IS THE GOVERNMENT BANK MORTGAGE DEAL GOOD OR BAD FOR THOSE BEING FORECLOSED UPON? AND IS IT GOOD OR BAD FOR THE BIG BANKS WHO CREATED THE CRISIS? THE FOLLOWING TWO VIDEOS AND ARTICLE ARE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER (THE FIRST ONE IS THE EARLIEST, BUT PERHAPS STILL THE BEST ONE TO VISIT IF YOU ONLY DO ONE)

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February 9, 2012

Will Government Bank Mortgage Deal Help or Hinder Prosecutions?

Yves Smith: How can Obama Admin. settle before they have fully investigated the fraud



Bio

Yves Smith has written the popular and trenchant financial blog "Naked Capitalism" since 2006. Yves has spent more than 25 years in the financial services industry and currently heads Aurora Advisors, a New York-based management consulting firm specializing in corporate finance advisory and financial services. Prior experience includes Goldman Sachs (in corporate finance), McKinsey & Co., and Sumitomo Bank (as head of mergers and acquisitions). Yves has written for publications in the United States and Australia, including The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Slate, The Conference Board Review, Institutional Investor, The Daily Deal and the Australian Financial Review. Yves is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

February 10, 2012

50-State, $25B Mortgage Settlement: Relief for Struggling Homeowners or Bailout for Big Banks?

The U.S. Justice Department has unveiled a record mortgage settlement with the nation’s five largest banks to resolve claims over faulty foreclosures and mortgage practices that have indebted and displaced homeowners and sunk the nation’s economy. While the deal is being described as a $25 billion settlement, the banks will only have to pay out a total of $5 billion in cash between them. We speak to one of the settlement’s most prominent critics, Yves Smith, a longtime financial analyst who runs the popular finance website, "Naked Capitalism." "The settlement, on the surface, does look like it’s helping homeowners," Smith says. "But, in fact, the bigger part that most people don’t recognize is the way it actually helps the banks with mortgages on their own books... The real problem is that this deal is just not going to give that much relief." [Original includes rush transcript]

Bloggers Note: For the gory details of this story, read the following post by Yves Smith.