The Slaughterhouse Informer

A Compendiium of Various Official Lies, Business Scandals, Small Murders, Frauds, and Other Gross Defects of Our Current Political, Business and Religious Moral Lepers.

Presenting a new magazine that contains material that is not found elsewhere and is very difficult to post on the Internet. The ‘Voice of the White House’ will appear in each issue containing material not found on TBR News for very obvious reasons.This publication will appear once a week, on Wednesday, every week, will be ten pages in length and is available by subscription only. The price is $5.00 a month and can be paid via PayPal or by check. If you don’t like it, and Bush supporters can read the Drudge Report for free, you can cancel at any time.

Civil insurrection in America and government countermeasures: The official papers

By Bradley Moscrip

An in-depth study of official American plans to construct FEMA detention centers in America and specific recent U.S. Army domestic counterinsurgency plans. Here is a sampling of the ebook contents:

Gun Control by Confiscation

As the American general population is known to be the most heavily armed in the world, immediately upon the declaration of Martial Law and the execution by the military of counterinsurgency programs, it has been determined that the BATF, will begin the process of rounding up all rifles, pistols and so-called assault weaponry from the civil population. Lists of gun collectors obtained from firearms dealers, gun magazine subscription lists and other sources will be the basis for these mass confiscations. Gun owners will be supplied documentation by the BATF showing which pieces have been confiscated so that in the future, they will be told, they can recover their weapons when the state of emergency has passed. In actuality, weapons that do not have a high value or are not suitable for arming loyalist police forces, will be destroyed by order

This study is available from tbrnews at $5.00 by PayPal  

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., March 7, 2010: “Today, I have two subjects to discuss. The first deals with the so-called “Fake Ft. Knox Gold Bars.” This, very simply, in just another Chinese ripoff of the hated West and a means of striking back at the United States for Obama’s raising the interest rate on U.S. Treasury notes, an act which caused the Chinese to howl with rage because this in effect cheapened billions of dollars of such notes they were holding. Obama needed more money to finance his recovery programs so he ignored the Chinese demands. Vindictive as well as totally crooked, the government in Beijing then ordered the preparation of over 5,000 400 oz fake gold bars. These were made of gold-plated tungsten (which weighs almost the same as gold) and stamped with fake U.S. Treasury markings. The Chinese then exported their counterfeits all over the world to pay for oil and other badly needed products. Like their massive counterfeiting of U.S. gold and silver coins, the greedy Celestials made a serious error and that was their use of provable fake numbers on each bar. While these bars, like the Chinese gold American coins, may look original, the reduced weight of the former and the wrong serial number of the latter caught them. As soon as word of the fake gold bars spread, the Chinese began to howl that they had been robbed and tricked by the evil Americans sending them terrible fakes. Unfortunately for them,,the world banks were able to clearly identify these fakes and all of them were traced back to China. Ethopia, Iran and other countries were notified that their deposits of gold were fake and were being returned to them. China, through bought and paid for pseudo-“Experts” in the West started a flood of stories designed to shift the blame for their own faking onto the United States. As China has a well-earned reputation for fraud and counterfeiting, their laments went largely unbelieved by the world’s banking system. Upon request, the U.S. Treasuiry can authenticate, or denounce as fake, these bars by a simple check of the numbers. Purchasers of the flood of fake Chinese gold U.S. coins can do the same thing by simply weighing any suspect coin. The Chinese fakes, while visually correct, never weigh the same because the Chinese, typically, short the gold or silver content and then plate the fake with 24 caret gold, giving it the outward appearance of an original piece. It is estimated that China has faked and exported tons of fakes. And this subjece leads me into the second one. When the mortgage crooks cooked up their falsified credit reports, enabling the poor to buy nice houses, these fake and worthless mortgages were mixed in with.sound ones, “bundled” by crooked banks and shoved offshore onto unsuspecting foreign investors, banks and government archives. China was by far and away the largest buyer of these items and the growing knowledge that the MERS-protected mortgage packages are worthless is another reason why China is increasing what is obviously a major trade war against this countty.

