ACORN loses appeal
August 13, 2010 | ACORN | Comments (0)Yes, Congress has a right to defund the group. From the story:
A federal appeals court on Friday threw out a decision that had barred Congress from withholding funds from ACORN, the activist group driven to ruin by scandal and financial woes.
The ruling by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reversed a decision by a district court judge in Brooklyn that found Congress had violated the group’s rights by punishing it without a trial.
Congress cut off ACORN’s federal funding last year in response to allegations the group engaged in voter registration fraud and embezzlement and violated the tax-exempt status of some of its affiliates by engaging in partisan political activities.
Not exactly vows of poverty
August 12, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending | Comments (2)ProPublica, a Left-wing media site that is funded by Herb and Marion Sandler (Center for Responsible Lending founders), pays more than mainstream newspapers do according to the American Thinker:
- Paul Steiger, president and editor in chief, made $571,687 in salary, plus $13,430 in other compensation.
- Richard Tofel, treasurer and secretary, made $320,978 in salary, plus $21,312 in other compensation.
- Stephen Engelberg, managing editor, made $343,463, plus $31,231 in other compensation.
- Dafna Linzer, senior reporter, made $205,455, plus $20,421 in other compensation.
- Susan White, senior editor, made $160,011, plus $18,063 in other compensation.
- Tracy Weber, senior reporter, made $176,309, plus $21,243 in other compensation.
- Charles Ornstein, senior reporter, made $172,287, plus $26,805 in other compensation.
- Thomas Miller, senior reporter, made $186,479, plus $28,676 in other compensation.
Making the list
July 19, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, Herb Sandler | Comments (0)Center for Responsible Lending funders Herb and Marion Sandler made Time Magazine’s list of top 25 people to blame for the financial crisis.
I’m stunned
June 12, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, industry | Comments (0)Someone did a story on the lobbying activities of the Center for Responsible Lending. From the story:
The Center for Responsible Lending spent $130,000 lobbying the federal government in the first quarter as it continued to press for stricter regulation of credit card fees and on other consumer issues, according to a disclosure report.
The Durham, N.C.-based advocacy group, which advocates tighter regulation of mortgage lenders, also lobbied Congress and federal agencies on creation of a new consumer financial protection agency as well as overdraft loans and payday loans.
In addition to the House and Senate, the group also had lobbying contacts with the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to a disclosure form filed April 20 with the Senate’s public records office.
The $130,000 the group spent in the January-March period is below the $180,000 spent in the first quarter of 2009 and the $175,000 expended in the fourth quarter of last year.
Senate investigating wrong target?
April 29, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, federal legislation, industry | Comments (1)Yesterday, from Big Government:
After all, it wasn’t Goldman that passed the Community Reinvestment Act that forced banks to make loans to people who could never pay them back. It wasn’t Goldman that created and supported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And it wasn’t Goldman that drove interest rates down to a below market level to cause a housing rush not seen since gold was found in them thar’ hills in the mid-1800s.
But if Senators were really interested in finding out the cause of the housing bubble, they would call one Eric Stein to the dais.
Mr. Stein is currently that Deputy Secretary of Treasury for consumer protection and is likely to head the vastly powerful Consumer Bureaucracy currently being pushed by big banks and Wall Street. But prior to his appointment to Treasury, Mr. Stein the bag man for the Center for Responsible Lending and its many Self Help subsidiaries, was singly responsible for more bad loans than all Goldman employees together. Working with billionaire con-man John Paulson, Stein lobbied to pass the laws at the root of the crisis and pressured banks to make bad loans that caused their portfolios to collapse when the economy turned. They were the Bonnie and Clyde of the subprime mortgage world.
It’s time for a hearing focusing on the real cause of the housing bubble. It’s time to call Eric Stein up to the Hill for questioning under oath.
Gotta watch this video
April 28, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, federal legislation, industry | Comments (1)From last night’s “Special Report” on FoxNews.
Vampires
April 21, 2010 | ACORN, industry | Comments (0)Has someone tried a wooden stake through the heart? Not matter how much they’re investigated or indicted, ACORN won’t die. The latest from Big Government:
The organized crime syndicate known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which has been making much ado about its feigned withdrawal from the national political stage, continues doing business as usual.
Proof comes in the form of an email, which went out to ACORN supporters on April 16 and which came two weeks after ACORN’s faked dissolution on April Fool’s Day as a national organization.
Hack job
April 19, 2010 | industry, industry critics | Comments (3)CBS Evening News has zero standards for balance and quality. The show ran a story about payday lending, contacted the industry for an interview, but then chose not to interview anyone from the industry’s side. We also know for a fact that the show interviewed a happy customer outside a store in Los Angeles. They chose not to run that interview either.
It’s disgraceful and yet another example of why the mainstream media is losing credibility.
CRL’s growing scandal
April 17, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending | Comments (0)Big Government is on the case in a post headlined, “Goldman-Sachs fall from grace”:
John Paulson is an interesting guy: He was one of a handful of hedge-fund managers who bet the mortgage-bond market would decline beginning in late 2006, and made billions from that bet. Here is where the SEC charges get interesting: Goldman allowed Paulson to help create the bond and to put some of the most risky mortgages in the portfolio, or mortgages that were most likely to default and tank the investment.
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Read the whole thing here. John Paulson hasn’t been charged in this affair, but it is interesting that he has such a significant supporting role. As Big Government readers know, Paulson is the largest single donor to the Center for Responsible Lending, a leftist advocacy group that is part of a complicated web of non-profits and private investment funds. A leading executive of CRL is now at the Treasury Department, overseeing the proposed “Consumer Financial Protection Agency.” Paulson is becoming Wall Street’s Zelig, who keeps showing up in very interesting places.
CRL’s connection to Goldman-Sachs scandal
April 16, 2010 | Center for Responsible Lending, federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)John Paulson, the hedge fund gazillionaire, who shorted the subprime market and who gave Center for Responsible Lending $15 million, is mentioned in the SEC case against Goldman Sachs. From the Huffington Post:
The SEC claims Goldman Sachs and one of its top officers misled investors by not disclosing that hedge fund manager John Pauson, who made billions betting against the housing market, selected the assets that went into a complex security called “Abacaus.”
Paulson & Co. is one of the world’s largest hedge funds, and paid Goldman roughly $15 million for structuring these deals in 2007.
