Actually, all these Globalists sellouts are responsible 
These men have worked for the last 30 years to ruin America and they've done a helluva job!
Posted on 09/30/2011 6:52:50 AM PDT by dangus
In the late 1990's, a terrible bargain was struck: Banks would agree to federal "anti-discrimination" policies, but in return, they could trade the risks of making bad loans, bundling good loans and bad loans into CDOs, or "collateral debt obligations."
While the very intelligent Sen. Phil Gramm (Republican of Texas), was a major proponent of this deal, he doesn't really deserve the blame. If both sides of the deal played honorably, it was a reasonable deal apart from its color-consciousness: Blacks did not default on loans any less than whites did, despite greater difficulty in getting loans. Based on long term financial history, home location, educational attainment, etc., a black person earning the same money as a white person would be less likely to successfully pay off the loan. But that meant that bank loaning policies had a "disparate effect" on blacks. And given the federal role in insuring mortgages, this "disparate effect" was arguably illegal under Civil Rights law.
The problem was that the Clinton administration shortly issued an executive order (#13166) which broadened "discriminated groups" to include "language minorities." President Bush then expanded the scope of EO # 13166 to include Sallie Mae and mortgage lenders.
If you went to school in America, you're supposed to learn English. If you legally immigrated to America, you're required to know English. So who in America doesn't know English? Some elderly people who didn't attend public school way back before it was mandatory. (Such people typically spoke German and French.) But most are illegal immigrants, amnestied former illegal immigrants, refugees, and reunified family members given special exemptions to language requirements.
Such illegal and quasi-legal immigrants and refugees are not going to be good candidates for loans. But the Bush administration made clear: unless you give as many loans to these people as to English-speaking, American-born citizens, we're going to label you racists, sue you, and destroy your bank.
For years, the banks didn't mind. If a house was foreclosed on, the bank reacquired an asset which had probably appreciated in the meanwhile. But still, there weren't enough loans being made to non-English-speakers because non-English-speakers couldn't begin to apply for a loan. Banks were soon offering zero-money-down loans to illegal aliens to bulk up the proportion of loan recipients who were "protected language minorities." When that didn't work, the Bush administration forced Sallie Mae to develop an army of people to convince illegal aliens to sign up for mortgages.
Meanwhile, states and the government created an artificially tight housing market by using unreasonably zoning and environmental regulations to all but ban private development of housing across countless metropolitan areas. So illegal aliens weren't getting mortgages on reasonable, $80,000 homes, but were bidding up the prices on $600,000 homes!
Then the housing market stalled. Now banks weren't guaranteed to recoup delinquent mortgages by selling the house at prices higher than the mortgage value. But the banks COULDN'T just quit lending to "langauge minorities." They quit lending altogether. Declines in house prices accelerated.
It was very, very easy for illegal aliens to end up under water. Their jobs were the easiest to eliminate, once American citizens were also desperate to find work. But since they had paid no money down, and were financially incapable of refinancing or getting ahead on their mortgage, they were under water with slightest drop in housing prices.
Worse still, it's very difficult for an American professional to simply walk away from their identity. Their assets include not only liquidatible assets such as the mortgage, but also intangible assets such as their college degree. On the other hand, illegal aliens have few of these other assets. THE MOMENT AN ILLEGAL ALIEN'S MORTGAGE IS UNDER WATER, WALKING AWAY IS THE SENSIBLE THING TO DO.
(Is this slamming on illegal aliens? No. If someone gave me impossibly low mortgage rates to buy a house with no money down, I'd take it. Who turns down a "free house?" But who would gives illegal aliens free houses? Only someone forced by the government to do so.)
Look at where all the underwater mortgages in 2008 were: Every county in the top twenty counties had experienced massive growth between 1998 and 2008. And in every case, illegal immigrants were a massive portion of that growth: Prince William County, VA (DC metro), southern Florida, Las Vegas metro, Phoenix metro, outlying regions around Los Angeles, and so on.
