Obama comes through for speculators in underwater mortgages

The hedge fund candidate has become the hedge fund President. Obama's mortgage moves will enrich hedge funds (such as those run by Obama supporter, George Soros, sugar daddy of the Democrats) who speculated by buying up underwater mortgages to be now made whole by you.

The Washington Times reports:

On Tuesday, the Federal Housing Administration announced a "short refinance option" for underwater mortgages - that is, mortgages on which the amount that the homeowner owes is more than the house is worth. Under this new program, the government promises to guarantee what's left of the mortgage's face value after the mortgage holder agrees to write off 10 percent of the principal.

For some big Wall Street financial houses, this could represent a major windfall. Some of these firms bought risky mortgages at huge discounts from their face value, often just 40 percent or 50 percent of the amount owed. Say a Wall Street firm paid $250,000 to take over a risky $500,000 mortgage. If the firm agrees to reduce the face value of what is owed by $50,000, the FHA will guarantee the mortgage. Thanks to the protection from default, the loan's value instantly increases from $250,000 to $450,000 - a $200,000 gift to the Wall Street mortgage holder.

While the Washington Times focuses on Wall Street, many of these mortgages have been bought up by hedge fund investors as well. Obama attacks fat cats on Wall Street for partisan and populist reasons to rile his base and bring them out to vote and to worship him. Meanwhile, he pulls fast ones to enrich them at our expense. In other words his rhetorical attacks against wealth are, in his own words, just distractions.

One always has to watch what Obama does behind the scenes. We know most of the media won't.

George Soros, NAACP and other leftists taking on Tea Party

(George) Soros and the foundation left have launched a website designed to go after the growing Tea Party movement. Teapartytracker.org will post video interviews and blog entries gathered by folks on the false left who never grow weary of demonstrating their outrage over the very idea of a grassroots political effort overthrowing establishment Democrats and Republicans in the district of corporate criminals.

Teapartytracker.org will be sponsored by the NAACP, Think Progress, New Left Media and Media Matters for America. Think Progress is a George Soros operation connected to John Podesta’s Center for American Progress. Podesta is Clinton’s former chief of staff. Media Matters for America is the brainchild of a MoveOn consultant and Podesta’s Center for American Progress. Soros is a major supporter of MoveOn.

On July 13, the NAACP unanimously passed a resolution repudiating the Tea Party for alleged racism. The resolution followed accusations that the Tea Party had accosted members the Congressional Black Caucus as they traipsed the district of criminals mall on their way to vote for Obamacare, a grand larceny scam cooked up by large corporations. “Civil rights icon John Lewis was spit on, while Congressman Emanuel Cleaver was called the ‘N’ word and openly gay Congressman Barney Frank was called an ugly anti-gay slur,” a press released issued by the NAACP claims.

On April 1, Infowars.com provided evidence that protesters in fact did not spit on Missouri Democrat Emanuel Cleaver or did they hurl racial epithets at members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Cleaver later said a Tea Party protester did not spit on him intentionally. “All I’m saying is we all have to defuse it, and I think it is not in my best interest or in the best interest of this nation to stoke it,” he said on March 30 during a Fox News interview.

The NAACP and the Soros-funded anti-Tea Party operation, however, do not share Cleaver’s desire to defuse the situation. Instead, they plan to extract as much political mileage from the fictitious incident as possible.

In July, Soros’ Think Progress stitched together a video purporting to show that the Tea Party is chock full of racists.

Recall “Crash the Tea Party,” an effort exposed earlier this year, designed to portray the Tea Party as racists and reactionary throwbacks. Tea Party hating liberals “couldn’t sell the transparently nonsensical idea that Tea Partiers are just a bunch of racists, homophobes and morons, so the Crash the Party agents on the Left are infiltrating the Tea Party in order to pose as a bunch of racists, homophobes and morons,” Mark Tapscott wrote for the Washington Examiner on April 11, 2010.

In addition to so-called liberals attempting to discredit the Tea Party movement, a gaggle of anarchists also announced an effort to disrupt rallies in April.

According to Infoshop News, an anarchist website and forum, the Tea Party movement is “a coalition of conservatives, anti-Semites, fascists, libertarians, racists, constitutionalists, militia men, gun freaks, homophobes, Ron Paul supporters, Alex Jones conspiracy types and American flag wavers,” and because of this mischaracterization they should have their right to protest against the government disrupted.

