Friday, October 31, 2008

Barney and Company Should Be More Cautious

The recent trend in squaliforme political influence buying might reverse if Barney and Company bite the hands that have been feeding them. From data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, the picture is pretty telling - Da Boss knows where to spend money.

Source:

Monday, October 27, 2008

They're Outraged!

Well it did get out - and Chairman Frank is "outraged" at Da Boss.

So outraged that he and several other members of the committee are going to hold hearings.

Oh great. More hearings. Every time we have more hearings we get what?

More Hearings.

Like the one before the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac melt down. (Click the YouTube video at left to see what good hearings do.)

Friday, October 24, 2008

Hope Now Meets Da Boss

Buried toward the back of the New York Times is an article that some people in Washington and especially some from Wall Street are going to find a bit uncomfortable.

It deals with a warning from some hedge funds who are prepared to take action against servicers that are participating in renegotiating loans without their permission.

William Frey of Greenwich Financial is quoted: “Any investor in mortgage-backed securities has the right to insist that their contract be enforced.”

Frey reportedly said he was aware of two other funds in addition to his and Braddock Financial that sent similar letters to lenders.

David Myers of Braddock Financial trotted out the industry-standard warning about how credit would dry up, saying "...if mortgage servicing firms did not strictly follow those contracts, it would delay the recovery of the credit market because investors would be less willing to buy securities in the future."

And as this kind of thing continues to leak out, maybe someone will wake up and see that Hope Now is mostly window dressing intended to get troubled borrowers to contact their servicer and jump on the fast train to foreclosure.

The Honorable Judge Roy Bean

Friday, October 10, 2008

For cryin' out loud, where's the damn remote?

I know it's 'round here somewhere....it's a big one....huge, actually. It's the only one that has a "NEWS" button. Without it, I can't block the nitwit voyeurs and their panicky messages about the stock market and the talking-heads who are fascinated with voter polls.

It also has a "POL" button that turns off all political advertising. The only problem with that function is nothing appears on the screen for about thirty minutes every hour.

If I have both of them set most of what I see are ads for TV programs.

But I really, really need to find it. Soon.

The Honorable Judge Roy Bean