It is known, though never openly discussed in public, that the mastermind behind the mortgage fraud was one Alan G. Shapiro who, it is conservatively estimated, made off with over $200 billion dollars, far more than the $74 billion his friend and fellow crook Bernie Madoff bagged. And like Bernie, Alan stashed all his loot in Israeli banks where no one can ever get at it. I intend to publish a lengthy and very confidential report on Shapiro, a heavy cash supporter of George W. Bush and his gang. About 3,000 financial services firms pay annual fees for access to MERS, which has 44 employees and is owned by two dozen of the nation's largest lenders, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. It was the brainchild of the Mortgage Bankers Association, along with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, the mortgage finance giants, who produced a white paper in 1993 on the need to modernize the trading of mortgages.”

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/bankruptcyprof_blog/2009/04/ny-times-article-on-the-ins-and-outs-of-mers.html

            As an illustration of some of the Shapiro-formulated MERS activities, I am enclosing an actual court case that is very revealing. I have about sixty of these and am preparing them for publication:

NEW YORK COURT OF APPEALS

2006 NY Int. 167

This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

2006 NY Slip Op 09500

Decided on December 19, 2006

No. 179

In the Matter of Merscorp, Inc., et al., Respondents,

v

Edward P. Romaine, & c., et al., Appellants, et al., Defendant.

Richard C. Cahn, for appellants.

Charles C. Martorana, for respondents.

Mortgage Bankers Association; American Land Title

Association; Federal National Mortgage Association et al.;

South Brooklyn Legal Services et al.; County Clerks of the

Counties of Albany, & c., amici curiae.

PIGOTT, J.

We are asked to decide on this appeal whether the Suffolk County Clerk ¹ is compelled to record and index mortgages, assignments of mortgage and discharges of mortgage, which name Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. the lender's nominee or mortgagee of record.

Petitioners, Merscorp, Inc. and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.(collectively "MERS"), commenced this hybrid proceeding in the nature of mandamus to compel the Clerk to record and index the instruments, and to declare them acceptable for recording and indexing.

Supreme Court denied in part petitioners' motion for summary judgment and granted in part the cross-motion of respondents, the Suffolk County Clerk and the County of Suffolk (collectively "the County"), holding that although the Clerk must record and index the MERS mortgage when presented, the Clerk may refuse to record a MERS assignment and discharge, because those instruments violate the "factual mandates" of section 321 (3) of the Real Property Law.

The Appellate Division reversed so much of Supreme Court's ruling as relates to the assignments and discharges, finding "no valid distinction between MERS mortgages and MERS assignments and discharges for purposes of recording and indexing" (24 AD3d 673 [2nd Dept 2005]). This Court granted leave and we now affirm.

In 1993, the MERS system was created by several large participants in the real estate mortgage industry ² to track ownership interests in residential mortgages. Mortgage lenders and other entities,³ known as MERS members, subscribe to the MERS system and pay annual fees for the electronic processing and tracking of ownership and transfers of mortgages. Members contractually agree to appoint MERS to act as their common agent on all mortgages they register in the MERS system.

The initial MERS mortgage is recorded in the County Clerk's office with "Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc." named as the lender's nominee or mortgagee of record on the instrument. During the lifetime of the mortgage, the beneficial ownership interest or servicing rights may be transferred among MERS members ("MERS assignments"), but these assignments are not publicly recorded; instead they are tracked electronically in MERS's private system ⁴. In the MERS system, the mortgagor is notified of transfers of servicing rights pursuant to the Truth in Lending Act, but not necessarily of assignments of the beneficial interest in the mortgage.

In April 2001, in response to an informal opinion of the Attorney General, which concluded that recording a MERS instrument violates Real Property Law § 316 and frustrates the legislative intent of the recording provisions (2001 Ops Atty Gen No. 2001-2), the Suffolk County Clerk ceased recording the MERS instruments. This proceeding ensued.

The County contends that the MERS mortgage is improper because that mortgage names MERS, an entity that has no interest in the property or loan, as the "nominee" for the lender. Thus, the County contends MERS is not a proper "mortgagee" and the document created cannot be considered a proper "conveyance" for purposes of the recording statute. We disagree.