Soros cut exposure to stocks by 42% during sharp drop in value

The legendary investor's Soros Fund Management – which has approximately $25bn (£16bn) under management – reduced its equity investments by 42pc to $5.1bn by the end of June, down from $8.8bn at the end of March.

The asset allocation decisions were made during a period in which the Standard & Poor's 500 index – the broadest US equity index – fell 12pc.

The fact that Mr Soros – best known as the man reputed to have made $1bn by "breaking the Bank of England" during the 1992 fiscal crisis – has decided to make such a concerted shift out of equities will send a clear message to other investors.

Gone are Soros's investments in Petrobras, Brazil's oil giant, with investments in bellwether stocks such as Wal-Mart, JP Morgan Chase and Pfizer drastically reduced, cut by 99pc, 97pc and 95pc respectively.

Of those equities that do remain, the fund's holding in a gold exchange traded fund constitutes his largest investment, some 13pc of the equity portfolio, worth $638m.

Although neither Mr Soros of his fund typically do not explain their quarterly investment decisions, it is likely some of the money has been shifted into government bonds, as well as investing in commodities and other safe havens.

Tammy Bruce: George Soros heavily invested in Brazil, stands to profit from BP oil spill and opposition to deep-water drilling

Perhaps this is why drilling in Alaska is off the table–it would actually keep America safe and strong and won’t make Obama Boss George Soros even richer than he is now.

Interestingly, it seems the more trouble we have, the better it is for Soros. Last year, Soros noted he was “having a very good crisis” having bet against the United States and profiting from her economic downturn.

Now we learn Soros is set to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Gulf oil catastrophe. With Obama’s ‘moratorium’ and the Obama Admin’s general hostility to drilling, it’s reported many oil companies have already looked into with Brazil regarding a move those shores. And what is Soros principally invested in right now? Petrobras, the Brazilian state oil company.

Reuters is reporting that Brazil stands to benefit from the BP oil spill catastrophe as the US moratorium makes more rigs available for other countries.

Even as an ecological catastrophe makes the future of U.S. offshore drilling less certain, Brazil is plowing ahead with a $220 billion five-year plan to tap oil fields even deeper than BP’s ill-fated Gulf well, which is still leaking crude.

It’s estimated that thirty five rigs are now sitting idle in the Gulf of Mexico. Brazil is already getting inquiries from companies wanting to move their rigs there. Brazil’s state oil company, Petrobras already produces about a fourth of the world’s deep water oil…

The shortage of rigs could help Brazil become a major oil exporter.

What an amazing stroke of good fortune for Obama’s boss, unrepentant Nazi collaborator, George Soros! Soros is also invested in offshore oil drilling in Brazil, assisted by the American taxpayers.

Soros Fund Management, LLC holds a stake in Petrobras of approximately $900 million as of December 31, 2009.

George Soros’ principal investments are in oil; one in particular is Petrobras, the Brazilian-owned company. This happens to be the largest investment in the Soros portfolio at the present time.

Soros also owns quite a lot of real estate in Brazil.

George Soros affiliated Human Rights Watch's military expert collected swastikas

At the headquarters of Human Rights Watch, more than 30 storeys above the noise and bustle of Manhattan, there is so much high-mindedness hanging in the air you can almost taste it. This is the epicentre of a certain type of socially smart, progressive activism — the kind that persuades Hollywood grandees, power lawyers and liberal financiers to dig deeply into their pockets.

When the story broke that one of the organisation’s most prominent and vocal members of staff might be a collector of Nazi-era military memorabilia it felt like some sort of sexual scandal had erupted in the Victorian church. For a lobbying group accustomed to adulatory coverage in the media, it was a public-relations catastrophe.

Human Rights Watch is one of two global superpowers among the world’s myriad humanitarian pressure groups. It is relatively young — established in its current form in 1988 — but it has grown so quickly in size, wealth and influence that it has all but eclipsed its older, London-based rival, Amnesty International.

