There's a deep rift in the Democratic party over whether America should bring back the Glass-Steagall Act, a bank regulation that was in place from 1933 to 1999.

...when you look at the actual financial institution failures in 2008, Glass-Steagall probably wouldn't have made much, if any, difference. The first two large institutions to fail were Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, both of which only served Wall Street, not Main Street.

Who wants Glass-Steagall back: Sanders, O'Malley and Senator Elizabeth Warren

Who doesn't want Glass-Steagall back: Clinton and the Republican candidates

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REAL ESTATE: OBAMA STRIKES AGAIN

Dodd Frank Real Estate Basics, What It Is and How To Protect Yourself

Published July 10, 2014 | By ListedBY

Chris Dodd and Barney Frank have long since retired, but the namesake legislation they crafted four  years ago is about to unleash sweeping changes in the mortgage and real estate markets.
 

According to real estate attorney Shari Olefson, who also wrote the book Financial Fresh Start, the changes took effect January 1st and few people even know about them.
 

“It’s not a bad idea to have less risky loans,” she says in the attached video. “The problem is folks are just not really ready for this. Banks have been preparing for this for a while, but folks on the street are just not aware of it.”

What she’s talking about is the coming dawn of the qualified or ‘’safe harbor’’ mortgage era. 

“Here’s the problem. In order for banks to benefit from a ‘safe harbor’ against lawsuits by borrowers, the loans they issue now under Dodd Frank have to be considered qualified mortgages,” Olefson says.

Specifically, she says that means debt-to-income ratio cannot exceed 43%, points and costs cannot exceed 3% and banks must independently verify that a borrower “has the ability to repay” via eight different criteria.

While the all sounds logical and well intentioned, Olefson foresees some problems.

“Here’s the catch, about 20% of people who have mortgages right now, will not be able to get qualified mortgages.  So what’s going to happen to those people is they’re going to have to go elsewhere for the new mortgage loans, or banks will have to price them more expensively because they don’t have these protections against lawsuits.”

What that means, she says, is that “it’s starting to sound like we may be seeing what used to be sub-prime loans again,” as well as the reality that more people will be pushed into the rental market.

Again, while this may be news to Mom and Pop, institutional money has been pouring into residential, single-family homes for years, and Wall Street is now poised to collect rent-checks until the real estate market rebounds enough for a suitable return on investment. As she frames it, private industry is stepping in exactly as Uncle Sam is easing out of the mortgage business.

Olefson also points out that all of this comes at a time when homeownership levels are already falling, from a peak of 69% to just 63% today. It’s a trend she fears could carry huge societal ramifications given the fact that 75% of American wealth has historically come from home ownership, or as she calls it, “essentially a forced savings account.”

Mess with that safety net, and it’s easy to see why she says the ripple effects of unintended consequences could easily outweigh the benefits of a four year old law.

http://blog.listedby.com/knowledge-centre/dodd-frank-real-estate-basics-what-it-is-and-how-to-protect-yourself/

Will Israel be the first cashless society on the entire planet?

Will Israel be the first cashless society on the entire planet?  A committee chaired by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff has come up with a three phase plan to “all but do away with cash transactions in Israel”.  Individuals and businesses would still be permitted to conduct cash transactions in small amounts (at least initially), but the eventual goal is to force Israeli citizens to conduct as much business as possible using electronic forms of payment.  In fact, it has been reported that Israeli officials believe that “cash is bad” because it fuels the underground economy and allows people to avoid paying taxes.  It is hoped that requiring most transactions to be conducted in cash will reduce crime and help balance the national budget.  And once 98 or 99 percent of all transactions are cashless, it will not be difficult for the Israeli government (or any other government) to go the rest of the way and ban cash transactions altogether.  But is a cashless society actually desirable?  This is a question that people all over the world will have to start asking as governments increasingly restrict the use of cash.