Only once housing prices had fallen so far (20% or more) did defaulting mortgages go mainstream.
So which banks went under? Those who specialized in CDOs (such as Bear Stearns), community banks in communities dominated by illegal aliens, and lenders who specialized in high-risk loans (Fannie Mae).
But the economy continued to worsen. Usually, housing sales lead a recovery. Once prices are low, people who have deferred buying a house make up for lost time. Not now. Banks are still terrified to lend, because for every so many safe risks, they have to loan to someone who has no motivation for successfully paying his mortgage. Immigrants go home when the economy goes bad. That frees up jobs for American workers, but it also means fewer houses are needed. So DESPITE the lack of housing construction, there is still an excess of housing on the market.
Without such massive immigration, employers would train more workers, or improve productivity through automation, during tight labor markets. These gains in production would last through economic downturns. Instead, companies relied on a cheap workforce which is no longer available.
To fix the economy, we need a presidential candidate who recognizes that illegal immigration is a chief cause of the economic downturn, and is resolved to remove the regulations that require banks to loan to "language minorities" who are illegal immigrants and prevent employers from relying on illegal immigration as a cheap alternative to increasing productivity.
The last thing we need is to elect the governor who is the single biggest to effective border control in America, believes that massive illegal immigration is good for the economy, and who would give illegal immigrants $100,000 in tuition benefits when they can't even legally drive in Texas.
An interesting point, and one I was not aware of. Had no idea that there was even a category of “language minorities”, much less a law that they had to be given loans.
Staff Reporter on 06/02/08
Husband And Wife Plead Guilty To Massive Florida Straw Buyer Scheme
Juan and Rachael Torrens pled guilty to conspiracy charges in connection with their participation in a recent multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme in South Florida. The defendants acknowledged as part of their guilty plea that their scheme produced over $15,000,000 in fraudulent loans, and resulted in losses of over $5,000,000 to various lenders. With Juan and Rachael Torrens‘ guilty pleas, 15 of the original 31 defendants charged have pled guilty.
As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog, defendants Juan Torrens, the de facto owner of Amsouth Trust & Investment Corp. (”Amsouth”) and president of Countryside Land & Development, Inc., Rachael Torrens, president of 1st Choice Realty of South Florida, Inc. and de facto owner of First United Mortgage USA Corp., Daniel Ramos, Alfonso A. Muxo, a State of Florida certified real estate appraiser and owner of Palm Bay Real Estate Appraisals, Inc., and Katherine Harris, former president and part owner of Floridian Home Title Corporation, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and/or wire fraud for their participation in this massive mortgage fraud scheme.
The scheme involved fraudulent mortgage loans obtained for the purchase of 28 properties located in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, Florida, and in the City of Marco Island. All except Katherine Harris have already pled guilty, and are awaiting sentence.
The Indictment also charges defendants Mario E. Diaz, Aurelio Pozo, Oscar Barreiro, Lellany Rordriguez, Jose Asensi, Carlos Morales, Damaris Jimenez, Lizabeth Perez, Mario Blanco, Rene Rodriguez, Tamaris Angulo, Alicia Loaiza, Ester Crespo, Jesus Enrique Guevara, Janette Lugo, Priscilla Fleitas, Erick Clavijo, Luis DeJesus Planas, Moises Llorens, Milva Roque, Aurora Ramentol, Gladys Lens, Nancy Fundora, Yanny Cruz Pavon, Roger Rosario and Jacqueline Perez-Castillo ("the straw buyer defendants") with wire fraud for their participation in this mortgage fraud scheme.
To date, guilty pleas have been entered by defendants Aurelio Pozo, Oscar Barreiro, Carlos Morales, Damaris Jimenez, Mario Blanco, Jesus Enrique Guevara, Janette Lugo, Priscilla Fleitas, Moises Llorens, Gladys Lens, and Roger Rosario.