Unlike Amnesty, HRW, as it is known, gets its money from charitable foundations and wealthy individuals — such as the financier George Soros — rather than a mass membership. And, also unlike Amnesty, it seeks to make an impact, not through extensive letter-writing campaigns, but by talking to governments and the media, urging openness and candour and backing up its advocacy with research reports. It is an association that is all about influence — an influence that depends on a carefully honed image of objectivity, expertise and high moral tone. So it was perhaps a little awkward that a key member of staff was found to have such a treasure trove of Nazi regalia.

By day, Marc Garlasco was HRW’s only military expert, the person that its Emergencies Division would send to conflict zones to investigate alleged war crimes. He wrote reports condemning the dropping of cluster bombs in the Russia-Georgia war, the alleged illegal use of white phosphorus by the Israeli army in Gaza and coalition tactics that he said “unnecessarily” put Iraqi or Afghan civilians at risk. An enthusiastic source of quotes for the media, he was incessantly on the phone to journalists.

But by night, Garlasco was “Flak88”, an obsessive contributor to internet forums on Third Reich memorabilia and an avid collector of badges and medals emblazoned with swastikas and eagles.

An impertinent question for George Soros: Did you short the dollar while supporting Obama?

Through campaign contributions and public lobbying campaigns, George Soros made a big investment in Barack Obama.

Now he says he isn't satisfied with the results. He wanted the banks nationalized, but Obama “made the political decision that that is un-American, will not be accepted.”

Trouble is, CNN's Fareed Zakaria apparently asked the wrong questions. What he should have asked Soros is this: "Was your investment in Obama a political decision? Or, was it a business decision?"

If Soros had answered "business," he would have no reason to be dissatisfied. As president, Obama promptly laid out an agenda - government takeover of health care, cap and trade, government ownership of corporations - that were at odds with the founding spirit of America as well as the nation's history.

As the national deficit and cumulative debt mounted, and Americans began to protest, the dollar began a steady fall.

It was in unsettling circumstances like this that Soros began shorting the English pound, betting that its value would continue to fall. The result: headlines that said Soros had broken the Bank of England.

Now that Greece has become a potential failed state, because of its unpayable debt, Soros is shorting the Euro. He is betting on a default by Greece, and resulting chaos in the European currency.

What we don't know is this: If Soros is shorting the American dollar, when did he start doing it? Is he still shorting the dollar? How much has he made from shorting the dollar at a time when Obama was clearly pursuing an agenda opposed by most Americans, as shown by polls?

Let's assume that Soros shorted the dollar on Obama's inauguration day. The U.S. dollar was then worth $1.27 Canadian. Now, the U.S. dollar buys just $1.06 Canadian, a drop of 17 percent in little more than one year.

Here, the headlines use phrases such as "Death of the dollar."

Soros made a ton of money shorting the pound; now he and his allies seem to be shorting the euro

A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro.

Representatives of George Soros's investment business were among an all-star line up of Wall Street investors at an 'ideas dinner' at a private townhouse in Manhattan, according to reports.

A spokesman for Soros Fund Management said the legendary investor did not attend the dinner on February 8, but did not deny that his firm was represented.

At the dinner, the speculators are said to have argued that the euro is likely to plunge in value to parity with the dollar.

The single currency has been under enormous pressure because of Greece's debt crisis, plus financial worries in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland.

But, it has also struggled because hedge funds have been placing huge bets on the currency's decline, which could make the speculators hundreds of millions of pounds.

The euro traded at $1.51 in December, but has since fallen to $1.34. Details of the secretive dinner emerged days after Mr Soros, chairman of Soros

Fund Management, warned in a newspaper article that the euro could 'fall apart' even if the European Union can agree a deal to shore up support for stricken Greece.

Beware: George Soros and his influential friends are coming to repair the economy

One should never stand in awe of academicians or economists, no matter how big their names or reputations.

The following quotations underscore the need for skepticism:

"Large swaths of economics are going to have to be rethought on the basis of what's happened." So said Larry Summers, President Obama's chief economic adviser, in an interview in the weeks after the markets crashed a year ago."

