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And it ain't over yet...........
And a Happy New Year to you Z........
Robber Barons....and you are covering their risk!
The real estate “steal of the century” is moving into its final, most rapacious and decadent phase. Team Trump wants to hand over $5 trillion in assets to billionaires — assets for which you, dear taxpayer, are shouldering the risk.
Pour yourself a tall serving of your favorite beverage and sit back for the ultimate tale of “privatized profits and socialized risk.”
Our story begins nearly five years ago. Agora Financial’s fearless leader Addison Wiggin wrote the following in the gone-but-not-forgotten Apogee Advisory…
“In a dystopian America of the near future, millions of foreclosed homes sitting on the federal government’s books are flipped at fire-sale prices to hedge funds and private-equity firms with government connections.”
This was the earliest stage of a scheme hatched in Washington called “REO-to-rental.” The idea is that these big-bucks investors would buy the single-family homes at a deep discount and then manage them as rentals.
Think back to early 2012. Wouldn’t you have loved to buy the foreclosure property around the block and rent it out in hopes of generating the income you could no longer get from a CD or a money market fund in our brave new zero-interest-rate world?
Sorry, you didn’t qualify. These foreclosures were available only to investors able to drop at least $1 billion on a bulk transaction with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or the Federal Housing Administration.
Five years later, “big investors have spent at least $32 billion buying and fixing up homes,” says this morning’s Wall Street Journal, “and they own between 1% and 2% of all U.S. rental homes, analysts estimate.”
The biggest investor of all is Blackstone Group — which might let you collect a paltry cut of the rental income now.
Blackstone has dropped $10 billion on about 50,000 REO-to-rental properties through its Invitation Homes LP unit. Now Invitation Homes has filed plans to go public as its own company.
It wouldn’t be the first. Less than a year after the feds rolled out REO-to-rental, Silver Bay Realty Trust went public under the ticker SBY. Others have followed, including American Homes 4 Rent (AMH) and Colony Starwood Homes (SFR).
Whatever income these companies pull in from their rentals, they don’t hand over much of it to their retail shareholders. SBY and SFR have yields of just under 3% — about the same as a 30-year Treasury bond. AMH has a yield of less than 1%.
So... Wall Street feasts off Fannie and Freddie... while mom and pop get crumbs.
At this point in our story, it’s worth recalling just how Fannie and Freddie operate.
As you might already know, Fannie and Freddie are GSEs, or “government-sponsored enterprises.” They provide insurance-like guarantees on $5 trillion in mortgages. They collect money upfront in exchange for a promise to pay on any credit losses.
Well, that’s the sugarcoated description. Here’s how our own David Stockman describes it: “They stamp what amounts to a government guarantee on trillions of dollars in mortgages and then collect a fee for doing nothing except putting taxpayers in harm's way.”
Still, for decades, it was good business. Easy money. Then came the real estate bubble, followed by the Panic of 2008. Suddenly, taxpayers were on the hook for a $188 billion bailout. Fannie and Freddie booked huge losses from 2009–2011.
But with the recovery of the housing market — if you factor out inflation, housing prices are back to the mid-2006 peak — Fannie and Freddie’s revenues are way up and losses way down.
Key point: Because Fannie and Freddie were nationalized in 2008, it’s the U.S. Treasury booking the profits — to the tune of $255.8 billion since 2012.
However… a few Wall Street sharks believe the profits really belong to them, even though you’re the one at risk. And they’ll stop at nothing to grab those profits.
Fannie and Freddie are still publicly traded companies, even after the nationalization. The government owns about 80% of the shares… while booking 100% of the profits.
The other 20% of the shares have been snapped up in recent years by hedge fund operatives like Bill Ackman. In part, it was a bet on a housing recovery… but it was mostly a bet that Congress would change the law and allow Ackman and Co. to collect the profits, instead of the Treasury.
When Congress didn’t act, Ackman and the others sued. Incredibly, they did so on Fifth Amendment grounds.
“This whole hedge fund gambit is a Wild West speculation on worthless paper and the presumed mendacity of the nation's legislators,” says David Stockman, “yet these Wall Street larcenists have the nerve to call an attempted theft from the public a ‘taking’ of their own private property.”