Section 291 of the Real Property Law provides, in pertinent part, that:

"a conveyance of real property, within the state, on being duly acknowledged by the person executing the same, or proved as required by [the Real Property Law], and such acknowledgment or proof duly certified when required by [such law], may be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county where such real property is situated, and such county clerk shall, upon the request of any party, on tender of the lawful fees therefor, record the same in his said office"

[emphasis added].

Real Property Law § 316-a, which pertains exclusively to Suffolk County, provides that "[e]very instrument affecting real estate or chattels real, situated in the county of Suffolk, which shall be, or which shall have been recorded in the office of the clerk of said county on and after the first day of January, nineteen hundred fifty-one, shall be recorded and indexed pursuant to the provisions of this act"(emphasis added).

Thus, sections 291 and 316-a of the Real Property Law impose upon the Suffolk County Clerk the ministerial duty of recording and indexing instruments affecting real property (see Real Property Law §§ 290[3], 291, 316-a[1, 2], 321 [1]; County Law § 525[1]). The Clerk lacks the statutory authority to look beyond an instrument that otherwise satisfies the limited requirements of the recording statute (see Putnam v Stewart, 97 NY 411 [1884]). Therefore, the County Clerk must accept the MERS mortgage when presented for recording.

With respect to the MERS assignments and discharges of mortgage, the County argues that by requiring the Clerk to record the instrument, the Clerk is recording a document that ignores the mandates prescribed by Real Property Law § 321.

Section 321(1)(a) provides that where it does not appear from the record that any interest in a mortgage has been assigned, a certificate of satisfaction must be signed by the mortgagee or the mortgagee's personal representative in order for the recording officer to mark the record of the mortgage as "discharged." Where it appears from the record that a mortgage has been assigned, the recording officer cannot mark the record of that mortgage with the word "discharged" unless a certificate is signed by "the person who appears from the record to be the last assignee" of the mortgage, or his or her personal representative (Real Property Law § 321[1][b]). As the nominee for the mortgagee of record or for the last assignee, MERS acknowledges the instrument and therefore, the County Clerk is required to file and record the instruments.

Other provisions are not to the contrary. Under section 321 [2], the Clerk is required to record "every other instrument relating to a mortgage," if that instrument is properly acknowledged or proved in a manner entitling a conveyance to be recorded. Such instruments include "certificates purporting to discharge a mortgage" that are signed by persons other than those specified in Real Property Law § 321(1).

Further, section 321 (3) of the Real Property Law provides:

"Every certificate presented to the recording officer shall be executed and acknowledged or proved in like manner as to entitle a conveyance to be recorded. If the mortgage has been assigned, in whole or in part, the certificate shall set forth the date of each assignment in the chain of title of the person or persons signing the certificate, the names of the assignor and assignee, the interest assigned, and, if the assignment has been recorded, the book and page where it has been recorded or the serial number of such record; or if the assignment is being recorded simultaneously with the certificate of discharge, the certificate of discharge shall so state. If the mortgage has not been assigned of record, the certificate shall so state"

[emphasis added].

Notably, section 321 (3) does not call for the unrecorded MERS assignments to be listed on the MERS discharge. Rather, under the statute, the discharge is required either to list the assignment by the name of the assignor and assignee, the interest assigned, and the book and page number, where recorded, or, if the assignment has not been recorded, to "so state."

The legislative history of the statute supports this interpretation. In 1951, Real Property Law section 321 (3) was amended to, among other things, insert the term "of record" (L 1951, c 159, § 1). The relevant memoranda submitted to the Legislature in connection with the amendment indicate that the term was inserted to "correct a difficulty" in complying with the statute (see e.g. Memorandum by the Executive Secretary and Director of Research of the Law Revision Committee in support of Bill in Senate). Prior to the amendment, the statute required that a discharge certificate presented to the County Clerk either list all of the assignments in the chain of title or state that the mortgage was unassigned ⁵. However, problems developed when an assignment, known to the person executing the discharge, was not in the chain of title. In those situations, the person executing the discharge would make the untrue statement that the mortgage was unassigned. Thus, the Legislature amended the statute allowing the discharge certificate to either list the assignments in the chain of title or to state that the assignment has not been made "of record". The MERS discharge complies with the statute by stating that the "[m]ortgage has not been further assigned of record" and, therefore, the County Clerk is required to accept the MERS assignments and discharges of mortgage for recording.

