B of A allegedly abused the HAMP program which was created to help homeowners approaching foreclosure. The bank allegedly threw out the paperwork of applicants who had fulfilled their end of the loan modification bargain, making the homeowner restart the modification process. Many people it is alleged fell into foreclosure who didn’t need to be there simply because the bank couldn’t get it’s act together. In many cases, as the attached article reports, it was worse than just incompetence.
A great essay on why central banking creates the boom and bust cycle by Tom Woods, a favorite around here, and a friend of Against Crony Capitalism.
This is not a radical idea though many will try to characterize it as such. 100% reserves for banks is actually quite a “conservative” idea.
With 100% bank reserves the credit addicts will scream and holler. The bankers will scream and holler. (Often they are one and the same.) Our economy however would be healthier.
From Daniel Hannon, a guy who often gives great perspective on both the EU and the US from his perch in the UK.
First of all, end the Fed. Just had to say that. End it tomorrow. It is the source of the modern boom and bust cycle, extended the Great Depression, inflated the tech and housing bubbles, and has extended the Great Recession. (Some of its crimes.) Now “Mr. let’s end Glass-Steagall and blow up the world with derivatives” is unofficially throwing his hat in the ring for Fed Chairman. People of the world rejoice, a new dawn is breaking!
Who writes the laws? The lobbyists.This isn’t completely true, but it is true to a very large extent as this article explains.
The thicker the law, the more opaque the legislation, the more opportunities there are to make money. There’s a reason Obamacare is a stack of papers taller than a man, same for Dodd-Frank. Both laws deal with impossibly complex areas of the economy best left to market mechanisms. To a very large extent the problems which both Obamacare and Dodd-Frank seek to address, access to healthcare and a corrupt banking system respectively, are problems created by prior government involvement in the marketplace.
I don’t agree with everything Professor Black prescribes. He and I have pretty different views as to the roll of government generally.
However he advocates shining a light on the dark swamp which is our worldwide financial system, where super leveraged bankers swim through the economic muck like pinstriped alligators. And we are certainly for that.
Since the dollar continues to be the world reserve currency, and since the mega banks float like clouds over the entire planet paying little attention to borders, we shouldn’t be surprised. But that the Fed has essentially given away $1 trillion to non-American banks is pretty amazing . (Not that American banks are any better than the foreign ones of course.)
It’s good that the New Hampshire Republican made at least a brief stop at Goldman Sachs. How embarrassing would it be if the head of the most important banking trade group wasn’t a Goldman alum?
Not bad. The economy must be just killing it! No? Well…Then why is the market ripping and roaring? You say they’re handing out free chips at the Fed window and the cards are stacked for the players? Oh excellent. That seems like a good way to run an economy. Pass me a martini.
