“It muted the tragedy in such a way that it certainly increased the possibility of an even greater tragedy down the road”

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"CBS) If you had to pick someone to write the autopsy report on the Wall Street financial collapse 18 months ago, you couldn't do any better than Michael Lewis. He is one of the country's preeminent non-fiction writers with a knack for turning complicated, mind numbing material into fascinating yarns.

He wrote his first bestseller, "Liar's Poker," about his experiences as a young Wall Street bond trader when he was still in his 20s and has since followed up with seven more bestsellers on subjects ranging from Silicon Valley in "The New New Thing" to big time sports in "Money Ball" and "The Blind Side."

His new book, called "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine," comes out later this week and it explains how some of Wall Street's finest minds managed to destroy $1.75 trillion of wealth in the subprime mortgage markets.

'60 Minutes' and correspondent Steve Kroft spent two days debriefing Lewis at his home in California."



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"And really what's going on is the people at the top of firm wanna make a lot of money. And if they're gonna make a lot of money they gotta pay the people under them a lot of money," he added. "So it's a very elegant form of theft right now."


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Much more at:

March 14, 2010
Wall Street: Inside the Collapse
Author Tells "60 Minutes" What Led to Wall Street Collapse and Who Predicted It

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/12/60minutes/main6292458.shtml?tag=cbsContent;cbsCarousel

300 Harleysville Bank employees lose their jobs.

An ordinary hometown bank goes under while the Wall Street bankers that caused Harleysville Bank’s problems receive gigantic bonuses with the aid of Federal bailout money.

300 jobs will be cut at Harleysville

By Harold Brubaker
Inquirer Staff Writer

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20100130_300_jobs_will_be_cut_at_Harleysville.html?nlid=2815537

"W. Chester man gets 15 years in investing case"

A federal judge yesterday sentenced Daniel R. Siddons of West Chester to 15 years in prison…
More at The Philadelphia Inquirer

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/business_breaking/20100121_W__Chester_man_gets_15_years_in_investing_case.html

Long Beach Mortgage Company

I looked through hundreds of property records (from the Chester County Recorder of Deeds) in Coatesville while investigating landlords here. I remember coming across Long Beach Mortgage Company frequently. I can’t say any fraud was involved. Some properties did wind up being sold at Sheriff's Sale.

I wonder if anyone that had a mortgage from Long Beach Mortgage Company here in Coatesville has any comments to send to the Huffington Post. Or the FBI.

At Top Subprime Mortgage Lender, Policies Were An Invitation To Fraud
Huffington Post Investigative Fund | David Heath

“Those who worked inside Long Beach Mortgage echo this sentiment. Kosch, who worked in the same office as Ngo and Blanford as well as the top executives of Long Beach Mortgage, said people on her team - though they couldn't prove anything - were suspicious about the loans executed by some of their colleagues.

'Oh my gosh, they were making a lot of money,' she said.

Sources within the Justice Department have acknowledged that there is a criminal investigation of senior management at Washington Mutual. As of now, however, Ngo and Blanford are the only employees of Long Beach Mortgage or Washington Mutual charged with crimes related to the subprime meltdown.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/21/at-long-beach-mortgage-a_n_399295.html

Us chickens need to get together and regulate the snakes before they steal all of our nest eggs.

But are some of those snakes are toxic enough to do jail time?

I have this nagging feeling that companies like FirstPlus Financial,Irving, TX; FirstPlus Development,Philadelphia, PA and Rutgers Investment Group Llc Wayne, PA; all of them owned by Associates of Nicky Scarfo and the Gambino Organization may benefit somehow from the ballot cash being doled out by Timothy Geithner.

I wonder if people like Nicky Scarfo and former Bear Stearns CEO and professional gambler James Cayne will be recipients of that bailout cash.

The FBI is on a major hiring spree particularly those with experience in the financial area. But will they get rolling in time to prevent people who I feel had criminal intent in the mortgage derivative investment field from benefiting from bailout cash?

An update:
I think the “bailout rules” are Enron style money laundering. Are there people whose business practices mirror Nicky Scarfo’s and James Cayne’s influencing the Obama Administration because they happen to be among the leadership of US Banking and International Banking?

Can we assume that the plan is to prosecute brown eyed CEO’s for racketeering and give the blue eyed criminal CEO’s billions in taxpayer’s money?

Is the “blue eyed Mafia” controlling the Obama Administration?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR2009040303910.html?hpid=topnews

Are you concerned about the corruption in companies like AIG or Bear Sterns?

Something not mentioned by President Obama:
The FBI and USDoJ are “going gang busters” on a hiring spree that has not been seen in decades. Convictions and prison are coming for the boys and girls of investment banking.

When Nicky Scarfo got into investment banking it should have been a red flag

The content of the New York Times article below outlines one of the reasons that I feel Eric Holder is by several lengths the most important horse in Obama’s stable.

When Nicky Scarfo (the son of Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo) got into the investment banking / mortgage derivative business it should have been a red flag. The Bush Administration Department of Justice pulled the FBI away from that investigation. They are back on it now.

Some of Scarfo’s companies:
FirstPlus Financial Group Inc, Globalnet Enterprises, Learned Associates of North America and Rutgers Investment, a FirstPlus subsidiary with offices in Wayne, PA.

January 29, 2009
What Red Ink? Wall Street Paid Hefty Bonuses
By BEN WHITE

By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street — except, that is, when the bonuses arrived.

Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year.

That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller.

While the payouts paled next to the riches of recent years, Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high.

Some bankers took home millions last year even as their employers lost billions.
More at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/business/29bonus.html?_r=1&hp