Bank Forecloses on Elderly Woman Over $49 She Already Paid

An elderly Texas woman, Aron Ezilla Ridge, 75, is being thrown out the home she's lived in for 47 years--the home that she raised six children--over $49 in property taxes, taxes that she paid early. Ms. Ridge is confined to a wheelchair, and is for the most part, housebound as she is partly blind, has diabetes, congestive heart failure and had surgery for colon cancer several years ago.

Ridge paid off the mortgage for her 900-square-foot home about 20 years ago. In 2007, her home needed major roof, kitchen and bathroom repairs, so she signed a reverse mortgage with James B. Nutter & Co. which provided her with $39,000 for the repairs. In 2011, she received a property tax bill for $20.31, which she said she paid in full and on time. In April 2012, the assessor's office informed her that her home was valued at $60,743 and that her taxes were estimated at $46.87. Ridge says she did not receive a tax bill, but later received a receipt stating that $49 in taxes were paid in late 2012.

Here's the thing. Ridge says she was told by the Travis County Tax Assessor's office in 2000 that she did not need to pay property taxes because the value of her home was below homestead and senior exemption caps, so she assumed that the receipt meant she was exempt from property taxes.

Fast forward to January 2013, and Nutter's attorneys told Ridge her reverse mortgage had been accelerated (see acceleration clause), and that she had to pay off the entire loan "or the lender would exercise its right to enforce the lien on her home. Ms. Ridge does not remember receiving this letter," the complaint states.

Her home was foreclosed on on Jan. 30, and she received notice on Feb. 6.

According to the complaint:

"The application [for foreclosure] stated that Ms. Ridge was in default 'for failure to pay property taxes.' The only property to which the application could possibly refer were the taxes for 2012 - which were not due until January 31, 2013. Yet defendant intended to enforce its right to foreclose on Ms. Ridge's home because she had not paid $49.00, which at the time the application was filed, was not due yet."

After Ridge was served, she tried to pay the taxes again at the assessor's office. They told her they could not accept payment because the taxes had been paid by the defendant before they were due. In other words, the taxes were already paid!

Ridge lives on $641 in monthly disability payments, therefore, is unable to pay the accelerated reverse mortgage. She has no other source of income. Meanwhile, Nutter is demanding more than $66,700, plus attorneys' fees - double the amount she was paid in 2007 and more than the appraised value of her home in 2012.

Links:

Reverse Mortgage Foreclosures On The Rise, Seniors Targeted For Scams

A Risky Lifeline for the Elderly Is Costing Some Their Homes

5 Reverse Mortgage Scams

Banks hit new low – Wells Fargo evicts homeowner undergoing cancer treatment

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Intruders Crash Investment Banking Awards Dinner

The Investment Banking Awards are the Oscars of the financial world. Dished out for so-called 'innovation', some of the world's richest bankers gather together to congratulate each other on devising ever more creative ways to make obscene sums of money.

One of 2012's most profitable scams was the bankers' 'innovative' approach to a key interest rate called LIBOR. Virtually every bank at the event was involved in illegally colluding to rig LIBOR, ensuring that they would always be the winners in the multi-million pound bets they were making on the markets.

When we noticed that this money-spinner had been overlooked in the ceremony, we decided to show up and make sure the LIBOR-riggers got the recognition they deserve.

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When Banksters Scam, Swindle and Steal, It's Legal.

The Justice Department won't be pursuing criminal charges against Goldman Sachs or its employees over its deceptive practices in marketing mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations (CDO).

In April 2011, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a voluminous report on the role of major banks, federal regulators and credit rating firms in the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and ensuing financial crash of September 2008. 240 pages of the 640 page report examined the role of Goldman Sachs (GS) in selling securities that they were betting would fail.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, said the panel’s two-year probe had found “a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest and wrongdoing". He went on to say, "In my judgment, Goldman clearly misled their clients and they misled Congress.”

On Thursday, despite the massive amount of evidence - 56 million pages of memos, documents, prospectuses and emails - against Goldman Sachs, the DOJ concluded that "there is not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution with respect to Goldman Sachs or its employees in regard to the allegations set forth in the report.”

Moreover, on the same day that the DOJ decided not to pursue criminal charges against GS, the SEC, in a totally separate investigation of a $1.3 billion subprime mortgage deal from 2006, also decided not to take any action against GS. And the largest transfer of wealth from the public to private sector continues on.

What happened to President Barack Obama's Justice Department task force to investigate banking practices in the mortgage industry?

"On the sixth month anniversary of the announcement of the so-called financial crisis task force, the twin announcements yesterday that Goldman Sachs and its executives will not be charged by either the Sec or DOJ for conduct directly related to the toxic assets at the heart of the crisis is a stark reminder that no individual or institution has been held meaningfully accountable for their role in the financial crisis. And without such accountability, the unending parade of megabanks scandals will inevitably continue," - Neil Barofsky

Links:

Goldman Sachs and Control Fraud

Five Senior Goldman Sachs Execs Gave $130K To 'Obama Victory Fund' WHILE Eric Holder Was Deciding Whether To File Criminal Charges

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Veterans Stabbed in the Back with Secret Code Numbers that Stigmatize.

Every veteran knows what a DD-214 - discharge papers - is; it's their passport to civil life. However, it's the rare veteran who knows what a "spin code" - a false & stigmatizing secret coded number - is, of which, a veteran only has 5 years from the time of discharge, to correct (5-year statute of limitations).  But, how can one correct something they don't know exists? Moreover, why is it vital for veterans to know, and correct if wrong? Read on, and/or watch the video below.

What is the SPN/SDN (Separation Program Number) # or "spin code"? After 1980, SPN-123 changed to alphabetical, (SPD-XYZ).

On June 11, 1956, the D.O.D. ordered the military departments to begin putting a coded number on DD-214 document, which potential employers, banks...you name it, access for reference.  The code is assigned to every veteran upon being discharged from military service. This code number can say very derogatory things such as: "bed-wetter", "paranoid schizophrenic", "repeated VD", "character and behavior disorders", "unsanitary habits", "unsatisfactory handling of personal affairs" etc. despite the number of medals awarded, or that a veteran has an honorable discharge.  One of the most popular codes was SPN-265 or SDN-265, which says, unsuitability, character & behavior disorders.

