Continue your support for Elizabeth Warren, you can, will make a difference!

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If you haven’t already fallen for Elizabeth, what are you waiting for?

She has your best interest at heart and Join us: Help Elizabeth Warren win her Senate race!

HuffPo-

Elizabeth Warren spoke out today about the unfair advantage she says big companies have over small businesses in America, a playing field she declared was uneven even before the current recession.

“The problems facing small businesses today go well beyond the bad economy,” said Warren in a speech at the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce in Massachusetts.

Without the resources to hire lobbyists and lawyers to cozy up to Congress, small businesses don’t get a fair shake in Washington, she said. “Regulations in the United States are rigged to work for the big guys,” Warren said.

Washington isn’t helping. Instead of working on how to create a better environment for small business, Washington spent its energy on saving Wall Street banks that were to big to fail. There’s an old saying: ‘we all do better when we all do better,’ and nothing could be more true for small business. The decline in consumer spending, poor sales, and economic uncertainty have made it difficult for small businesses to thrive.

[HUFFINGTON POST]

Absolutely do not miss this piece from Abigail Field – So head over and please absorb the information.

Abigail C. Field-

If you want to cut through some of the nonsense the banks have managed to sell as information about the housing situation, robosigning, mortgage modifications, check out this very accessible interview of attorney Talcott Franklin by Martin Andelman.

Tal represents the majority of investors hosed once by Wall Streeers selling AAA-rated mortgage backed junk, and constantly being hosed again by the big bank servicers of those mortgages. Interestingly, his perspective sounds very much like homeowners’. Yes, a couple of times it gets a little too legalistic, but only for about 5 minutes of the slightly longer than the hour chat—when you hit the overview of the contracts structuring securitization, or any other topic that is more in the weeds than you want to go, take a deep breath and keep going. Most of the interview is in a rhythm and a language that creates clarity I’ve not seen or heard elsewhere.

[REALITY CHECK]

Please find some time today or over the weekend to listen to this excellent podcast of Martin Andelman’s interview with Attorney Talcott Franklin, who represents more than half of all the investors in mortgage-backed securities on the planet.  Tal’s the co-author of the “Mortgage and Asset-backed Securities Litigation Handbook,” and he’s a very experienced and highly sophisticated litigator. You will learn a whole lot and many thanks to Martin for this super interview.

Please head over to Mandelman Matters for the full article.

The podcast is available in two versions… MP4 and MP3.  The MP4 version includes a couple of slides that show diagrams of the basic securitization process, but the MP4 format may not play on some computers.  The MP3 version is audio only, and should play on most any computer.  Most listeners will have no trouble following along either way.

So, turn up the volume on your speakers, and click the MP4 or MP3 version.  I loved recoding this podcast.  If you want to know more about the foreclosure crisis, you’re about to learn from an expert on the other side of the foreclosures, the investor side… it doesn’t get any better than this!

CLICK HERE TO PLAY THE ENHANCED MP4 VERSION

… INCLUDES SLIDES ON SECURITIZATION

 OR

CLICK HERE TO PLAY THE MP3 VERSION

Mandelman out.

Millions of Americans hoped President Obama would nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the consumer financial watchdog agency she had created. Instead, she was pushed aside. As Warren kicks off her run for Scott Brown’s Senate seat in Massachusetts, Suzanna Andrews charts the Harvard professor’s emergence as a champion of the beleaguered middle class, and her fight against a powerful alliance of bankers, lobbyists, and politicians.

Cont. reading [Vanity Fair]

BIG NEWS: Elizabeth Warren is running for Senate!

Check out her announcement video below. Be sure to sign right up!

HuffPO-

WASHINGTON — Consumer advocate and former White House official Elizabeth Warren will announce on Wednesday that she is running for the United States Senate seat currently held by Scott Brown (R-Mass.), a close source tells The Huffington Post.

