Fed, SEC, FDIC etc

Two Are Confirmed for Fed’s Board

The Senate on Wednesday night confirmed Janet L. Yellen as vice chairwoman of the Federal Reserve and Sarah Bloom Raskin as a Fed governor, adding two officials to the Fed’s board as it faces a decision on whether to take new steps to stimulate the economy.

Ms. Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and Ms. Raskin, Maryland’s commissioner of financial regulation, were confirmed unanimously, The New York Times’s Sewell Chan reported. President Obama nominated them in April.

Ms. Yellen was a member of the Fed’s board from 1994 to 1997 and was chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1997 to 1999, under President Bill Clinton. A leading economist, she is seen as being particularly concerned about the country’s high unemployment rate. The Fed has a dual mandate to promote price stability and maximum employment.

The confirmation of a third person to the Fed’s board — Peter A. Diamond, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — stalled after several Republican senators expressed objections. Mr. Obama renominated him on Sept. 13.

The Fed’s seven-member board has been down to four members since Donald L. Kohn, the former vice chairman, retired on Sept. 1.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/two-are-confirmed-for-feds-board/

confirmed on Wed night…while everyone was lookin out for aliens.

yeah i missed it..they did well with the laundry then

Federal Reserve 'Will Be Gone' In 25 Years, Top Financial Mind Predicts, Despite Geithner's Vote Of Confidence


A mere half-hour after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner praised the "necessary" and "very substantial" actions of the Bush and Obama administrations to "break the back of the financial crisis," one of the world's leading financial minds said Thursday that the United States is in the same economic predicament today as it was in 2007, predicting that within 25 years the Federal Reserve "will be gone."

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, renowned derivatives trader, university professor and author of "The Black Swan," warned a gathering in Washington of the growing risk the nation has taken on as a result of poor decisions by the Fed and policymakers, including trillions of dollars in taxpayer money funneled into bailouts of private industry.

"This transformation from private debt ... to public debt" is "bad" from a risk standpoint and "immoral" from an ethical standpoint, Taleb -- a member of the Derivatives Hall of Fame whose book became a bestseller -- told a crowd at the Washington Ideas Forum, an event held by The Atlantic and The Aspen Institute. Deficits "will break the Fed" and it will be replaced, he predicted.

"The Romans had a saying," Taleb added: "The grandchildren should not bear the debt of the grandparents."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/30/nassim-taleb-federal-reserve-will-be-gone_n_746109.html

was that 25 or 2.5?

After mortgage meltdown, Barney Frank gets another chance to remake housing finance

Frank had championed housing for America’s poor for four decades, but he gained the chance to leave his biggest mark in 2007 when he became chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. He dreamed of tapping into the riches of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – at the time, both fabulously successful mortgage finance companies – to help pay for the construction of thousands of affordable apartments.

It was too good to be true. Fannie and Freddie would soon melt down, requiring a federal bailout so far costing more than $160 billion. Frank’s critics have alleged that his aspirations blinded him to the danger.

Now Frank is poised to play a pivotal role on Capitol Hill as the Obama administration prepares to tackle the future of Fannie and Freddie and to overhaul how millions of Americans are housed. In taking on their next major economic challenge, senior Obama officials are scheduled to release a proposal in January that would replace the two mortgage giants and rethink federal programs that help make housing affordable.

snip
The country’s stock of low-income homes had remained flat for more than a decade when Frank and his allies in the House spotted an opportunity in the early 1990s. They concluded that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, created by lawmakers to promote housing and based in Congress’s back yard, were not doing enough for the poor – even less, in fact, than some Wall Street banks.

Fannie and Freddie were in the business of buying and guaranteeing mortgage loans from private lenders, which in turn could take the money and make even more loans to prospective homebuyers or developers looking to build apartment buildings.

Democrats, led by one of Frank’s closest allies, Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Tex.), wanted to require the two companies to spend a specific percentage of their funds on affordable housing. Under the proposed legislation, the companies were to buy home loans made to lower- and middle-class people and loans going to fund development of affordable rental housing.

snip
Longtime critics of the companies said Frank, more than anyone else in Congress, enabled Fannie and Freddie to operate without a tough regulator for far too long.

“Of all the people in Congress, Barney Frank was the most important in supporting affordable housing and the independence and fairly free operations that were left to Fannie and Freddie,” said Peter J. Wallison, a member of the congressional panel studying the origins of the financial crisis.

