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Can not excerpt or re-post Bloomberg. Text at link.

Charles E. "Ed" Haldeman, Jr., has announced his plans to step down as chief executive officer of mortgage giant Freddie Mac sometime in the next year. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which regulates Freddie and its counterpart Fannie Mae, announced Wednesday that Haldeman is looking to leave the government-sponsored enterprise some time next year.

A plan by beleaguered Bank of America to foist trillions of dollars of funky Merrill Lynch derivatives onto its depositors is raising eyebrows on Wall Street. The rarely used move will likely save the bank millions of dollars in collateral but could put depositors’ cash behind the eight ball. The move also brought to light fissures between the nation’s top banking regulators, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve, in the wake of new regulations meant to curb the free-wheeling habits that fostered the worst crisis in a generation back in 2008. At issue is BofA’s decision to...

Between the candidates’ debates and my conversations with the Occupy Wall Street protesters, it seems to me that there is a persistent, dangerous disconnect between our political conversation and reality. On the right, we’re still too focused on taxes, rather than on the spending that drives taxes. On the left, they’re . . . the Left, still, unfortunately for them. With an eye on 2012, here are ten important but sometimes counterintuitive facts to keep in mind:1.      There is no austerity.2.      There was no deregulation.3.      You can’t trust Republicans on spending.4.      Wall Street loves Democrats.5.      People who voted for Barack...

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has warned of another financial crisis brewing, as global liquidity becomes a concern amidst central banks pegging their lending rates at near zero levels, leaving scope for another asset bubble to take down the global financial system. "There is, thus, incontrovertible evidence that there is yet again a huge under-pricing of risks in the financial system and, therefore, it is not a question of if, but when, the generic asset bubble caused by manifold increases in balance sheets of central banks will burst," said RBI, executive director, VK Sharma in his address in Singapore on...

There is no such thing as a Unicorn that craps out pretty colored candies. In the case at hand in the United States we have a government on both sides of the aisle that has made promises that are mathematically impossible to keep. That same government conspired with The Fed and with Wall Street to blow a series of bubbles that led you to believe, over the space of 30 years, that you could have more than you can actually pay for with your work output. This claim was a lie and it infested virtually every area of our nation....

I have been trading barbs with Occupy Wall Street supporters via social media and my own website for a few weeks now, some of it civil, but most of it not. One thing I have learned is that the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Tea Party have a couple of things in common; they are both upset about the state of the economy and both are fed up with politicians. Unfortunately, that is where the similarities end and the differences begin. The OWS’ers want to blame Wall Street and banks for all their problems while the Tea Party and...

Explosive Audio Unearthed: After the Sub Prime Crisis already started in 2007 Obama says Sub Prime Mortgages that gave houses to people WHO COULDN'T AFFORD THEM was a GOOD IDEA!!

CHICAGO – Three years have now passed since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which triggered the start of the most acute phase of the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Is the financial world a safer place today? Within days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the US had erected new and enormous security measures at airports throughout the country. Within a month, the US military was on the ground in Afghanistan. Within three years the US had an official report on the causes of the events of 9/11; the well-resourced expert commission that produced it identified the weaknesses of America’s national-security...

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich got worked up when asked about the Occupy Wall Street protests at last night's Bloomberg-Washington Post debate. Gingrich first sought to tie the protests to "left-wing agitators" before calling for the firing of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. He then doubled down, calling on former Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank to be thrown in jail, not anyone on Wall Street. Asked if he actually meant for them to do prison time, Gingrich said he did, alluding to past ethical scandals. Watch the video below: CLICK ABOVE LINK...

The desperate search for an acceptable Republican Party presidential candidate continues. Republican leaders apparently are pushing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who previously said no, to jump into the race. The GOP's frustration is palpable. Mitt Romney has been running for four years but generates little enthusiasm. Rick Perry was an instant front-runner before losing much of his support after unimpressive debate performances. Michelle Bachmann briefly streaked across the political firmament but now barely registers in the polls. Newt Gingrich committed political seppuku shortly after announcing his candidacy. Ron Paul's support is fervent but limited. However, the real Republican problem...

IMF Issues Brand New Warning About The Massive Risks To The Banking System Joe Weisenthal Sep. 21, 2011, 9:37 AMReleased this morning by the IMF. A new statement on huge risks to the banking sector. ------------------------------ * Weak growth, balance sheets and political resolve cause crisis of confidence * Large number of countries effected by government debt risks * Policymakers need to act to repair household, government and financial balance sheets Financial stability risks have risen sharply in recent months, as slower economic growth, market turbulence in Europe, and the credit downgrade of the United States have weighed on the...

The reality of the beginnings of the Financial Crisis was government housing policy that reduced underwriting standards for mortgages and created a tsunami of subprime debt. The truth that the Democratic Party refuses to discuss.

There's a classic sequence near the end of the 1997 movie Titanic that depicts the ship's sinking. As the bow of the ship takes on water and slides beneath the ocean, the stern of the ship rises out of the water and ends up vertical. There's a pause as the stern just bobs there in the middle of the ocean leaving the remaining passengers afraid and confused. Then, after a brief pause, the ship quickly sinks. As I watch economic and political news unfold, I get the distinct impression that in 2008 the liberal ship Titanic hit an economic iceberg...

<p>Cheney writes that in 2008 he was puzzled about GOP presidential nominee John McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign and request a meeting with congressional leaders to discuss the financial crisis at the White House.</p> <p>“Senator McCain added nothing of substance,” Cheney writes about the now-famous meeting. “It was entirely unclear why he’d returned to Washington and why he’d wanted the congressional leadership called together. I left the Cabinet Room when the meeting was over thinking the Republican presidential ticket was in trouble.”</p>

A Bronx boom-and-bust story shows why the nation hasn’t yet recovered from the financial crisis. As the American economy limps through its second “recovery summer,” hobbled by trillions of dollars in bubble-era debt, politicians and regulators should take a long look at an unlikely place: Kingsbridge, a neighborhood in the northwest Bronx. In some ways, Kingsbridge’s credit-bubble experience was no different from the rest of the nation’s. As the bubble reached its greatest size in late 2006 and early 2007, the financial system—aided by dizzyingly intricate instruments and coddled by the government, which had long kept investors from facing the...

(Published three years ago. Still important today). The crisis affecting the economy is a crisis of our civilisation. The values that we hold dear are the very same that got us to this point. The meltdown in the economy is a harsh metaphor of the meltdown of some of our value systems. A house is on fire; we see flames coming through the windows on the second floor and we think that that is where the fire is raging. In fact it is raging elsewhere. For decades poets and artists have been crying in the wilderness about the wasteland, the...

In a clip from his interview with WSJ's Simon Constable, Dr. Nouriel Roubini insists that it was the policies of George W. Bush that caused the current U.S. economic crisis.

NEW YORK—American consumers can expect bigger grocery bills in 2012, even as commodity prices are forecast to fall. (snip) In a recent report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said grocery-store prices will likely rise 3% to 4% in 2012, on par with this year, even though ingredient costs may fall. The biggest increases would likely be in the first half of next year, but prices would most likely ease later in 2012, said USDA economist Richard Volpe.

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