Elizabeth Warren ~ TARP/HAMP August Congressional Oversight Panel Report
Update: Heh! Warren was at the WH yesterday when we were posting, lol., the ‘professional’ left will go ballistic if they pass over Warren, but hey they appointed the CARLISLE GROUP TO RUN GM!!! BWAAAAHAA! CHANGE!! HAAAAA!!!
Elizabeth Warren, whom many Democrats want to see nominated as head of a new consumer financial agency, met with White House officials on Thursday.
The Obama administration has repeatedly said Warren is under consideration as the inaugural head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was a centerpiece of the president’s effort to overhaul financial regulations.
“The president believes that Elizabeth Warren is a champion for middle class families and consumers and she, among others, is a strong contender for this position,” said White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage. “The president has not yet made a decision and no announcement is imminent….
Tim and Larry are terrified of Warren getting the spot as the first chief of the Consumer Protection Board. She won’t toe the line. I hope she gets it, she is the only one telling Tim, hey your plans are EPIC FAIL!
True Blood 3.9 Sneak Peeks
Courtesy of HBO
WH announces $2B for bridge loans for unemployed homeowners and $1B for HUD for same-HEMAP…
Update 4: Yves at NakedCapitalism sums up this latest plan beautifully:
…How is this supposed to help borrowers? Seriously. This is the government equivalent of a subprime teaser loan. But this is even worse. First, teaser borrowers paid at least a smidge of interest (even 2% is more than zero), which placed a teeny constraint on their ability to take on debt. Second, housing was at least appearing to increase, so it wasn’t entirely nuts (merely sorta nuts) to look to the principal value of the house as security and reason to extend yourself financially….
…This measure, as modest as it is, therefore looks like yet another backdoor transfer to banks, and a way to try to prop up housing prices (note the “stabilize housing markets” comment) and secondarily, funnel some cash to communities (note the loans are intended to be used for property tax payments too)….
2 QE, or not 2 QE, that is the question – waiting on the Fed
Update: The ‘sages’ at the Fed speak:
Federal Reserve officials moved to prevent the Fed’s huge balance sheet from shrinking, an attempt to spur the U.S. economy’s recovery and avoid deflation.
At the end of a policy-meeting Tuesday, Fed officials said they would reinvest the proceeds from expiring mortgage-backed securities into longer-term U.S. Treasurys. The move should help a weakening economy by keeping mortgage rates low….
…The latest move by the U.S. central bank represents just a tweak in its strategy for managing its huge portfolio. But it’s a significant one since it could be a step towards new large purchases of both government bonds and mortgage-backed securities.
The Fed said it will release more details about the reinvestment operation later Tuesday….
Will Gentle Ben and Team FOMC give the markets what they want and talk QE2 in their Statement this afternoon?..the SF Fed came out and said we may have a SECOND recession in the next 1-2 years. Uhm that’s a double dip peeps face it, we never got out of the ‘ditch’ Obama keeps rambling on about.
The Zombie Market has started going up on BAD data again, expecting QE2. If Daddy takes the Punch Bowl away what will they do? Bonds and Stocks are moving TOGETHER, really WRONG that is.
Market speculation that the Federal Reserve will act to boost the economy at its meeting today has grown recently, but most analysts caution the U.S. central bank is unlikely to take any major steps.
U.S. stocks were higher Monday amid investors’ hopes that Friday’s weak jobs report could prompt the Fed to either resume buying assets, reduce an interest rate it pays banks on reserves to zero, or signal it will keep its benchmark short-term interest rate near zero for longer….
And what COULD they do for QE2, I am hoping the MS 1 pg refi for all is coming personally, I think it would boost consumer spending and cost nada.
These SOOPERGENIUSES have tried everything EXCEPT helping homeowners DIRECTLY, and it has ALL FAILED. Know why? Cause the ROOT of the collapse is HOUSING and CONSUMERS drive the US GDP that’s why. And I don’t even need a string of letters after my name to tell you that. Heh.
…The Fed could resume purchases of Treasury debt or mortgage-backed bonds, likely by using proceeds from existing holdings of such debt as they mature — at least to start with. It could stop paying interest on the excess reserves that banks hold at the Fed to encourage banks to lend more. The central bank currently pays 0.25% on excess reserves. Or it could try making a more explicit pledge to keep its benchmark short-term rate near zero for longer than the “extended period” phrase it has been using since March 2009.
But most analysts believe the Fed will only talk about these options at Tuesday’s meeting — leaving any action for if and when the economic outlook gets really bad. Dan Greenhaus, analyst with Miller Tabak & Co., believes the Fed will adopt a “wait and see” attitude, assessing incoming economic data and any further developments in the fiscal outlook before the Sept. 21 meeting….
