Feb
06

Near-majority approves of military force against Iran to stop nuclear-weapon development

Moon base flop.


How far should the US go to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon?  A new poll from The Hill shows that 49% of Americans would support military action by the US to stop Iran from developing or acquiring a nuclear weapon, with only 31% opposed: Nearly half of likely voters think the United States [...]

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Feb
04

10th Circuit Appeal | In re: MARK STANLEY MILLER “Deutsche Bank presented evidence that IndyMac had indorsed the Note in blank. Is proof of this indorsement sufficient. As we shall see, it is not”

In re: MARK STANLEY MILLER, also known as A Moment to Remember Photo & Video, also known as Illusion Studioz; JAMILEH MILLER, Debtors. MARK STANLEY MILLER; JAMILEH MILLER, Appellants, v. DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY, Appellee. No. 11-1232 APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY APPELLATE PANEL FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT (BAP No. 10-073-CO) <excerpt> ANALYSIS … Read more No related posts.
Jan
31

US intelligence warns Iran poised to conduct terror attacks in US

Asymmetrical.


During the debates, Rep. Ron Paul often wonders aloud why the US should fear an Iranian nuclear weapon.  I’d call this a good reason: U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Iran is prepared to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States in response to perceived threats from America and its allies, the U.S. spy chief said [...]

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Jan
23

UNITED STATES v. JONES | Supremes Rule Covert GPS Is a “Search”

The Market Ticker – Supremes Rule Covert GPS Is a “Search” by Karl Denninger Hoh hoh! No. 10–1259. Argued November 8, 2011—Decided January 23, 2012 The Government obtained a search warrant permitting it to install a Global-Positioning-System (GPS) tracking device on a vehicle registered to respondent Jones’s wife. The warrant authorized installation in the District … Read more No related posts.
Jan
20

Citizens United Anniversary | Citizens United v. FEC – What it Means for Democracy

The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v FEC allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money directly from their treasuries buying ads supporting (or attacking) candidates for office. A quick summary of what that means and what it will take to overturn that decision. ~ 4closureFraud.org Tweet Related posts: Hacker Collective Anonymous Issues … Read more Related posts:
  1. Hacker Collective Anonymous Issues Open Letter To Citizens Of The United States
  2. Matt Weidner | The Bigger Picture, The Real Truth About What Foreclosure Means
  3. Daily Finance | What the Mortgage Mess Settlement Proposal Really Means
Jan
16

Video: MLK niece says her uncle would have been a pro-life social conservative today

"How can the dream survive if we murder our children?"


Today we honor Martin Luther King Jr and his contribution to our nation through the non-violent and ultimately successful struggle to restore civil rights to all citizens of the United States — a struggle that took his own life in a 1968 assassination. His niece, Dr. Alveda King, fondly remembers her uncle and her own [...]

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Jan
13

Two polls that signal the United States is still a center-right nation

Encouragement.


It’s true that ultra-conservatives (and I’m one of ‘em!) often wrongly assume they’ll be backed up by the public at large when they support “Hail Mary” policies (balanced budget amendments, a fair tax, the Ryan plan, etc.) or when they wish for a complete repudiation of the Obama presidency in the 2012 presidential election. We [...]

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Jan
10

SCOTUS expediting Texas redistricting case

The clock is ticking in the Lone Star State


The dust still hasn’t fully settled from the 2010 census, particularly in terms of the redistricting fights going on around the country. One particular battle which is taking on a serious sense of urgency is happening in Texas, (Perry v. Perez) and this week it was tossed into the lap of the United States Supreme [...]

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Dec
26

New Gingrich video: Victory or death

Legend.


The inspiring true story of an American titan who led a movement to save the country from tyranny, was nearly routed, and then through sheer courage and cunning regrouped to ultimately win freedom for the United States — and immortality for himself. I speak, of course, of George Washington’s winter campaign of 1776. Or do [...]

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Dec
24

Poll: Vast majority of Americans still self-identify as Christians

And say religion is important in their lives.


In advance of Christmas, Gallup released the results of a year’s worth of interviews of Americans about their attitudes toward religion. The results aren’t necessarily surprising, but they do make you wonder: How exactly is it that the phrase “Merry Christmas” has been branded offensive? From the poll summary: The United States remains a predominantly [...]

