Tell Obama: You’ve Arrested the Wrong People
Five years after the greed and recklessness of Wall Street criminals crashed our economy, Eric Holder’s Department of Justice is finally making some arrests. But it’s not Wall Street bankers sitting in jail. Nope, it’s struggling homeowners and foreclosure victims who went to DC to demand the end of Too Big to Jail.
Yesterday, 500 people surrounded the Department of Justice headquarters. 27 got arrested - 17 last night and 10 more this morning at 6 AM - and are refusing to leave until the Obama Administration agrees to get the DOJ to start launching criminal investigations into the actions that led to the Great Recession. We need your support to make this happen!
Please call the White House and tell them you support the homeowners and foreclosure fighters they’ve arrested at the Department of Justice and also want to see Wall Street criminals held accountable.
Here’s the contact info and a short script.
The White House Comment Line: 
(202) 456-1111
Hi, my name is _______________ and I’m calling in support of the 27 people you had arrested at the DOJ yesterday and this morning. You’ve arrested the wrong people. You should be arresting the Wall Street bankers who caused the Great Recession, not jailing struggling homeowners and foreclosure fighters just trying keep their homes from being stolen. Please end your policy of Too Big to Jail and start making Wall Street pay us back.
After you complete the call, tell us how it went by clicking here and leaving a comment.
Elizabeth Warren Is Right: Give Students the Same Deal as Big Banks
We’ve all heard the stories or lived the hardship ourselves: young Americans trying to move our economy and country forward, but being saddled with so much student loan debt it’s nearly impossible.
Now, if Congress doesn’t act, our already-too-high student loan rate of 3.4% is about to *double* to 6.8% – while banks keep their sweet 0.75% deal. ENOUGH.
Students deserve the same preferential interest rates that the Big Banks get. Will you join us and sign on to support Elizabeth Warren’s Bank On Students Loan Fairness Act, which gives hard-working students the same deal our Federal Reserve gives law-breaking banks? You can sign here:
Will you sign the petition too? Click here to add your name:
2 out of 14…that’s just a skosch over 14% - try harder next time
In 2009 Wells Fargo began foreclosure proceedings against Larry Delassus based upon a typo they had made. Even after admitting to their mistake, Wells Faro continued to sue Mr. Delassus over “missed” payments as of a result of their error. Payments Delassus NEVER actually owed Wells Fargo.
“On the morning of Dec. 19, 2012, in a Torrance courtroom, Delassus’ heart stopped as he watched his attorney argue his negligence and discrimination case against banking behemoth Wells Fargo.
Friends say he didn’t die of heart disease that day in court, as the coroner found. He was, they believe, killed by a system so inhumane that it could not undo a devastating piece of red tape the system itself created.”
Federal judge questions constitutionality of Colorado foreclosure law
At issue is a provision in state law that allows lawyers to assert that their client, typically a bank, has the right to foreclose on a property even though they might not have the original mortgage paperwork to prove it.
What makes the case compelling isn’t just that a federal judge was persuaded to step into an issue involving state law — extremely difficult to do — but the plaintiff in the case is a part-time saleswoman who has taken on the battle without a lawyer.
…and…
Colorado is the only state in the country that allows an unsworn statement by an attorney for a foreclosing party — without any penalty — to say, ‘Trust me, judge, these guys are the qualified holder for this deed of trust,’ ” (Judge) Martinez said. “Is there another state that has lowered the bar for a foreclosure any lower?”
Well played, U.S. Bank.
But Warren, with a grass-roots army of enthusiastic supporters and a yen to deliver on her early promise, makes headlines crossing the street. And the foreclosure review debacle represented an excellent test case to expose the corrupt dealing between banks and the regulators who are supposed to curb their excesses, and also to pit Wall Street denizens getting rich off these crimes against ordinary victims who lost their homes. You couldn’t tee up a better issue for Warren, or a better entryway for traditional media to report it.
Last Thursday’s hearing on the reviews, the first congressional hearing on foreclosure fraud in over a year, provided the perfect set piece. Warren, along with Jack Reed, Sherrod Brown and other Senate Democrats, pounded the regulators for protecting the banks and ignoring homeowners suffering from illegal foreclosures. Warren highlighted that nobody will ever learn the precise extent of harm suffered at the hands of banks, and that without a true accounting, adequately compensating homeowners would be impossible. Brown focused on the role of the third-party consultants who operate as shadow regulators, performing work when the agencies lack capacity, but without any independence from the banks.
If you’re caught with an ounce of cocaine, the chances are good you’re gonna go to jail. If it happens repeatedly, you may go to jail for the rest of your life, but evidently if you launder nearly a billion dollars for drug cartels and violate our international sanctions, your company pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your bed at night.
- At 1:20, she asks the question we’ve all been wanting someone to ask FOREVER. Then a government lawyer stumbles over his words.
- At 2:20, she rattles off another one. Then a government lawyer stumbles over his words.
- At 2:55, she asks another lawyer the same question. Said lawyer then tries to not stumble over her words.
- At 3:25, she asks the same question again. That lawyer asks for some time.
- At 3:45, she gets our back and goes for the knockout punch.
- And then right after that you reward her good behavior by sharing this with everyone on the Internet.
…You know you want to.
Cayman Islands to name previously hidden companies
The Cayman Islands will open the thousands of companies and hedge funds domiciled on the offshore Caribbean territory to greater scrutiny, in a break from decades of secrecy.
A settlement reportedly in the works with big banks will soon end a review into foreclosure abuses, and it means more of the same: no accountability for financial institutions and little help for borrowers.