Oh, they are going to wait until the economy ‘gets really bad’. Gee what the hell is ‘really bad’, we are already at 16% UE folks and here in AZ walkaways are spreading. It is nationwide, and once it is in the bloodstream of regular folks that they too can default as Hyatt did, well, it is a SEA CHANGE in attitudes these SOOPERGENIUSES are IMO unprepared for. If we, the people, really STARVE THE BEAST, GO GALT, whatever you want to call it, well if/when that happens the ‘system’ will REALLY be tested.
Why not just address HOUSING in a REAL way instead? Hmmmm?
The geniuses said we have NEVER had a consumer led housing led recession before..well guess what WE DID, the MOTHER of recessions. Time to think OUT OF THE BOX. If the consumers and their BIGGEST ASSET, their homes led us INTO recession then GEE, maybe addressing that the way they SAID they were with TARP but didnt, will help lead us OUT.
Consider this the Twofer Tuesday thread too, school has begun and I am on duty!
PS More bad economic data-inventory correction is SO OVER
and here is Calculated Risk on the ever-rising REO Inventory
True Blood 3.8 Sneak Peeks ~ Sookie and Alcide, Tommy and Hoyt…
Courtesy of HBO
July Jobs Data ~ -131k, June huge REVISION! -221K (-125K reported last month), rate holds @ 9.5% & the NY Fed begins foreclosures…
The recovery that wasn’t continues to stumble and fall.
…Nonfarm payrolls fell by 131,000 last month as the rise in private-sector employment was not enough to make up for the government jobs lost, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday. Only 71,000 private-sector jobs were added last month while 143,000 temporary workers on the 2010 census were let go.
Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires were expecting total nonfarm payrolls to drop by a smaller 60,000 in July.
The June data was revised down significantly. Payrolls fell 221,000 that month, more than the 125,000 drop previously reported, as only 31,000 jobs were added in the private sector….
We have been discussing how Uncle Sam will be the largest landlord in the US if they continue to use the GSEs to amass property. Now the NY Fed is FORECLOSING on folks, yes Uncle Sam is sending the Sheriff to get you out, example XXXXIIXX of unintended consequences..’Maiden Lane’
James Currell is struggling to prevent his Minnesota home from being foreclosed. But his lender isn’t a bank. It is the U.S. government.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is facing the prospect of foreclosing on a number of properties in the coming months, from homes to commercial buildings, a result of a souring mortgage portfolio it took over when it helped bail out Bear Stearns in 2008.
As it deals with delinquent borrowers, a team of New York Fed officials and outside advisers are trying to avoid having the U.S. government, along with local sheriff’s departments, seize commercial properties and homes as it copes with falling real-estate values. In the process, the New York Fed is getting a hard lesson in the challenges of mortgage lending….
…The New York Fed’s stance about how to pursue foreclosures is a sensitive balancing act. If it proceeds with numerous foreclosure proceedings in the coming months, particularly on residential mortgages, it could trigger concern among legislators looking to protect homeowners in their districts. The issue is particularly sensitive because taxpayers helped fund the Bear Stearns bailout….
The only likeable person on Obama’s econ team calls it quits: Miser Bros. Summers & Geithner push out Christy Romer
Gee, now we will be forced to hear the abysmal jobs numbers spun without the cheerful manner that was part of Romer’s disposition.
The 'Smartest Folks in the Country!!' Part Deux~Obama Economic Team Vogues (November 08)
Jesse’sCafeAmericain has the round-up on the departure:
Christina Romer is a fine economist, but she frankly does not have the skillset to deal with an accomplished Tidal Basin pond snakes like Larry Summers and his sidekick Tim Geithner.
She is said to have left at her own request. It is nice to see a principled resignation once in a while. Good for her. I hope that is the case. In addition to pushing for more stimulus, I had also heard that Romer was promoting Elizabeth Warren as the head of the new Financial Consumer Protection Agency, a move that is adamantly opposed by Timmy and Larry, the Rubin twins….
Tell me Geithner and Summers aren’t dopplegangers of Heat and Snow Miser…
The Miser Brothers aka Larry Summers and Tim Geithner
I mean Geithner’s profile is pretty easily identifiable..the BEST sign of the early hagiography attempts on Team O was that idiocy proclaiming GEITHNER one of the most beautiful people…
In unrelated news the Comment of the Day found on HotAir:
Excuse me, but is there any way I can get off of “As$clown Express” Airways created by the Grand As$clown himself, BHO?
-yobobbyb on August 5, 2010 at 3:04 PM
Horror: ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ Trailer (YARM~ but done by Del Toro!)
MiM readers know the original scared the living crxp out of me as a kid on the ABC 4:30 movie after school…I briefly had it posted here til the copyright police came :0( But seeing the rubber looking creatures rid me of the TERROR the memories of the film still induced…it looks like Guillermo has decided I have had enough sleep and need to be Afraid of the Dark…again..
The USA trailer for the reairing of the original~ poor Kim Darby no one, not even her husband (Ellery Queen! Jim Hudson!) would believe her…
ginaswo
