FHFA

Housing Fraud is Back – Real Estate Industry Intentionally Inflating Home Appraisals

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Almost 40% of appraisers surveyed from Sept. 15 through Nov. 7 reported experiencing pressure to inflate values, according to Allterra Group LLC, a for-profit appraiser-advocacy firm based in Salisbury, Md. That figure was 37% in the survey for the previous year.

“If you thought what was happening before was an embarrassment, wait until the second time around,” said Joan Trice, Allterra’s chief executive and founder of the Collateral Risk Network, which represents appraisers employed by lenders and other companies and has been meeting with regulators to discuss concerns about appraisers being pressured into inflating values.

– From the Wall Street Journal article: Dodgy Home Appraisals Make a Comeback

When in doubt, just make shit up.

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Mel Watt, Federal Housing Finance Agency Head, is Pushing Banks to Make Extremely Risky Home Loans

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Screen Shot 2014-10-17 at 1.43.16 PMMel Watt is one of the most dangerous financial oligarch puppets operating in America today. The first time he came across my radar screen was back in 2009, when he “gutted” Ron Paul’s End the Fed bill while it was in subcommittee, something I outlined in the post: Leverage in PE Deals Soars Despite Fed Warnings; Amidst Insatiable Demand for Risky Fannie Mae Debt.

Then in May of this year, I zeroed in on his latest authoritarian maneuver after being appointed to head the FHFA in the post: New Massive Federal Database to Hold Financial Information on Hundreds of Millions of Americans. Here’s an excerpt:

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New Massive Federal Database to Hold Financial Information on Hundreds of Millions of Americans

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Screen Shot 2014-05-30 at 12.26.47 PMThe war on privacy continues unabated, as the U.S. government continues to prove time and time again that it views the citizenry as a bunch of cattle to be branded, herded and dealt with at will. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone in the establishment that the public has lost all faith in institutions and so-called “authority” (a concept which I do not believe in to begin with). The evidence of a growing number of Orwellian databases being created has been available for quite some time. Most recently, I covered this topic in the following articles:

FBI Plans to Have 52 Million Photos in Facial Recognition Database by 2015

Guess What’s Hidden in the Immigration Bill? A National Biometric Database for Citizens

Moving along, the public faces another sinister and unacceptable invasion to our privacy. A national financial database is being planned, which would contain the most intimate details of our entire financial lives. It may apply to as many as 227 million Americans. We learn from the Washington Examiner that:

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Leverage in PE Deals Soars Despite Fed Warnings; Amidst Insatiable Demand for Risky Fannie Mae Debt

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Barely a day goes by anymore when I’m not confronted with a slew of articles flashing warning signs about the latest Federal Reserve fueled credit bubble. Just yesterday, I highlighted the investor feeding frenzy happening in junk bonds, driving yield spreads to the lowest levels since the prior peak year of credit exuberance in 2007 in my post: Credit Mania Update – The Chase for CCC-Rated Bonds.

Today, I am going to highlight two articles on very different aspects of the credit market, but both are illustrative of the investor buying panic happening in debt markets. All of this is terrifying, and it appears to represent the final stages of another crackup boom. One that is likely to implode sometime in 2015.

Let’s first take a look at this article from the Wall Street Journal that highlights the fact that the Federal Reserve is becoming increasingly concerned by leverage ratios financing the latest round of private equity deals. Apparently, the Fed is “warning” banks about this, which is complete disingenuous bullshit considering it is their low interest rate policy that is leading to all of this nonsense. Of course, they could always raise rates and put and end to this, but they know this will collapse the gigantic house of cards they have created. This is a total mess and one gigantic joke.

The WSJ reports that:

Wall Street banks are financing more private-equity takeovers with high levels of debt, despite warnings by regulators to reduce the amount of risky loans they make.

The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last year issued guidance urging banks to avoid financing leveraged buyouts in most industries that would put debt on a company of more than six times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda. The Fed and the OCC also told banks to limit borrowing agreements that stretch out payment timelines or don’t contain lender protections known as covenants.

Still, 40% of U.S. private-equity deals this year have used leverage above that six-times ratio deemed the upper acceptable limit by regulators, according to data compiled by S&P Capital IQ LCD. That is the highest percentage since the prefinancial-crisis peak of 52% of buyout loans in 2007. Such lending all but disappeared during the crisis but has risen each year since 2009.

More references to 2007…

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Another Oligarch Wrist Slap: Citigroup Settles in Secret on Housing Fraud Charges

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Guess what just happened?  In case you forgot, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) had previously accused Citigroup of violating securities laws and making misrepresentations of billions of mortgage bonds.  Unsurprisingly, Citigroup settled, which is just a euphemism for an “oligarch wrist slap.” What’s really disturbing is that the settlement amount will remain a secret, which takes cronyism to yet another despicable level.  After all, take a look at the man who runs the Treasury Department.  From Bloomberg:

The conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was eager for publicity in September 2011 when it sued 17 financial institutions, accusing them of ripping off the two government-backed housing financiers. It isn’t so enthusiastic anymore.

This week the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency told a federal judge it had settled its case against Citigroup Inc. The agency won’t say how much money Citigroup is paying. Neither will Citigroup, which survived the financial crisis only because it got multiple taxpayer bailouts. The parties agreed to keep the terms confidential. The government has decided this is none of the public’s business.

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