Accordingly, the order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed with costs.

CIPARICK, J.(concurring):

I am constrained to agree with the result reached by the majority opinion. However, I write independently to highlight the narrow breadth of this holding and to point out that this issue may be ripe for legislative consideration.

I concur with the majority that the Clerk's role is merely ministerial in nature and that since the documents sought to be recorded appear, for the most part, to comply with the recording statutes, MERS is entitled to an order directing the clerk to accept and record the subject documents. I wish to note, however, that to the extent that the County and various amici argue that MERS has violated the clear prohibition against separating a lien from its debt and that MERS does not have standing to bring foreclosure actions, those issues remain for another day (see e.g. Merritt v Bartholick, 36 NY 44, 45 [1867]["a transfer of the mortgage without the debt is a nullity, and no interest is acquired by it"]).

In addition to these substantive issues, a plethora of policy arguments have surfaced during the pendency of this proceeding. For instance, if MERS succeeds in its goal of monopolizing the mortgage nominee market, it will have effectively usurped the role of the County Clerk that inevitably would result in a county's recording fee revenue being substantially diverted to a private entity. Additionally, MERS's success will arguably detract from the amount of public data available concerning mortgage ownership that otherwise offers a wealth of statistics that are used to analyze trends in lending practices. Another concern raised is that, once an assignment of the mortgage is made, it can be difficult, if not impossible, for a homeowner to find out the true identity of the loan holder. Amici who submitted briefs in favor of the County argue that this can effectively insulate a note holder from liability and further that it encourages predatory lending practices.

Unquestionably there is considerable public value in allowing seamless assignments of mortgages in a secondary market. However, whether this benefit will outweigh the negative consequences cannot be ascertained by this Court. Thus, as the recording act, which as relevant here has not been substantially amended in the last 50 years, could not have envisioned such a system nor its ancillary impacts, I feel that such a decision is best left in the hands of the Legislature.

M/O Merscorp. v Romaine

No. 179

KAYE, Chief Judge (dissenting in part):

In 1993, members of the real estate mortgage industry created MERS, an electronic registration system for mortgages. Its purpose is to streamline the mortgage process by eliminating the need to prepare and record paper assignments of mortgage, as had been done for hundreds of years. To accomplish this goal, MERS acts as nominee and as mortgagee of record for its members nationwide and appoints itself nominee, as mortgagee, for its members' successors and assigns, thereby remaining nominal mortgagee of record no matter how many times loan servicing, or the mortgage itself, may be transferred. MERS hopes to register every residential and commercial home loan nationwide on its electronic system.

But the MERS system, developed as a tool for banks and title companies, does not entirely fit within the purpose of the Recording Act, which was enacted to "protect the rights of innocent purchasers . . . without knowledge of prior encumbrances" and to "establish a public record which would furnish potential purchasers with notice, or at least 'constructive notice', of previous conveyances" (Andy Assocs. v Bankers Trust Co., 49 NY2d 13, 20 [1979]; see Witter v Taggert, 78 NY2d 234, 238 [1991]). It is the incongruity between the needs of the modern electronic secondary mortgage market and our venerable real property laws regulating the market that frames the issue before us.

I

The Suffolk County Clerk, pursuant to the Recording Act, has a duty to record conveyances that are "entitled to be recorded" (Real Property Law § 316-a [5]), and to discharge mortgages when presented with a validly executed and acknowledged certificate of discharge (Real Property Law § 321). Thus, as part of this ministerial duty, the Clerk is called upon to examine an instrument to see that it is, facially, a "conveyance" of real property or to see that the certificate of discharge complies with the statutory mandates. "The performance of his uniform clerical duty requires him to compare the instruments which come to his possession for record . . . and certify as to the identity of their physical contents. Such a certificate does not involve the expression of an opinion, but calls for the statement of a fact capable of absolute demonstration" (Putnam v Stewart, 97 NY 411, 418 [1884]).

