’t your example evidence that GOP base voters don’t like career politicians as presidential candidates?
Kashich’s problem wasn’t his career, his problem centered around his acceptance of the ACA, and his lack luster spouting the dog whistle, instead of going total red meat.
Kasich’s problem is that in all those years in public office, he didn’t develop adequate debate and campaign chops to take out a political novice like Trump or junior Senator with negative charisma like Cruz. He’s like many Republicans that manage to get elected to a Governor’s office while retaining the charisma and dynamism of a bowl of warm mush.
Rather than ranting, take away from this piece the importance of winning back the House. If the Senate can manage to pass a sensible bill, then the House should bring it up. Time to rally 10,000 volunteers to get some Dems in those seats — or at least anyone willing to do the people’s business.
The Dem running in my district thinks we should have more public-private partnerships. He was funded mainly (and lavishly) by DWS. I have to see how bad the (R) smells. He might not be that bad. Last time a young latino teacher was running for state rep and he supported unions (teacher’s union natch) and opposed charter schools. His only downside was abortion, he’s a devout Catholic and opposes abortion. When will these guys learn that the corollary to the first amendment is freedom to sin.
Lot’s of latino candidates this year. They are learning that the Dems’ old boy network freezes them out while the Reps are begging for presentable candidates. This is a Chicago suburb and guns & God are not big issues, although taxes are.
In any case I won’t be voting for DWS’ hand picked stooge.
We have more Green alternatives than Dems running for local spots.
Where are you, mino?
South Texas
Politically, I commiserate. However, I had a good friend who hailed from there. He said they were real people. Perhaps politically misguided, but good people.
Is our collective cynicism such that we cannot express gratitude that Goldman has been forced to cough up a sum that, by any standard, is very large. I don’t know how the funds will be spent but at least they’ve got to pay it — which in itself should have a deterrent effect. Moreover, it shows that there’s still some modicum of justice in the land, at least on some issues.
I agree for the most part, but they actually won’t have to pay $5 billion, which is my point.
I saw that, but $4,200,000,000 is still a REALLY BIG number. Can’t we take even a breath to celebrate?
No.
Because Clinton.
.
Don’t tell me you have Sand in your gears, nalbar.
It’s a well known fact that EVERYTHING is Clinton’s fault. Even capitalism. Even global climate change. And that the republican posters on Booman Tribune are going to vote for republicans in November.
Those are the things I learned here today. And yesterday, for that matter.
.
I have a hard time imagining Clinton as being that audacious.
Even Reagan reluctantly went after the S&L outlaws and jailed them. Hillary seems pretty conventional.
She just a super duper very much a lot mendacious, right?
Just joking.
Yes, it’s very wise to add the ‘just joking’. I keep forgetting that part.
There is just nothing you can say in jest that someone won’t take serious.
.
No, it’s not. I believe I heard on Bloomberg that it’s three days profits.
As Elizabeth warren said, they should have been broken.
“It would be nicer still if…”
-Goldman Sachs did not exist
-Anybody that has e-mails from 2008 showing knowledge of fraud was treated at least as bad as a first time non-violent drug dealer
-Wall Street profits and CEO pay stayed at pace with the Mom n Pops and average Joe
-the jobs being created had any security, pension, or dignity
-The Inevitable HRC was not up to her neck in corrupt money and conflicts of interest
-The Abominable DNC did not see fit to force an unpopular, hawkish, scandal-embroiled pol on a party that wants to do BETTER than Obama, not equal to or way fucking worse
You know what? There comes a point where we lose all perspective.
THIS ENTIRE SET-UP HAS BEEN UNACCEPTABLE SINCE NOVEMBER 2000
The Democracy Spring had the biggest mass arrest ever in DC today, but not a peep from our “political media.”
AND QUIBBLING ABOUT DISCLOSING the real amount of Wall Street fines versus bullshit numbers IS A SIGN THAT WE ARE WAY FAR GONE.
I am truly beginning to think, after a lifetime of sitting on my ass, that
MASSIVE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ON A SCALE NEVER SEEN BEFORE IS THE ONLY ANSWER FOR $$$ IN POLITICS
I am ready to participate…and I hate leaving my fucking apartment! I’ve got everything right here. It’s fucking awesome.
Thank you for indulging me.
High quality rant. Big bonus points for self-awareness and sense of humor.
Makes me wish for the days kings could seize estates and execute their corrupt or rebellious residents. I know why the principle there is wrong but surely some emergency dictator vote by the Senate…
No. Bullshit. Sorry. You don’t get to blame Republicans when we had the chance to do cramdown the first fucking year. In fact, we had this exact discussion on another thread maybe a month or so ago, and you argued it was too politically toxic.