"There were 5 main categories; unsuitability, unfitness, misconduct, homosexual, or, any reason based upon mental or moral issues. Then under each category, they piled on a bunch of numbers and meanings. i.e. SPN-384, Drug Abuse, Marijuana or Heroin. And get this, those veterans who signed up for "DRUG AMNESTY" you got a code number, SPN-384...you got no amnesty!"

These secret code numbers that classified veterans, branding, or black-listing a large segment of former military veterans from bank loans, employment, life insurance policies, etc., not to mention, a system that sets up dummy accounts to siphon of (steal billions of dollars) into hidden slush funds, despite the courts declaring it illegal, is still in practice today.  Our government is above the law, obviously.

The list to interpret these code numbers were/are distributed throughout corporate America, and corporations do not look past that code number when determining whether a veteran is eligible for employment.

Why are there are so many homeless Vietnam veterans, in particular? In the 1960s, 8 out of 10 veterans had a derogatory code on their DD-214. As of 1977, nearly 20 million veterans had a coded number.

Who? Why? How? Where? When? 


Who? Edwin H. Crosby III (tells his amazing story in the video below), accidentally stumbled upon this scheme while watching Walter Cronkite deliver the news in 1974. Why?  He found out that even though he had an honorable discharge, he was falsely stigmatized as "unsatisfactory handling of personal affairs". Where? How? He filed lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court, N.D. N.Y. Syracuse in January 1976, amended March 1976. This lawsuit had to do with false and stigmatizing coded number placed upon his person without his knowledge, known as a SPN code. Lawsuit went to U.S. Supreme Court on Special Order A-393 (that is the 393rd special order since this nation started)

Crosby has met with then Senator Joe Biden, and  Senator John McCain. McCain, after promising to look into the matter, never did.  In fact, he literally ran away from Crosby when he went to his office, in person, to question McCain's refusal to do what he had promised.

Almost 40-years later, he is still fighting the battle to not only expose this fraud, but to correct this egregious injustice. Thanks to an April 2007 video, shortly thereafter, the V.A. admitted to shredding millions of documents at 42 of 57 Regional Offices.

Currently, Crosby has filed another lawsuit against the VA

On JUNE 28, 2012, in U.S. District Court, Boise, Idaho, a lawsuit was re-filed per U.S. 9th Circuit request. (case No: 12-330-CV LMB) This is a class action lawsuit against the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, the DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, and, SECRETARY of VETERANS AFFAIRS ERIC K. SHINSEKI.

The Complaint alludes to the following; Deprivation of Civil Rights, Intentional Infliction of Emotional and Physical Distress, Deprivation of Due Process and Tampering with, Obfuscation of Official Records, and, Defamation of Character, Libel, Slander, Medical Malpractice and Wrongful Death.

In a nut shell, any Veteran who has had trouble with the V.A. Medical System or, the numerous V.A. Regional Offices may JOIN this lawsuit. In less than one(1) month, we have had well over 100 JOIN. Clearly, we welcome those widows who have lost a husband via “ wrongful death “ at the hands of V.A. Medical Personnel.

For those interested in READING the full legal brief, you may go to this LINK; www.veterancourtcodes.com whereupon said BRIEF is right on the front page of this website for ALL veterans and concerned citizens to view.

If you want to join the lawsuit, download the Joinder Notice here.

Make three copies, keep one for your records, sign two copies in the presence of a notary and send the two notarized copies to the address on the form.  Read over the lawsuit carefully and start to gather the evidence for your own part of the case.

Any vet with a general or better discharge who is service-connected with the VA or who has filed a claim in the past for service connection has good cause to join in this action.

Links:

At Ft. Bragg, NC: Deprivation of Treatment Services & Medical Malpractice as "Policy"

VA Must Disclose Veteran Drug Test Documents


94-year old WWII Veteran Hopelessly Trapped in VA Claims Backlog

DOJ lawyers are as corrupt and rigged as the VA agency is itself.

How to request military service records

Access to Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF) - for the General Public

Correcting military or service records.

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Predatory Banksters Push Man to Suicide.

Banks like Wells Fargo destroy lives every single day, and get away with it despite their cruel and unethical practices. Here is one of those stories that ended in tragedy.

Right from the start, homeowners, Norman and Oriane Rousseau provided proof to Wells Fargo, that they - the bank - had, indeed, received the Rousseau's mortgage payment and cashed their check; but had misapplied the payment. The bank lied, claiming they ordered a stop payment on the cashier's check, despite the fact that a  cashier's check payment can't be stopped.  Like a well-oiled machine, the bank continued their process of destruction. The bank "lost" their payment three times in the last eight months of the loan. The bank continued to lose every shred of Norman’s evidence: the cashier’s check receipts; certified mail from him with returned signatures from them; certified mail from his attorney; documentation that they were cashing the checks, etc.

“In May 2009 the bank claimed the couple had missed their April payment. They proved they had made a payment in person at the bank, using a cashier’s check and that the check had been cashed by the bank. The bank then claimed they had ordered a stop payment on the check, even though a cashier’s check payment cannot be stopped,” writes Johnson. “The runaround began. The bank began harassing them for payment, sometimes as many as six-eight calls per day, sometimes even late at night. On August 3, 2009 the bank claimed the Rousseaus hadn’t paid June or July’s payments either, demanding $3,406.50. But then on August 8 the bank assured them they were current on payments. Then the bank again claimed it had not been paid and that the bank had been trying to contact them without success, and that they now owed $3,478,25.”

The Rousseaus soon learned that the loan they believed they were paying was entirely different from what they received — a loan loaded with prepayment penalties, unnecessary fees, and one that had them paying less than the amount of interest on the loan, making it reset and actually add to the cost of their debt. The longer they continued to make minimum payments, the further they fell behind, and with the “lost” check they fell into a cycle they were unable to ever get out of.

Norman tried to make his voice heard. He took his case to authorities at every level: local, state, and national to no avail. Norman lost his job and used all their savings on lawyers and the legal fight. Eventually, pushed by banksters to the brink of homelessness, Norman Rousseau shot and killed himself. An evicted Oriane Rousseau, his wife, doesn’t even have the money to bury her husband.


Rousseau v. Wells Fargo

Husband’s Suicide Yesterday, Wells Fargo to Evict Wife Tomorrow Anyway

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Ron Paul and the Multi-Trillion Dollar a Year System of Wealth Generation for the Inside Players

We've all heard, "He who controls the gold makes the rules", as well as the famous quote, “Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.” Yet, most of us do not fully comprehend who owns all the gold, and we're conditioned to believe that the only pertinent history is stored on our Twitter, Facebook, and/or cell phone.