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Dec
12

Obama: U.S. has asked Iran to return downed surveillance drone Update: Video added

Goodie.


According to a tweet from the Associated Press (and a spate of snarky follow-up tweets from conservative pundits), the president announced today that the United States has officially asked Iran to return a downed U.S. surveillance drone. Iranian officials said just yesterday they have absolutely no intention to return the drone — but I’m sure [...]

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Dec
12

Obama: U.S. has asked Iran to return downed surveillance drone

Goodie.


According to a tweet from the Associated Press (and a spate of snarky follow-up tweets from conservative pundits), the president announced today that the United States has officially asked Iran to return a downed U.S. surveillance drone. Iranian officials said just yesterday they have absolutely no intention to return the drone — but I’m sure [...]

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Dec
09

White Paper | Property Title Trouble in Non-Judicial Foreclosure States: The Ibanez Time Bomb?

Property Title Trouble in Non-Judicial Foreclosure States: The Ibanez Time Bomb? Abstract: The economic crisis gripping the United States began when large numbers of homeowners defaulted on poorly underwritten subprime mortgage loans. Demand from Wall Street seduced mortgage lenders, brokers, and other players to churn out mortgage loans in extraordinary numbers. Securitization, the process of … Read more Related posts:
  1. White Paper | An Evolving Foreclosure Landscape: The Ibanez Case and Beyond
  2. White Paper | MERS, the Unreported Effects of Lost Chain of Title on Real Property Owners and Their Neighbors
  3. Obtaining Due Process in Non-Judicial Foreclosure States
Dec
06

Video: Energy independence could be as easy as 1-2-3

Why is this so hard to understand?


Bet you’ll never guess which country is the world’s largest holder of natural gas, oil and coal resources combined. That’s right. This country. According to a report released today by the Institute for Energy Research, the United States has 1.4 trillion barrels of recoverable reserves of oil — or more than the entire world has used [...]

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Dec
05

An ominous note in the happy melody of increased gasoline exports

Don't look to the government to lower gas prices.


As I reported last week, the U.S. has been on track to become a net exporter of petroleum products for the first time in 62 years — and, sure enough, the U.S. actually passed that important milestone this month. CNN Money reports: The United States is awash in gasoline. So much so, in fact, that [...]

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Dec
01

Angriest Democrat in Congress pretty angry at Obama

"You are president of the damn United States"


We’re seeing a number of Democrats (and doubtless a couple of Republicans as well) preparing to pack up their things and go home when their current terms end. A variety of reasons are given, each valid in their own way. Some are getting on in years and looking forward to retirement and spending more time [...]

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Nov
30

U.S. on track to become a net fuel exporter for the first time in 62 years

An important milestone.


In 2011, the United States could become a net exporter of petroleum products — gasoline, diesel and other oil-based fuels — for the first time in 62 years. Don’t confuse this with, “U.S. on track to become energy independent.” The fuels we export are at least partly dependent on the oil we import. The possibility [...]

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Nov
26

Reprieve on the Canada – China oil connection?

"You can't just bulldoze your way to the coast"


As we reported previously, the president’s prevarication and procrastination on the Keystone XL pipeline has some Canadians itching to begin doing business with China, though the government would rather keep the resources closer to home and deal with the United States. Though no credit goes to the White House, Barack Obama may find himself falling [...]

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Nov
25

Quotes of the day

Springtime.


“The White House on Friday threw its weight behind Egypt’s resurgent protest movement, urging for the first time the handover of power by the interim military rulers in the Obama administration’s most public effort yet to steer the course of the Egyptian democracy… “Until recently the United States had publicly endorsed [the Egyptian military's] plans [...]

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Nov
12

A view of American politics from across the pond

Different from afar


Add this to your list of weekend reading choices. The Guardian has published an editorial with some general observations on the political process in the United States, specifically focusing on the GOP primary race. It’s not particularly shocking in terms of the stories they choose to highlight – very much the same ones we cover [...]

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Nov
09

The US’s Missing Housing Policy

The United States has no housing policy. And there's none on the horizon either. That's a scary thing, given the centrality of housing to domestic economic woes.  

Once upon a time, the US had a housing policy. It was focused on increasing homeownership. It might have been a misguided policy or at least a policy taken too far, but it was a policy and everyone understood that. It meant that programs were designed to work toward that goal.

