Friday, January 21, 2011

Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead

Keith Olbermann has parted ways with MSNBC. We still don't have cable, so I couldn't care less, but knowing that the sports geek has nights off is a definite comfort.

The Best Video Ever?

I've watched some good videos, and liked a lot of songs, but this is just about the best video ever.

Christopher Walken is an amazing dancer (and did most of the choreography), and is clearly relishing the roll of traveler wanting to fly but instead stuck in yet another hotel. (Wikipedia says he loved doing the video so much, Walken wanted to refuse his salary.) Since I absolutely hate traveling, this video really resonates with me.

Sorry for Google Video, but YouTube has embedding turned off.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

There Ain't No Grave

The song isn't "Traditional", it's by Brother Claude Ely, a singer and preacher I had never heard about until this version of the song.

The video comes from The Johnny Cash Project. They have some really neat stuff going on over there.



(Remember Safari and YouTube5 let you bypass Flash everywhere.)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Obama Lectures Hu?

In HU'S NEXT, John of PowerLine says:
It is not just that Obama is the President of a debtor nation; he is a President whose plan is to borrow many trillions more--money that, in large part, can come only from China. There are a great many things that the Chinese could do with their money, but only one place where Obama can go to borrow the trillions he is determined to spend. So I suspect that any lectures delivered tomorrow will flow in the opposite direction.

My own take on what Hu's opinion will be (the video is TV-14, so you might want to read this transcript instead):



(sorry about the Flash.)

Monday, January 17, 2011

Justice in the Mortgage Market?

I like seeing Mish's analyses of the current market environment, but he is definitely pro-bank on the mortgage fraud. In the latest post, he is negative on a Utah procedure that lets the mortgagee legally disconnect the lien from the note.

He said, at the end,
Certain people will be cheering these developments. Unfortunately, there is nothing to cheer about here. No justice was served by these rulings.

Here is my comment, in whole, on the matter:
Why should we require that a company obey the law?

Why should we require that a company actually own a mortgage before forclosing?

I am not even being facetious. Wells Fargo has been caught forclosing on people who didn't even have a mortgage with them, and at least one that didn't even have a mortgage. Bank of America made a mistake, and sent a house securing team to the wrong address, breaking in on a woman a month or two ago.

MERS was established to commit tax fraud. States want a fee to record mortgage transfers, so that homeowners don't get ripped off (and to get their cut). MERS was designed solely to bypass state law. Now, the banks are getting caught, and paying for it. Boo hoo.

Moreover, the mortgage security trusts were a complete fraud. The banks were endorsing the notes in blank (which BTW, was more tax evasion, since that creates a bearer bond, which are taxable at punitive rates), and then never bothering to pass the physical document from entity to entity. In most states, this was a violation of the law. Often, the MBS hasn't even been given legal possession of the mortgage, as has been documented in Massachusetts and elsewhere.

Sometimes the original is just languishing in a vault somewhere, and the lenders could try to fix the problem. Other times, the document was intentionally destroyed (again, a violation of the law).

At the end of the day, the borrower doesn't get off scot-free either. Even if he can prove that the banks violated the law with intent to defraud everyone in their path, all he does is break the lien. The promissory note, i.e. the debt, is still there. In some states, it'd even be converted from a no-recourse loan to a recourse loan in the process. Sure, this can be discharged in bankruptcy, but bankruptcy isn't a zero-cost action either.

Show me a party with clean hands, and I'll cry for justice. Now, I see banks crying because they got robbed of the money they stole fair and square.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Favorite Songs -- Stay Around A Little Bit Longer

This song is in nearly constant rotation on my iPod and iTunes.





(Remember, use Safari and YouTube5 to avoid Flash.)