SEPTEMBER 3, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
September 3 is … Skyscraper Day
In eight days we will commemorate the tenth anniversary of losing two significant skyscrapers. NEVER FORGET!
First, our government alters free enterprise by over regulating it. The control the government has over American business, because the politicians think they know better and more than business professionals, is staggering and stifling. The government has proven over and over again that everything they get involved in gets worse.
A prime example is the financial markets and banks. The government has an enormous regulatory apparatus in place to control the markets and the flow of money. With the government watching and in control, the financial markets collapsed. Even though the government was involved in this collapse and likely caused most of it, it is now responding by suing the banks.
The agency that oversees mortgage markets is preparing to file suit against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgages they packaged and sold during the housing bubble, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is expected to file suit against Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among other banks, the Times reported, citing three unidentified individuals briefed on the matter. The suits stem from subpoenas the finance agency issued to banks last year. They could be filed as early as Friday, the Times said, but if not filed Friday it said the suits would come on Tuesday.
The government will argue the banks, which pooled the mortgages and sold them as securities to investors, failed to perform due diligence required under securities law and missed evidence that borrowers' incomes were falsified or inflated, the Times reported.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost more than $30 billion, due partly to their purchases of mortgage-backed securities, when the housing bubble burst in late 2008. Those losses were covered mostly with taxpayers' money.
The agency filed suit against UBS in July, seeking to recover at least $900 million for taxpayers, and the individuals told the Times the new suits would be similar in scope. A spokesman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency was not immediately available for comment. The Times said Bank of America, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs all declined comment. A Deutsche Bank spokesman told the Times, "We can't comment on a suit that we haven't seen and hasn't been filed yet."
The practice of subprime lending, wherein mortgage brokers lowered their standards to entice homebuyers to take out large mortgages to buy more expensive homes than they could afford, was a root cause of the mortgage market implosion. News of the suit could have a negative impact on stocks of the banks in question on Friday. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, while Deutsche Bank is traded on the German exchange. S&P 500 stocks index futures were trading down 0.6 percent in Asia. U.S. Treasury futures also ticked higher.
The Times report said investors fear that if banks are forced to pay out billions for mortgages that defaulted, the suit could sap earnings for years and contribute to further losses across the financial services industry.
How can the government build a bureaucracy to prevent the financial collapse of the economic system and when it fails in doing its job, it sues the very industry they previously caused to fail?
I have written a book about Jack the Ripper called Holmes the Ripper. I made money with this work of fiction as have many writers and authors over the years. Now a retired Scotland Yard officer is at it.
A retired British murder squad detective has put together what he claims is an image of Jack The Ripper - the unidentified serial killer who terrorized London in the 1880s.
Trevor Marriott created an e-fit of the man he believes was the responsible for the Ripper murders, a German merchant named Carl Feigenbaum, for a BBC television program. Feigenbaum was a suspect at the time of the murders, and reportedly told his lawyer that he had a "desire to kill and mutilate every woman who falls in my way." He was later convicted of killing his landlady in Manhattan, and died in the electric chair in New York's Sing Sing prison.
No photographs of Feigenbaum exist, so the e-fit (an electronic artist's impression) was based on eyewitness descriptions. There are hundreds of suspects who have been investigated by sleuths through the years, but no-one has ever been able to conclusively prove the killer's identity.
This is not the first time that experts have attempted to use modern policing techniques to identify the Ripper. In 2006, Scotland Yard experts created this e-fit of what they thought the Ripper would look like.
The person he identifies as the Ripper is one of the top three suspects. He did not exactly go out on a limb here. The picture would seem to be even less useful since no one is alive that would have been alive in the 1880s and could recognize him. Since no pictures exist, any living family members would not know what he looks like nor would they have any old photos gathering dust in a family scrapbook.
Just a couple of thoughts I had and you should too or at least think about.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.
www.ebookmall.com (Do search by my name or book Title)
www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.
Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny." - Carl Schurz
