Monday, October 25, 2010
Professors Black and Wray Confirm that Bear Pledged the Same Mortgage to Multiple Buyers
I have repeatedly pointed out that mortgages were pledged to multiple buyers at the same time. See this and this.
Today, in another must-read piece, economics professors William Black and L. Randall Wray confirm:
Several banks would go after the same homeowner, each claiming to hold the same mortgage (Bear sold the same mortgage over and over).As USA Today pointed out in 2008, Bear was one of the big players in this area:
Bear Stearns was one of the biggest underwriters of complex investments linked to mortgages. Two of its hedge funds, heavily invested in subprime mortgages, folded in July.Alot of toxic mortgages and mortgage related assets ended up on the taxpayer's tab directly or indirectly.
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Bear Stearns was linked to many other financial institutions, through the mortgage-backed securities it sponsored as well as through complex financial agreements called derivatives.The Fed wasn't so much concerned that 85-year-old Bear Stearns would go bankrupt, but rather that it would take other companies down with it, causing a financial meltdown.
For example, as Bloomberg noted in April 2009:
Maiden Lane I is a $25.7 billion portfolio of Bear Stearns securities related to commercial and residential mortgages. JPMorgan refused to buy them when it acquired Bear Stearns to avert the firm’s bankruptcy.
The Fed’s losses included writing down the value of commercial-mortgage holdings by 28 percent to $5.6 billion and residential loans by 38 percent to $937 million as of Dec. 31, the central bank said. Properties in California and Florida accounted for 45 percent of outstanding principal of the residential mortgages.
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It's just like the savings and loan scandal of the first Bush presidency. You think it was an accident that another Bush was in office? And the same thing that SHOULD have been done then should be done here. Round up everyone involved. Take away everything they own to pay it back. And throw them in jail. If it was poor not so connected people that's what would happen. Just goes to show how CORRUPT our justice system is.
ReplyDeleteYOu actually think this is bush? Obama isn't any better...he's doing NOTHING to actually clean up the mess. He has allowed trillions in deficit spending to keep this papered over and covered up. Repub/Democrat they are both equally corrupt.
ReplyDeleteBLAH BLAH BLAH. Bush that, Obama that. Please go cry in your cornflakes. Face it...neither party is good for this country, and they're all treasonous crooks.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is the complicity among Congress & Presidents to the banksters. The banks HAVE TO GO. The large primary dealers no longer serve a critical role to this country, or any country for that matter. Close them down one way or another. France is talking about a "bank run" day. That's exactly what we need. They have forgotten who holds the real power.