Today, 4 years into a housing crisis, we still have no housing policy. There's no plan to clean up the legacy of the housing bubble and no plan to build the future of housing finance. This sad state reflects a singular failure of political leadership.  It also reflects a deeply fragmented housing finance world in which no one is in a position to call the shots. 

Legacy Issues

Let's start with the legacy problems, namely the foreclosure crisis and the collapse of home prices. The Administration has never really figured out where it stands on these issues. It makes nods to the need to fix the housing market as part of economic recovery, yet it has assiduously avoided confronting the foreclosure crisis and housing price collapse as a macroeconomic issue. Instead, it has come up with a stream of poorly integrated, small-bore programs that it has greatly overhyped, even as the programs under-deliver. This is HAMP, HARP, FHAShortRefi, etc. 

HARP 2.0 and the proposed multi-state foreclosure settlement don't even qualify as manque housing policy. They are just continuations of the small-bore approach. The reason it feels like there is no plan is because there is no plan.  The problem here isn't just that people are losing their houses. It's that we've lost control of the ship. We've lost a policy vision. 

Why this non-commital approach? Because there is simply no way of dealing with the legacy problem without dealing with negative equity, and that means forcing loss recognition somewhere in the system, either on banks or on taxpayers. That's a painful move politically, and the Administration has kept trying to avoid manning up to the problem. As a result, it looks a lot like Greece, where there's lots of energy spent denying the inevitable. From a good government perspective, however, it's horrendeously irresponsible. 

So who is calling the shots? I was just on a panel about this at the fabulous AmeriCatalyst housing conference, and it is painfully obvious that no one is calling the shots. The ship is rudderless on housing. Part of this is because of the fragmented administrative authority.  HUD would seem to be the go-to office, but HUD's authority is over FHA and VA and Ginnie Mae, all a limited part of the market. FHFA has authority over the GSEs, but it is as a receiver, and the FHFA Director is an acting director and a career civil servant. The prudential bank regulators each have their own sphere and they aren't interested in housing policy. They are interested in the safety-and-soundness of their regulatory charges. Treasury and the Fed would both seem to have a macro-view of the world, but neither is really expert in housing. Prior to 2008, Treasury had never done anything with housing, while the Fed has only ever approached housing in terms of interest rate manipulation and as a bank regulator. The Council of Economic Advisors and the Domestic Policy Council in the White House would seem to be places where one would find a larger cross-market view and a policy focus, but they aren't staffed with "housies". There's no one in a position to see the whole market and with the expertise and authority to craft a policy.  One of these entities could step forward to try and take some leadership, but the personalities just don't seem to be there for that to happen. Instead, housing policy on legacy issues is being made one case at a time in the courts with foreclosure suits. Is that how a national market should work?

One suggestion has been for a national "foreclosure czar".  The right person in such a job could help corral the various disparate interests at play, but I would not be overly optimistic. A foreclosure czar would have a convening power proportionate to his or her personal prestige, but no ability to impose a policy vision. The leadership here needs to come from the White House, I think, but it hasn't been forthcoming. 

Future of Housing Finance 

We also have no plan for the future of housing finance. There are several well-developed future of housing finance plans circulating (including one from the Center for American Progress's Mortgage Finance Working Group, of which I am a member), but that proposal is just a proposal. It isn't policy. We've gotten a non-committal set of options from Treasury and HUD, but haven't seen things move beyond that.

In fairness to the Administration, the lack of forward-looking housing finance reform isn't solely its fault. Housing finance is a political 3d rail. There's deep, deep ideological divide on the solution, and the hybrid public-private nature of the past system has given everyone ammo for their position.

The ideological right blames everything on the role of government in the system and wants to privatize, damn the torpedos. Never mind that there isn't the private-risk capital in the world to support our $6T in securitized residential housing assets.

There's a left position that wants to see something more like nationalization or at least a very prominent government affordable housing role.  And then there's the non-engaged left, that just doesn't give a damn about the future of housing finance. In their view, the ability of homeowners to buy a house in 10 years doesn't matter much when people are losing their houses today. 

There's a fair amount of consensus on the big picture between the craven right and the moderate left that there needs to be a continuation of the public-private system in some form, but no consensus on the details. The extremes on both ends of this debate have prevented the moderate consensus from solidifying or advancing, at least until after the 2012 election. 