"Now financier George Soros is announcing a $50 million effort to speed things along," Michael Hirsch writes in Newsweek. "This week Soros is gathering some of the leading practitioners of the market-skeptic school, who were marginalized during the era of "free-market fundamentalism," among them Nobelists Joseph Stiglitz, George Akerlof, Michael Spence, and Sir James Mirrlees. He's also creating an "Institute for New Economic Thinking" to make research grants, convene symposiums, and establish a journal, all in an effort to take back the economics profession from the champions of free-market zealotry who have dominated it for decades, and to correct the failures of decades of market deregulation. Soros hopes matching funds will bring the total endowment up to $200 million.

"Economics has failed not only to predict and explain what happened but has also failed to protect society," says Robert Johnson, a former managing director at Soros Fund Management, who will direct the new institute. "That's what the crisis revealed. The paradigm has failed. There is no guidance."

None of this bears any resemblance to what actually brought down the economy. This is understandable. Larry Summers and George Soros are Democrats who are intent on building up government's role in the economy.

All of them presumably carry in their heads a century old liberal paradigm, born at the same time as modern industrial capitalism,  that assigns members of modern societies to three groups:

First, there are the ordinary folks who cling to their bibles and guns and work hard to improve their lot in life. Unfortunately, to the liberal mind, they do not grasp what is really in their best self-interest, are politically weak and easily misled.

Second, there is the establishment, which comprises the rich, successful
buseiness proprietors and corporate executives and financiers. These are the folks who are commonly said to run the country. Liberals regard them as ruthless exploiters in search of personal gain and little else.

And then, in the words of John Steele Gordon, "there is the third group, those few, those happy few, that band of brothers, the educated and enlightened liberals, who understand what is really going on and want to help the members of the first group to live a better and more satisfying life. Unlike the establishment, which supposedly cares only for itself, liberals supposedly care for society as a whole and have no personal self-interest."

So, now we have a band of brothers made up of George Soros, Larry Summers, Joseph Stiglitz, Michael Pence, George Akerhof, and Sir James Mirrlees. They undoubtedly will fashion a reprise that will cast full blame for the collapse on ruthless, self-interested financiers while holding government blameless. After all, they can work their magic only if they bend public and political opinion to their conclusions.

They need government to translate their personal opinions into the law of the land.

An antidote is in order.

An unbiased explanation for the ecoonomic collapse would lead inevitably to the conclusion that free markets have not existed in the United States for a very long time.

The housing market was, in fact, deliberately destroyed by heavy-handed government starting in the 1970s, when courts and the armies of compassion forged an alliance, later joined by Republican, as well as Democrat, administrations.

It started with a court order requiring an end to redlining, a practice that made it difficult, if not impossible, for residents of some inner city neighborhoods to get mortgages. The Carter administration responded with the Community Reinvestment Act, which made redlining illegal and required inner-city lending.

Over the years, the minimum lending levels grew, which meant that more and more high-risk mortgages were granted. Under President George W. Bush, usage of the reinvestment act grew sharply. In effect, Bush used the cover of law to move left, broadening his appeal to voters outside the conservative and Republican folds.

In its first modern push to expand home ownership, Congress in 1970 created Freddie Mac, a companion to Fannie Mae, which dates to the Great Depression. Both were instrumental in wrecking a housing market discipline that had endured for 200 years.

Traditionally, a bank or savings and loan would accept a mortgage application, assess the financial condition of the applicant, then grant or deny a mortgage.

Under the new regime, a local bank no longer had to worry about an applicant's finances. The bank would hold the mortgage for hours or days, then unload it to Fannie or Freddie. They no longer had any skin in the game and could increase their profits by being more and more reckless.

Risk, previously the biggest factor in any business transaction, now had legs, and was no longer a factor in mortgages.

Fannie and Freddie bundled mortgages of varied risk levels and sold them to investment banks, which bundled the bundles and sold them as big-ticket securities all over the world.

With investment money pouring in from everywhere, the U.S. housing market boomed. Then, when the economy softened and the defaults started, the economy collapsed.

Now, some giants of economics and finance, such as Stiglitz and Soros, are pointing the finger of blame at free markets, which the founders took pains to establish in the U.S. constitution, and deregulation of markets.

In essence, they are blaming the victim for failing to withstand the blows of the powerful government mugger while excusing the ACORN thugs, the armies of compassion and the political geniuses who systematically destroyed a free market sytem that had exercised discipline over the mortgage process for two centuries.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan issued a semi-apology a year ago for a Federal Reserve policy that had held interest rates too low for too long, contributing to the housing market bubble..