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4 dead international bankers in 6 days...what's going on? UPDATES

UPDATE #2: - New York Post - Rash of finance-pro suicides baffles experts

Top officials from JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, and the Federal Reserve have all turned up dead over the course of six days!

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UPDATE - Canada Free Press - Missing WSJ financial reporter plus SEVEN dead bankers since New Year, 2014:

"It is an insult to the public intellect that the media so readily pushes the official line that the deaths were all suicides given the unusual circumstances surrounding nearly all of those listed..."

Exposing what lies beneath the bodies of dead bankers and what lies ahead for us

"Although the trail of mysterious and bizarre deaths detailed below begin in late January, 2014, there are others. Not only that, there will be more, according to sources within the financial world. Based on my findings, these are not mere random, tragic cases of suicide, but of the methodical silencing of individuals who had the ability to expose financial fraud at the highest levels, and the complicity of certain governmental agencies and individuals who are engaged in the greatest theft of wealth the world has ever seen."

First time?

Liberals and conservatives are both right...about big banks

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YOU WILL HAVE 72 HOURS

06:38 DEUTSCHE BANK INFORMANT EXPLAINS

09:24 "They're trying to squeeze out as much money as possible.

With MF GLOBAL and JOHN CORZINE: That was a Beta test to see if they could take secured customer funds and get away with it AND THEY DID.

They're coming for our private checking accounts next.

Susanne Posel
SGT REPORT

How would you feel if you woke up someday and 40 percent of your life savings was suddenly gone?

Are the dominoes about to fall?

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Yes, MF Global was the Direct Antecedent to Cyprus

Word is that the initial plan was for a 40% (!!!!) levy confiscation of Cypriot bank accounts. They settled for a MERE 6.75% and 9.9% dual-layered compromise.

Finance: The Cypriot Confiscation is Terrifying

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - March 16, AD 2013 9:27 PM MST

Yes, MF Global was the Direct Antecedent to Cyprus
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - March 17, AD 2013 2:06 PM MST

Cyprus is MF Global on a national, retail banking scale. Corzine absolutely blazed this trail. The particulars are almost exactly the same. Both MF Global/Corzine and Cyprus were failing entities, both took massive, uber-leveraged risks on European sovereign debt, both swept sacrosanct customer money when the house of cards finally collapsed under the weight of its own math.

The indefensible zeroes and ones were instantly swept from the computer servers and customers were locked-out of their accounts.

Interestingly, both were goaded on and enabled by the same people. Corzine was a crony of the Obama regime, which is operationally a Chicago-based phenomenon, as are the regulators of the futures industry, along with the CME group itself.

Cyprus was goaded, overseen, and then "harvested" by the International Monetary Fund, which is chaired by Christine Legarde, who is a Chicago player, and who actually was a partner at Baker & McKenzie before being placed at the IMF by the Obama regime and bankster oligarchy. Cyprus was Christine Legarde's play, and Legarde is in the Chicago oligarch circle.

This will happen here. It already has with MF Global, Cyprus is testing the national, retail banking level, and then it will happen here. They might go straight to bank holidays here, as Warren Pollock has been talking about for over 18 months now, or they may do a levy confiscation like this on retirement accounts.

If you have any money exposed to the financial system, you're just stupid. That's it. Bottom line.

FDIC "protection" now capped at $250,000 - UPDATE

Ann Barnhardt modified her FDIC statement but still includes warning:

Point taken on the FDIC post. It is probably still PER INDIVIDUAL PER INSTITUTION, not per individual across institutions - at least that section is still on the FDIC website (thanks for sending those citations in), however, my other point still overshadows that point: the FDIC only has a few billion in assets against ten trillion in customer deposits, with the big-5 banks having over a trillion in customer money each. The big point is, the FDIC is not in any realistic sense any sort of protection.

More FDIC Smoke and Mirrors

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - February 8, AD 2013 8:47 AM MST

A reader sent this in. Effective December 31, 2012, FDIC insurance became AGGREGATED with a maximum PER OWNER cap of $250,000.

