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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=agnes@mcn.org href="mailto:agnes@mcn.org">Agnes Woolsey</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=syd@mcn.org href="mailto:syd@mcn.org">SYD BALOWS</A> ;
<A title=marksafron@att.net href="mailto:marksafron@att.net">Mark Safron</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, July 24, 2012 2:13 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Here is a video on the LIBOR scandal with Matt
Taibbi</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV>On Jul 21, 2012, at 11:14 AM, Tim Nonn wrote:</DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><BR class=Apple-interchange-newline>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">Corporate power dictates government policy and
prevents accountability. It's a crime syndicate, and we're the victims on so
many levels. Here is a video on the Libor scandal with Matt Taibi and an
interview with Chris Hedges by Bill Moyers that shows what we are up against.
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne408rvMK_4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne408rvMK_4</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-capitalism">http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-capitalism</A>’s-‘sacrifice-zones’/</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 10:51 AM, Brenda Reed <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:brendahreed@sbcglobal.net"
target=_blank>brendahreed@sbcglobal.net</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=gmail_quote>
<DIV bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<DIV>This is unbelievable. <BR><BR>Sent from Brenda Reed
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR>Begin forwarded message:<BR><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV><B>From:</B> Deontos <<A href="mailto:deontos.is@gmail.com"
target=_blank>deontos.is@gmail.com</A>><BR><B>Date:</B> July 21, 2012
8:14:48 AM PDT<BR><B>To:</B> "Deontos .is" <<A
href="mailto:deontos.is@gmail.com"
target=_blank>deontos.is@gmail.com</A>><BR><B>Subject:</B> <B>Warren
asked Geithner repeatedly about HAMP. After several evasions, Geithner
said about the banks, “We estimate that they can handle ten million
foreclosures, over time… this program will help foam the runway for
them.”</B><BR><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">
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style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 5px 0px 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; PADDING-TOP: 0px"><FONT
color=#cccccc size=6>FDL</FONT></H2>
<H2
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 5px 0px 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; COLOR: rgb(102,102,102); FONT-SIZE: 28px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; PADDING-TOP: 0px"><A
style="COLOR: rgb(0,51,102); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
title="Permanent Link to Barofsky Book: Geithner Confirmed in 2009 That HAMP Was Designed for Banks to Spread Out Foreclosures"
href="http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/07/20/barofsky-book-geithner-confirmed-in-2009-that-hamp-was-designed-for-banks-to-spread-out-foreclosures/"
rel=bookmark target=_blank>Barofsky Book: Geithner Confirmed in 2009
That HAMP Was Designed for Banks to Spread Out
Foreclosures</A></H2></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD>By: <A
style="COLOR: rgb(15,102,145); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
title="Posts by David Dayen"
href="http://news.firedoglake.com/author/dday/" rel=author
target=_blank>David Dayen</A> Friday July 20, 2012 6:26
am</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: rgb(68,68,68); FONT-SIZE: 13px">
<P>The Huffington Post <A
style="COLOR: rgb(15,102,145); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/timothy-geithner-neil-barofsky-tarp_n_1686047.html"
target=_blank>described a scene</A> in a forthcoming book by Neil
Barofsky, the former Special Inspector General of TARP, where Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner delivered a string of F-bombs during a
discussion about transparency. I’ve read the book, and while that’s an
amusing diversion, it’s nowhere near the headline story.</P>
<P>The important moment in the book for me comes conveniently after
Barofsky recounts <A
style="COLOR: rgb(15,102,145); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/02/09/portrait-of-hamp-failure-the-mother-of-all-hamp-nightmares/"
target=_blank>this FDL News item</A>, one of my HAMP horror stories.