Meanwhile, in our ignorance of history, without any idea who really owns all the gold, war on the middle class; war on our civil liberties; a widening inequality gap; unemployment and underemployment; Washington gridlock, and wars, proxy wars, and secret drone wars continue to escalate, supposedly on our behalf.

What's the answer? Why, Ron Paul, of course.

But, first, before settling on Ron Paul as a savior, who will deliver "We the People", from evil, don't you think it's important to understand not only history, but who really owns the gold, and its implications? Because, one thing for certain, it's not us. Over 80% of the physical gold is owned by the "ruling elite". "We the People" own less than 10%, with independent commercial interests owning the rest.

As I have posted before, here, and here,  according to the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) the Federal Reserve, despite what Ron Paul says, is already audited, and the currency is already backed, at least, in part, by gold, and, in part, by us - our labor.  Moreover, the market price of gold on the London Fixing ranges between $1600 to $1800 per oz; however, the statutory price of gold is $42.22 per fine troy ounce. As of 9/30/11, there were 261,498,900. And most importantly, the  treasury may redeem gold certificates at any time for the statutory price!

Walter Burien, in his article, SO YOU WANT A GOLD BACKED CURRENCY - THE 50-YEAR PLAN IS COMING TO A CLOSE, explains that what we are seeing at this time is the "culmination of a “50 year plan” that began in 1963 - after the assassination of JFK - when we went off the gold and silver standard...that's when the 50-year plan began. At that time, there was an organized effort to "buy all of the gold each and every year. Hundreds of tons per month as they manipulated to keep the price low."

By 1999, their stockpile of gold increased by over 20,000 tons, and continued to do so right up until 2000. By 2001, the stage was set as 9/11 created the sky-is-falling fear, aided by the 2008 financial crisis, needed so that Ron Paul's sound-bite conditioning on the importance of gold-backed currency could really take off.

This promotion by the cartel to make the public believe “it is essential to have a gold backed currency” will continue.  And according to Burien, "international circumstances will be created to bring the fear level to the brink". He goes on to say, in 2013-14, the powers that be will yield to demands for gold backed currency, which will give the cartel the liquidity to unload what they have stockpiled for half a century as the country obtains the physical gold to back the currency at 1000% + profit locked in, leaving the public as the bag-holder.

After the conversion is complete, then the collapse in gold prices begins (2015-16), with the true and real collapse of the dollar now taking place backed by the quickly diminishing value of gold. Hence, the wealth transfer to the cartel, complete.

This should come as no surprise to any of us. The 'Godfather' federal government - or in Burien's words, "wealthiest organized corporate syndicate ever known who out of self interest selectively spoon feeds the population the parameters of how and what to think due to the money involved. They have the best psychologists; market strategists; and create the curve of public opinion that money can buy" - has been making us an offer we can't refuse for quite some time, as one man summed it up so well:. 

alljammedup wrote:

"...here's my BAD dream as the owner of a small business...(speaking of the Federal Government) they'd like to make me a business offer. Seriously. This is a real offer. In fact, you really can’t turn them down, as you’ll come to understand in a moment…

Here’s the deal. You’re going to start a business or expand the one you’ve got now. It doesn’t really matter what you do or what you’re going to do. I’ll partner with you no matter what business you’re in – as long as it’s legal.

But I can’t give you any capital – you have to come up with that on your own. I won’t give you any labor – that’s definitely up to you. What I will do, however, is demand you follow all sorts of rules about what products and services you can offer, how much (and how often) you pay your employees, and where and when you’re allowed to operate your business. That’s half of your profits.

Now in return for my rules, I’m going to take roughly half of whatever you make in the business each year. Half seems fair, doesn’t it? I think so. Of course, that’s half of your profits.

You’re also going to have to pay me about 12% of whatever you decide to pay your employees because you’ve got to cover my expenses for promulgating all of the rules about who you can employ, when, where, and how. Come on, you’re my partner. It’s only “fair”.

Now…after you’ve put your hard-earned savings at risk to start this business, and after you’ve worked hard at it for a few decades (paying me my 50% or a bit more along the way each year), you might decide you’d like to cash out – to finally live the good life.

Whether or not this is “fair” – some people never can afford to retire – is a different argument. As you partner, I’m happy for you to sell whenever you’d like…because our agreement says, if you sell, you have to pay me an additional 20% of whatever the capitalized value of the business is at that time.

I know…I know… you put up all the original capital. You took all the risks. You put in all of the labor. That’s all true. But I’ve done my part, too. I’ve collected 50% of the profits each year. And I’ve always come up with more rules for you to follow each year. Therefore, I deserve another, final 20% slice of the business. Oh…and one more thing…

Even after you’ve sold the business and paid all of my fees…I’d recommend buying lots of life insurance. You see, even after you’ve been retired for years, when you die, you’ll have to pay be 50% of whatever you estate is worth.

After all, I’ve got lots of partners and not all of them are as successful as you and your family. We don’t think its “fair” for your kids to have such a big advantage. But if you buy enough life insurance, you can finance this expense for your children.

All in all, if you’re a very successful entrepreneur…if you’re one of the rare, lucky, and hard-working people who can create a new company, employ lots of people, and satisfy the public…you’ll end up paying me more than 75% of your income over your life.

Thanks so much.

I’m sure you’ll think my offer is reasonable and happily partner with me…but it doesn’t really matter how you feel about it because if you ever try to stiff me – or cheat me on any of my fees or rules- I’ll break down your door in the middle of the night, threaten you and your family with heavy, automatic weapons, and throw you in jail.

That’s how civil society is supposed to work right? This is America, isn’t it? That’s the offer America gives its entrepreneurs. And the idiots in Washington wonder why there are no new jobs…LOL.....who wants to be in business today?????

FYI...65% of new jobs were created by small businesses.

http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/sbfaq.pdf
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Ron Paul and the Federal Reserve Act

Clint Richardson takes a look at the "Ron Paul campaign and makes an honest assessment of Dr. Paul's true disposition, as well as those who call him a "prophet".

Richardson asks, "Why isn't Ron Paul talking about the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR)?" Which is the audit of the Federal Reserve, and  which does expose the true wealth of our nation, exposing the fact that government owns it all by investment.

Ron Paul won't tell you this, but federal government controls the Federal Reserve, not the other way around. The Federal Reserve is a tool which the United States Corporation uses to put us all in debt. 