When presented with a MERS mortgage to record, the Clerk is able to discern from the face of the instrument that MERS has been appointed, as nominee, "mortgagee of record." As the instrument appears to reflect a valid conveyance (Real Property Law § 290 [3]), the Clerk is required to record the instrument in MERS' name "as nominee for lender" (Real Property Law § 291). Given that the identity of the actual lender is ascertainable from the mortgage document itself — indeed, the use of a nominee as the equivalent of an agent for the lender is apparent, and not unusual — I concur with the majority that the Clerk is obligated to record MERS mortgages.¹

When presented with a certificate of discharge, however, the Clerk has the duty to examine the mortgage's prior assignments. The Clerk collects fees precisely for this purpose (Real Property Law § 321 [3] ["the fee or fees which the recording officer is entitled to receive for filing and entering a certificate of discharge of a mortgage and examining assignments of such mortgage shall be payable with respect to each mortgage"]). Section 321 (3) of the Real Property Law further provides:

"Every certificate presented to the recording officer shall be executed and acknowledged or proved in like manner as to entitle a conveyance to be recorded. If the mortgage has been assigned, in whole or in part, the certificate shall set forth the date of each assignment in the chain of title of the person or persons signing the certificate, the names of the assignor or assignee, the interest assigned, and, if the assignment has been recorded, the book and page where it has been recorded or the serial number of such record; or if the mortgage is being recorded simultaneously with the certificate of discharge, the certificate of discharge shall so state. If the mortgage has not been assigned of record, the certificate shall so state"

(emphasis added).

"[W]here the statutory language is clear and unambiguous, the court should construe it so as to give effect to the plain meaning of the words used" (Raritan Dev. Corp. v Silva, 91 NY2d 98, 107 [1997][emphasis and citations omitted]). Plainly, the statute requires all assignments of the mortgage to be listed on the certificate of discharge, whether recorded or not. The statute first sets out this general requirement, then it addresses each possible scenario in turn: if the assignment was recorded, the Clerk must enter the book and page; if the assignment of mortgage is being recorded simultaneously, the certificate shall so state; if the assignment was not recorded, the certificate similarly shall so state. To read the statute as providing that the certificate "either" list the recorded mortgage "or" simply state that the assignment has not been recorded renders the language of the preceding sentences superfluous and the clause regarding the listing of recording details "if recorded" nonsensical.

"[T]he clearest indicator of legislative intent is the statutory text" (Majewski v Broadalbin-Perth Cent. School Dist., 91 NY2d 577, 583 [1998]). The Court need not look to legislative history when the plain meaning of the statute is clear, and surely should not look to legislative history to override the plain meaning of the statute, as the majority now does.

Here, moreover, the legislative history of § 321 is inapposite. Real Property Law § 321 was amended in 1951 to ameliorate the situation "where assignments are known by the signing party to have existed but are not in his chain of title because the mortgage has been reassigned to the assignor," such as when "a mortgage has been pledged to secure a loan and on repayment . . . has been reassigned to the mortgagee without the assignment ever having been recorded" (Recommendation of the Law Revision Comm, Bill Jacket, L 1951, ch 159, at 20; see also Mem of Law Revision Comm, Bill Jacket, L 1951, at 11). Thus, the situation the amendment addressed was when a mortgagee's assigned, unrecorded mortgage was reassigned back to the mortgagee, and the mortgage was then transferred by the mortgagee to a subsequent holder or discharged by the original mortgagee himself. In such a case, "there appears to be no reason for requiring a statement that the mortgage has not been assigned [as] the certificate is executed by the original mortgagee" (Recommendation of the Law Revision Comm, Bill Jacket, L 1951, ch 159, at 20 [emphasis added]), or transferred by the original assignor after it had been assigned back to him (see Report of Comm on Real Property Law, Bill Jacket, L 1951, at 9).

Under the MERS system, by contrast, assignments are made from one lender, to another lender, to another lender, and so on down the line. The 1951 amendment, which assumed that the mortgagee would be discharging the reassigned mortgage, or that a subsequent holder would discharge it unaware that the previous owner had assigned away and been reassigned the mortgage, is thus inapplicable to the issue under review.

II

The MERS system raises additional concerns that should not go unnoticed.

The benefits of the system to MERS members are not insubstantial. Through use of MERS as nominee, lenders are relieved of the costs of recording each mortgage assignment with the County Clerk, instead paying minimal yearly membership fees to MERS. Transfers of mortgage instruments are faster, allowing for efficient trading in the secondary mortgage market; a mortgage changes hands at least five times on average.

