OP-ED: Courts Align Themselves With Banks on Foreclosures – Post News Group
When Carol Coles-Linn’s husband, Norman Linn, signed his name on a Countrywide mortgage agreement in 2011, he was signing an agreement that industry insiders call “toxic waste.” Neither the husband nor the wife realized they were signing a fraudulent document. Not that it mattered.
We Have Forgotten What the Ancient Sumerians and Babylonians, the Early Jews and Christians, the Founding Fathers and Even Napoleon Bonaparte Knew About Money
Mike “Mish” Shedlock has repeatedly pointed out that we have reached “peak credit” – and there will not in our lifetimes be as much credit as we saw from 2000-2008. I noted last year: Michael Hudson is a highly-regarded economist.
Preaching student sues Georgia college for restricting his free speech
A lawsuit is accusing Georgia Gwinnett College of censoring free speech. A student was allegedly forbidden from preaching in the school’s “free speech zone,” itself a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, the lawsuit states.
Election system susceptible to rigging despite red flags
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) – Jill Stein’s bid to recount votes in Pennsylvania was in trouble even before a federal judge shot it down Dec. 12. That’s because the Green Party candidate’s effort stood almost no chance of detecting potential fraud or error in the vote – there was basically nothing to recount.
Declassify the Senate Torture Report
This editorial has been updated to reflect news developments. In late 2014, Senate Democrats delivered to a handful of federal agencies copies of a 6,700-page classified report about the secret prison network the Central Intelligence Agency established after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Consumer accuses Bank of America of unfair debt practices
TAMPA – A Hillsborough County woman is suing Bank of America, alleging abusive, deceptive and unfair debt collection practices. Jennifer McCambridge filed a lawsuit Dec. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida against Bank of America NA, alleging violation of the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act, or FCCPA, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA.
U.S. Justice Dept. orders whistleblower to testify in Wells Fargo probe
The U.S. Department of Justice has subpoenaed a high-profile whistleblower in its criminal investigation into Wells Fargo & Co’s (WFC.N) opening of accounts without customer permission. U.S. prosecutors in San Francisco have asked Wells Fargo banker Yesenia Guitron, who lost a private lawsuit against the fourth-largest lender, to testify before a grand jury in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to a subpoena dated Dec.
Israel to re-assess U.N. ties after settlement resolution, says Netanyahu
JERUSALEM Israel will re-assess its ties with the United Nations following the adoption by the Security Council of a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.
U.S. hits Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank with toxic debt penalties
Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) have been hit with a combined penalty of more than $12 billion over the sale of U.S. toxic debt, further hampering two of Europe’s leading investment banks as they struggle with weak earnings.
Deutsche Bank agrees to $7.2 billion mortgage settlement with U.S.
NEW YORK/FRANKFURT Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) has agreed to a $7.2 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over its sale and pooling of toxic mortgage securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.
Shkreli’s scheme to boost drug price on display in Senate report
US senators have labeled “the hedge-fund model of drug pricing” employed by the likes of Turing Pharmaceuticals, formerly run by Martin Shkreli, as “predatory” and “immoral” in a newly released report on drug companies’ price hikes. The 131-page report – “Sudden Price Spikes in Off- Patent Prescription Drugs: The Monopoly Business Model that Harms Patients, Taxpayers, and the U.S.
Bank of America must face lawsuit on extended overdraft fees -ruling
Bank of America must face claims that fees it charged to customers whose accounts were overdrawn for more than five days actually constitute illegally high interest, a federal judge in San Diego has ruled. In a decision on Monday, U.S.
Exclusive: U.S. proposed $5 billion – 7 billion penalty on Credit Suisse on toxic debt – source
The U.S. Department of Justice has asked Credit Suisse to pay between $5 billion and $7 billion to settle a probe over its sale of toxic mortgage securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, a source with knowledge of the matter said, but the bank has resisted settling for that amount.
How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat
Even though the influence-peddling revealed in the documents dates back nearly 50 years, more recent reports show that the food industry has continued to influence nutrition science. Last year, an article in The New York Times revealed that Coca-Cola, the world’s largest producer of sugary beverages, had provided millions of dollars in funding to researchers who sought to play down the link between sugary drinks and obesity.
World energy hits a turning point: Solar that’s cheaper than wind
Bloomberg 12/17/2016 Tom Randall There’s a transformation happening in global energy markets that’s worth noting as 2016 comes to an end: Solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity. There have been isolated projects in the past where this happened: An especially competitive auction in the Middle East, for example, resulting in record-cheap solar costs.
Goldman Sachs to settle US rate-rigging lawsuit for $80m
NEW YORK Goldman Sachs Group has agreed to pay US$56.5 million (S$80 million) to resolve a US class action lawsuit accusing it and other banks of rigging an interest rate benchmark used in the $553 trillion derivatives market. The proposed settlement was disclosed in papers filed in…
Big banks fight to block crisis-era lawsuits from continuing
Big banks are fighting tens of billions of dollars of potential legal costs linked to at least a dozen pending lawsuits arising from the financial crisis. A handful of banks, including Wells Fargo, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, have asked the Supreme Court to review a lower court decision that said the regulators filed their claims on time despite a Depression-era securities law that gave them only a three-year window.
US Gov’t, Oligarchs Behind Planned Fake News Flagging on Facebook
Facebook is adding a new feature wherein a group that the Washington Post calls an ‘independent third party fact checker’ will decide whether stories are real or fake, and flag ones the group decides are fake.
Secretary of State John Kerry: We Should Ignore What Anonymous CIA “Intelligence Officials” Say
While anonymous CIA officials have told the media that they know for sure that Russia hacked Democratic party emails and gave them to Wikileaks, the CIA and other American intelligence agencies are refusing to brief Congress in their official capacities at this time.
Protests flare over Venezuela cash chaos; three deaths reported
EL PINAL/CIUDAD GUAYANA, Venezuela Protests and looting broke out in parts of Venezuela on Friday due to a lack of cash after the socialist government suddenly pulled the nation’s largest banknote from circulation in the midst of a brutal economic crisis.