TYT: Obama Admin Blocks Bank Investigations?

[pokerfan]

Run time: 04:53 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL63bki4kzk   Posted on YouTube: August 23, 2011 By YouTube Member: TheYoungTurks Views on YouTube: 311   Posted on DU: August 23, 2011 By DU Member: pokerfan Views on DU: 6897

 
Efforts by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have motivated AG's in other states to investigate banks for questionable mortgage practices. Why is the Obama Administration interfering? The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur explains.

[Ken Burch]

1. It's fifteen-dimensional chess, I tellya!

n/t.

[rpannier]

2. Change for the people

Small change
Dollars for the banks and wall street

[DeSwiss]

3. Of course the Obama administration wants to let the banks off.....

...because that's the only way he gets our their money to run for President in 2012. Misprision of felony used to be against the law. Eh, constitutional lawyer????

Oh. Well whaddaya know, it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misprision_of_felony#United_States_federal_law">still is!

- I say off with ALL their heads. Boy, I am sick of these lying-ass, thieving mofos........

K&R

[pokerfan]

4. It's a big club

and we ain't in it! (Carlin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBZDSSky0

[xocet]

7. Is it also against the law not to prosecute torturers? K & R n/t

[gateley]

5. Bookmarking to watch later - I've been trying to find out info

about this but all I get are the predictable snarky one-liners. Thanks for posting this.

[abelenkpe]

41. Nakedcapitalism.com

Has been covering this if you want to look into it further. Also a good article in ny times just the other day.

[xocet]

6. K & R n/t

[kimsarah]

8. Change for the shmucks

Excellent commentary by Cenk. If this isn't a classic example of why we can't trust and respect our legal system, I don't know what is. The little guy gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and is powerless to negotiate a settlement. White collar crime has its own justice system, cloaked in money and politics. Justice must be equal.
I say, don't settle. Investigate, prosecute, and shine light on the banking system that caused this disaster. Healing cannot begin without a full investigation and prosecutions.

[avaistheone1]

9. Infuriating.

k&r

[kimsarah]

10. Action needed

We need a strong senator with some guts, like say, Bernie Sanders, to call for a nonpartisan special prosecutor to investigate this Bankstergate conspiracy/fraud case, with full congressional hearings. We need to get to the bottom of this to get to the truth, obtain justice, and start the process of closure. Our anger and bitterness over this baloney won't go away until then.

[blackbart99]

11. I agree with you Kimsarah...

But it ain't gonna happen. Not in these here United Corporations of America.

UCA...UCA...UCA...just kind of rolls right off the tongue doesn't it.

Our athletes in the next olympic games will look like Nascar drivers. :sarcasm:

[ScottLand]

12. What would BE indefensible in the government's eyes?

The bankers nearly wiped out the world economy and they were rewarded. Was THAT indefensible?

[valerief]

16. Wiping out the bankers, apparently, is indefensible. We live to make rich people richer, after all.

Otherwise, what good are we war fodder? That's right. We're either war fodder or tools to make rich people richer. Nothing more. We don't go from dust to life to dust. We go from dust to tool to dust.

[ScottLand]

38. You said it. I love your quotes too!

[FlyByNight]

13. Appalling

Again.

Third Way uber alles.

:mad:

[Enthusiast]

14. Kicked and recommended!

Our government has become a criminal enterprise under Obama.

[wardropper]

42. Not quite...

Our government became a criminal enterprise under much earlier presidents, most obviously our very own Boomsh.
Obama is just doing a great job of putting the finishing touches to this awful picture...

[Enthusiast]

50. Oh, I understand that the

real criminality started with the 2000 election and subsequent events. They really did not steal the election with good intentions in mind. But we elected Obama to bring an end to it. What an unfortunate turn of events.