Although creating efficiencies for its members, there is little evidence that the MERS system provides equivalent benefits to home buyers and borrowers — and, in fact, some evidence that it may create substantial disadvantages. While MERS necessarily opted for a system that tracks both the beneficial owner of the loan and the servicer of the loan, its 800 number and Website allow a borrower to access information regarding only his or her loan servicer, not the underlying lender. The lack of disclosure may create substantial difficulty when a homeowner wishes to negotiate the terms of his or her mortgage or enforce a legal right against the mortgagee and is unable to learn the mortgagee's identity. Public records will no longer contain this information as, if it achieves the success it envisions, the MERS system will render the public record useless by masking beneficial ownership of mortgages and eliminating records of assignments altogether. Not only will this information deficit detract from the amount of public data accessible for research and monitoring of industry trends, but it may also function, perhaps unintentionally, to insulate a note holder from liability, mask lender error and hide predatory lending practices. The County Clerks, of course, are concerned about the depletion of their revenues — allegedly over one million dollars a year in Suffolk County alone.

Admittedly we do not know, at this juncture, the extent to which these concerns will be realized. But it would seem prudent to call to the attention of the Legislature what is at least a disparity between the relevant statute — now 55 years old — and the burgeoning modern-day electronic mortgage industry.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Order affirmed, with costs. Opinion by Judge Pigott. Judges Rosenblatt, Graffeo, Read and Smith concur. Judge Ciparick concurs in result in an opinion. Chief Judge Kaye dissents in part in an opinion.

Decided December 19, 2006

Notes

¹ Edward P. Romaine resigned as County Clerk December 31, 2005. Judith A. Pascale is currently the Acting County Clerk.

² Among the entities creating MERS were the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, the Government National Mortgage Association, and the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

³ Members of the MERS system also include entities such as insurance companies, title companies and banks.

⁴ If a MERS member transfers servicing interests in a mortgage loan to a non-MERS member, an assignment from the MERS member to the non-MERS member is recorded in the County Clerk's Office and the loan is deactivated within the MERS system.

⁵ The purpose of such requirement was to facilitate the work of the recording officer in marking the record of the mortgage.

¹  I also agree that the issues concerning the underlying validity of the MERS mortgage instrument — in particular, whether its failure to transfer beneficial interest renders it a nullity under real property law, whether it violates the prohibition against separating the note from the mortgage, and whether MERS has standing to foreclose on a mortgage — are best left for another day. Although MERSCORP initially requested a declaratory judgment that the MERS instruments were "lawful in all respects" (which Supreme Court denied) the instruments' validity has not yet been addressed.;;;;;;;

How to Find out if You’ve got MERS on Your Mortgage!

March 8, 2010 by The Guardian/UK

Blame It on the Bubble

The financial crisis is just a sideshow – the real reason for the economic downturn is the rise and demise of the housing bubble

by Dean Baker

Politicians and the media continue to refer to the economic downturn as being the result of a financial crisis. This is wrong. We have 15 million people out of work because the housing bubble that drove the economy since the last recession finally burst. The financial crisis may have been good entertainment for those who like to see huge banks collapse, but it was a sidebar. The real story was the rise and demise of the housing bubble.

Those who claim that the real problem was the financial system and its faulty regulation can be disproved with a single word: Spain.

Spain is noteworthy because it now has an unemployment rate of more than 19%, the highest rate in any of the wealthy countries. Spain did not have a financial crisis. In fact, its well-regulated financial system is often held up as model for the United States.

Spain did have a horrific housing bubble. As a result, the share of construction in the economy rose from less than 8% of GDP at the end of the 90s to 12.3% in 2007. By comparison, it is typically less than 6% of GDP in non-bubble years in the United States. This rapid rate of construction led to enormous overbuilding, which meant that a collapse was inevitable with construction falling to far below normal levels.

The run-up in house prices also had the predictable effect on consumption. Because people believe that the run-up in house prices is based on fundamentals, homeowners assume that their newly created housing wealth is real and they spend accordingly. Spain's saving rate fell from just under 6% in 2000 to 3% in 2007. When the housing wealth created by the bubble disappeared people naturally cut back their consumption.