But the court case might soon become moot: Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, says he wants to hand the entire $5 trillion Fannie-Freddie candy store to Wall Street.
Hours after he was named a week ago today, he was telling CNBC that Fannie and Freddie are one of his Top 10 priorities: “We will make sure that when they are restructured, they are absolutely safe and don’t get taken over again. But we’ve got to get them out of government control.”
Allow Mr. Stockman to once again translate: “That's code for showering his hedge fund buddies with billions of windfall gains on the otherwise worthless stock of these two government housing finance zombies.
“These misbegotten operations can't be ‘restructured’ and can't be made ‘absolutely safe’ as spinoffs to the private sector. That's because without some form of backstop from the U.S. Treasury, their whole business model would collapse.”
Note the choice of words by Mnuchin, the ex-Goldman Sachs man: “We’ve got to get them out of government control.” He said nothing about ending the taxpayer backstop.
Concludes Mr. Stockman: “We have been rooting all along for the Donald and his fulminations against the Wall Street/Washington ruling elites. But we have also insisted that he has no clue about how to actually ‘drain the swamp.’” Agora Financial
True American hero........
http://theantimedia.org/julian-assange-statement-election/
Wait 'til VR comes of age. Have you read the Foundation Trilogy yet?.....prolly no, lol.
Take a look at this....brilliant!
On assignment for a local newspaper. This was the 1st post here in almost 4 yrs, lol. It was one of my favorites.....too heady I guess.
You're prolly right, but I'll take the little victory. Now if only we were as pissed off as the Brits.......
Brexit? Definitely in favor.......they stuck it to the international banking cabal. The EU/Euro was one of their proudest accomplishments......I'm sure they won't give up until they get England back.
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2016/06/29/brexit-how-the-british-people-have-forfeited-the-confidence-of-their-government-a-quick-commentary/
Thnx......you too Z. Hope you had a good one.
Thnx Sherman.......as opposed to officials who are in the pockets of the Lords of Chaos, folks like Jones make me scratch my head. It's good that he changed his mind, but his initial vote makes me wonder if these people do any research at all before they take a country to war.......for that matter, do they think at all?
Heh.....before they made me take it down, the quote in my posts read......."You don't need a college degree to know you're being sodomized".
Heh....what else is new in the whore house?
The greed of a few and we refuse to put a stop to it. What's up with that?
Huh?
How to Finance Global Reflation
HONG KONG – There is a growing awareness that, in today’s globalized world, financial markets are beyond the control of national policymakers. While a few economies do have the scale to shape interconnected global markets, they face serious constraints, political and economic. As a result, the global economy is stuck in a pro-cyclical financial cycle, with few options for escape.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sdr-reserve-currency-fight-deflation-by-andrew-sheng-and-xiao-geng-2016-04?utm_source=project-syndicate.org&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=authnote
You are SO right!
Just the usual suspects........the rich disease.....get more by any means. I hope I see the day when this mental illness is recognized and these folks get the help they sorely need, lol.
Hillary Clinton’s Six Foreign-Policy Catastrophes
By Eric Zuesse
Global Research, February 22, 2016
Url of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/hillary-clintons-six-foreign-policy-catastrophes/5509543
Many commentators have mentioned (such as here and here and here and here) that Hillary Clinton left behind no major achievement as U.S. Secretary of State; but, actually, she did. Unfortunately, all of her major achievements were bad, and some were catastrophic. Six countries were especially involved: Honduras, Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. The harm she did to each country was not in the interest of the American people, and it was disastrous for the residents there.
Hillary Clinton at every campaign debate says “I have a better track-record,” and that she’s “a progressive who gets things done.” Here’s what she has actually done, when she was Secretary of State; here’s her track-record when she actually had executive responsibility for U.S. foreign-affairs. This will display her real values, not just her claimed values:
The empire wages fierce hybrid war on Brazil—outcome still unclear
Pepe Escobar
SPUTNIK NEWS
Of the 65 members of the sham congressional committee who voted on impeachment, 35 of the 38 who voted in favor are being investigated for corruption.
