Excellent article on the housing bill, financial fraud from the housing market and an explanation of what is going on in today's market.
http://www.solari.com/archive/housing_bill/
Catherine Austin Fitts served as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner in the first Bush Administration. Her company Hamilton Securities Group served as lead financial advisor to the Federal Housing Administration during the Clinton Administration. She is a former managing director and member of the board of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. Inc.
A couple of excerpts:
Part I – Overview
[polpork] I have had several requests to comment on the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.
This afternoon, I read hundreds of pages of bill language. Essentially, my take on the bill is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have issued more debt than can be paid back, so the "solution" is to have the United States government essentially assume responsibility for this debt until the fact that the government cannot service its own debt is addressed.
By clearly signaling to the market that the U.S. government stands behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, this new law increases the national debt from $9.5 trillion to $14.8 trillion overnight (that is a $5.3 trillion increase as opposed to the $800 billion increase provided for in the debt-limit increase accompanying the bill). Not surprisingly, a lot of pork needs to be added to pay a lot of people to go along.
A more appropriate bill title would be the Housing and Economic Takeover Act of 2008. Rather than declaring the New World Order, we are apparently going to legislate it sector by sector.
..."Collateral fraud occurs when the stuff that you use to secure a loan is just not there. So, as an example, ten mortgages are created on one house and put into ten different mortgage-backed security pools.
I am sometimes asked how HUD could have had more in undocumentable transactions in fiscal 1999 than the size of its entire budget for the year. My answer, in a nutshell, is securities fraud.
As an example, let me hypothesize one of many different ways that this could be achieved. The government could issue mortgage-backed securities without recording them on the official books. Here is how it might work.
As depository and government contractor, you shift $100MM out of a government account, such as the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund reserves, using a debit entry. You use that money to purchase Ginnie Mae securities that are not recorded on the Ginnie Mae books. The cash received through the sale of the Ginnie Mae securities replenishes the reserves. You sell these Ginnie Mae securities offshore—in China, Japan, Dubai, or the Cayman Islands.
Now you have $100MM. You do it again. And again. And again. "
..."The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is now marketing a new documentary called I.O.U.S.A. I have only seen the trailer. Based on my reading the website and watching the trailer, I'd say that it is slick, Orwellian hogwash.
If the national debt was almost ten trillion dollars before the housing bill and, if my estimate is right, approximately ten trillion dollars has been stolen since 1997, then do we have a debt problem or do we have an aristocracy problem?
One of the beauties of I.O.U.S.A. is that all the luminaries interviewed as experts on this “debt problem” were in a position to stop or warn us that the $10 trillion dollars was leaving. They did not.
The implication is that the American people are slobs who are irresponsible and wrecked the place while the leaders who ran the country were helpless to do a thing about it.
Let’s set the record straight:
* If energy technology had not been suppressed for the past 100 years, our energy costs would be a pittance compared to what they are now, and our savings would be much higher.
* If countless medical discoveries had not been suppressed, we would not be looking at such ridiculous costs for health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.
* If government had produced proper financial statements as required by law and had also produced such disclosure contiguous to Congressional districts, the housing bubble and a lot of other bubbles could never have happened.
* If the currency and monetary systems had been run in the manner envisioned by the founding fathers rather than by private bankers, we would not have any debt.
* If the American media and government had communicated honestly about our problems for the past few decades, we would not be in this pickle.
* If wasteful defense spending and disappearing money had not defined the Pentagon for quite some time, things would look very different."
http://www.solari.com/archive/housing_bill/
Catherine Austin Fitts served as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner in the first Bush Administration. Her company Hamilton Securities Group served as lead financial advisor to the Federal Housing Administration during the Clinton Administration. She is a former managing director and member of the board of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. Inc.
A couple of excerpts:
Part I – Overview
[polpork] I have had several requests to comment on the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.
This afternoon, I read hundreds of pages of bill language. Essentially, my take on the bill is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have issued more debt than can be paid back, so the "solution" is to have the United States government essentially assume responsibility for this debt until the fact that the government cannot service its own debt is addressed.
By clearly signaling to the market that the U.S. government stands behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, this new law increases the national debt from $9.5 trillion to $14.8 trillion overnight (that is a $5.3 trillion increase as opposed to the $800 billion increase provided for in the debt-limit increase accompanying the bill). Not surprisingly, a lot of pork needs to be added to pay a lot of people to go along.
A more appropriate bill title would be the Housing and Economic Takeover Act of 2008. Rather than declaring the New World Order, we are apparently going to legislate it sector by sector.
..."Collateral fraud occurs when the stuff that you use to secure a loan is just not there. So, as an example, ten mortgages are created on one house and put into ten different mortgage-backed security pools.
I am sometimes asked how HUD could have had more in undocumentable transactions in fiscal 1999 than the size of its entire budget for the year. My answer, in a nutshell, is securities fraud.
As an example, let me hypothesize one of many different ways that this could be achieved. The government could issue mortgage-backed securities without recording them on the official books. Here is how it might work.
As depository and government contractor, you shift $100MM out of a government account, such as the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund reserves, using a debit entry. You use that money to purchase Ginnie Mae securities that are not recorded on the Ginnie Mae books. The cash received through the sale of the Ginnie Mae securities replenishes the reserves. You sell these Ginnie Mae securities offshore—in China, Japan, Dubai, or the Cayman Islands.
Now you have $100MM. You do it again. And again. And again. "
..."The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is now marketing a new documentary called I.O.U.S.A. I have only seen the trailer. Based on my reading the website and watching the trailer, I'd say that it is slick, Orwellian hogwash.
If the national debt was almost ten trillion dollars before the housing bill and, if my estimate is right, approximately ten trillion dollars has been stolen since 1997, then do we have a debt problem or do we have an aristocracy problem?
One of the beauties of I.O.U.S.A. is that all the luminaries interviewed as experts on this “debt problem” were in a position to stop or warn us that the $10 trillion dollars was leaving. They did not.
The implication is that the American people are slobs who are irresponsible and wrecked the place while the leaders who ran the country were helpless to do a thing about it.
Let’s set the record straight:
* If energy technology had not been suppressed for the past 100 years, our energy costs would be a pittance compared to what they are now, and our savings would be much higher.
* If countless medical discoveries had not been suppressed, we would not be looking at such ridiculous costs for health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.
* If government had produced proper financial statements as required by law and had also produced such disclosure contiguous to Congressional districts, the housing bubble and a lot of other bubbles could never have happened.
* If the currency and monetary systems had been run in the manner envisioned by the founding fathers rather than by private bankers, we would not have any debt.
* If the American media and government had communicated honestly about our problems for the past few decades, we would not be in this pickle.
* If wasteful defense spending and disappearing money had not defined the Pentagon for quite some time, things would look very different."