This is Spain's crisis. According to the IMF, housing starts in Spain fell by 80% from the peak of the boom. While total construction has not fallen as much (repairs and non-residential construction did not decline nearly as much), if construction in Spain fell by 50%, this would imply a loss in annual demand of more than 6% of GDP. That would translate into a drop in demand of more than $800bn in the United States.

Similarly the loss of housing wealth reverses the housing wealth effect. If consumption fell enough to return the savings rate to its pre-bubble level, then this would imply a loss in annual consumption demand of more than three percentage points of disposable income. In the US this would amount to more than $300bn in lost annual consumption.

There is no easy mechanism to replace more than $1tn in lost demand. This is why Spain's economy is in a severe slump right now. Note that just about all analysts agree, Spain's financial system was well regulated and it had none of the loony loans and outright corruption that pervades Wall Street and the US financial system. Yet, it is suffering from this economic downturn even more than the United States.

The moral of this story is that the problem is not first and foremost a financial crisis. It might be fun to watch the Wall Street and government boys sweat as they stay up late trying to keep the big banks from drowning in the cesspools they created. But this is all a sideshow. No one saved us from a "second Great Depression," they just saved the jobs and wealth of the Wall Street crew.

The economy's real problem is simply the loss of demand created by collapse of the bubble. Throwing even more money at the banks is a way to ensure that they don't suffer from the consequence of their own greed and stupidity. It is not a way to restore the economy to health.

Restoring the economy to health is about finding a replacement for the demand lost as a result of the collapse of the bubble. In the short-term, this means increased government spending and tax cuts. Deficits put money in the economy, and using the old-fashioned view that people work for money, we can determine how much money we need to spend for the government to get the economy back towards full employment levels of output.

In the longer term, we need to move towards more balanced trade, with higher exports and fewer imports making up for the demand lost due to collapse of the housing bubble. This will require a lower-valued dollar - everything else in the trade picture is just for show.

We do need financial reform. We have an incredibly wasteful and reckless financial industry. But bad financial regulation by itself did not give us 10% unemployment, nor would good regulation have been sufficient to prevent it. Just ask the workers in Spain.

March 7, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

Time for a U.S. Revolution – Fifteen Reasons

by Bill Quigley

It is time for a revolution. Government does not work for regular people. It appears to work quite well for big corporations, banks, insurance companies, military contractors, lobbyists, and for the rich and powerful. But it does not work for people.

            The 1776 Declaration of Independence stated that when a long train of abuses by those in power evidence a design to reduce the rights of people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the peoples right, in fact their duty to engage in a revolution.

            Martin Luther King, Jr., said forty three years ago next month that it was time for a radical revolution of values in the United States. He preached “a true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies.” It is clearer than ever that now is the time for radical change.

            Look at what our current system has brought us and ask if it is time for a revolution?

            Over 2.8 million people lost their homes in 2009 to foreclosure or bank repossessions – nearly 8000 each day – higher numbers than the last two years when millions of others also lost their homes.

            At the same time, the government bailed out Bank of America, Citigroup, AIG, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the auto industry and enacted the troubled asset (TARP) program with $1.7 trillion of our money.

            Wall Street then awarded itself over $20 billion in bonuses in 2009 alone, an average bonus on top of pay of $123,000.

            At the same time, over 17 million people are jobless right now. Millions more are working part-time when they want and need to be working full-time.

            Yet the current system allows one single U.S. Senator to stop unemployment and Medicare benefits being paid to millions.

            There are now 35 registered lobbyists in Washington DC for every single member of the Senate and House of Representatives, at last count 13,739 in 2009. There are eight lobbyists for every member of Congress working on the health care fiasco alone.

            At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that corporations now have a constitutional right to interfere with elections by pouring money into races.

            The Department of Justice gave a get out of jail free card to its own lawyers who authorized illegal torture.

            At the same time another department of government, the Pentagon, is prosecuting Navy SEALS for punching an Iraqi suspect.

            The US is not only involved in senseless wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the U.S. now maintains 700 military bases world-wide and another 6000 in the US and our territories. Young men and women join the military to protect the U.S. and to get college tuition and healthcare coverage and killed and maimed in elective wars and being the world’s police. Wonder whose assets they are protecting and serving?