Many of you are under the impression that FDIC protection is per account, and thus if you just keep your money spread around and never keep more that a quarter-mil in cash in any one bank that you are "safe".

Nope. It is tied to your Social Security number / Tax ID number now.

And remember, total bank deposits in the U.S. are somewhere around TEN TRILLION DOLLARS and the FDIC deposit insurance fund as of March 31, 2012 had a whopping $15 BILLION.

Bottom line: if you think your bank deposits are "insured" or "safe" because of FDIC protection, you're totally irrational.

CITATION HERE.

December 31, 2012 As scheduled, the unlimited insurance coverage for noninterest-bearing transaction accounts provided under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act expired on December 31, 2012. Deposits held in noninterest-bearing transaction account are now aggregated with any interest-bearing deposits the owner may hold in the same ownership category, and the combined total insured up to at least $250,000.

The coming financial panic

According to the article, the following large banks are represented at these meetings: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup.

When the casino finally goes "bust", you will know who to blame.

Without a doubt, a derivatives panic is coming.

It will cause the financial markets to crash.

Several of the "too big to fail" banks will likely crash and burn and require bailouts.

As a result of all this, credit markets will become paralyzed by fear and freeze up.

Once again, we will see the U.S. economy go into cardiac arrest, only this time it will not be so easy to fix.

The Coming Derivatives Panic That Will Destroy Global Financial Markets

LIBOR-gate Explodes: What will Obama Do About His Banker Connections?

"The largest financial scandal in the world today."

The entire explosive LIBOR-gate package has "Barack Obama and Tim Geithner" written all over it, and could well explode right under Obama's political nose before the Sept. 3 Democratic Convention. . .

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TEXAS COMMUNITY BANK, SENIORS AND FREE ENTERPRISE GROUPS FILE SUIT CHALLENGING DODD-FRANK

Hot Air:

With every fiber of my being, I detest the woefully-orchestrated, unbearably intrusive disaster of a legislative package that is the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

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Europe: from bad to worse

18 Signs That The Banking Crisis In Europe Has Just Gone From Bad To Worse

With each passing day, the banking crisis in Europe escalates. European banks are having their credit ratings downgraded in waves, bond yields are soaring and billions of euros are being pulled out of banks all across the eurozone. The situation in Europe is rapidly going from bad to worse. It is almost like watching air being let out of a balloon. The key to any financial system is confidence, and right now confidence in banks in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal is declining at an alarming rate. When things hit the fan in Europe, it is going to be much safer to have your money in Swiss banks or German banks than in Greek banks, Spanish banks or Italian banks. Millions of people in Europe are starting to realize that a "euro" is not necessarily always going to be a "euro" and they are starting to panic. The Greek banking system is already on the verge of total collapse, and at this rate it is only a matter of time before we see some major Spanish and Italian banks start to fail. In fact it has already been announced that the fourth largest bank in Spain, Bankia, will be getting bailed out by the Spanish government. It is only a matter of time before we hear more announcements like this. Right now, events are moving so quickly in Europe that it is hard to keep up with them all. But this is what usually happens in the financial world. When things go well, it tends to happen over an extended period of time. When things fall apart, it tends to happen very rapidly.

And at the moment, things across the pond are moving at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking.

The following are 18 signs that the banking crisis in Europe has just gone from bad to worse. . .

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The Spanish Domino

"We have at most a month before Spain drags down the entire EU..."

Things have gotten so bad that Spanish citizens are pulling their money out of Spain en masse: €65 billion left the Spanish banking system in March 2011 alone.

Spain Is About to Enter a Full-Scale Collapse

If Spain's crisis deepens Europe's recession, it could tip the entire world economy into a stubborn slump. The ramifications would be enormous, including: reduced odds of Barack Obama's re-election, assuming a weaker U.S. recovery; less political cohesion and more social unrest in Europe (even now, the European Union's unemployment rate is 10.2 percent); and growing pressures in many countries for economic nationalism and protectionism.

