Supreme Court says banks are subject to some state laws

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can apply some of their own laws to big national banks operating within their borders, a decision proponents called a huge win for consumers and for states seeking more power to regulate financial activities. The...

ING DIRECT Suspends Foreclosures

"Wilmington, Del.-based ING DIRECT, the nation’s largest direct bank, said Monday morning that effective immediately, it will suspend foreclosure sales on occupied single-family properties through the end of March 2009. The company also said it would suspend all evictions...

U.S. Approves Plan to Help Citigroup Weather Losses

"Citigroup executives presented a plan to federal officials on Friday evening after a weeklong plunge in the company’s share price threatened to engulf other big banks. In tense, round-the-clock negotiations that stretched until almost midnight on Sunday, it became clear...

The Housing Crisis and a Fight-Back Program

"The current economic crisis has been building for years. At its root is the massive elimination of decent-paying jobs and lowering of wages in the U.S. and worldwide, a phenomenon explained and analyzed so well in the party’s newest book, “Low-Wage Capitalism.”The...

This Is Not A Normal Recession: Moving on to Plan B

""The Winter of 2008-2009 will prove to be the winter of global economic discontent that marks the rejection of the flawed ideology that unregulated global financial markets promote financial innovation, market efficiency, unhampered growth and endless prosperity while...

The Dirty Secret of the Financial Crisis: Our Banking System's Broken

"Henry Paulson's $700 billion plan to save the world is dead or dying, but the bailout was not killed by his arrogance or his grossly misleading claims about what the public's money would buy. The plan collapsed because it didn't work. The Treasury secretary has launched a PR...

Solving the Foreclosure Crisis – How can we fix the process?

"As discussed previously, the pooling and servicing agreement requires the servicer to forward payment to the securitized trust regardless of whether the borrower is making the mortgage payment.  This must continue until the loan is removed from the trust, and that can...

The foreclosure freeze tide

"WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)--As Capitol Hill remains under siege from all sides of America's faltering economy, pressure to stem the tide of foreclosures continued to make inroads as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became the latest to join the foreclosure freeze movement.The...

HOUSING: Judge denies defense request in foreclosure case

"A judge denied a request Friday to toss out two civil charges against a group of defendants accused of running a fictitious foreclosure-prevention company, said a district attorney prosecutor.Five people who ran a Carlsbad business were arrested in May on charges of...

Probing Golden West

"NEW YORK (AP) - The Department of Justice is investigating the mortgage lending practices of Golden West Financial Corp., the savings and loan bought by Wachovia Corp. for $24 billion at the height of the housing boom in 2006.U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello told The...

Citi Rescue Talks Underway

"The market shrugged off the prospect of a Citigroup meltdown and focused instead on the leak that Timothy Geithner was Obama's pick for Treasury Secretary. Citi fell another 20%, its shares dropping below $4. Have banking catastrophes become so routine that it is now...

Investors Hit BofA Loan Modifications

Bank of America Corp.'s decision to embark on an $8.4 billion home-loan-modification program to settle charges brought by state attorneys general against Countrywide Financial Corp. was hailed as a milestone when the deal was announced this fall. But apparently nobody...