The Letdown in Chief does it agian. I'm a registered independent, but I was drinking the Obama kool-aid in 2008. New politics, better way of doing things, blah blah blah. I never thought I'd see the day I'd quote Sarah Palin (well, at least in a manner that wasn't "good grief, guess what she said now"), but "How's that hopey changey thing working out for you?" seems prescient. If the Rs put up somebody sane (Romney, Huntsman, or Christie if he gets in), they have my vote by default. If it's one of the crazies (Perry, Palin, Bachman), I'll just write in Lloyd Blankfein rather than vote for the proxy with the "funny last name" (his words, not mine)

Oops, forgot to sign my comment properly - but it's nice to know Jack protects our e-mails in that event, especially since criticisng Obama in my section of NEP would get me tarred and feathered

Don't forget that the now-former FDIC chair, Sheila Bair, was a Bush appointee and that she worked assiduously with JPM's Jamie Dimon and Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson, Jr, to take down WaMu in 2008, prior to Mr Obama's tenure. It has since been determined that WaMu was solvent when seized and a still-undetermined amount of its $307 billion in assets was given by Bair to Dimon for $1.888 billion.

In an action brought by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co regarding bad mortgages securitized by WaMu -- separate from the bankruptcy process that is, perhaps, heading toward a conclusion -- a DC district judge has very recently ruled against the FDIC's request to be excluded from the $10 billion suit:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/23/us-fdic-deutschebank-lawsuit-idUSTRE77M8H820110823

One commenter may be accurate in his summary of this latest ruling:

"OTS seized bank. FDIC appointed Receiver. FDIC sells JPM certain of the assets without the liabilities. The heart of this matter is that Judge Collyer wants to find out exactly what was transferred to JPM from FDIC via the Purchase and Assumption agreement (contract) that sold off the good parts of WaMu. Hence, she didn’t dismiss when JPM requested it, and now she didn’t dismiss when FDIC requested it."

So, despite the Obama crowd's -- Mr Geithner's and Mr Holder's, in particular -- affinity for Wall St banks, perhaps some judges will serve this country well.

Clearly, few others are, such as 49 of the state AGs, including our own Mr Kroger.

My latest guess at how this happened goes like this: At some point during the campaign, Obama met with Wall Street and sold his soul to be president. Hey, it happens.

He could even have seen it as the morally correct move: The massive disappointment that would follow would still involve a great statement of progress in having an African American make it to the White House.

Barack Obama realized it wasn't a choice of ignoring the globalist bankers and becoming president on his terms. If he didn't agree way in advance to do what they wanted, he wouldn't be president. They run America. It's that simple. It's not who controls the weapons - it's who controls the currency.

Barack has a sickly look in his eyes lately. There's a lack of conviction in his explanations. He's acting like someone who is honoring a dirty deal made long ago. I think that's what is aging him so fast. It's not the pressures of the job, as much as knowing he sold out to get it.

One key move was how he dumped his economic team right after the election. That's usually portrayed as evidence of deception. I'm beginning to think it wasn't deception at all. It was just an employee doing what his bosses wanted.

I honestly believe he wanted to reign in Big Pharma in the healthcare deal, but they flat out ordered him not to. In fact, Obamacare gives Big Pharma additional breaks. That's a clue.

In Iowa the other day, he said, "I like Obamacare, because it says Obama cares and I do." That was also a clue as to how far he's slipped. This was a man who dropped funny lines during the campaign with the power of a great standup comedian. It's scary that the new material is that weak. Losing your ability to be funny is a sign of a troubled soul.

Now, I think he's got a new assignment: Be the focal point of all the hatred that should be directed at the bankers, while they decide who the next president will be.

These are treacherous times.

"unfairly foreclosed-upon homeowners and borrowers"

So . . . put them back where they would have been had the appraisers and bankers not violated 18 USC 1014 by overvaluing the collateral. Void the deals and demand return of the proceeds from any covered loan.

Collapse of bankrupt entities is a cleansing process.

The FDIC-based exposure was an underlying rationale for the legislation to put bankrupt GSEs into conservatorship (and back 5 trillion in risk), and to cover AIGs counterparties and to create TARP. The expansion of FDIC coverage to unlimited balances was sheer madness.

In the end it we will discover that it would have been cheaper and more healthy to have closed the unsound banks and covered the FDIC-insured balances (before coverage was expanded) and to let the depositors then choose to place their money in some other bank that was still sound.

Is any "loan modification" also a pardon for a violation of 18 USC 1014? The crappiest loan risk is of only limited consequence, provided that the collateral is/was appraised legally.

so much for hope and change-is there not one honest visionary leader out there?

Warren Buffet's coziness with the White House, on the one hand, and his new financial interest and relationship with BOA, on the other hand, is more than a little disconcerting.