According to the Indictment, Juan Torrens would identify sellers of residential properties who were willing to overstate the true selling price of their properties. Daniel Ramos and Juan Torrens would then recruit and pay the straw buyer defendants to pose as buyers and ostensibly participate in the purchase of the selected properties.
Defendants Rachael Torrens and Juan Torrens would prepare fraudulent mortgage loan applications for the straw purchasers that included false employment verifications, pay stubs, income and funds on deposit, and IRS Forms W-2.
Thereafter, to support the overstated sales prices on the properties and the fraudulent mortgage applications, defendant Alonso A. Muxo would prepare fraudulent appraisals attesting to the inflated property values dictated by Juan Torrens. Roger Rosario, an employee of Regions Bank, assisted the fraud by providing, on at least one occasion, a fraudulent verification of deposit in connection with a mortgage loan application for one of the straw buyer defendants.
To effectuate the scheme, defendants Juan Torrens and Rachael Torrens, together with the straw buyer defendants, would create and submit to the banks and lending institutions HUD-Settlement Statement Forms, also known as HUD-1s, which falsely stated that the straw buyers brought their own funds to the closings.
Once the mortgage applications were approved, the lenders would wire the loan proceeds to the title company, Floridian Home Title, for closing.
At closing, Amsouth, a company owned and controlled by Juan Torrens, would receive a credit for the difference between the inflated price and the actual selling price of the property. Defendants Juan and Rachael Torrens would make the payments on the mortgage loans to maintain the loans afloat until the properties could be resold again, often to another straw buyer. When the Torrenses failed to make payments on the loans, some properties went into foreclosure, resulting in substantial losses to the lending institutions.
SOURCE http://www.mortgagefraudblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/ husband_and_wife_plead_guilty_to_massive_florida_straw_buyer_scheme/
One of them told me in Spanish that he was going to Tennessee.
All these guys were cleared by e-verify so that system is worthless.
The conniving illegals then flipped the mortgaged houses among relatives at higher and higher prices.......the last relative absconds to Mexico with loads of cash, leaving banks (and taxpayers) holding the bag.
The buzz is Mexico actually ran newspaper ads on how to get free US housing.
CNBC featured an illegal who mowed lawns for a living who got a mortgage on a luxurious home by lying about his salary on the mortgage app. Then came the R/E bust. Naturally he couldn't keep up the payments---and had to move out.
Sub-prime villains are those who focused on short-term gains, and cared less about the long-term damage done to real estate markets, banks, lawyers, appraisers, accountants, auditors........... and the American economy.
No one has yet been held responsible and served any serious jail time or been stripped of fraudulently acquired assets. Some specific people surface---- getting the credit they deserve for promoting, then trashing the real estate business, and creating the unsustainable mortgage securitization business model.
Very carefully ignores the rather important fact that the housing market of the time was a bubble largely created by the influx of money generated by these exact programs.
IOW, the prices were artificially high.
The way this is worded, had these programs never existed the real estate market would still have boomed, it just never would have crashed. Which is utter nonsense.
The flow of imported workers has slowed slightly to 120,000 or 130,000 per month, but the bleeding of the US carcass continues.
Actually, all these Globalists sellouts are responsible
These men have worked for the last 30 years to ruin America and they've done a helluva job!
Actually, all these Globalists sellouts are responsible
These men have worked for the last 30 years to ruin America and they've done a helluva job!
While no contributing factor mentioned is false, eg; I agree they all DID contribute to the SCALE of the problem, there is one linchpin causative factor which I believe has been left out, which could have happened without a SINGLE illegal immigrant, with ANY market for CDOs, and even without the “offloading” entities known as Fannie and Freddie. And that is banking control fraud. The guy who can explain all of this far better than I can is Bill Black, who successfully prosecuted and secured convictions and jail time for over 1,000 banking CEOs during the S&L crisis on the early 90’s. There are a fairly large number of interviews of him on YouTube. The link below to a particular Max Keiser > Bill Black interview which I believe is one of the better explanations of the whole picture in one place:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdWo9Ob2DHc
The name of this game is “bankruptcy for profit”.