[valerief]

15. Because Yes They Can! nt

[florida08]

17. Because the banks caused the financial crisis

You know we can't have transparency on Wall St. We would all have torches and pitchforks. The scapegoat they have chosen to blame is first time homeowners buying too much house..lolol as if that could bring down a global economy. The Fed didn't want us to know about the 16 trillion they gave them so Obama is playing the enabler. Makes you wonder who's tapping him on the shoulder.

http://repowatch.org/about-repo/">Ever heard of repurchasing lending?

[KansDem]

30. "...first time homeowners buying too much house..."

Like this couple:

It all began when they were talking to another family about escaping their subsidized apartments and getting a real house. The other couple -- Jesus Martinez and his wife, who also have three children -- work as mushroom farmers, earning about $500 a week each when there is work. The two couples decided to pool their resources and begin house-hunting. Given their total income, they estimated that they could afford payments of $3,000 a month. They spotted an ad in the local magazine La Ganga for Maria Avila of Rancho Grande Real Estate and called her.

"We wanted to live in Watsonville," says Rosa. "But said the houses there were older and more expensive." One of the first homes they were shown was a "new" four-bedroom, two-bath house in Hollister for $720,000. When the Ramirez's heard the price, they worried that they couldn't afford it.

But the couple says they were assured them it was possible. "The monthly payment was supposed to be $4,800, but then after we bought it, it went up to $5,378," says Rosa, speaking of their zero-down mortgage with a one-month "teaser rate." "Our agent told us that once we refinanced, we could get the payments down to $3,000 or less." For a number of months Avila, who arranged for the loan with New Century Mortgage, paid the difference between what the buyers had said they could afford -- $3,000 -- and the actual loan payment. According to the buyers, this arrangement was supposed to carry them over until the group refinanced.

http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-04-13/entertainment/17238073_1_mortgage-rates-zero-down-mortgage-american-dream

Yeah, they bought "too much home," with the help of unscrupulous agents and brokers.

And then there's this (from the article):
There are the non-English-speaking, first-time home buyers who "buy homes that they can't afford, with mortgage brokers raking in the fees and an added twist that the homes are often substandard and they are appraised above their actual value." The other kind of cases involves seniors -- often African American -- who are persuaded to refinance their homes with more expensive adjustable-rate loans that carry steep prepayment penalties.

But the meltdown was caused by homeowners who "bought too much home." :eyes:

[20score]

18. Infuriating, but not surprising.

[snagglepuss]

19. Utterly reprehensible. I hope Schneiderman and other AGs perserve.

:kick:

[truth2power]

20. This issue was posted on DU yesterday - an article on the Naked Capitalism site....

link to thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x622589

and the article: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/corrupt-obama-administration-pressuring-new-york-attorney-general-to-support-mortgage-whitewash.html

There were about a half dozen people on that thread who appeared to be just holding their hands over their ears and going, "Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah", complaining about having to read negative things about the Obama administration on DU, and characterizing the article as inconsequential nonsense. Not that they appeared to have read and analyzed it, of course.

So today, here come Cenk and the NYT, both weighing in on the side of NY AG Schneiderman, and Cenk explaining it so I can understand - honestly, I couldn't figure out what they were talking about yesterday. Maybe I'm just suffering from corrupt finance overload.

In any case, I'd like to know whether those who complained yesterday that this issue was of no consequence have changed their minds and if they think it's all right for the Obama administration to be leaning on Schneiderman. It seems pretty clear to me that someone is trying to protect the banks over and above the people, and it isn't Schneiderman.


Link to NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/opinion/its-a-flawed-settlement.html?_r=2

[robbob]

23. Salon also had an article about this

http://www.salon.com/news/wall_street/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/08/22/banks

[truth2power]

25. Ah...Glenn Greenwald. Thank you. Marked to read later. eom

[xiamiam]

49. i'll guess..they haven't changed their minds..nt

[xchrom]

51. +1

[libodem]

21. And Fox is worried about our food stamps

[Jim_Shorts]

22. Obama has told us he is a "free market" guy

Free market = self policing & free of government regulation.

