Matt Stoller’s piece on the latest in the foreclosure fraud settlement follies makes one very important point that I missed in my writeup: robo-signing is still happening. What makes these discussions so utterly absurd, so ridiculous, and farcical, is that robo-signing, an abuse the banks have admitted to and clam they’ve ceased, is still going [...]

Tim Geithner went on CNBC today and said that the Administration is getting right on the whole “prosecuting the people who defrauded the economy” thing. Asked on CNBC about the Occupy Wall Street movement’s frustrations over the lack of criminal charges related to the financial crisis, Geithner said action is on the way. “You’ve seen [...]

It’s clear that European policymakers are bumbling around, mainly because they don’t want to do the only steps that would actually work to end the crisis. Martin Feldstein, the conservative economist, basically gets this right in an op-ed today. It’s not a debt crisis, it’s a banking crisis. And in a larger sense, it’s a [...]

British newspapers are often sensational and sometimes wrong on big issues, so take this with a grain of salt. But the Telegraph reports that European leaders are constructing a “multi-trillion” euro plan to deal with the banking crisis that has gripped the continent. I very pointedly say “banking crisis” because we should wean ourselves off [...]

The zeal for fact-checking in the traditional media has gotten so intense that they have now taken to fact-checking principles. Glenn Kessler gives the “Buffett rule” this treatment, even while acknowledging that the deficit reduction plan “never really explains what that means, and administration officials have refused to lay out any detailed proposal.” We don’t [...]

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner forcefully denied the claim in a book by Ron Suskind that he ignored a request from the President to work up a plan to dissolve Citigroup. He further added that the entire theme of the book, about infighting in the White House over economic policy issues, bears “no resemblance to reality.” [...]

I think this story about Tim Geithner and Citigroup falls under the realm of gossip, but it’s pretty important gossip, so let’s take a look at Ron Suskind’s claim: A new book offering an insider’s account of the White House’s response to the financial crisis says that U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner ignored an order [...]

Tom Miller’s feewings are huwt. He doesn’t like how he’s being portrayed by those who have actually taken a look at how he’s been handling the 50-state “investigation” on foreclosure fraud. And he’s having his top deputy defend him to major media. Those involved in the settlement talks are increasingly frustrated at how their efforts [...]

The White House remains spooked by the fact that they have not been able to fix the economy, in particular the housing market. These directives to sell Fannie and Freddie’s foreclosed properties as rental units didn’t come from nowhere. The housing market is one of the areas where the Administration has some control without needing [...]

Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner, according to this Washington Post story, can only say “aw, shucks” and stand in the middle of the street with their pocket turned out when the economy suffers blow after blow. When the financial crisis hit in 2008, Bernanke was a relatively new Fed chairman, and Geithner was his chief [...]

I could barely suppress a laugh when reading about Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan begging Tim Geithner to settle the foreclosure fraud issue so they can get out from under their liability. As Yves Smith points out, if Tim Geithner had the power to get Bank of America out of their mess, he surely [...]