Remember this?
Romney rejects foreclosure relief
by Steve Benen, washingtonmonthly -- October 18, 2011
"Don't try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom," Romney said when asked what he would do to jump-start the floundering housing market.
Don't try to stop it.
Let it run its course.
Let it hit bottom.
The market knows best Mitt, eh? Especially when you got money riding on those slightly bumpy course corrections ...
And people say you're shallow Mitt -- when they should be saying "how shrewd."
I missed this first time around. Maybe you did too. It is the epitome of "shallow-shrewdness" ...
EXCLUSIVE: Romney Profited From Mortgage Lenders Foreclosing On Thousands Of Floridians
by Josh Israel, thinkprogress.org -- Jan 25, 2012
A ThinkProgress examination of Mitt Romney’s presidential personal financial disclosures from May 2011 reveal that the former Massachusetts governor and his wife own or owned millions of dollars worth of a Goldman Sachs investment fund invested heavily in mortgage-backed obligations. And the current owners of those mortgage debts began foreclosure proceedings against thousands of Floridians.
Along with his investments in Bain Capital funds linked to offshore tax havens, the Romneys have large investments in the Goldman Sachs Strategic Income Fund (institutional class). The firm’s March 2011 annual report for the fund notes that about 8 percent of the fund is invested in banks and 24.5 percent is invested in mortgage-backed obligations. Romney’s form says he has invested between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000 in the fund and his wife Ann has invested an additional $1 million-plus. Since the 2008 economic meltdown and the enactment of the Troubled Asset Relief Fund, this fund has done quite well, growing 7.88 percent between April 2010 and March 2011.
The mortgage-backed securities in the fund include adjustable rate mortgages from Bear Stearns, Countrywide, IndyMac, and Washington Mutual. A 2009 Center for Public Integrity report identified all four of those companies as among the top-25 subprime lenders in the lead-up to the market’s collapse. Countrywide ranked first in that report and Washington Mutual ranked second. While the remnants of those companies have been purchased by major financial institutions, an array of mortgage loan service companies bought up the individual mortgages.
An examination of civil cases filed in Miami-Dade county alone, by just the current owners of the mortgage obligations for now-defunct Washington Mutual and Countrywide, suggests more than 5,000 foreclosure cases were filed in 2010.
[...]
Don't try to stop it.
Let it run its course.
Here's the Billlionaire's Audit Trail, the one lined with Goldman. One of the
few we've been privileged to see:
Mitt Romney: Executive Branch Personnel PUBLIC FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REPORT
[pg 3]
SCHEDULE A
GS STRATEGIC INCOME FUND CLASS I
Valuation of Assets Income Type at close of reporting period:
$1,000,001 and $5,000,000 X
Excepted Investment Fund X
Dividends X
And Mitt
doesn't much like the Dodd-Frank Act either.
Remember this?
Romney is mum on how to regulate big banks
by Matt Viser and Tracy Jan, Boston Globe Staff -- May 2, 2012
Republican Mitt Romney is pledging to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, a promise that is helping him reap millions from Wall Street contributors. But the presidential candidate is silent on how, without Dodd-Frank’s new rules, he would prevent the nation’s investment houses and bankers from once again engaging in the sorts of risky, poorly regulated practices that caused the 2008 financial crisis.
In other words,
Mitt Romney will repeal the new Dodd-Frank regulations on Derivatives, and Swaps, and CDOs, and Mortgage-Backed Securities -- repeal the new regs on those
Wall Street Casino Chips.
Could it be because his pals at Goldman have a lot to lose? Could it be that the Romneys' have some skin in this "Goldman game" too?
Goldman Sachs Multi Sector Fixed Income Funds
* CORE FIXED INCOME
* CORE PLUS FIXED INCOME
* GLOBAL INCOME
* STRATEGIC INCOME
[...]
The Strategic Income Fund invests in a broadly diversified portfolio of U.S. and foreign investment grade and noninvestment grade fixed income investments including, but not limited to: U.S. Government securities (such as U.S. Treasury securities or Treasury inflation protected securities), non-U.S. sovereign debt, agency securities, corporate debt securities, agency and non-agency mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, custodial receipts, municipal securities, loans and loan participations and convertible securities. The Fund’s investments in fixed income securities are subject to the risks associated with debt securities generally, including credit, liquidity and interest rate risk. The guarantee on certain U.S. government securities applies only to the underlying securities of the Fund if held to maturity and not to the value of the Fund’s shares. The Fund’s investments in mortgage-backed securities are subject to, among other risks, prepayment risks. These risks may result in greater share price volatility. The Fund may invest in high yield, fixed income securities that, at the time of purchase, are non-investment grade. High yield, lower rated securities involve greater price volatility, are less liquid and present greater risks than higher rated fixed income securities.
[...]
The Fund may also make substantial investments in other derivative instruments, including interest rate futures contracts, options (including options on futures contracts, swaps, bonds, stocks and indexes), swaps (including credit default, index, basis, total return, volatility and currency swaps), other forward contracts and other derivative instruments. Derivative instruments may involve a high degree of financial risk. These risks include the risk that a small movement in the price of the underlying security or benchmark may result in a disproportionately large movement, unfavorable or favorable, in the price of the derivative instrument; risks of default by a counterparty; and the risks that transactions may not be liquid. The Fund is subject to the risks associated with implementing short positions. Taking short positions involves leverage of the Fund’s assets and presents various other risks. [...]
Don’t try to stop it.
Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process.
Let it run its course.
Let it hit bottom.
What Mitt Romney forgot to tell that pesky reporter that day was:
When using derivatives to profit from the underlying Market Trends (like foreclosures) -- you want to be positioned to "short" the trend -- the shrewd investor can make a ton on money that way.
It called "market forces" people, get on board, or get bull-dozed. Mitt and Ann have.
Have their chips in the Wall Street game -- Bigtime. No "hedging" about it.
As the spiritual guru of the GOP Ayn Rand, shrewdly puts it: There are Makers and there are Takers in life; Which one are you?
Your Vote will soon cast that lot -- assuming you still can Vote. If those ALEC market-forces will let you, that is.
And if those nosy reporters stop asking those "shrewd questions" too, right Mitt?