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Treasury/Federal
Reserve/Bailouts/SEC/IRS
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac bet against homeowners: report US-owned
mortgage giant Freddie Mac is holding billions of dollars in investments
that only pay off if homeowners remain locked into high interest rates.
Fed says no
rate hikes until at least late 2014
Fraud and Folly: The Untold Story of General Electric's Subprime Debacle
What GE got in the bargain, former WMC employees say, was a place
where erstwhile shoe salesmen, ex-strippers and even a former porn
actress could sign on as sales reps and make big money pushing home
loans. WMC's top salespeople earned a million dollars a year or more and
lived fast, swigging $1,000 bottles of Cristal and wheeling around in
$100,000 Ferraris and Bentleys. In pursuit of these riches and perks,
several ex-employees claim, many WMC sales staffers embraced fraud as a
tool for pushing through loans that borrowers couldn’t afford.
Records Shed Light On Fed's Emergency Loans At Height Of Crisis
GE Admits Ex-Traders Rigged Bids, Agrees To Pay Millions To Stop Probes
SEC Announced Latest Chump Change Settlement With GE Funding The Friday
Before Christmas. Hmmm... If you blinked, you probably missed this.
The SEC announced Friday that GE Funding would pay a mere $70.4 million
(chump change to these people) to settle charges of bid-rigging.
THE BIG LIE: How Ideologues Smeared Fannie Mae But the S.E.C.
complaint makes almost no mention of affordable housing mandates.
Instead, it charges that the executives were motivated to begin buying
subprime mortgages — belatedly, contrary to the Big Lie — because they
were trying to reclaim lost market share, and thus maximize their
bonuses.
U.S. Offers Banks Deal To Avoid Criminal Prosecution U.S. officials
are offering 11 Swiss banks, among them Credit Suisse , a deal
that allows them to avoid criminal prosecution in exchange for revealing
full details of their U.S. offshore business to Washington, a paper
reported on Sunday.
Corzine Grilled over MF Global Collapse After Witness Suggests Knowledge
of Misused Funds
Six former Fannie, Freddie executives sued for securities fraud
BofA To Pay Record Sum To Settle Discriminatory Lending Claims Bank
of America agreed to pay $335 million to resolve allegations that its
Countrywide unit engaged in a widespread pattern of discrimination
against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers on home loans.
Federal Judge
Criticizes SEC For Being Too Soft In Another Settlement
Shadowing last month's decision by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff to
kibosh the agency's $258 million proposed settlement with Citibank,
a federal judge in Milwaukee told the SEC that its proposed
settlement with the Koss Corp. is too vague and asked the agency to
provide more facts by January 24. In October the SEC charged Koss Corp.,
a headphone-manufacturer, with accounting fraud.
Judge Scolds SEC Again In Citi Case The U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission got a fresh dressing-down from the judge who
rejected its $285 million settlement with Citigroup Inc, as he said the
regulator kept him out of the loop on its efforts to salvage the case.
Budget and Taxes
Over Two-Thirds Of Corporations Pay No Federal Corporate Income Tax
Obama
Obama:
Millionaires should pay at least 30 percent in taxes.....Most
Americans agree with "Buffett rule" concept, poll showsCurrently,
most investment, or unearned, income from capital gains and dividends is
typically taxed at a maximum rate of 15 percent rate. That's how
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ended up paying a rate of
about 14.5 percent on the $42.6 million he made over the past two years.
Wage earners, by comparison, are taxed on a sliding scale that now tops
out at 35 percent. However, 52 percent of Americans say that capital
gains and dividends should be taxed at the same rate as income earned
from work because the current policy increases the federal deficit and
is unfair to people who don't have money to invest, according to the
poll.
White House Rejects Oversight on Drone Killings
Obama's Union-Busting New Chief of Staff? Jacob Lew Helped Destroy Grad
Students' Union at NYU
Daley Replacement Cashed In By Betting On Housing Crash President
Barack Obama's choice to lead the White House budget office oversaw a
Citigroup unit that profited off the housing collapse and financial
crisis by investing in a hedge fund king who correctly predicted the
eventual subprime meltdown and now finds himself involved in the center
of the U.S. government's fraud case against Goldman Sachs.
Obama commits to universal birth control The Obama administration
announced Friday it would stand by a policy that requires virtually all
insurance to cover family planning, including female contraceptives.
Administration rejects Keystone pipeline President Obama rejects a
Canadian firm’s application for a permit to build and operate the
pipeline, saying that a Feb. 21 deadline set by Congress had made it
impossible to do an adequate review of the project.
GITMO/Bahgram/CIA-Blacksites
US Judge Nixes Lawsuit for Tortured Gitmo Detainee
Former Chief Prosecutor, Ex-Prisoner Call on Obama to Close Prison
On the 10th anniversary of when the United States began detaining terror
suspects at its Guantánamo Bay military base in Cuba, we speak with a
former prisoner and the ex-chief U.S. prosecutor, who both call for the
Obama administration to close the base. "People are locked up in
isolation camps... People lost their hands, lost their eyes, lost their
limbs," says Omar Deghayes, who was arrested in Pakistan as a terror
suspect and held in U.S. custody from May 2002 until December 2007, most
of that time at Guantánamo. "Some people were subjected to sleep
deprivation. They weren’t allowed to sleep... And they had to live under
those conditions for six years ... without being convicted of any crime,
which is the most unacceptable thing |
Senate Passes
Insider-Trading
Ban The new reporting requirements would not apply to transactions
involving investments in
mutual funds with “widely diversified” assets. The bill would
prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks and other securities on
the basis of confidential information they receive as lawmakers. It says
explicitly that they are not exempt from the federal law and regulations
that ban such insider trading.