The announcement will not come as a surprise, as Warren has spent the last few weeks traveling across Massachusetts and speaking at several high-profile political events as part of a statewide listening tour. Still, her formal entrance into the race is likely to be cheered by progressives and national Democrats alike, as Warren is both beloved by the base and represents one of the party’s best chances to unseat Brown.

[HUFFINGTONPOST]

HuffPO’s Richard Zombeck:

With the exception of Elizabeth Warren, there are very few heroes fighting for the little guy when it comes to consumer rights and mortgage malpractice. Tom Miller, the Ohio Attorney General, had a brief moment of righteous advocacy until he received $261,445 in campaign contributions from out-of-state law firms and donors from the finance, insurance, and real estate sector shortly after he announced he was seeking criminal charges and retribution from the banks for mortgage fraud — that’s 88 times what he has received in the past decade.

continue reading [HUFFINGTONPOST]

Uploaded by MainStreetInsider on May 24, 2011

On Tuesday, May 24th 2011, during a hearing in a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee, Chairman Patrick McHenry (NC-10) ended the hearing by calling Elizabeth Warren a liar. It was a messy and confusing ending for all watching. Warren had stated that the Chairman’s staff and her, after a late-night, last-minute schedule change, had agreed to let her leave by 2:15 to meet other obligations. You can see the look of shock on her face when he outright calls her a liar.

This video, recorded live, comes from the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s live feed.

Testimony of Elizabeth Warren Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Before the Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services, and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
United States House of Representatives
Tuesday, May 24, 2011

[ipaper docId=56166612 access_key=key-235muim1ij7lkuv11omb height=600 width=600 /]

Wall Street Journal-

The White House isn’t saying much about whether Harvard law professor and consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren will be named to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

But the head of a key banking industry group believes it will happen soon.

Camden Fine, president and chief executive of the Independent Community Bankers of America, said Monday that he sees a “better than even chance” that President Barack Obama will nominate Ms. Warren to lead the new bureau.

We have to question if this has anything to do with the  White House Considering Sarah Raskin or Jennifer Granholm To Head Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

From NY Times DealBook

Jamie Dimon, it turns out, has a soft spot for the government’s new consumer financial bureau.

“We need to create a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that is effective for both consumers and banks,” Mr. Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, said in his April 4 letter to shareholders.

Yes, this is the same Mr. Dimon who last month complained that various new rules facing Wall Street “would damage America.” And it is the same JPMorgan that (unsuccessfully) lobbied lawmakers to kill plans for an independent consumer financial agency.

Written Testimony of
Adam J. Levitin
Associate Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center

Before the House Financial Services Committee
Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit

“Legislative Proposals to Improve the Structure of the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau”
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[click image]

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.

(Reuters) – The White House is considering Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Raskin and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to head a new agency charged with protecting consumers of financial products, a source aware of the process said on Tuesday.

The consumer protection body will have broad powers to rein in abuses in the financial industry and was created in response to the aggressive and sometimes predatory lending practices that contributed to one of the worst financial crises in U.S. history in 2007-2009.

However its creation has been tarnished by a months-old logjam over who should head the agency. Law professor Elizabeth Warren, an outspoken consumer advocate and harsh critic of industry practices who had championed the bureau’s establishment, had been a leading candidate to run it but was seen as too confrontational to industry to overcome objections from Senate Republicans.

Elizabet Warren and Jamie Dimon will go toe to toe later on this week at the U.S. Chambers of Commerce.

From REUTERS

The remarks by Warren and Dimon will generate headlines, although analysts said other financial regulation news this week will have more impact on banks and the markets.

“The big event next week in Washington is the long-anticipated release of the rules implementing the Dodd-Frank risk retention requirement,” said Brian Gardner, a senior policy analyst at investment firm Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

BY CARRICK MOLLENKAMP AND NICK TIMIRAOS

Fannie Mae was warned in a 2006 internal report of abuses in the way lenders and their law firms handled foreclosures, long before regulators launched investigations into the mortgage industry’s practices.

The report said foreclosure attorneys in Florida had “routinely made” false statements in court in an effort to more quickly process foreclosures and raised questions about whether some mortgage servicers or another entity had the legal standing to foreclose.