The nation remains deeply polarized — even with President Rousseff not charged with any wrongdoing, unlike the lot in Congress who wants to bring down her government. Of the 65 members of the sham congressional committee who voted on impeachment, 35 of the 38 who voted in favor are being investigated for corruption.
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2016/04/20/the-empire-wages-fierce-hybrid-war-on-brazil-outcome-still-unclear/
Monsanto's Willing Executioners
Wednesday, 06 April 2016 09:47
By JP Sottile, Truthout | News Analysis
Is Monsanto "evil"?
Just pop that question into Google and you'll find out quickly why Monsanto ranks near the top of every "most hated company" list. And ask any news editor ... the name "Monsanto" is guaranteed clickbait that reels in readers by the bushel.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35517-monsanto-s-willing-executioners
A Force Unto Itself: A Military Leviathan Has Emerged as America’s 51st and Most Powerful State
From retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel William Astore, a powerful portrait of how, in the decades after the Vietnam War, a post-democratic U.S. military became a reality and of the kind of permanent war making it freed Washington to be involved in. It couldn’t be a more vivid account of the ways in which such a military encouraged privatization, cashing in, and secrecy as a way of life and how that way of life rose to such prominence and power in Washington.
William J. Astore
TomDispatch
March 22, 2016
In the decades since the draft ended in 1973, a strange new military has emerged in the United States. Think of it, if you will, as a post-democratic force that prides itself on its warrior ethos rather than the old-fashioned citizen-soldier ideal. As such, it’s a military increasingly divorced from the people, with a way of life ever more foreign to most Americans (adulatory as they may feel toward its troops). Abroad, it’s now regularly put to purposes foreign to any traditional idea of national defense. In Washington, it has become a force unto itself, following its own priorities, pursuing its own agendas, increasingly unaccountable to either the president or Congress.
Three areas highlight the post-democratic transformation of this military with striking clarity: the blending of military professionals with privatized mercenaries in prosecuting unending “limited” wars; the way senior military commanders are cashing in on retirement; and finally the emergence of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) as a quasi-missionary imperial force with a presence in at least 135 countries a year (and counting).
- See more at: http://portside.org/2016-04-04/force-unto-itself-military-leviathan-has-emerged-america%e2%80%99s-51st-and-most-powerful-state#sthash.792UgLOf.dpuf
In Shock to Wall Street, Puerto Rico Moves to Suspend Payments on $72 Billion Public Debt
Wednesday, 06 April 2016 00:00
By Amy Goodman and Juan González, Democracy Now! | Video Interview
The Puerto Rican Senate and the House of Representatives have both passed an emergency declaration authorizing the governor to suspend payments on $72 billion in public debt -- setting up a dramatic showdown between Puerto Rico and hedge funds amid the island's historic debt crisis. The bill authorizes the Puerto Rican governor to "protect the health, security and public welfare ... [by] using government funds first and foremost for public services." The dramatic move comes one day after a group of hedge funds sued to freeze the assets of Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank in efforts to stop the bank from spending money on the island that the hedge funds want to go toward upcoming debt payments.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35528-in-shock-to-wall-street-and-washington-puerto-rico-moves-to-suspend-payments-on-72-billion-public-debt
Trump Unbound
by David Stockman • April 4, 2016
Even by The Donald’s standards his 95 minute long interview with the Washington Post was remarkable. He let loose so many stray shots as to leave the establishment press clucking in a chorus of disbelief. It undoubtedly started with the stink bomb he lobbied at the ” all is awesome” meme about the US economy and stock market:
Donald Trump said in an interview that economic conditions are so perilous that the country is headed for a “very massive recession” and that “it’s a terrible time right now” to invest in the stock market, embracing a distinctly gloomy view of the economy that counters mainstream economic forecasts.
The New York billionaire dismissed concern that his comments — which are exceedingly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a major party front-runner — could potentially affect financial markets.
Now there’s an irony. Presumably the last paragraph was written by Bob Woodward who was once the bête noir of the Washington/Wall Street establishment. But like nearly everyone else in the Imperial City he has been drinking the Cool-Aid for so many decades that he was apparently shocked by Trump’s unfiltered bit of truth-telling about an economy that is failing 90% of the American public.