Gingrich’s Tax Plan Would Give Millionaires A $600,000 Tax
Cut
Anti-gay GOP pol. gives sperm to lesbians The wife of a Republican
former Alabama gubernatorial candidate says she was shocked to find out
her husband, who had campaigned against same sex marriage, has donated
sperm to several lesbian women.
Indiana GOP Secretary of State guilty of voter fraud
Though President Ronald Reagan called the right to vote the “crown
jewel of American liberties,” many Republicans around the country
have begun demanding increased voting restrictions in the name of
fighting “voter
fraud.” Though actual cases of voting fraud are so rare that a voter
is much
more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit fraud at the
polls, one Republican official in Indiana has proved that lightning can
strike himself. Yesterday, a jury found Indiana Secretary of State
Charlie White (R) guilty on
six felony counts of voter fraud, theft, and perjury. The conviction
cost White his job, though he plans to ask the judge to reduce the
charges to misdemeanors and hopes to perhaps regain the position.
Though actual cases of voting fraud are so rare that a voter is much
more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit fraud at the
polls, one Republican official in Indiana has proved that lightning can
strike himself.
Major Romney Bundler Is Agent Of Foreign Government
By Josh Israel
on Feb 2, 2012 at 4:30 pm
Ignacio E. Sanchez (credit: Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars)
Ignacio E. Sanchez is a
lobbyist at
DLA Piper, an influential global law firm and a major bundler for
the Mitt Romney campaign. A ThinkProgress review of public records
reveals Sanchez is also a registered foreign agent representing the
interests of the United Arab Emirates and of a former president of
the Dominican Republic.
Florida Republican Stripped Of Senate Chairmanship For Opposing Prison
Privatization Scheme
Google Sponsors Tea Party Gathering Google, whose chairman has been
an Obama adviser, is a sponsor of this month’s CPAC
Paul bills taxpayers $50K for air fare Ron Paul has campaigned on
cutting the size and cost of government, but it turns out the Texas
Republican is a big spender when it comes to air fare
As recently as 2004, Ron Paul condemned the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
A reformed Jack Abramoff? The notorious lobbyist talks about how he
justified his own crimes and whether D.C. can be saved from corruption
Billionaire gives $5 million to pro-Gingrich group
A Las Vegas billionaire with ties to
Newt Gingrich has given $5 million to an independent group backing
the former House Speaker's presidential bid. A person familiar with
the situation said casino mogul Sheldon Adelson made the
contribution Friday to Winning Our Future, a pro-Gingrich super PAC.
The person said Adelson would spend heavily to assist whichever
candidate wins the Republican nomination.
Romney says he pays US taxes _ about 15 percent
His wealth and taxes suddenly a campaign focus, Mitt Romney said Tuesday
he pays an effective federal tax rate of about 15 percent. That's far
less than if his earnings were wages rather than gains from investments
and dividends, and the disclosure under pressure triggered a sharp
response from the Democratic White House as well as one of his GOP
presidential rivals. Romney told reporters he also received money from
speechmaking before he announced his presidential candidacy early last
year "but not very much." He provided no details, but in his financial
disclosure statement, released last August, he reported being paid
$374,327.62 for such appearances for the 12 months ending last February.
Ron Paul Opposed Government Aid For Asian Tsunami Victims
Friends: Ron Paul OK'd Racist Newsletters
GOP Presidential Candidates Tell Florida Uninsured Woman: You’re On Your
Own
Bloomberg to Give $250,000 to Planned Parenthood After a breast
cancer advocacy group decided to pull screening funds from Planned
Parenthood, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said he would make up a large
part of the missing money
House Republicans Order Journalist Arrested At Hearing
Colo. pol. claimed immunity in DUI stop Colorado state Rep. Laura
Bradford (R) was pulled over last week in Denver on the suspicion that
she was driving under the influence.
Defense Spending
F-35 story shows why it's so hard to cut a federal program
Democratic Sen. McCaskill finds House defense bill riddled with earmarks
SERIOUSLY? Pentagon Finds No Fault In Its Ties To TV Analysts
Pentagon public relations program that sought to transform high-profile
military analysts into “surrogates” and “message force multipliers” for
the Bush administration complied with Defense Department regulations and
directives, the Pentagon’s inspector general has concluded after a
two-year investigation.
U.S. makes $30B arms deal with Saudis
U.S., UAE
reach deal for missile-defense system
Official in botched ‘Fast and Furious’ gun program refuses to testify
Goldman Ties Enrich Public and Private Life for Romney Goldman
Sachs, which manages Mitt Romney’s family’s fortune, is also his largest
source of campaign contributions. |