In what can only be described as a laughable op-ed in The Detroit News today, multi-millionaire Republican and Foreclosure King David Trott attempts to portray a Republican bill to roll back consumer financial protections under Dodd-Frank and kneecap the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal bureau that has “won almost $12 billion in refunds and relief for an estimated […]

Please, sir, may I have some more? [Photo by Chris Savage | Eclectablog] Steven Rhodes, the federal judge overseeing Detroit’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy, halted discussions on Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s plan to borrow $350 from Barclay’s bank to retire some terribly negotiated debt swaps, effectively moving banks to the head of the line in the bankruptcy proceedings. In what can […]

The desperation is getting palpable While Governor Rick Snyder met with billionaire Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein in Detroit yesterday, another group of wealthy moneymen were across town filing a motion with the federal judge asking that he take action on their behalf in Detroit’s ongoing bankruptcy saga. The banks that are owed money by Detroit are […]

It’s good to be the king banker

There’s a story emerging out of Detroit about the role too-big-to-fail banks have played in the creation of Detroit’s fiscal emergency. Last week, Dave Dayen reported at the National Memo that some banks have begun foreclosure proceedings on homeowners and then simply walked away before taking possession of the property. This leaves evicted homeowners on the hook financially for the home they are no longer permitted to live in. What’s worse is that the banks don’t even have to inform the homeowner or the city of Detroit which no longer receives any tax revenue from the property.

Not only that, banks have been reaping huge profits in debt restructuring fees and, as added salt in the wound of a city in crisis, Republicans have ensured that these same banks will be paid in full as Detroit works to get out from under its crushing debt.

Much more after the jump.

Legendary chutzpah, monolithic greed

One of the top shareholders in AIG, the insurance giant bailed out by the American taxpayers during the Wall Street meltdown, is Maurice Greenberg who once ran the company. He is suing the United States government because he says that, in the process of bailing out the company that feathers his nest so softly, they lost him money. However, that level of greed was not enough for Greenberg and he is trying to get AIG itself to join him in his lawsuit. This comes the same week AIG released a video thanking American taxpayers for saving their ass and talking about how proud they are that they paid back their debt and gave the taxpayers a tidy profit in the process.

Video and more after the jump.

Plutocrats never lose, it’s just a matter of how much they win

Greg Palast has a article in The Nation this week that should be blowing the lid off the Romney campaign. Sadly, it’s getting scant attention. The article, “Mitt Romney’s Bailout Bonanza”, shows how hedge fun managers manipulated the rescue of the auto industry in order to cash in heavily and earn millions in profits, paid for entirely by the American tax payers. In the process, they stripped workers of both their pensions and their union protections.

The sad part is, if we hadn’t bailed out Chrysler and GM, these vulture capitalist friends of Mitt Romney probably would have figured out a way to cash in even more.

GOP presidential candidates: paid shills for Wall Street There has been an endless litany of GOP wharrgarbl lately about how rising gas prices are the fault of President Obama and his environmental policies. According to these professional wharrgarblists, all we need to do is drill more and open the Keystone XL pipeline and prices will magically fall below $2 per […]

I’m sorry, but I’m having a REAL hard time believing this load of manure: DCDecoder asks [Motley Fool’s] Morgan Housel: Why do you think Bank Transfer Day may end up working out for banks AND customers? Housel: One of the drivers behind [Bank Transfer Day] is people trying to teach banks a lesson. The irony of that is since the […]

This should make progressives VERY happy. In fact, it ought to make the Congressional Progressive Caucus especially happy because the Obama administration is pushing to adopt a key component of their People’s Budget (pdf): forcing the banks that caused our country’s economic crisis to help pick up the pieces by paying for the losses incurred by taxpayers in helping save […]

I’m reposting this blog after a major reading comprehension failure on my part this morning. I thought the investigation was being conducted by federal prosecutors (i.e., the Obama administration.) Turns out, if I had read my own cut-and-paste blockquote, I would have realized it is a New York prosecutor. With all I’ve got going on these days (recruiting volunteers for […]