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/trump-unbound/
It's not a matter of learning from our mistakes. All these pseudo wars are intentional. Ron Paul either should know that or knows it and is afraid to say so.
Good ol' George..... always had a way with words.......miss ya.......
George Carlin's wife died early in 2008 and George followed her, dying in July 2008. It is ironic George Carlin - comedian of the 70's and 80's - could write something so very eloquent and so very appropriate. An observation by George Carlin:
"The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.
Remember to spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
And always remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by those moments that take our breath away."
Breaking..........
The Panama Papers
If you’re not up to speed yet, 11 mil?lion documents have been leaked from a Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca -- spilling the beans on offshore tax evasion worldwide from the 1970s up to the present day. The identity of the leaker, for now, is a secret.
http://panamapapers.icij.org/stairway_tax_heaven_game/
The Myth of America’s War on Terrorism
STEPHEN LENDMAN
It’s a complete hoax – a phony pretext for waging endless imperial wars, wanting whole continents carved up for profit and dominance. Fictitious enemies are created. Premeditated wars of aggression follow. Rules of engagement are changed from rule of law observance to anything goes. America declared war on humanity, the greatest threat to life on earth, using terrorist groups to do much of its dirty work.
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2016/03/31/the-myth-of-americas-war-on-terrorism/
Dark Forces Behind Anti-Trumpism
STEPHEN LENDMAN
America is a one-party state with two wings, its bipartisan supported rogue state agenda threatening world peace, its money controlled electoral process too corrupted to fix. Democracy is pure fantasy. Voters have no say whatever. Party bosses complicit with Wall Street, war profiteers and other corporate interests decide who’ll be president, hold top congressional posts and be chosen for the nation’s courts, notably its highest.
The Web is suddenly crawling with images of Trump as Hitler—the idea has apparently caught on. To what extent this is the weight of the establishment attempting to quash Trump as an unwelcome messenger is anybody's guess at this time.
The Web is suddenly crawling with images of Trump as Hitler—the idea has apparently caught on. The establishment is clearly attempting to quash Trump as an unreliable instrument for its hidden agenda.
Government in America serves its privileged class exclusively. No matter who succeeds Obama, the incumbent will follow tradition. Trump is like the rest. His unorthodox style makes him appear different. He didn’t become a billionaire by being anti-establishment. His one redeeming quality is he’s less likely to start WW III than Clinton. As a businessman, he’d rather make money than war, but make no mistake.
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2016/03/31/dark-forces-behind-anti-trumpism/
Vaxxed: the movie you can’t see, the truth you can’t know
by Jon Rappoport
March 29, 2016
To all meddlers who know best and are keeping us from exploring “dangerous information” on our own:
Fuck off.
Is that clear enough?
Here’s what we don’t need; people who pretend to act like shepherds for our own good, while profiting from their version of the truth.
The film, Vaxxed (trailer), which Robert De Niro axed from his Tribeca Film Festival, purports to show there is a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. At least a long-time researcher at the CDC, William Thompson, thinks so. He has stated in writing that he and his colleagues committed scientific fraud and gave the dangerous vaccine a free pass.
That’s news.
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2016/03/29/vaxxed-the-movie-you-cant-see-the-truth-you-cant-know/
Warning................Peta ransomware leverages Dropbox and overwrites hard drives
Trend Micro researchers spotted a new ransomware variant dubbed Petya that is delivered to victims who believe they are linking to a resume stored on a cloud storage site like Dropbox.
The email provides a link to, in the case studied by Trend Micro, a Dropbox storage location. The email is supposed to link to the applicant's resume, but instead the link is connected to a self-extracting executable file that unleashes a trojan into the system.
Researchers said the trojan blinds any antivirus programs defending the computer before downloading and executing the ransomware.Trend Micro said the cybercriminals asked for 0.99 Bitcoins to unlock the computer.
