Free Republic

ALBANY, NY — New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is seeking records from three major Wall Street banks as part of a broad investigation into the mortgage crisis that fueled the recession, an official familiar with the issue said today. Schneiderman is meeting with representatives of the Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, according to the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Those meetings are expected to focus on mortgage securities operations during the boom on Wall Street that ultimately cost banks billions of dollars. The official said securitization of those mortgages would...

Isn't this how we got into trouble in the first place? Banks being forced to write bad mortgages were forced to hold too many bad loans? Then why are the federal government-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pushing banks to buy back their lousy loans. Its kind of like the "anti-TARP," instead of helping out banks, we are forcing them to rack up losses. Bloomberg is reporting that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may force lenders including Bank of America Corp., JPMorganChase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. to buy back $21 billion of home loans this...

aced with a rash of litigation over their ratings of mortgage-backed securities, credit-rating firms are hoping to rely on a longtime legal ace-in-the-hole: the Constitution. But that protection is being questioned amid allegations that the firms had conflicts that encouraged them to give unduly rosy opinions about the creditworthiness of securities backed by subprime mortgages. Moody's Corp., McGraw-Hill Cos.' Standard & Poor's and Fimalac SA's Fitch Ratings were hit with litigation over their ratings after homeowner defaults triggered investor losses in the securities. SNIP Yet to succeed in court, investors may need to navigate a thorny constitutional issue: Are the...