How’s this for contrasting interpretations:  the AGs’ proposed mortgage servicing settlement is being termed both a “shakedown” (WSJ editorial page) and a “bailout.” (Jesse Eisinger at ProPublica–ok, he uses the word “gift”, but still).

Wow.  That’s some divergence in characterization of an incomplete term sheet.

I think both of these interpretations miss the mark, as neither really gets what a settlement is.  A settlement is a voluntary contract and represents compromises by both sides in order to avoid uncertain litigation outcome.  The WSJ’s interpretation is just nuts–the cheerleaders for freedom of contract are complaining about the price of a contract offer.  Addressing Eisinger’s bailout charge is more complex.  Details below the break.

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: March 20, 2011

Last week, at a House hearing on financial institutions and consumer credit, Republicans lined up to grill and attack Elizabeth Warren, the law professor and bankruptcy expert who is in charge of setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Ostensibly, they believed that Ms. Warren had overstepped her legal authority by helping state attorneys general put together a proposed settlement with mortgage servicers, which are charged with a number of abuses.

By JOE NOCERA

Published: March 18, 2011

The piñata sat alone at the witness table, facing the members of the House subcommittee on financial institutions and consumer credit.

The Wednesday morning hearing was titled “Oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” The only witness was the piñata, otherwise known as Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor hired last year by President Obama to get the new bureau — the only new agency created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law — up and running. She may or may not be nominated by the president to serve as its first director when it goes live in July, but in the here and now she’s clearly running the joint.

And thus the real purpose of the hearing: to allow the Republicans who now run the House to box Ms. Warren about the ears. The big banks loathe Ms. Warren, who has made a career out of pointing out all the ways they gouge financial consumers — and whose primary goal is to make such gouging more difficult. So, naturally, the Republicans loathe her too. That she might someday run this bureau terrifies the banks. So, naturally, it terrifies the Republicans.

[Image credit: MSNBC]

[Make sure you catch the audio below]

WASHINGTON — A Wall Street Journal editorial writer who has been closely involved with the paper’s recent attacks on Elizabeth Warren is a former Goldman Sachs banker. The same editorial writer, Mary Kissel, is readying another piece critical of Warren and the new consumer agency, according to a source familiar with the coming article.

Like most major newspapers, the Journal does not disclose the authors of its editorials. Kissel recently appeared on the John Batchelor radio show as a representative of the Journal‘s editorial board do discuss Warren, and repeated the main arguments used in the editorials.

Listen to the Audio:

By Simon Johnson

The next big political battle in Washington – after the budget debate is declared “over” – will likely feature the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in particular the fight to determine whether Elizabeth Warren can become as the agency’s first official head.

But will this fight feature a classic left vs. right set-piece confirmation showdown in the Senate?  Or it will it be resolved with cloaks and daggers closer to the White House – with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner managing to prevent Professor Warren’s nomination?

There is much to commend the left vs. right scenario.  The Republicans, after all, want to argue that regulation is excessive in general and regulation of financial products is somewhere between unnecessary and dangerous for economic growth in particular.  This theme came up during the Dodd-Frank legislative debate on financial reform last year but it was largely lost in the larger conversation.

Elizabeth not only deserves this,

she earned it.

Testimony of Elizabeth Warren Special Advisor to the
Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Before the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
Committee on Financial Services
United States House of Representatives
Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The current economic crisis began one bad mortgage at a time. Mortgages that promised investors huge profits for low risks were the raw material of the securities that contributed to the near collapse of the worldwide economy. Irresponsible lending that encouraged people to buy homes with no realistic hope of ever paying off their loans has now led millions of families into foreclosure and bankruptcy. If there had been just a few basic rules and a cop on the beat to enforce them, we could have avoided or minimized the greatest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression. In the future, the new consumer bureau will be that cop.

[ipaper docId=50869746 access_key=key-a81fljm2c15vhtvrwbm height=600 width=600 /]

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.