The Federal Reserve Act states that it allows banks to be opened in and invested in foreign countries. The Federal Reserve Act has been amended many times. The Federal Reserve Act is prima facie law, which just means it is presumed law...that it goes on with your consent.

The Fed is the property of the United States. Assets of failed federal reserve banks go to the United States Inc, the corporate structure that rules the 50 states.  Yes, the United States is a corporation.

In other words, as I've always thought, Ron Paul is full of it.

"A gang is a group of men under the command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention. If this villainy wins so many recruits from the ranks of the demoralized that it acquires territory, establishes a base, captures cities and subdues peoples, it then openly arrogates to itself the title of kingdom, which is conferred on it in the eyes of the world, not by the renunciation of aggression, but by the attainment of impunity" - Saint Augustine defining government

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Occupy Wall Street:: Astro-Turf Rallies?

Is Occupy Wall Street (OWS) the work of the Serbian contract revolution organizers, the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies [C.A.N.V.A.S] and Otpor!? Is this the elite power structure replacing one corrupt system with another, even more corrupt system? Are they channeling the energy of a fed-up American public to nowhere? To usher in an even more destructive banking system?

The mainstream media's coverage of this "occupation", the lack of severe injury and/or fatalities, President Obama's endorsement, the lack of clear demands, and the services of a glitzy public relations firm makes it hard to believe otherwise.

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Foreclosure Crisis: The Bankster Creation of a System to Subvert the Law

If you think this foreclosure crisis, just happened due to ignorance, stupidity, and/or sloppiness, think again. It was deliberately created.

How can we know that the groundwork was laid for this crisis, brought about by fraudulent practices - that continues on, despite the bankster's promise to halt their illegal activities - far in advance of the rampant predatory lending that date back to 1998, possibly even further?

Well, the banking industry decided long ago that people's homes could be and would be treated like a stock or bond transaction. So, in 1993, they set up an index, MISMO - which maintains voluntary electronic commerce standards for the mortgage industry - in such a way that the data files could be manipulated by Wall Street.

At the same time, the electronic system that would facilitate high-speed transactions, Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) started to come to life, and went into action in 1995. There are over 3,000 counties in the US and MERS has infiltrated all of them. Due to MERS, the chain of title of 100 million properties established in the county land records has been circumvented, convoluted, and irretrievably broken.  Thus, without the the creation of MISMO/ MERS by the big banks, a foreclosure crisis of this magnitude is not possible. 

What is MERS? 

MERS is an entity that operates an electronic database.  It records your deed, your mortgage, your note, etc., electronically, but does not record the interest in the property at the courthouse, which is required (every conveyance of the property should have a separate document placed in your record, and it should be in a,b,c,d order) by law.  Moreover, it has a very bizarre corporate structure. It is almost a virtual company with 47-48 members   (they outsource through EDS). In addition to the 47 MERS members, there are approximately 20,000 signing officers authorized on its behalf, who have never received a dime from MERS, and who work full time for another company - sometimes a bankrupt company.

Now, MERS enabled lenders to buy and sell securities on Wall Street with nothing but an electronic handshake. Even though MERS was supposed to ensure a transfer can’t happen without both parties in agreement, almost all of the documents have the signature of the same person as representative of both parties (poorly paid robo-signers, which is still going on, despite the bank's promise to stop were/are used to sign/stamp affidavits). So, this accelerated process greatly increased the quantity of transactions, which, in turn, greatly increased the bottom line of the greedy banksters. In other words, this entity was set up so they could play with our money on Wall Street! 



However, because almost all of the intervening assignees, who bought and sold these securities, did not bother to record their interest in the land records at the courthouse, it produced breaks in the chain of title. Not only that, the counties lost/lose tens of millions of dollars in fees that MERS never paid!  In total, across the US, that's $60 billion! MERS even states that it's  not a substitute for the land records. 

And if you closed on a property, especially after 2003 (dates back to 1998), most assuredly, there was an 18-digit MERSmin located in the top right-hand corner of the title, indicating that an electronic file was already set up and waiting for you.

In a nutshell, MERS enabled the banksters to avoid fees, sped up the mortgage securitization process to allow for countless transactions, all the while, obscuring their activity.

Registrars like Thigpen in North Carolina and John O'Brien in Massachusetts say they have taken their findings to federal authorities. Except for a call from the North Carolina attorney general's office, though, Thigpen says he has been ignored for months.

What happens if you do have MERS on your mortgage?

Even if you avoid foreclosure, with MERS on your mortgage, you still may have a problem.  Eventually, the title companies will start to deny homeowners with clouded titles (MERS), coverage. So, when you go to refinance or sell the property, the title company (many of whom are owned by the big banks who created this disaster) could refuse to insure MERS properties, fearing exposure to lawsuits for a defect in the title. The title company only inusres defects previous to the issue of the warranty deed.

Meanwhile, the banks are going to court with forged and fabricated evidence (documents are backdated, include descriptions of events and actions that did not take place, are executed by individuals under titles they do not hold, and signed by someone else's name) to support their claims, in order to foreclose!

As William Galvin from Southern Essex District Register of Deeds - Salem Deeds - said, there should be a mortgage forensic auditor involved in all foreclosure court actions to ensure the information presented to judges by the banks is, indeed, accurate. Unfortunately, you cannot do this yourself as one needs access to the ABSNET Loan system, and/or the Bloomberg Terminal that actually determines where the note/ mortgage came from and who owns the note/ mortgage...the cost is $200,000 per year.

Step by Step:

Step One: Check on the status of your title.  Get out your mortgage paperwork. You should have a copy of a grant deed, warranty deed (anything with deed on it) that establishes your rights to ownership in the land and lists your name as the grantee.  There should be a legal description that is specific to that piece of property. this document gives you the right to convey, sell the property to whomever you want because you are lawfully seized of the estate which means you have it to hold in fee simple freehold.

Step One: Check Protect America's Dream to find out if you have MERS on your mortgage.

Step Two: If it is, go to your county recorder's office, and, ascertain, through the recorder of deeds how their system of recordation is set up. Go through your file and ensure that every conveyance on your property has a separately filed document or assignment. If not, your chain of title is clouded, which simply means an adverse situation that creates a break in the chain of ownership assignment in a title to real property, thus making it unmarketable.

Step Three: If you have a clouded title, if you want to know who has a potential claim on your property,get an attorney to file a Quiet Title Action,   and/or a Declaratory Judgment Action which gives the court the right to determines the interest  of the parties coming before it with a claim or disclaim

Get the book, Clouded Titles, by Dave Krieger is an excellent reference that will guide you step by step through the process.