Alan Greenspan, Timothy Geithner, Larry Summers, are all disciple's of Ayn Rand who pushed free market principals. Now that Greenspan is no longer chairman of the federal reserve and the corruption within the banks have been revealed, he has said that he was wrong, sorry Alan, too little too late. Even with the financial meltdown and millions of people losing homes and jobs, Obama is STILL a free market guy?

Do we really want investment banks and brokerage houses that deal in nothing but capital to have little or no regulation? HA HA HA HA The foxes are in charge of the hen houses. We are truly and completely screwed.

Greenspan with Ayn Rand at his swearing in:

[Ken Burch]

33. Ford invited Ayn Rand to the White House?

No wonder Betty was hitting the hard stuff...

:eyes:

(ok, ok, just kidding about Betty, I liked her too...but you get my point...)

[rpannier]

37. Greenspan invited her

[Ken Burch]

39. Ford had to approve it, though, didn't he?

n/t.

[rpannier]

43. I'm sure he did

But at these types of events people are allowed to invite family, friends, etc.
If they don't pose a threat to the president and won't make an embarrassing scene it's usually a rubber stamp approval

[Ken Burch]

44. Fair enough.

n/t.

[NICO9000]

24. C'mon now - there's medical marijuana dispensaries that are MUCH more dangerous...

...than a few bad apples in the financial industry.

:sarcasm:

(probably not necessary)

[ooglymoogly]

26. It is the worst of times (for the 99%, middle and lower classes)

It is the best of times (for the 1%, banksters and robber barons)....A time when the office of giants became the office of midgets and criminals. "0" has become no more than a crooked, silly, marionette in whiteface...Bouree'ing around on his knees, servicing the banksters and robber barons.

[ooglymoogly]

27. Double kick and rec. nt

[Badsam]

28. When will Americans begin to march and fight back?

Im ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dotymed]

32. No wonder they have us all under surveillance...

They must know what we find out about their crimes and if we'll keep taking it.

[KansDem]

29. The new Department of Justice logo...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4KxmFp2OOHI/Sq4zOjUjVfI/AAAAAAAAEtg/l-GTQe4G5_o/s400/LMAD+Blue+logo.JPG

[WillyT]

31. HUGE K & R !!!

:mad:

:kick:

[mikesm]

34. This is just business as usual...

Busgh did it with TARP, and Obama is now extending that policy to protect "the system". I can understand (to a point), that if the banks failed and went into receivership, the economy would tank significantly. These banks are responsible for deal with all the day to day commercial credit that corporate america depends on. If you let them get punished, they will take it out on American companies. The WH doesn't really have a choice here.

The sad part isn't this, it's that reinstating Glass-Stegeal and other reforms have been ignored. That almost guarantees history will repeat itself. And that is much worse than letting a bunch of criminals get off without any penalty.

[earcandle]

35. Getting a little bit sick of all of this collusion. Levy the fucking compulsory taxes already or

resign.

[RetroLounge]

36. Unbelievable

That this thread isn't full of circle-Ds and Blue Links from the usual suspects...

:shrug:

RL

[Imagevision]

40. I hope there is an option other than Obama for 2012

[Samantha]

45. Should he cave and settle, all of those banks' current problems

in New York then become HIS. And that includes 92 percent, as Cenk just reported, of all foreclosures with bad documentation, meaning there must not be a clear title. The Attorney General of NY would have to be a fool to take on all of that massive burden. Hey, the banks broke it so they should own it (to borrow from Colin Powell....)

Sam

[chill_wind]

46. Damn. That sounds like something

a wall-street owned Republican admin would do. Dunnit?

[Left Coast2020]

47. Sounds to me like someone wants to investigate like Elliot........

......Spitzer. He gave me impression he was itch'n to put someone behind bars. But I read this story from Huffpost where he was kicked off from investigation???

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/23/new-york-attorney-general-eric-schneiderman_n_934517.html

[chill_wind]

52. Thanks for the link.

Blatant, criminal fraud. They're going to skate under a Democratic president.

:puke:

[pam4water]

48. K&R