THE WORLD...CONTINUED

The criminal task force that The Leader had set up had included the very ambitious New York State AG, Eric Schneiderman.  From it seems the beginning of time the AG office in New York has been the stepping stone to the Governorship and Mr. Schneiderman, who had been screaming for legal action against anything financial for years jumped at the chance.  Remarkably, when The Leader announced the agreement poor old Eric was no where to be seen; he had simply been used and cast aside when no longer needed.  In the long run he'l probably thank his lucky stars that he was thrown over board as nothing good is going to come out of this joke except a bunch of political pay-offs from the funds put up by the banks undoubtably in so called "battleground" states in the November election.  And as for the mortgagees?  It is a travesty.

Supposedly, $10 billion will go towards principal reduction for forclosed homes or homes with delinquent borrowers.. Flash!  Foreclosed homes tend not to have anyone in them so now what happens?  Does that mean the foreclosed owner is hunted down in put back in the home with a reduced mortgage?  Or is the home placed on the market at a reduced price? And wouldn't that happen anyway?  Who knows.

Another slug of money will go--somehow--to people whose house is underwater and who haven't paid their mortgage.  NO money will go to people whose house is underwater but who have paid their mortgage...Say WHAT?  You mean if you do the right thing you get nothing but if you don't...?

Finally, a huge slug of money goes to social action programs such as "anti-blight programs"...yeah, they really call it that...which is nothing more than a give-away to the reinvented ACORN and other such favored political organizations.  And in the end the mortgage market, searching for honest valuations will be untouched and continue to stagnate.

It's bad enough but it would even be worse if it really cost the banks anything but it doesn't.  For the most part, the expenses or "fines" connected to this program have already been reserved or completely written off; in one case, that of ALLY, it's a round trip.  Ally still is taking TARP money!  They are paying the "penalty" with taxpayers' money!  That's about as good as it gets.  On top of all of that, the banks get a reprieve from a multiplicity of state law suits for the time being but not a absolute immunity. They can be suied for a whole bunch of things but not in this election year for the deal is The Leader and the administration will take the credit for this nonsense and depending how things turn out, the entire thing will be revisited in 2013.  Keep in mind, with this sword of Damocles hanging over them, the afor-mentioned Richard Cordray now has enormous power as his office oversees everything that the banks might do in the consumer sector and under the rules of Dodd/Frank, he reports to no one.  The sound you will hear from Wall Street in the coming months is silence and the writing of checks to The Leader's campaign.  And that, boys and girls is what this was all about.  Control.  It seems with these guys that all that counts.

                                                ----------------------------------------------------

The Greeks caved if you want to call it that.  On Wednesday the Euros will see what else they can extract from this bled-dry stone.  And Athens burns.  One commentator yesterday remarked that in the past, programs such as the Greeks are aabout to undertake have worked.  Not knowing any better he neglected to mention that in past circumstances, there was a currency that could be devalued.  Who knows, in a week or two there may be one again called the Drachma.