Is There a GOP Alternative?

So if the Administration doesn't have a housing policy, do any of the GOP contenders?  No, sadly. Watching the GOP debate this evening, it was clear why none of the candidates has emerged as a front-runner:  none of them are ready for prime time. Romney seemed a notch or two more polished than the rest (he also looked like he just got off the red-eye), but it was hard to ignore the pointed question posed to him about why his 59 point economic plan has nothing on housing. The response that it's a "jobs plan" not a housing plan just underscored that he doesn't have any ideas on how to address the elephant in the room for the economy. If he had a housing plan, that was the time to present it. 

Nov
07

New “poverty” numbers measure income inequality, not purchasing power

Misleading.


Economists on both the left and the right have long had concerns and criticisms about the accuracy of the poverty rate — so, at the instruction of the federal government, the Census Bureau developed a new measure to determine the number of poor in America. The Bureau today released the nation’s poverty numbers under the [...]

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Nov
01

Cain on China: “They’re trying to develop nuclear capability”; Update: Cain getting a bad rap?

Hmmmm.


Via Ace, skip ahead to 11:30 or so for the key bit. The quote: HERMAN CAIN: I do view China as a potential military threat to the United States. JUDY WOODRUFF: And what could you do as president to head that off? HERMAN CAIN: My China strategy is quite simply outgrow China. It gets back [...]

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Oct
24

Syria, US recall ambassadors

Hmmm.


In a sign that Barack Obama’s attempts to push Syrian thug Bashar Assad as a “reformer” have come to an end, the US has recalled Ambassador Robert Ford from Damascus.  They cite security concerns as the reason for the abrupt retraction Ford: Amid escalating protests in Syria after Muammar Qadfafi’s death, the United States pulled [...]

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Oct
11

Iranian terror plot in US foiled

Law enforcement or war?


The Department of Justice announced today that they have foiled an attempted terrorist attack — perhaps a wave of them — in the US.  This time, though, the plot didn’t originate with al-Qaeda, but instead with Iran: FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a “significant terrorist act in the United States” [...]

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Oct
10

Lee Camp | Occupy Wall Street Is A Thought Revolution – And It Won’t Be Minimized

Some Explicit Language, So Viewer Discretion Advised There’s no getting around it – Occupy Wall Street is a thought revolution for the United States. It’s our Mental Spring. The flood gates are open and they’re not closing. ~ 4closureFraud.org Tweet Related posts:Occupy Wall Street Fervor Growing in South Florida (VIDEO) Anonymous Occupy Wall Street Call … Read more Related posts:
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  2. Anonymous Occupy Wall Street Call to Action #OccupyWallStreet
  3. ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement stages first rally in Palm Beach County
Oct
03

Obamateurism of the Day

Glass houses.


Barack Obama wants to make political hay over a controversial moment at the last Republican debate: “You want to be commander-in-chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it’s not politically convenient,” the president told the crowd in reference to a [...]

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Sep
30

Obama: U.S. faces economic difficulties because it “had gotten a little soft”

"We didn't have that same competitive edge."


Always adept at finding excuses for the economy’s poor performance under his watch, President Barack Obama recently blamed the nation’s economic difficulties on what you might call a national malaise: President Barack Obama told a Florida TV station yesterday that the United States is facing economic difficulties because it has “gotten a little soft” during the last 20 years. “This [...]

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Sep
22

Open thread: The global economic meltdown debate

Duel.


9 p.m. ET on Fox News. Things the candidates could be talking about tonight: The impending worldwide recession and resulting bloodletting on Wall Street; attacks on the United States by our terror-master “allies” in Pakistan; the DOJ’s curious reticence about its funny little program to sell machine guns to Mexican drug cartels; and of course [...]

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Sep
15

Robo-signed | Fraudulent Mortgage Documents Fill County Files Dating to the Late 1990s or Since the Inception of MERS

Fraudulent mortgage documents fill county files NEW YORK — Counties across the United States are discovering that illegal or questionable mortgage paperwork is far more widespread than thought, tainting the deeds of tens of thousands of homes dating to the late 1990s. The suspect documents could create legal trouble for homeowners for years. Already, mortgage … Read more