Subject: Economic Development
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I am writing from India, where last week a small but significant convening took place. Some 250 experts (business leaders, academics, and other thinkers) from 25 countries came together for a two-day conference in Mumbai, India, titled The Responsibility to…
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced today that the Justice Department has indicted more than 400 defendants in 144 mortgage fraud cases. The indictments, part of a sting operation that began on March 1, was designed to “combat the threat mortgage fraud poses to the U.S. housing industry and worldwide credit markets,” according to an FBI statement.
“Operation Malicious Mortgage,” is “the culmination of substantial coordinated efforts during the last three and a half months to identify, arrest and prosecute mortgage fraud violators through the United States,” the FBI reports.
The Associated Press reports a suspected 53,000 mortgage fraud cases in 2007 alone, representing a 37,000-case increase from 2006, and a ten-fold increase from 2001-2002. AP cited statistics provided by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
In related news, the FBI statement said that it was “committed to” the prosecution of Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tanin, two former Bear Stearns portfolio managers who were arrested Thursday for securities fraud. According to The New York Times, the indictments are the first to be “brought against senior Wall Street executives linked to a tight credit market that has rattled global markets, led to more than $350 billion in write-offs, cost numerous executives their jobs and culminated in the demise of Bear Stearns.”
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I was pleased to hear at a recent planning workshop that the definition of the creative economy has been expanded. As popularized by Richard Florida in his first book on the subject, the term seems to refer largely to professionals…
The “Christian Science Monitor reported a few days ago”:http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/05/22/going-‘green’-has-willets-point-seeing-red/ on the Bloomberg administration’s plans to redevelop the Willets Point industrial area of Queens (just east of Shea Stadium) as a mixed-income development with 5,500 units of housing and a new convention center.
The Monitor largely fell for the administration’s claims that this would be NYC’s “first green neighborhood.” But the current plans are more “emerald city” than sustainable community development. more
According to a report in The New York Times Monday, auto sales are down by more than a million compared to 2007’s 16.2 million cars sold. Auto lenders are less likely to lend to customers with less-than-stellar credit, and home…
We hear it a lot these days, the Dante Alighieri quote that declares that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
And of course we’re all down with that, but… doesn’t it seem right there should be some fiery little side-pit for the likes of an arrogant piece of work like Angelo Mozilo?
Mozilo, of course, is the CEO of Countrywide Financial, the mortgage lending giant that gorged for years on sub-prime loans — read: loans loaded with points and extra fees and often double-digit interest rates — before the present meltdown may yet drag the entire economy into the dumper.
The 70-year-old Mozilo is considered the point-man of Countrywide’s conversion from a more conventional lender to a majority subprime loan vendor.
In 2007, Countrywide lost $704 million and laid off 11,000 employees. Mozilo collected $132 million in salary and cashed-out stock options.
Borrowers, stockholders, and former employees all got so angry, they stormed Countrywide and rode Mozilo out on a rail.
Ha ha — not really! Of course they didn’t! more
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Angelo Mozilo, the Countrywide financial chairman who is arguably the poster child for the current subprime meltdown, just learned the difference between e-mail reply and forward.
A beleaguered Countrywide customer, Daniel Bailey, Jr. had sent Mozilo (and various other Countrywide execs) a “hardship letter” e-mail requesting modifications to the terms of his loan, which had recently reset. Bailey is hoping to remain in his home of 16 years.
Bailey used language in his email that he found on LoanSafe.org, a Web site that offers advice to troubled borrowers.
Finding the message in his inbox, Mozilo had a classic “oops” and fit-of-pique moment. He fired off a message to his staff.
“This is unbelievable. Most of these letters now have the same wording. Obviously they are being counseled by some other person or by the Internet. Disgusting.” Instead of forwarding, he replied directly to Bailey, who went public.
Gee, some of us might use that same word to describe Mozilo’s $130.6-million profit from 2007 Countrywide stock sales.
And in the unintended effects department, guess that little loan counseling Web site saw a big uptick in clicks over the last 24 hours. more
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If people were surprised at how skeptical voters in the recent West Virginia Democratic primary were of Barack Obama’s casting himself as the candidate of change, they shouldn’t have been. West Virginians have a right to be skeptical of talk…
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National Housing Institute