Once executed, Petya overwrites the entire hard drive MBR to prevent the victim's device from loading Windows normally or even restarting in Safe Mode. If the victim tries to reboot their computer they will be greeted by an ASCII skull and given an ultimatum to pay the ransom or have the files deleted.
http://www.scmagazine.com/petya-ransomware-overwrites-mbrs-and-leverages-cloud-services/article/485833/
The US Govt Created ISIS, And Doesn’t Care How Many Children It Kills (Video)
It’s just another episode in the long history of moral depravity of US foreign policy
In this report by noted investigative journalist Ben Swann, he presents documentary evidence of what everybody has long known or believed, namely, that the US was the primary force behind the emergence of Islamic State.
The Pentagon document leaked to Judicial Watch talks of creating a “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria, which would serve as a counterweight to the Shiite influence in the region as represented by the Alawite (a Shiite sect) al-Assad government and their Iranian allies.
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2016/03/25/the-us-govt-created-isis-and-doesnt-care-how-many-children-it-kills-video/
Why are You Voting for Clinton? A Letter to Liberal America
by Chris Byron
Dear Liberal America, I write to you confused, and melancholic. I am melancholic about Bernie’s serious losses across five states last week, and I am confused why he is losing. The simple answer no doubt is because Hillary is winning, but that only exacerbates my confusion. Liberal America, why is Hillary winning? Because you all are voting for her. But why are you voting for her? Seriously why are you voting for her? It’s the answer to that question which is so vexing.
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2016/03/25/why-are-you-voting-for-clinton-a-letter-to-liberal-america/
Vaxxed: How did they threaten Robert De Niro?
De Niro talked to Congressman about censored Vaxxed film
by Jon Rappoport
March 27, 2016
“On July 26, 2000, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association published a review by Dr. Barbara Starfield, a revered public-health expert at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. Starfield’s review, ‘Is US health really the best in the world?’, concluded that, every year in the US, the medical system kills 225,000 people. That’s 2.25 million killings per decade.” (Jon Rappoport, The Starfield Revelation)
This is explosive.
This is about a film no one can see, because it exposes lunatics and destroyers in the vaccine industry.
Here is a quote from the Vaxxed producer and director, after their film was just axed from Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Festival (as reported by Jeremy Gerard, see: “‘Vaxxed’ Filmmakers Accuse De Niro, Tribeca Film Fest Of ‘Censorship’ In Wake Of Cancelation,” 3/26/2016):
“’To our dismay, we learned today about the Tribeca Film Festival’s decision to reverse the official selection of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,’ said Andrew Wakefield and Del Bigtree (the director and producer, respectively). Robert De Niro’s original defense of the film happened Friday after a one-hour conversation between De Niro and Bill Posey, the congressman who has interacted directly and at length with the CDC Whistleblower (William Thompson) and whose team has scrutinized the documents that prove fraud at the CDC. …” (emphasis added)
Okay. So here is the sequence…
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2016/03/27/vaxxed-how-did-they-threaten-robert-de-niro/
We All Are Islamic State
Posted on Mar 27, 2016
By Chris Hedges
Revenge is the psychological engine of war. Victims are the blood currency. Their corpses are used to sanctify acts of indiscriminant murder. Those defined as the enemy and targeted for slaughter are rendered inhuman. They are not worthy of empathy or justice. Pity and grief are felt exclusively for our own. We vow to eradicate a dehumanized mass that embodies absolute evil. The maimed and dead in Brussels or Paris and the maimed and dead in Raqqa or Sirte perpetuate the same dark lusts. We all are Islamic State.
“From violence only violence is born,” Primo Levi wrote, “following a pendular action that, as time goes by, rather than dying down, becomes more frenzied.”
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/we_are_all_islamic_state_20160327
A Scam Called Valeant——Why The Casino Is Going To Blow
by David Stockman • March 24, 2016
If you need evidence that Wall Street is a financial time bomb waiting for ignition look no further than the recent meltdown of Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX). In round terms, its market cap of $90 billion on August 5th has suddenly become the embodiment of that proverbial sucking sound to the south, having plunged to less than $12 billion by Wednesday’s close.
That’s nearly a 90% haircut and VRX was no microcap penny stock. It was a giant inhabitant of a hedge fund hotel.
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/a-scam-called-valeant-why-the-casino-is-going-to-blow/
Then barter it is..........I'll trade ya 3 cat's eyes for 1 steely.