Huh. Seems like there is always a convenient argument. Maybe it passed the Senate with ease knowing nothing would happen in the House. Or maybe we should stop looking for bullshit excuses that hide Dems from their own culpability of why we need to look to blame the GOP in the first place.
March 5th, to be precise:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2016/3/5/0431/55256
This might surprise some readers:
But these trillions that they’ve added to the balance sheet are all sitting back at the Federal Reserve because the banks have taken the money and redeposited it to the Federal Reserve for a quarter of a percent interest rate. (That is one reason the interest rates were hiked recently. Banking lobby)
Catherine Mann: Yes, exactly. So that has been one of the — shall we say, the leakages — between what the objective of the U.S. Treasury purchase program was and what has been the outcome. We have to remember that there were two objectives of the quantitative easing or two channels through which quantitative easing was supposed to work. One channel is the wealth channel and that is the one that we’ve observed being very effective. Stock market wealth goes up and so people who own stocks feel wealthier and they go out and spend.
MORE FROM CATHERINE MANN:
The second channel through which quantitative easing is supposed to work is to provide additional liquidity to banks, and those banks are supposed to offer credit to businesses. Now that particular channel has not been very effective, precisely because the banks have not done much in the way of lending. Yes, there’s been some more lending for mortgages, commercial and residential, but there’s been very little additional lending for so-called “industrial loans” to small businesses, and to businesses in general, who do depend on banks in order to expand their inventory.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/what-happened-to-the-feds-tril/
Take the second one first. Banks loan when there is demand for the loan and they can make a profit. Low interest rates do not control that sequence. But one can hope. That would take an economy that is growing. Ours is around 2% per year. Excess reserves at the fed do not translate to loans unless someone wants to borrow.
The second one exchanges one asset – a bond – for another – cash – which may be put into the stock market so that the value of securities goes up. People who invest typically have lots of liquid assets so the marginal utility of an increase in stock prices may not do much of anything for the economy.
Yeah, and I am out of date. Excess reserves are making banks 0.50% returns with the Fed rate hike.
It ain’t juat GS BS here;
In BP’s Final $20 Billion Gulf Settlement, US Taxpayers Pay $15.3 Billion
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2016/04/06/in-bps-final-20-billion-gulf-settlement-u-s-taxpay
ers-subsidize-15-3-billion/
GS lies, deceives, commits what would be fraud for the rest of us, gets a slap on the wrist which also is partly passed off to the American Tax payer.
BP screws up the Gulf for years if not decades, destroys people lives even kills people and of course get to hand part of the bill to the American tax payer.
Still wondering why Bernie has such a devoted following???????????????
Still wondering why more than half of DEMs approve of this. Then I remember that the same was true back in the ’60s wrt to the Vietnam War.
They get the favorable headlines for the news cycle and there are few journalists who look under the hood. Fewer still that manage to get the criticisms actually in the public sphere.
Where is Joe from Lowell to tell us Wall St. execs go to jail all the time?
NY convicted 49 from Occupy….
OT:
PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.!!!!
Snyder: Staff deceived him, told him Flint water was OK night before he learned it wasn’t
6:49 p.m. EDT April 11, 2016
The night before he learned about the Flint water crisis, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said he received a briefing “telling me that there really isn’t a problem in Flint. That these outside experts aren’t correct.”
The next day, Sept. 28, 2015, he had a conference call with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Health and Human Services.
“And I get on the call, and I push them, and they tell me, `It looks like there is a problem,'” he said Monday morning, taking questions at the Michigan Chronicle’s 11th annual Pancakes and Politics breakfast at the Detroit Athletic Club. “That’s the kind of thing you never want to see. And talk about being upset, I was upset.”
Snyder was on stage about an hour this morning at the event attended by roughly a couple of hundred people. He spoke about his plans to help Flint, his goals for education, and positive developments in the state’s economy since he assumed office in 2011.
Flint’s water continues to be deemed unsafe for human consumption, with high enough levels of lead recorded in some homes to cause potentially permanent brain damage in children.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/04/11/snyder-flint-water-crisis-dac/8288
7032/
He is kinda a dead man walking. Who would trust him to fix what his policies created.
This news story about Snyder is…INFURIATING.
Glass half full: if the Governor keeps on whining “I’ve taken responsibility, my conscience is bothered!” one minute and returns to blaming public sector workers and his Administrative staff in the next minute, someone in the blame chain will eventually take a deal in exchange for the evidence to implicate Rick.
Reinvent yourself in prison, asshole.