Links:

States offer big banks deal over Robo-signing Lawsuit.

Claim that banks conspired to Fix interest rates before and after financial crisis

Goldman, Litton, Ocwen sign New York robo-signing deal

Merscorp Mortgage Registry Has Civil Racketeering Suit Dropped in New York

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Extreme Weather: Natural or Nurtured?

The "historically ferocious twister" that destroyed a good part of Joplin, Missouri, leaving at least 125 dead and more than 900 people injured, with initial reports of a staggering 1,500 missing - recently whittled down to 232 missing - appears not to be the end of the nightmare for this tornado prone zone, as the ever-present threat of more tornadoes looms. The National Weather Service issued tornado watches and a series of warnings in a dozen states, stretching northwest from Texas though the Mississippi River valley to Ohio.

The sheer intensity and length of these storm fronts is unbelievable. Video captured in Joplin, Missouri appears to show the tornado triple in size in seconds. Is that normal? Or is something else going on?

Some are trying to blame human beings for this devastating extreme weather seen around the world.  Isn't that convenient?  Especially when so much profit is to be made.  The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) was formed to buy and sell carbon credits , the currency of cap-and-trade. Founder Richard Sandor estimates the climate trading market could be "a $10 trillion dollar market." Maurice Strong, Al Gore, GE, and many other 'global warming' profiteers will reap the enormous rewards should "cap and trade" legislation prevail. In fact, the United Nations is pushing Hollywood to promote this climate alarmist bullsh*t.

Moreover, guess who helped establish the market for, and became the major trader in, EPA’s $20 billion-per-year sulfur dioxide cap-and-trade program? Enron!

This cap and trade exchange of NOx and SO2 emission allowances caused Enron’s stock to rapidly rise. It was the forerunner of today’s CO2 trading, now taken up by CCX. Enron was a promoter of the Kyoto Protocol since it would increase their profits. Enron’s Ken Lay had meetings with Clinton and Gore to try to get Kyoto promoted: “Enron officials later expressed elation at the results of the Kyoto conference. An internal memo said the Kyoto agreement, if implemented, would "do more to promote Enron's business than almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States."”

Now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just published “Forensic Meteorology Solves the Mystery of Record Snows” in which they conclude that there is no human "fingerprint" that implicates human involvement in global warming, or cooling or whatever the hell is happening to the climate.

“They found no evidence — no human “fingerprints” — to implicate our involvement in the snowstorms. If global warming was the culprit, the team would have expected to find a gradual increase in heavy snowstorms in the mid-Atlantic region as temperatures rose during the past century. But historical analysis revealed no such increase in snowfall. Nor did the CSI team find any indication of an upward trend in winter precipitation along the eastern seaboard.”

So, a $10 trillion dollar market is one hell of an incentive to interfere with Mother Nature. However, is weather modification possible...now?

Weather modification will become a part of domestic and international security and could be done unilaterally... It could have offensive and defensive applications and even be used for deterrence purposes. The ability to generate precipitation, fog, and storms on earth or to modify space weather, ... and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set of technologies which can provide substantial increase in US, or degraded capability in an adversary, to achieve global awareness, reach, and power. (US Air Force. Air University of the US Air Force, AF 2025 Final Report, http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/)

Links:


Congress has been notified about 'HAARP Rings' by constituent letter

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Leaving Whistleblowers and Taxpayers Hopelessly in a Lurch

Abuse of the public trust is at an all time high. So, its more important than ever before to see and understand, what our leadership is up to...the leadership we've been conditioned to trust. And, that's where the  Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) came in.  It was legislation aimed at exposing corruption at the top levels of politics, our economy, and other large institutions. The Act would have protected federal workers who use legal and safe channels to expose waste, fraud, abuse, and threats to public safety. 

So, you say, what's more important than protecting against "unlawful acts, regulatory violations, abuses of authority, dangers to public health and any gross mismanagement or gross waste of funds?" Apparently, everything. Especially after a few Republicans connected the WikiLeaks controversy to the WPEA, ultimately killing it.

Yep, the act of one  senator, who shall remain nameless, secretly put a hold on the bill after it passed a voice vote, just before the chamber adjourned for the Christmas holiday...the political scoundrel's favorite time of the year.

But isn't it weird how it always comes down to that one scoundrel who messes things up for everyone?  Anyway, WikiLeaks seems to be the go-to excuse for everything from restrict-the-Internet to kill-the-whistleblower...protection.

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New Physician Oath: Do No Harm Unless the Price is Right.

The phrases: "too much of a good thing" and "everything in moderation", echo in the minds of most; however, knowing when we've crossed the line into "too much of a good thing", is not always so clear. The emergence of the pharmaceutical industry at the turn of the 20th century is a blatant example of how "too much of a good thing" has created a monster.

At first, drugs transformed the quality of our lives, by not only prolonging our life span, but allowing us to do so as much healthier individuals.  It's no surprise that demand for this "good thing" continued to increase, and the industry reaped the rewards of ever increasing profits.   One-hundred years later, the result is that the pharmaceutical industry has transformed into Big Pharma (Big-Ph), the most profitable industry in the world.

But, to be sure, Big-Ph has no plans of discouraging "too much of a good thing"; moreover, has no plans of discouraging our demand the "good thing".  Why?  Well, greed for one.  Big-Ph made $180 billion on 12 drugs alone, and paid $2.3 billion in fines,  so, one can safely assume a little fraud and corruption runs through its industrial veins.  So, what's a little deceit and trickery? How are a few fatal side-effects, huge kickbacks paid to doctors, off-label marketing and/or, illegal promotion of pharmaceuticals going to hurt bottom line anyone? Right? After all, the New York Times reported the $2.3 billion in fines is a drop in the bucket: less than three weeks of Pfizer’s sales. 

Big Ph used their enormous wealth/power buying up influence and co-opting any institution that stands in the way of its profit, including the U.S. Congress. In fact, Big Ph has surpassed the defense industry in fraud against the government.

A new study by the watchdog group Public Citizen has found that the drug industry has become the biggest defrauder of the federal government, surpassing the defense industry. Public Citizen found that the drug industry paid out nearly $20 billion in penalties over the past two decades for violations of the False Claims Act. More than half of the industry’s fines were paid by just four companies: GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Schering-Plough.

