"Loan Shark Protection Act‘s."

[Stinger2]

"Loan Shark Protection Act‘s."

Sept 30, 1995: Congress enacts Truth in Lending Act "reform," easing regulations on creditors; bill powered through by Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), a key recipient of finance, insurance, and real estate (fire) donations ($136,000 in 1993-94).

Dec 22: As part of Newt Gingrich''s Contract With America, Congress enacts a measure making it more difficult to sue companies for securities fraud.

Aug 2, 1996: Office of Thrift Supervision issues rule preempting almost all state laws regulating S&L credit activities.

1997-1998: fire sector spends more than $200 million on lobbying and $150 million on political donations; top agenda items include repealing Glass-Steagall to facilitate mergers.

March 4, 1998: First Union acquires The Money Store, nation''s 5th-largest subprime lender (and home to ex-Yankee broadcaster Phil Rizzuto''s commercials).

April 1998: Citicorp and Travelers announce biggest-ever corporate merger ($70 billion); transaction technically illegal under Glass-Steagall; ceo Sandy Weill launches $12 million campaign to repeal law.

Nov 1999: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act guts Glass-Steagall, setting off wave of megamergers among banks and insurance and securities companies. Driving force is Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), who has received $4.6 million from fire sector over previous decade.

June 20, 2000: Treasury and Hud urge Fed to investigate subprime units of major banks. No Fed action follows.

June 26, 2000: First Union closes The Money Store, takes $2.8 billion write-down.

Dec 14, 2000: As Congress heads for Christmas recess, Sen. Gramm (R) attaches 262-page amendment to an omnibus appropriations bill. Commodity Futures Modernization Act will deregulate derivatives trading, give rise to Enron debacle, and open door to an explosion in new, unregulated securities.

Dec 27, 2000: American Homeownership and Economic Opportunity Act makes it harder for consumers to get out of lender-required insurance. National Association of Realtors lobbies hard for it, spending $9 million, plus $4 million in contributions.

March 6, 2001: ftc sues Citigroup and its subsidiary Associates, nation''s 2nd-largest subprime originator, charging "systematic abusive lending practices" involving 2 million borrowers; 18 months later Citigroup settles for a paltry $215 million.

April 6: Fed chair Alan Greenspan signals concern with "abusive lending practices that target vulnerable segments of the population and can result in unaffordable payments, equity stripping, and foreclosure."

July 27: "''Predatory'' is really a high-profile word with no definition," Ameriquest chairman Stephen W. Prough tells Congress, urging rollback of subprime regulations.

April 22, 2002: Georgia''s new anti-predatory law signed; Ameriquest helps lead campaign against it and announces that it won''t do business in Georgia until law is changed. Standard & Poor''s refuses to rate Georgia mortgage securities, choking credit supply to state''s home buyers; law gutted within a year.

Oct 7, 2002: Swiss investment bank ubs announces that Sen. Gramm (R) is joining it to "advise clients on corporate finance issues and strategy"; he will also lobby Congress, Treasury, and Fed on banking and mortgage issues as industry pushes to eliminate predatory-lending rules.

Dec 18, 2002: Conseco files for bankruptcy, mostly due to its purchase of subprime lender Green Tree. In all, 13 banks have failed during 2002%u2014most, according to a Fed report, because of bad loans and "improper accounting related to the securitizing of assets."

March 2003: hsbc acquires Household Finance, nation''s 4th-largest subprime lender.

May 1, 2003: New Jersey''s anti-predatory-lending law signed. Again, Ameriquest and other lenders launch campaign to kill it and Standard & Poor''s says it won''t rate certain New Jersey securities; law gutted within a year.

2004: Ameriquest employees give total of $200,000 to Bush campaign; founder Roland Arnall and wife Dawn give more than $5 million to pro-Bush pacs. Arnall later appointed ambassador to Netherlands.

Jan 7, 2004: Federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issues final rule to preempt states from applying most of their credit laws to national banks and their subsidiaries.

March 2005: Rep. Robert Ney (R-Ohio)%u2014who will later go to prison on corruption charges related to Abramoff scandal%u2014introduces Responsible Lending Act, billed as an anti-predatory-lending measure but in fact designed to preempt stronger state laws. Key supporters include New Century Financial, nation''s 2nd-largest subprime lender, which has contributed nearly $50,000 to Ney''s campaign. Consumer advocates call it "Loan Shark Protection Act."

April 2005: Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act makes it far harder for consumers (but not businesses) to discharge debts. Chief sponsor, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), has received $2 million-plus from fire sector since 1989.

Sept 1, 2005: As housing bubble begins to deflate, administration economist Patrick Lawler announces, "There is no evidence here of prices topping out. On the contrary, house price inflation continues to accelerate."

Sept 22, 2005: Illinois Supreme Court hands mortgage lenders a victory, blowing away a 3% cap on fees for loans with more than 8% interest.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8601-100_162-4472120-1.html?assetTypeId=30


Much of the Businesses that resided in the World Trade Center building had to do with Banking and Wall Street when the towers fell the Three Top people in the White House Bush, Cheney and Rice, all Oily Oil People of Power. Now whom has benefited the most from the twin towers falling, Banking and Oil? If I didn’t know better I would say the USA has had a Coup. What states have done very well even though all of this has happened could have known the Fix Was In. Oil People and Bankers travel the world over, how hard would it have been to round up the Terrorist, then the maybe bad guys, lock them up and or kill them in private prisons to shut them up! Hmmmm

[valerief]

1. Clearly a coup. That's how it's done. nt

[Stinger2]

2. Members of Congress Beat the Market, Speaker Hastert's Land Deal Questioned

Members of Congress Beat the Market, Speaker Hastert's Land Deal Questioned

The researchers say senators’ uncanny ability to know when to buy or sell their shares seems to stem from having access to information that other investors wouldn’t have. “I don’t think you need much of an imagination to realize that they’re in the know,” says Alan Ziobrowski, a business professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta and one of the four authors of the study.

Senators, for example, are likely to know which tax legislation is apt to pass and which companies might benefit. Or a senator who sits on a certain committee might find out that a particular company soon will be awarded a government contract or that a certain drug might get regulatory approval, says Prof. Ziobrowski.

http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2006/07/17/members-of-congress-beat-the-market/#more-908


Speaker Hastert's Land Deal Questioned

The Foundation says Hastert used an Illinois trust to invest in real estate near the proposed route of the Prairie Parkway, and notes that Hastert's 2005 financial disclosure form, released Thursday, makes no mention of the trust. Hastert lists several real estate transactions in the disclosure, all of which were done by the trust. Kendall County public records show no record of Hastert making the real estate sales he made public today; rather, they were all executed by the trust, the Foundation says.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/22/politics/main1740900.shtml

Lets not forget, none of the banking problems would have been possible if the people in power didn’t find a buck or two hiding in the stock market and land deals. I say, just keep voting them out, remember they are just the hired help.