Now Frank has abandoned hope for Fannie and Freddie, saying they should be abolished. His new goals are to devise a housing finance system to replace Fannie and Freddie, preserve existing affordable housing and set up a trust fund to help pay for more.

For all his efforts, Frank readily acknowledges that there are more people needing decent housing than there were when he started in Congress. And with millions of others losing their homes to foreclosure, Frank asks to be judged by how much worse things would have been without him.

“In the political world, you get measured on the ultimate results,” he said. “I think we’ve prevented things from getting as bad as they otherwise might have been.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/11/AR2010101105429_3.html?sid=ST2010101106913

“Now Frank has abandoned hope for Fannie and Freddie, saying they should be abolished. His new goals are to devise a housing finance system to replace Fannie and Freddie, preserve existing affordable housing and set up a trust fund to help pay for more.”

Sounds like a debasement tool…proposal will be released in Janauary…nice timing. One last screw-up for Frank.

to be noted :The original mission of Fannie Mae when it was created in 1938 was to stabilize the badly battered home mortgage market of the Depression with a focus on first-time homebuyers.
So now we need to replace Fannie. New Depression new mortgage program. remind me again..who is payin for this?

Obama choice helped Fannie block oversight
National security adviser tied to discrediting of probe

Years before Fannie Mae foundered amid a massive accounting scandal, President Obama's choice for national security adviser oversaw an office inside the mortgage giant that orchestrated a negative publicity blitz to fight attempts by Congress to increase government oversight, records show.

Thomas E. Donilon, who won the job as national security adviser this month, worked as a registered lobbyist for Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2005 at a time the company's officials insisted finances were sound. He also earned more than $1.8 million in bonuses before the government took over the troubled company in the wake of an accounting scandal.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Mr. Obama, who railed against lobbyists on the campaign trail, hailed Mr. Donilon's appointment last week, but made no mention of his time as a registered lobbyist.

Mr. Donilon's work came under scrutiny in a 2006 report by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), which found that Fannie Mae lobbyists - working in an office overseen by Mr. Donilon - parlayed their ties to members of Congress to try to discredit federal regulators looking into the finances of the company.

"Thus, Fannie Mae succeeded in creating a large volume of negative publicity about the OFHEO examination report, in an effort to distract attention from its multibillion-dollar accounting errors," the OFHEO report concluded.

In addition, the report noted that the publicity campaign, which included leaking nonpublic information, was conceived and executed by Fannie Mae's government and industry relations department, but was still "well known" to Mr. Donilon and other senior executives.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/13/obama-choice-helped-fannie-block-oversight/

no surprise! more corruption..fannie and freddie are doomed!

Programmer Convicted for Planting Logic Bomb in Fannie Mae’s System

A federal jury last week convicted a Maryland-based computer programmer of computer intrusion after he planted a logic bomb on his employer’s computer servers.

Rajendrasinh Babubhai Makwana was a contractor working at Fannie Mae’s Urbana, Md., facility from 2006 to 2008. As a UNIX engineer, he worked on the organization’s network of nearly 5,000 computer servers.

According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Makwana was fired Oct. 24, 2008 and told to turn in all of his Fannie Mae equipment, including his laptop. Five days later, a Fannie Mae senior engineer discovered a malicious script embedded in a routine program.

A further analysis of the script, computer logs, Makwana’s laptop and other evidence, revealed Makwana had transmitted the malware Oct. 24, 2008, which was intended to execute Jan. 31, 2009. The logic bomb was designed to spread throughout the Fannie Mae network of computers and wipe out all data, including financial, securities and mortgage information.

Makwana faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Sentencing has been scheduled for Dec. 8, 2010.

http://www.thenewnewinternet.com/2010/10/11/programmer-convicted-for-planting-logic-bomb-in-fannie-maes-system/

"The logic bomb was designed to spread throughout the Fannie Mae network of computers and wipe out all data, including financial, securities and mortgage information."
THAT would have been convenient!...wonder who foiled the plan?

i bet whoever foiled it is now about to kiss lead?

The timing of that is VERY interesting.

very..