Dr. Dan Carlat , who was once on the industry's payroll, now  blogs about the drug industry. He has tracked the changes, and concluded that from the mid to late 1990s, the "blockbuster" drug (making at least $1 billion/ year on one drug) culture exploded throughout the industry.

Think about this: 60-70% of the money made in the cancer industry is based on kickbacks to doctors.  What does that tell you?   Aside from the fact that the cancer industry has no interest in what's best for cancer patients, it's also very possible that your doctor has sold you -  the patient he swore from doing harm - out.  In 2009 alone, the drug companies paid doctors $200 million to doctors in the U.S.  Is it any wonder why it seems our health care industry is so dedicated to surgery and the heavy use of drugs? Is it any wonder why alternative remedies, often less painful and less expensive are cast aside? And even worse, suppressed completely?

Still, so many of us continue to put our blind faith in these institutions. Why? Because we've been conditioned to do so, even when there is no doubt that the FDA, the CDC, the AMA, the APA, and even our personal physicians, whom we implicitly trust regarding what we eat, take as medicine, and what we give to our children in the form of vaccines are, to a certain degree, compromised by the "profit before patients" principle that rules our health care system.



Next up: Mycoplasma: What you don't know can kill you.

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Most Comprehensive and Clear Explanation of Foreclosure Crisis Yet.

If you want the real story that is not being reported by mainstream media (because of course, they would rather blame the people losing their homes), and if you want a very clear and logical explanation of the foreclosure crisis, listen to Harry Shearer interview Yves Smith  of Naked Capitalism.  I listened to it today on  NPR's  Le Show today.

In a nutshell, Harry Shearer and Yves Smith discuss the mortgage ownership, mortgage modification and the role of incentivized MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System​) "servicers" in the foreclosure disaster.

Some of the notes I took because I have a short memory. I strongly urge everyone to listen for themselves.

• Mortgages or notes travel a very circuitous journey through intermediary parties on their way to the mortgage lockbox (trust), which must ring as a "true sale".  All parties must sign the note over - from a to b to c to d - to establish bankruptcy remoteness.
• The banks try to minimize this as an issue and tell us it's a matter of sloppy paperwork. Not true.
• Between 2002-2005, the banks quit doing the things they agreed to do to get the mortgages into the legal lockbox (trusts). In other words, the banking industry changed their procedures to save fees and hassle and never bothered to change their legal contracts. Unfortunately, the way the agreements were set up made it virtually impossible to go back and fix things after the fact.
• MERS has a bizarre corporate structure. It is almost a virtual company with 47-48 employees  (they outsource through EDS). In addition to the 47 MERS employees, there are approximately 20,000 signing officers authorized on its behalf, who have never received a dime from MERS, and who work full time for another company - sometimes a bankrupt company.  Only these 'MERS members' have access to MERS, who actually handle the payments, and the administrative duties that the bank used to handle when the bank held onto the mortgage.
• MERS, the foreclosure mill, tracks morgage servicing rights (who is servicing the loan and who owns the loan). Compliance is voluntary and there is no penalty for not inputting the data, so the A-B-C-D transfers, if even done at all, were not always inputted.
• The MERS handshake (electronic handshake) is supposed to ensure a transfer can’t happen without both parties in agreement, however, in practice, documents have the signature of the same person as representative of both parties.  Poorly paid robo-signers were/are used to sign/stamp affidavits.
• Banks aren’t foreclosing quickly due to large inventory.  The Obama Administration doesn’t want the perception of the right to foreclose in question.
• Foreclosure is a very lucrative activity for the ​servicers who get paid first. They have different motivations from that of the investor, and their fees continue to pile up during the default period to be paid out upon sale.
• Investors are being hurt by the foreclosures. The "prudent limit your loss behavior" that applies to almost all types of lending does not apply in the case of foreclosures (For example, lender write-down...repaying loan at a reduced rate). Instead, the losses the investors are suffering upon foreclosure are, on average, over 70% of the mortgage amount. ​
• The servicers gamed HAMP, forcing people into delinquency, while keeping them on the hook, making them think they're working on mortgage modification when in reality they're processing foreclosure.  
• The media hasn't covered this at all until the robo-signing scandal broke.  Foreclosure attorneys are dismissed as little more than ambulance chasers whereas banks have credibility and all of the media access.

Kemp vs. Countrywide.

• The Countrywide employee (10 years) chosen by Bank of America (who now owns Countrywide ) to represent the bank in this legal case said it was their practice not to transfer the mortgage into the trust. 

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Beware the Heart of Darkness that May Beat Behind the Benevolence of Billionaires

It shouldn't come as any surprise that power increases moral hypocrisy,  nevertheless, that's what  Dutch researchers found who tested the aforementioned hypothesis.  They noted, “the powerful impose more normative restraints on other people, but believe that they themselves can act with less restraint.” In other words, we, the less powerful, cannot afford to trust the rich and powerful, therefore, it's incumbent upon us to educate and inform ourselves beyond the elite propaganda.

The billionaires were each given 15 minutes to present their favourite cause. Over dinner they discussed how they might settle on an “umbrella cause” that could harness their interests.

The issues debated included reforming the supervision of overseas aid spending to setting up rural schools and water systems in developing countries. Taking their cue from Gates they agreed that overpopulation was a priority.

Take god  tech-titan, Bill "Microsoft" Gates, who gathered some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful billionaires, in secret, to discuss curbing  global population, something he claims is the most important issue of our time. During his speech, "Innovating to Zero", he clearly states his agenda, “First we got population. The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”

Considering Mr. Gate's history, that falls on the sociopathic end of the spectrum,  and his dedication and investment (the Gates Foundation is actually an investment firm which reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works) to vaccinating the entire planet, his words are a little disturbing to say the least.

The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health, The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe.

So first, we should ask ourselves: Is overpopulation the overarching problem that Bill Gates asserts?  



Next, we must explore beneath the surface of Mr. Gate's persuasive rhetoric, because, in general, the truth is seldom found on the surface, however, in Mr. Gate's case, you can be certain, no matter how sincere his posture, it is only a pretense disguising his real purpose:  covert coercion to his will.

The Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio, included 500,000 shares of Monsanto - The short list of Monsanto`s toxic products includes Agent Orange, PCBs, aspartame, rBGH, and Ready Roundup. - stock.   Monsanto recently purchased the services of Xe (Blackwater) Intelligence Services and it was within that same time frame that Bill Gates purchased 23 million dollars (US) of Monsanto stocks, marking a substantial increase from its previous holdings, valued at just over $360,000.

Neo-Eugenics masquerading as altruism?