He attributeed the “mistake” to his belief that banks, operating in their own self-interest, would do what was necessary to protect their business and its shareholders. Greenspan called that “a flaw in the model ... that defines how the world works.”

In other words, Greenspan admitted participating in a prolonged stimulation of the housing market, then blamed the market for failing to withstand the government intrusion and carry on its gatekeeping function.

Greenspan did not mention, and congressional inquisitors failed to ask, about ACORN thugs who picketed local banks and browbeat bankers who failed to comply quickly with their lending demands.

The founders would not be pleased by the governmental quackery that has badly damaged their careful construct.

Video of FT interview with George Soros

The big profits made by some of Wall Street’s leading banks are “hidden gifts” from the state, and taxpayer resentment of such companies is “justified”, George Soros, the fund manager, said in an interview with the Financial Times.

“Those earnings are not the achievement of risk-takers,” Mr Soros said. “These are gifts, hidden gifts, from the government, so I don’t think that those monies should be used to pay bonuses. There’s a resentment which I think is justified.”

To access video of this extraordinary Financial Times interview with George Soros, click on the headline of this post. While many of us recoil from his politics, Soros's grasp of the interplay between current events and economics is without peer. Here, he predicts that China will replace the United States as the engine of the world's economy, and this means the engine will be smaller and growth slower.

With $1 billion for clean technology, George Soros gives new meaning to rent seeking

The ringmaster of the Democrat Party says he is about to invest heavily in America's fastest growing enterprise - rent seeking.

No, he didn't use that term. Instead, he said he will invest $1 billion in clean energy technology.

While making that announcement, in Copenhagen, George Soros also said  he would set up and finance a new climate policy initiative with contributions of $10 million a year for 10 years.

In other words, Soros is determined to revive global warming as an issue, and is so confident he can make money that he is making a big  bet. Rent seeking has never had bigger poskets, except, of course, for General Electric.

If Soros  makes the $1 billion investment soon, he will be betting that Democrats are able to rescue a moribund cap-and-trade bill that earlier was approved by the House but lies dormant in the Senate. If the Senate goes along, Soros wins and his investments probably would gain value.

Economists use the term rent seeking to describe the capture of income,  profit, or other advantage by an individual or organization through the exploitation or manipulation of the economic environment, rather than production or trading of goods or services.

Lobbyists practice rent seeking routinely by trying to tailor government purchases or specifications to the products offered by the lobbyist's employer. Four months ago, Wal-Mart endorsed a proposed requirement that businesses offer health insurance to employees on grounds it would damage rival Target more than Wal-Mart.

That was  a classic example of rent-seeking.

Soros is unusual, however, in that he is a powerful figure in the Democrat Party, contributing or raising milions of dollars for campaigns and operating organizations that campaign aggressively on issues. He will help to determine who enables, or hinders, his rent seeking.

Accuracy in Media said of Soros that he "may be the biggest political fat cat of all time. Convicted in France of insider trading, Soros specializes in weakening or collapsing the currencies of entire nations for his own selfish interests. He is known as the man who broke the Bank of England. His power is such that his statements alone can cause currencies to go up or down. Other people suffer so he can get rich."

That singlemindedness may again be at play. China and India have rebuffed pressure to enact policies to curb alleged gloval walrming. If the United States proceeds with cap-and-trade, domestic producers will experience a rise in costs and take a hit in international trade.

He already is rich, ranking 29th on Fortune's list of the wealthiest in the world, with an estimated net worth of $11 billion.

In 2004, Soros spent nearly $24 million in a failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush.

While cap-and-trade appears to be Soros's primary interest in the political arena, he also has strong views on an issue related to Preident Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul.

Soros founded the Open Society Institute, which, from 2001 to 2003, developed a "Project on Death in America." One of the project's objectives was to "understand and transform the culture and experience of dying and bereavement."

In 1994, Soros delivered a speech in which he reported that he had offered to help his mother, a member of the Hemlock Society, commit suicide. In the same speech, he also endorsed the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, whose campaign he helped to finance.

The issue is relevant because critics of the Democrats' health care proposal contend that it would inevitably lead to rationing of care, and earlier death,  for the aged and terminally ill.