U.S. delays currency report on China until after G20


Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/delays+currency+report+China+until+after/3678432/story.html#ixzz12SKUjovg

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration delayed a much-anticipated decision on whether to label China as a currency manipulator until after the U.S. congressional elections and a Group of 20 summit in November.

The U.S. Treasury said on Friday that the Nov. 11 gathering in Seoul would give world leaders an opportunity to look at how best to rebalance the global economy.

The United States and the European Union accuse China of keeping the yuan CNY artificially low to boost exports, undermining jobs and competitiveness in Western economies.

The Treasury’s decision to delay its semi-annual currency report reflects a desire by the Obama administration to pursue a multilateral approach to resolving the dispute with China rather than provoke a confrontation with its biggest creditor.

Such a stand-off could lead to a trade war and affect long-term interest rates at a time when the United States is struggling to emerge from the worst recession since the 1930s.



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/delays+currency+report+China+until+after/3678432/story.html#ixzz12SJyTYC0

hey seek...mid nov is lookin interesting

The Obama administration delayed a much-anticipated decision on whether to label China as a currency manipulator until after the U.S. congressional elections and a Group of 20 summit in November.

The U.S. Treasury said on Friday that the Nov. 11 gathering in Seoul would give world leaders an opportunity to look at how best to rebalance the global economy.

thats the bit i saw as well

Dodd-Frank to Usher in 'Decade of the Whistleblower,' Attorneys Say


Webinar to explore little-discussed impact of Wall Street reforms' Whistleblower provisions
When President Obama signed the Wall Street reform bill into law on July 21, he likely ushered in what might be called "the decade of the whistleblower"—an era marked by a flood of federal investigations sparked by bounty-hunting employees looking to cash in on rewards that, in some cases, could turn them into instant millionaires. Indeed, the Dodd-Frank bill became law just three months ago, but plaintiff's firms already report an astronomical jump in calls from would-be whistleblowers, noted two LeClairRyan attorneys, who will explore the potentially far-reaching impact of the Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions during an Oct. 29 webinar at www.LeClairRyan.com.

The free Webinar, which runs from noon to 1:30 p.m. EST, will be conducted by James P. Anelli, a veteran labor and employment attorney with decades of experience representing management, and Carlos F. Ortiz, a seasoned white-collar defense attorney who served as a federal prosecutor for more than 15 years. Both attorneys are shareholders in LeClairRyan, based in the firm's Newark, N.J., office.

While the Dodd-Frank Act has been widely discussed, its extremely significant whistleblower provisions have gone nearly unnoticed, the attorneys said. And yet, under those provisions, whistleblowers that provide information that exposes SEC violations will get up to 30 percent of fines exceeding $1 million. "Bear in mind that recent fines involving violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) have reached up to $100 million," Ortiz noted. "The fallout from these whistleblower provisions will be huge. This is an incredible incentive for employees who are looking to get rich to do all they can to gather information on, and report, potential violations by their employers. Why would they go through existing compliance hotlines when they can contact a plaintiff's attorney and pursue such potentially lucrative payouts?"

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dodd-frank-to-usher-in-decade-of-the-whistleblower-attorneys-say-105170974.html


Little known provision...get rich quick. They are even offereing a webinar. As R has said...this is really a data gathering tool, tell us what you know.

certainly is..thanks

Fox News: Barney Frank Escaped Blame for Fannie Mae’s Problems Because He Is Gay


When Barney Frank corrected him, Bill O’Reilly threw a tantrum in front of 5.6 million viewers. Then things got interesting. The next day, the Washington Deputy Managing Editor at Fox News uncovered a new angle on the financial crisis. Bill Sammon alleged that Congressman Frank had escaped blame for the problems at Fannie Mae because he was gay.

Sammon’s piece wasn’t exactly original reporting. He paraphrased an earlier article titled, “Media Mum on Barney Frank’s Fannie Mae Love Connection.” The “love connection” was a relationship that Frank had with Herb Moses, who was once an executive at Fannie Mae. Frank’s romantic involvement with Moses, and Moses’ employment at Fannie Mae, both ended ten years ago, in 1998. As Hank Paulson, the Federal Reserve, and the SEC all confirmed, the financial crisis “was triggered by a dramatic weakening of underwriting standards for US. subprime mortgages, beginning in late 2004.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/fox-news-barney-frank-esc_b_132347.html

a new meaning to “don’t ask, don’t tell”