According to Edwin Black in his book, War Against the Weak, the eugenics movement got its start at the turn of the last century.  "American corporate philanthropy combined with prestigious academic fraud to create the pseudoscience eugenics". The Rockefeller Foundation funded eugenics research in Germany through the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institutes in Berlin and Munich, including well into the Third Reich and it was John D. Rockefeller III, a life-long advocate of eugenics, who used his “tax free” foundation money to initiate the population reduction neo-Malthusian movement through his private Population Council in New York beginning in the 1950’s.

In William Engdahl's book, Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, he reports that using vaccines to covertly reduce births in the Third World is not new.  Bill Gates’ good friend, David Rockefeller and his Rockefeller Foundation were involved as early as 1972 in a major project together with WHO and others to perfect another “new vaccine.”

GMO crops and patented seeds were developed in the 1970’s with significant financial support from the pro-eugenics Rockefeller Foundation, by what were essentially chemical companies—Monsanto Chemicals, DuPont and Dow Chemicals. All three were involved in the scandal of the highly toxic Agent Orange used in Vietnam, as well as Dioxin in the 1970’s, and lied to cover up the true damage to its own employees as well as to civilian and military populations exposed.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with David Rockefeller’s Rockefeller Foundation, the creators of the GMO biotechnology, are also financing a project called The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) headed by former UN chief, Kofi Annan. Accepting the role as AGRA head in June 2007 Annan expressed his “gratitude to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation, and all others who support our African campaign.” The AGRA board is dominated by people from both the Gates’ and Rockefeller foundations.

The bottom line seems to be that the partnership between government, the major foundations and the agribusiness industry reaps far more reward than do the purported recipients of the billionaire's "benevolence".

Links:

US v. Microsoft Timeline

Microsoft v. US trial on Youtube

Docs Reveals Blackwater-Linked Companies Provided Intel & Security to Multinationals Like Monsanto, Chevron

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Greenspan Admits To Fraud In U.S. Banking System

At the Jekyll Island Federal Reserve Conference - A Return to Jekyll Island: The Origins, History, and Future of the Federal Reserve - this past weekend, marking 100 years from the 1910 Jekyll Island meeting that resulted in legislation for the creation of a U.S. central bank, Greenspan admitted the truth:

"There are two fundamental reforms that we need: adequate capital, and two, to get far higher levels of enforcement of fraud statutes. Existing ones...I'm not even talking about new ones. Things were being done that were certainly illegal and clearly criminal in certain cases.  Fraud is a fact..fraud creates very considerable instability in competitive markets. If you cannot trust your counterparties, it won't work, and indeed, we saw that it didn't."

 

The November 1910 Jekyll Island meeting that gave birth to the Federal Reserve was shrouded in secrecy. According to author Edward Griffin, Forbes founder Bertie Charles Forbes said the event was so secret that the full names of the attendees were not mentioned once. Attendees of this "most secret expedition in the history of American finance" reportedly included the powerful Senator Nelson Aldrich and several leading bankers of the time.

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The Overwhelming Foreclosure Swindle.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the top 35 financial institutions are set to pay a record $144 billion in compensation and benefits in 2010.

Meanwhile,  one in seven Americans exist in poverty; one in five American "homeowners" are in serious trouble, and 14 million Americans remain unemployed.  Not to mention, the foreclosure horror show that spans all 50 states, and includes almost every single lender, in particular, the largest banks and servicers. Flawed and lost paperwork, mishandled mortgages, foreclosure documents, and failure to follow proper procedure resulted in hundreds of thousands of improperly foreclosed on homes. Yet, as these large institutions claim, we're supposed to believe this is merely the result of  a bad case of "overwhelm"?

If this is true, why not take all that cash (thanks to we the taxpayers) they're sitting on and hire the overwhelming number of unemployed? People need jobs! Or haven't they heard? JPMorgan Chase third-quarter profit rose 23%! Yep, Wall Street swims in the money while we the people drown in debt.  At the same time that JPMorgan reported their windfall profits, they said that "it expanded its initial review from 23 states to 41, and to about 115,000 homes."

Here's the thing.  "Overwhelmed" does not lead to  fabricated and forged documents, thousands of cases of lost paperwork that would have revealed to investors that they had been scammed, several reports of a single employee signing off on 8-10,000 foreclosure papers a month without checking the information, signing off on two documents that stated conflicting amounts of mortgage, misrepresentations of fact (such as who actually owns the mortgage) ...all of this from Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC Mortgage, and more.

“In foreclosure controversy, problems run deeper than flawed paperwork...Millions of US mortgages have been shuttled around the global financial system – sold and resold by firms – without the documents (to) prove who legally owns” them. With millions now in default and homes seized, “judges around the country have increasingly ruled that lenders had no right to foreclose, because they lacked clear title.”

Once again, another "crisis" that punishes the "little" guy while lining the pockets of the banksters and the wealthy. Federal officials are not forcing the banks to clean up the paperwork. Instead, President Obama is backing state investigations while rejecting a nationwide freeze on such seizures because of potential “unintended consequences.”

What about cram-downs? Banks have no excuse but to agree to principal writedowns.

Over 20% of households are upside down on their loans. likely to require some sort of federal response.

“From the beginning, mass modifications would have been better and I still think they’d be cost-saving. Doing new paperwork and doing it right is still a better choice.” - Harvard Law School Professor, Katherine Porter, whose 2007 research examined practices of mortgage lenders and servicers foreclosing on bankrupt borrowers.

Links:

Confusion Roils HARP Program for Refinancing

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Tea Party: Secretly Guided to Serve Corporate Elites.

The documentary film (Astro)Turf Wars: How Corporate America is Faking a Grassroots Revolution exposes The Tea Party - fake grassroots activism organized from the top down - and other corporate deception for what it is.

In Summer 2009, something stirred in America. After Barack Obama and a Democratic congress swept to power promising a new era of hope and change, out of nowhere a citizens protest movement emerged that threatened to derail their agenda. Was this uprising the epitome of grassroots democracy? Or was it, as some said, an example of ‘astroturfing’? That is, the creation of fake grassroots (ie. Astroturf: get it?) groups, designed to put corporate messages in the mouths of seemingly independent citizens.

Fascinated by this concept of astroturfing and curious to find out if these accusations were true, Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham hopped on a plane to investigate. Going undercover as a curious onlooker, his month-long journey took him over 5000 miles, 6 states and right into the heart of the ‘American Dream’. His three areas of investigation were:

(Astro) Turf Wars trailer from (astro)turf wars on Vimeo.