            In fact, the U.S. spends $700 billion directly on military per year, half the military spending of the entire world – much more than Europe, China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea, and Venezuela - combined.

            The government and private companies have dramatically increased surveillance of people through cameras on public streets and private places, airport searches, phone intercepts, access to personal computers, and compilation of records from credit card purchases, computer views of sites, and travel.

            The number of people in jails and prisons in the U.S. has risen sevenfold since 1970 to over 2.3 million. The US puts a higher percentage of our people in jail than any other country in the world.

            The tea party people are mad at the Republicans, who they accuse of selling them out to big businesses.

            Democrats are working their way past depression to anger because their party, despite majorities in the House and Senate, has not made significant advances for immigrants, or women, or unions, or African Americans, or environmentalists, or gays and lesbians, or civil libertarians, or people dedicated to health care, or human rights, or jobs or housing or economic justice. Democrats also think their party is selling out to big business.

            Forty three years ago next month, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached in Riverside Church in New York City that “a time comes when silence is betrayal.” He went on to condemn the Vietnam War and the system which created it and the other injustices clearly apparent. “We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing oriented” society to a “person oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

            It is time.

Bill is legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. Quigley77@gmail.com

ADL opposes recognition of “genocide” in Turkey and Ukraine

March 5, 2010 |

EU Times

The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 23 to 22 to acknowledge the mass murder of Christians, mostly ethnic Armenians, by the Turks early in the 20th century. Turkey officially denies that they committed genocide against Christians Armenians, Greeks, and others.

The main group that has been lobbying congress not to recognize the killings as “genocide” is the Anti-Defamation League. A militant left-wing group that claims to represent the interests of Jewish people. Conservative Jews however, universally denounce the group as an embarrassment and being a leading cause for animosity towards Jews. In reality the ADL is a $50 million dollar a year fund-raising hustle that spits venom at conservatives and files lawsuits against expressions of Christianity in public. The ADL is the main group that fostered a hate campaign against Mel Gibson and pressured distributors not to handle his theatrical adaptation of the Passion Play, called “The Passion.” To put it simply, the ADL is the most well funded and well known anti-Christian organization in the United States.

The ADL has opposed the recognition of the Ukrainian Holocaust and the Christian Holocaust in Turkey as acts of “genocide.” The actions taken by the ADL, which justifies it’s own existence with the Jewish Holocaust, could not be any more sinister and hypocritical.

The ADL, which critics routinely dub an “unregistered foreign lobby for Israel,” defends Turkey because of their military alliance with Israel. Turkey is Israel’s only Muslim military ally and their only regional military ally. However in recent years, this relationship has been strained and may not continue for much longer.

It is also true that historically Sephardi Jews have thrived in Turkey, with many taking refuge in Turkey after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Historically manly Jews have even held leadership positions in Turkey. However, most American Jews are Ashkenazim Jews, not Sephardi. Also, relations between Turkish Jews and their neighbors have been sour since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. With a large portion of the Jewish population in Turkey having know emigrated. Though many Jews remember Turkey as the leading “Jewish safe haven” for 456 years where Jews were a thriving merchant class.

The reasons that the ADL has opposed recognition of the mass killing of Christian Ukrainians by the Soviets as “genocide,” is even more mysterious. It may stem from the open secret that Lazar Kaganovich is an ethnic Jew. Kaganovich is called the “architect of the Ukrainian Holomodore.” In which access to and from large areas of the Ukraine were blocked and vast numbers deliberately starved to death. Kaganovich’s Jewish ethnicity almost never appears in print. However, according to an article published by Tel Aviv University, “38.5 percent of those holding the most senior posts in the Soviet security apparatuses [in 1936] were of Jewish origin.” View Source.

The ADL justifies it’s militancy and aggressiveness by holding that Jewish suffering in the 20th century was unique and unparalleled. So much so that it seeks to deny the suffering of others. These actions had led many Americans on the left to denounce the ADL in recent years. Several towns in New England have removed ADL “No Place For Hate” signs from their towns over this very issue. It has also fostered animosity towards Jewish people in general among the left and the right. The very thing that the ADL alleges it is fighting.