Barofsky shows how HAMP’s faulty design led to all sorts of problems like
this, with trapped borrowers, extended trial payments, no-doc
modifications, and eventually unnecessary foreclosures. Barofsky mused
that Treasury didn’t care about the suffering of borrowers under HAMP, and
the issue came up in a meeting with the Treasury Secretary, which was also
attended by Elizabeth Warren, then the head of the Congressional Oversight
Panel, another TARP watchdog.</P>
<P><SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,153)">Warren asked Geithner
repeatedly about HAMP. After several evasions, Geithner said about the
banks, “We estimate that they can handle ten million foreclosures, over
time… this program will help foam the runway for them.”</SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,153)">This is a revelatory
moment for Barofsky in the book, and should be for everyone reading.
Geithner’s concern, first of all, was with how the banks would respond to
the program, not how homeowners would respond to it. In fact, homeowners
are quite besides the point.</SPAN> Regardless of their situation, they
will be one of the 10 million foreclosures, in Geithner’s construction.
His goal was merely to space out the foreclosures and give the banks time
to earn their way back to health, mostly through the other parts of the
bailout, that enabled them to earn profits.</P>
<P>This is a classic “extend and pretend” scheme; banks can extend the
time frame for their losses, and pretend they were financially strong in
the meantime. We previously had evidence that Geithner and the Treasury
Department thought this way. In <A
style="COLOR: rgb(15,102,145); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/08/20/treasury-admits-hamp-expectations-not-met-thinks-extend-and-pretend-is-a-virtue/"
target=_blank>August 2010</A>, a Treasury official (which Barofsky outs in
the book as Geithner) made basically the same defense of HAMP, that it
would give time for the banks to absorb foreclosures rather than have them
come on the market all at once. But that came as a defense of the program
after the fact. This scene with Warren and Barofsky came in mid-2009, when
the program was in its infancy. And it’s prospective, not
retrospective.<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,153)"> <B>It’s
not that Treasury came up with a justification after the performance of
HAMP faltered. It’s that it was designed this way.</B></SPAN></P>
<P>As Barofsky says, HAMP was not separate from the bailouts, it was part
of them. It squeezed a few extra payments out of borrowers and then
allowed banks to do with them whatever they wanted. It stretched out the
foreclosure crisis, by design. In fact, by the end of this, HAMP may not
help even the borrowers secure in permanent modifications. Not only are
the modifications of inferior quality, and not only have they led to high
re-default rates already, but most of the permanent modifications are not
permanent at all. Barofsky notes in the book that they have five-year time
limits, with interest rates rising and payments returning to their
original size at that time. So in 2014 and 2015, we’re going to see
hundreds of thousands of recasts, like on an adjustable-rate mortgage.
Maybe the borrowers will have righted their financial ships by then, or
saved up enough to move on. But the more logical scenario is for more
defaults at that time. But by then, the banks will have built their
fortress balance sheets (with lots of government help) and won’t mind
another half a million foreclosures.</P>
<P>This confirmation of the design of HAMP is just one of the many
revelatory moments in a book from a man thrust into the position of a
Washington insider, willing to tell the tale. It’s well worth your time
when it goes on sale next week.</P>
<P>I have attempted to contact Elizabeth Warren to corroborate this
meeting, and will let you know if I hear back.</P>
<P><STRONG>UPDATE</STRONG>: Yves Smith has <A
style="COLOR: rgb(15,102,145); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/why-the-obama-administration-will-hate-neil-barofskys-book-bailout.html"
target=_blank>a preview of the book</A> as well.</P></SPAN>
<DIV><BR></DIV>-- <BR><FONT face="'times new roman', serif"><I>
<DIV><FONT
face="'times new roman', serif"><I><BR></I></FONT></DIV></I></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I>And how many times
can a man turn his head,</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I>and pretend that he
just doesn't see?</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I><BR></I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I>And how many ears
must one man have,</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I>before he can hear
people cry ?</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I><BR></I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I>And how many deaths
will it take till we know,</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I>that too many people
have died?</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I><BR></I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I>The answer my friend
is blowing in the wind,</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1 face="'times new roman', serif"><I>the answer is blowing
in the wind.</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>