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When Free Market Means Whatever You Can Get Away With

Wouldn't it be nice to have access to zero cost loans? Wouldn't it be nice to receive $14 trillion in guarantees and direct money? Wouldn't it be nice to have the freedom to raise credit card rates as high as you want with no explanation, and charge exorbitant fees to people for breathing the wrong way?

Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture asks a very good question in his post Record Bank Bonuses Based On Record Bank Fraud:

Ask yourself how hard it is for any finance firm to make money — risk free! — when they can borrow from the Federal Reserve at a rate of zero, and then turnaround and “lend” that same cash to the Treasury (buying bonds) at 3% ?

Banks Set for Record Pay

Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their people about $145 billion for 2009, a record sum that indicates how compensation is climbing despite fury over Wall Street's pay culture.

An analysis by The Wall Street Journal shows that executives, traders, investment bankers, money managers and others at 38 top financial companies can expect to earn nearly 18% more than they did in 2008—and slightly more than in the record year of 2007. The conclusions are based on an examination of securities filings for the first nine months of 2009 and revenue estimates through year-end.

I think we forgot that banks are supposed to support we, the people, not the other way around.

Interesting link:

Lawsuit filed against Presidents Bush, Obama, Treasury Secretaries, and all 50 governors, accusing them of aiding and abetting in mortgage fraud against the people of the U.S.

PAUL L. MUCKLE, Plaintiff Vs. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Former President George W. Bush; President Barack H. Obama; Treasury Secretaries John W. Snow, Henry Merritt Paulson, Jr., Tim Geithner; SEC Chiefs William H. Donaldson, Christopher Cox; The governors of the following states or their current successors

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When Charity Needs Charity.

The severity and speed of the current economic downturn has left many unable to sleep or eat, consumed with worry that they will be counted amongst the millions facing the possibility of the proverbial "breadline". In addition, the very nature of this "crisis" breeds cynicism, making people cling even more to what's left of their depleted finances.

So, it comes as no surprise that charities, at a time when their help is most needed, have been left incapacitated, either because they too have been victims of the selfishly or callously calculating members - as in the case of Bernie Madoff - of society, who perpetrated much of what is going on today, or lacking contributions, etc.

According to the IRS charitable organizations:

... are classified as either a public charity or a private foundation. Public charities are those that are churches, hospitals, qualified medical research organizations affiliated with hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, that have an active program of fundraising and receive contributions from many sources, including the general public, governmental agencies, corporations, private foundations or other public charities receive income from the conduct of activities in furtherance of the organization’s exempt purposes, or actively function in a supporting relationship to one or more existing public charities.

Private foundations, in contrast, typically have a single major source of funding (usually gifts from one family or corporation rather than funding from many sources) and most have as their primary activity the making of grants to other charitable organizations and to individuals, rather than the direct operation of charitable programs..

One would think, in an age of instant information, that at the very least, we can rest assured, if we do our homework, that our charitable dollars will not line the pockets of swindlers. Charity watchdogs rate and give an accounting of charities all over the world, so we should feel very secure that our money will be put to good use, right? However, what makes things easier for us also makes things easier for the scammers.

Too many fake charities play the, "take names that are very close to those of reputable, established charities" game. They might change the word 'foundation' to the word 'society' for example.

In addition, there are also no laws requiring that a certain percentage of every donation must go toward the actual cause. Charitable organizations may spend your money on anything from salaries to administrative supplies to festivities and advertising instead of the issue they say they are targeting. Not only that, professional solicitors who raise money for charities are not required to hand over anything but a small percentage of what they raised to the charity itself.

Charities that lend their names to for-profit enterprises are another twist you need to be aware of. The charities figure it's money they wouldn't have gotten otherwise, but donors need to realize that often only a minuscule amount of money makes it to the charity.

All of this adds up to more "homework", more decisions to make, and more time and money that most of us do not think we have, which leaves those who barely have enough to survive, completely stranded. That number is growing exponentially, or will be, soon.

As we are only as strong as our weakest link, funding for low-income and sustainable housing development, infrastructure and social service programs must be top priority.
Our forefathers envisioned a country powered by the diversity and strength of its people. As it is, this country is powered by the uniformity of an elite few.

Our strength lies in the enormous spectrum and interaction of our diverse capabilities. If we lose that and we don't tap into the energy and creativity of the many, innovation will cease to exist.

Guidestar

Charity Navigator

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Is Bernie Madoff the Only Cockroach?

Evidence of misconduct by Bernie Madoff, who admitted to stealing $50 billion from clients, including numerous charities and foundations, stretches back to at least the 1970s. The SEC received plenty of warnings and missed plenty of red flags about Madoff.

Unfortunately, the ripple effect of Madoff's deception will be much larger than most scams, due to so many charities entrusting their money to Madoff. The Jewish community lost between $600 million and $1 billion from Madoff's Ponzi scheme. One victim, Holocaust survivor and activist Elie Wiesel, reported it lost $15.2 million, nearly all of its assets, and Yeshiva University lost about $110 million, or 10% of its endowment, and that's just to name a few.

Yet a wide swath of foundations and philanthropies entrusted significant portions of their portfolios to the secretive Madoff. Several were run by prominent Jewish families who were socially connected to Madoff and his children, often through common memberships in country clubs and boards.

Madoff's strategy dwarfed market in trades 'never done'. The trading strategy he claimed he used "would have required at least 10 times the contracts that trade on U.S. exchanges". Obviously Madoff never did this...in fact, it would have been impossible, hence, it's possible that he was the one and only cockroach. However, even if he was the "only" player, it's very clear that he was not the only one claiming to be on the job when he was not. He had help in the form of disengaged "regulatory" bodies, who missed the elephant sized cockroach sitting on their desk.

Madoff’s marketing documents said he used a “collar” strategy, which limits gains and reduces potential losses. New York-based Fairfield Greenwich Group’s Fairfield Sentry fund, which invested exclusively with Madoff, reported an average annual return of 11 percent and no down years since 1990, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

"The U.S. economy has yet to feel the worst from the financial turmoil", according to Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, who feels just as investors "were lulled into complacency by his consistent returns", he says, "those who piled into mortgage-backed securities were aided by AAA ratings that proved as flawed as forecasts of rising house prices."

One thing for certain, Bernie Madoff is not the only cockroach, as bailed out bank executives on the verge of failure, collected $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year.

Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management.

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