October 2010

Where's The Note? Shock and Awe for Big Banks


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Michael Collins

Big banks have stopped foreclosures in 23 states due to legal challenges to their ownership of mortgage notes. On Wednesday, JP Morgan upped their total to 41 states in which foreclosure operations had ceased.

Why the halt in foreclosures? It seems that the banks have ignored long established state property and title procedures and may not actually own the title to the homes subject to foreclosure (and others subject to the same procedures).

Calculated Risk quoted a JP Morgan spokesman saying,

"We've identified issues relating to the mortgage foreclosure affidavits and those include signers not having personally reviewed the underlying loan files but instead having relied upon the work of others. … And there are circumstances where affidavits have not been properly notarized" Oct. 13.

Failing to "personally review" loan documents means that asserting that the review took place was perjury. This happened for countless mortgages. Failing to properly notarize mortgage signatures violates state property law. It could also be seen as negligence by investors in the mortgages.

Trade Deficit for August 2010 - $46.3 Billion

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The August 2010 U.S. trade deficit increased to $46.347 billion. July's revised deficit was $42.583 billion. The goods deficit with China alone increased $2.1 billion. That's an 8.84% U.S. trade deficit increase in one month. U.S. exports increased by a measly $0.3 billion, to $153.5 billion, while imports increased by $4.1 billion, to $200.2 billion.

 

What's Behind the Foreclosure Crisis

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By Numerian

"MERS acts as nominee in the county land records for the lender and servicer. Any loan registered on the MERS® System is inoculated against future assignments because MERS remains the nominal mortgagee no matter how many times servicing is traded. MERS as original mortgagee (MOM) is approved by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, FHA and VA, California and Utah Housing Finance Agencies, as well as all of the major Wall Street rating agencies." About theMortgage Electronic Registration System, MERS

The foreclosure scandal surrounding the US financial industry is being portrayed by the banks as a technical problem which requires that some documentation errors be fixed. The White House has rejected the calls of many in the Congress for a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures on the grounds that there are quite a lot of them that are legitimate and should be processed. Government officials say it is going to take just a little bit of time to sort out these from the flawed foreclosures.

China Trade Surplus Record Quarter

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In case you missed China's guilt trippin' the United States and claiming economic collapse if they are forced to quit their currency manipulation, check this out.

China Trade Surplus Caps Biggest Quarter Since 2008:

China, the world’s biggest exporter, posted a $16.9 billion trade surplus for September, capping the largest quarterly excess since the financial crisis in 2008 as pressure mounts for a stronger yuan.

Exports rose 25.1 percent from a year earlier and imports climbed 24.1 percent, the customs bureau said on its website today. The third-quarter trade gap was $65.6 billion, the most since a $114 billion surplus in the final three months of 2008.

The story gets weirder, half of the headlines claim china trade slowed dramatically when seemingly only Bloomberg got it right by the numbers. Here is the China state newspaper article, which explains some of spin on the numbers:

China's September trade surplus falls to $16.88 billion, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said on Wednesday.

The country's exports increased 25.1 percent in September from a year earlier to $144.99 billion, but the pace of growth slowed from August's 34.4-percent surge.

The country's imports rose 24.1 percent year on year to reach $128.11 billion last month, with the growth rate down 11.1 percentage points from that in August.

China in Their Own Words

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If the yuan isn’t stable, it will bring disaster to China and the world. If we increase the yuan by 20 percent-40 percent as some people are calling for, many of our factories will shut down and society will be in turmoil. If China’s economy goes down, it’s not good for the world economy.

This is China Premier Wen Jiabao, as quoted by Bloomberg News.

Get that? The United States should continue to export jobs to China as some sort of global social program. We should continue to give the Chinese people our jobs so they won't raise hell and revolt. We should allow China to continue to manipulate it's currency, capturing global manufacturing capabilities to keep the Chinese government in power. Wow. Maybe we should import Chinese potential social unrest, for the United States policies are stiffing the U.S. worker and the cries from the Populist are a muted whimper.

Jiabao also chastised the EU for joining the United States in demanding China re-evaluate their currency and blamed the United States for currency fluctuations. Businessweek:

Europe shouldn’t join the choir to press China to allow more yuan appreciation. The euro had a big fluctuation recently. It’s not because of yuan but the dollars. We shouldn’t be blamed for it; if there’s someone to be questioned, it should be the U.S.

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