financial fraud

10 MILLION FORECLOSURES: NO SAVING PVT. more »

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A month ago, President Barack Obama vetoed a bill that would have made it far more difficult for borrowers to prove that banks were engaging in foreclosure fraud. more »

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There’s been plenty of recent media attention to the prospect of investor lawsuits over fraudulent mortgages and mortgage securities. But investor lawsuits against mortgage servicers could be even more damaging than these other lines of legal inquiry. more »

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Foreclosure fraud is ruffling a lot of feathers on Wall Street, and while the full scope of losses remains unclear, even major banks are now acknowledging that this is a multi-billion-dollar disaster, not just a set of minor paperwork headaches. more »

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The bank lobby is spreading a host of silly myths about the foreclosure fraud outbreak in an effort to downplay the scandal and minimize concerns over potential bank losses that have emerged in the blogosphere. Housing Wire’s Paul Jackson spouts most of them in his post today. more »

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Chris Hayes from The Nation talked to me for his excellent weekly podcast, The Breakdown. We're talking about foreclosure fraud, mortgage-backed securities fraud, illegal mortgage fees, and all kinds of really nasty things happening on Wall Street. Give it a listen:

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There are plenty of reasons why the foreclosure fraud crisis sweeping the nation's housing market is an economic disaster. Banks are charging borrowers illegal fees, kicking the wrong people out of their homes and even hiring thugs to illegally break into houses. more »

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If senior White House adviser David Axelrod’s comments this weekend are any indication, the Obama administration is woefully misreading the foreclosure fraud crisis currently gripping the U.S. economy. more »

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Over at bloggingheads, my CAF colleague Bill Scher discusses the new international banking standards with Conn Carroll, a conservative blogger for The Heritage Foundation. Carroll actually agrees with a lot of what I have to say about Basel III, but I he draws conclusions from my post that overemphasize the role of regulation and ignore the insane lobbying and outright fraud that Wall Street deployed to create a crisis.

The fact that Carroll and I can agree on this stuff (to an extent) shouldn't come as a terrible shock—Wall Street reform is about the basic functioning of the economy—it's not an issue that needs to ignite ideological conflict. Here are his key comments:

"I like the acknowledgement that the problem of this last financial crisis had to do with a problem of regulation."

Nothing wrong there. You'd have to be insane to believe that financial regulations—or the regulators who implemented them—were up to snuff. But here's where I part ways with Carroll:

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The Washington Post has published a very silly op-ed by Chrystia Freeland accusing President Barack Obama of unfairly "demonizing" Wall Street. Freeland wants to see Obama tone down his rhetoric and play nice with executives in pursuit of a harmonious economic recovery. more »

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