Remember when thousands upon thousand of Americans were hauling their belongings out into the street, and then into a U-haul truck? If they were lucky.
Well there were others, who were just simply "hauling it in" -- all the "sweat equity" that simply vanishes when other people's homes get foreclosed upon ... when Ponzi schemes fail. It's always the bag-holders that get burned. Not the bag-creators.
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.
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.
.
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Don't try to stop it.
Just let it run its course.
It's the Wall Street way.
Here's a Billlionaire's Audit Trail, one lined with Goldman Sachs. One of the few such audit trails 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
All in a day's collecting.
It's the Capital Gains way.
Remember this?
Mitt Romney doesn't much like the Dodd-Frank Act either.
It too, is on Mitt's Day-One To-Do List ... Wall Street Regulations, Gone!
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.
Remember this?
One of few times Mitt Romney answered honestly, when he was asked an off-the-cuff question by some naive, curious reporter ...
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.
He's got millions riding on it for Pete's sake -- let those Toxic Mortgages get bought out for pennies on the dollar. Goldman is all over it.
That's the Vulture's way. Buy low, and sell much, much higher.
No matter which "other people," might "get cratered" in the process.
It's all in a day's work ... for your average multi, multi, multi Millionaire.
Compassion's got absolutely NOTHING to do with it. Just ask Charles Ponzi.