"Inside Job" - documentary that won Academy Award this year

[HognotinMemphis]

on the financial crisis and meltdown of 2008 and its causes and what has or has not been done since. Very revealing and makes a lot of rich, smart and successful people look stupid and complicit in the criminal behavior that surely existed but that the gov't has chosen to look the other way on.

I can't stand this country's politicians. Very immoral and unethical people for the most part.

[McKdaddy]

I'll second Inside Job.

A book to read, focusing only on the mbs portion of the crisis (rather than many of the broad books on the crisis like "Too Big To Fail") is "All the Devils are Here".

[OldPoop]

I can't stand this country's politicians. Very immoral and unethical people for the most part.

You and I may not be as far apart as it has appeared.

[handicappedhog]

You and I may not be as far apart as it has appeared.

You two aren't the only ones that feel that way about our politicians. I just wish most of the country felt the same way.

[HawgWild]

I finally got around to watching it last night. Get ready for another round after QE2 ends.

[HognotinMemphis]

Well, well, well. The gov't is finally beginning to prosecute, 5 years later. Not sure if they are going to go after individuals or just entities. The chickenshit way would be to go after just the entities so I am sure that is what our gov't will do. Today, a jury found Bank of America guilty of fraud, a felony, in selling mortgages to Fannie and Freddie. And JP Morgan just settled with the SEC to avoid a trial and is paying $13 billion in fines and is close to settling for another $6 billion payment to investors over defrauding them by selling MBS's that were not as represented.

From the blurb:

NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co <JPM.N> is nearing an agreement worth close to $6 billion with a group of institutional investors to settle claims over shoddy mortgage-backed securities issued in the run-up to the financial crisis, a source familiar with the talks said.

Representatives of JPMorgan and the investors met on Friday to discuss the settlement, though the two sides have not yet agreed to formal terms, the source said.

The potential deal is separate from the preliminary $13 billion settlement JPMorgan has reached with the U.S. government that would resolve a raft of civil actions brought by several enforcement agencies.

The group of more than a dozen bondholders includes BlackRock Inc <BLK.N>, Allianz SE's <ALVG.DE> Pacific Investment Management Co and Neuberger Berman Inc [NEUBG.UL], the source said.

Kathy Patrick, a lawyer for the investors group, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. JPMorgan also was not immediately available outside regular U.S. business hours.

Patrick and her Houston-based firm, Gibbs & Bruns, also represent a group of investors that struck an $8.5 billion settlement with Bank of America Corp <BAC.N> in 2011 over similar allegations stemming from the bank's Countrywide unit. A New York state judge is weighing whether to approve that deal after American International Group Inc <AIG.N> and others objected, arguing that it was too small. [see story]

In 2011, the law firm said its investor clients had instructed trustees overseeing $95 billion of securities issued by JPMorgan's affiliates during the housing boom to investigate whether the bonds were backed by ineligible mortgages.

The firm said its clients represented holders of more than 25 percent of the voting rights in the securities, which included bonds from Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, two firms that JPMorgan took over during the financial crisis.

JPMorgan reported a third-quarter loss earlier this month, the first under CEO Jamie Dimon, after recording a $7.2 billion after-tax expense to add money to its legal reserves in anticipation of settling the U.S. government's mortgage claims.

The company had $23 billion in its legal reserves as of the end of the quarter.

Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that JPMorgan's tentative $13 billion settlement with the U.S. government could end up costing the bank closer to $9 billion after taxes, because the majority of the deal was expected to be tax deductible.