Spain is suffering a hangover from what economist Desmond Lachman of the American Enterprise Institute calls "the mother of all housing booms."

The Pain In Spain

Vatican bank shut down: Obama's State Department accuses "financial crimes"

The Blaze: JPMorgan Chase Closes Vatican Bank Account:

Perhaps JPMorgan chose to close the account after the U.S. State Department decided to include the Vatican on its “financial crimes” list.

“For the first time, the Vatican has found itself on the U.S. State Department’s list of potential money-launderers,” The Blaze’s Billy Hallowell reported last week.

“According to the State Department, the Vatican made the list because it is considered vulnerable to laundering and because it had recently put a program into place to prevent financial abuses,” he added.

But much like JPMorgan’s decision to close the Milan account, some found the timing of the State Department’s inclusion of the Vatican on its “financial crimes” list a little odd: “Clearly, there are issues of concern, but the Catholic Church is taking measures to address these elements.”

Were either of these decisions aimed at the Holy See’s finances really necessary?

Considering the fact that the Catholic Church is currently engaged in a culture war with the Obama administration (and the world at large), a few critics believe we are witnessing much more than a mere pursuit of “financial transparency.”

HAT TIP: GatewayPundit

Timothy Geithner arrested

Hopefully, Obama will be next...

After U.S. financial markets closed on Friday, S&P announced credit downgrades for nine European nations

Over the past several months we have seen quite a few credit downgrades all over Europe, but we have never seen anything quite like what S&P just did. . .

In addition, there was another really, really troubling piece of news that came out of Europe on Friday.

It was announced that negotiations between the Greek government and private holders of Greek debt have broken down. . .

Already there are indications that foreigners are starting to dump large amounts of U.S. debt. If this trickle becomes a flood things could become very bad for the United States very quickly.

We are on the verge of some very bad things. The kinds of "financial bombs" that we saw dropped today are going to become much more frequent. As governments, banks and investors scramble to survive, we are going to see extreme amounts of volatility in the financial marketplace.

Things are not going to be "normal" again for a really, really long time.

Hold on tight, because 2012 is going to be a very interesting year.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Huge Financial Bombs Just Got Dropped All Over Europe

What most people don't understand is that when you open a brokerage account you allow your assets to be used to "borrow, pledge, repledge, transfer, hypothecate, rehypothecate, loan, or invest any of the Collateral"

Money quote:

...virtually unlimited leverage via the shadow banking system, in which there are practically no hard assets backing the infinite layers of debt created above, and which when finally unwound, will create a cataclysmic collapse of all financial institutions, where every bank is daisy-chained to each other courtesy of multiple layers of "hypothecation, and re-hypothecation."

MF Global: The SERIOUS Issues Reach Mainstream Media

KEYBOARD MONEY

So where in the world does all of that money come from?

As a CNBC article recently explained, all of this money is created right out of thin air by the Federal Reserve...

It’s really closer to “keyboard money,” since it is created by data entry in a computer.

What Have The Central Banks Of The World Done Now?

(Don't try this at home...)

Tens Of Millions Of American Families Are Living On The Edge Of Desperation – And The Economy Is About To Get A Whole Lot Worse

Back during the early 1930s, the flow of credit was greatly restricted and that was one of the primary causes of the Great Depression. Back in 2008, another massive credit crunch just about brought the financial world to its knees.

Well, now it is starting to happen again. . .

But instead of doing something to prepare for the coming economic crisis, members of the U.S. Congress are focused on stripping even more of our liberties and freedoms away from us.

As I wrote about yesterday, a new law (S. 1867) is being pushed through the U.S. Senate that is extremely frightening.

If this bill becomes a law, the United States of America would officially become part of the "battlefield" in the war on terror, and any American citizen could easily be flagged as a "potential terrorist".

Once identified as a "potential terrorist", the U.S. military would be able to arrest you, take you to a foreign prison and detain you for the rest of your life without ever having to charge you with anything.

What in the world is happening to America?

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