As my partner at Newhoggers, Steve, noted the US has slipped outside the top 20 of least corrupt nations. This should come as no surprise to anyone following the mortgage crisis.
In his book The Monster Michael Hudson documents how many of the original mortgages were fraudulent. It appears that the electronic mortgage tracking system used by the Wall Street banks, MERS, is in violation of 100s of years of established property law and illegally avoided billions of dollars of State title recording fees. In addition courts are finding that MERS has no claim to foreclose. Millions of mortgages that were securitized through MERS may be invalid. And then we have TARP – The Economic Populist explains:
The Great Wall Street Bail Out, TARP, gets an F for f&@&… something the middle class. Neil Barofsky grades TARP and let’s just say it’s more than a ruler whack across the knuckles.
SIGTARP, aka TARP Inspector General, has released a new report (large pdf) on TARP. Here are the grades per TARP’s own stated objectives.
- Increase lending to small business? FAIL
- Decrease Unemployment? FAIL
- Preserve Homeownership? FAIL
- Remove Moral Hazard? FAIL
- Reduce Financial Sector Size? FAIL
The above summary might be harsh, yet the report pretty much concludes the same thing. TARP was clearly a bail out for Wall Street, leaving Main Street in the dust.
It is becoming clear that there was fraud at all steps in the mortgage/securitization process. It is also becoming clear that Ben Beranke’s FED and the Obama administration’s Treasury Department and Justice Department have become accessories to the fraudulent crimes by covering them up and trying to protect the sociopathic criminals who are responsible for the illegal actions that may yet result in the collapse of the world economic system.
The only surprise is that the US is still number 22 on the list of least corrupt nations.
Cross posted at Newshoggers.