And who is responsible for ‘pc’? Our govennment, mainly
our Congress. It is our government that has and is destroying not only our economy but our country.
And who is doing nothing about illegal’s? Our government. Unless and until our government ‘repents’ and admits failure nothing positive will ever happen.
Bad Bill?!?!?!
Gramm, Leach, Bliley was a disaster!!! Add in Treas. Sec. Rubin and you have cronyism writ large.
I just blamed the bill as the key focus on the destruction of the American economy, and you’re going to lecture me that the bill was a disaster???
Actually, I was leaning more toward the cronyism aspect. Still, “bad bill” I thought was a bit of an understatement.
Re-read “Democracy in America,” and consider what you’ve just written. YES, bank fraud happened on a massive scale. And yes, we should hunt down those who committed it. But I’m trying to explain how bank fraud suddenly infected our system, how our laws created a massive incentive to try to get away with bank fraud, and what exactly the fraud constituted.
“Fraud” is such a broad word as to be useless as a diagnostic tool in figuring out what went wrong. What happened is that we created a system where mortgage delinquencies were certain to take place, and worse, we knew we were motivating them to take place. And then we bought off the people who would complain about the mortgage delinquencies, the banks, and worked bought them off with a scheme that enables them to profit off the delinquencies. And we did this all in an environment which makes the American people the ultimate insurer of bad debt. Then we wonder why people engaged in fraud? We made fraud more profitable than honesty.
And that’s contradicting precisely what de Tocqueville recognized as the brilliance in the American system: that we govern not by making people fearful of their rulers (and by “we govern,” I mean the American people and our system of laws, not the con men we’ve elected to interpret, enumerate, execute, and implement those laws). Rather, we govern by permitting people to pursue their own “selfish” interests in the confidence that no-one has the power to abuse or pervert others’ interests in any manner which is both systemically wide and prevailing.
You can’t govern by creating incentives to cheat, and try to dissuade the cheaters with ineffective threats of punishment.
As for the Alabama law, it sounds like it worked perfectly to me. Or would you rather have continued employing illegal aliens, when there were Americans who could speak English and would be desperate for those jobs? If so, you’re the problem, the enemy to the American people who brought this upon us, and therefore, your disdain for E-Verify is a ringing endorsement in my ears.
I’m perplexed by such criticism. I carefully explained how the bubble was created by bidding up on a limited supply of homes, with cheap interest rates and insufficient money down, and explained what had happened that triggered these factors to cause the bubble.
As a good friend told me, children and adults don't really learn until through some circumstance in life they are READY to learn. If someone out there needs a conservative, expert, fluently bilingual consultant with an inside track on the illegal immigration issues for whatever purpose, send me a PM with contact information.
We are the government. Don’t run away from the blame. We are all guilty for allowing it to happen!
Very true. I tried to touch briefly on the issue, without having to go on a long tangent explaining this. The irony is how much criticism I’ve collected from people who accused me of being “rambling” because I did try to acknowledge multiple causes, while others attacked me for not devoting sufficient emphasis to their pet cause. But I did try to touch on the additional issue of “quasi-legal” immigration, that is, immigration fueled by other illegal immigration. To elaborate, this includes
1. Workers brought in on Visas created to fill critical job shortages, when there are, in fact, plenty of Americans to take those jobs.
2. Aliens who had been illegal, but have now been granted amnesties.
3. “Anchor” babies, that is, children of illegal aliens who are automatically granted citizenship despite their parents’ illegal presence.
4. Relatives of such groups who have benefitted from chain migration laws to be given immigration eligibility.
E-verify only verifies that there is a person with that SSN, that DOB, with that name.
He may be working in 5 States simultaneously but it doesn't tell you that.
My person problem is that we have to replace 9% of our workforce in one day. Not as easy as you think.
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