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Do you know how much the credit industry makes per year and; more importantly, how they make this money? The answers may surprise you, unless you're one of the few people who actually can understand the fine print. The banks and card-issuers take in early $170 billion before expenses, three-quarters of which comes from the steadily-rising interest rates they charge us for not paying off the credit each month.Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6509792
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In the previous article of this three-part series focusing on investigating the spurious charges with which credit-card companies hit us, we covered avoiding banking at the same place from which you received your card (so that the fine print doesn't allow them to extract funds from your actual account in the event that you are too late repaying your credit card balance) and paying close attention to grace-period adjustment tactics. The former is a bit underhanded because more often than not, the bank will allow you to be late for a period of time before they finally go directly into...Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6509878
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The FHFA's massive bank lawsuit extravaganza is a reminder of the horrific behavior that took place inside the subprime mortgage machine: fraud.
In it's lawsuit against Goldman Sachs, the FHFA claims that Goldman directly committed common law fraud, and particularly claims that Goldman "aided and abetted fraud."
This is the second time a government agency has accused Goldman of fraud. It's a big deal.
The agency seeks to recover the damages it sustained as a result of Goldman's wrongdoing, including the amount it paid for the securities ($11.1 billion) plus interest, the amount the value of those securities have lost, and legal fees.
The most serious of the FHFA's 10 causes of action against Goldman is for fraud.
And there are two big reasons why the FHFA says Goldman's actions were fraudulent. In short, they are the money it paid to get a window into the mortgage origination process and Dan Sparks.
Here's the first. From a key sentence in the FHFA lawsuit:
Because the information that Goldman provided or caused to be provided [to ratings agencies] was false, the ratings were inflated... [and] also that Goldman Sachs knew, or was reckless in not knowing, that it was falsely representing the underlying process and riskiness of the mortgage loans... because Goldman’s longstanding relationships with the problematic originators, and its numerous roles in the securitization chain, made it uniquely positioned to know the originators had abandoned their underwriting guidelines... [and because] as a result, the GSEs paid Defendants inflated prices for purported AAA (or its equivalent) Certificates, unaware that those Certificates actually carried a severe risk of loss and inadequate credit enhancement.
The big thing here is that Goldman funded mortgage originators, who encouraged property appraisers to inflate home values by firing them if they didn't and gave half million dollar loans to people like hairdressers and gardeners.
The other main reason Goldman is getting sued for fraud is that some of its employees signed the "shelf registration documents" registering the securities for multiple issuance with the SEC.
The FHFA alleges that those employees made false statements and omitted facts such as:
(In fact, in subprime RMBS securitizations, Goldman's deal volume increased from $2.1 billion in 2003 to $9.7 billion in 2004, to $14.5 billion in 2005 to $15 billion in 2006. And in ALT-A RMBS securitizations, Goldman's deal volume increased from $3.8 billion in 2004 to $10.4 billion in 2005 to $20.5 billion in 2006, according to the lawsuit.)
Goldman is also on the hook because it saw the poor quality of the loans it bought from the mortgage originators it funded (the lawsuit says Goldman received daily updates on how many loans were delinquent), retained third-party due diligence providers to analyze those loans that it considered securitizing regardless of the delinquencies (a smart move considering that it might have absolved Goldman of responsibility for any poor-quality loans in the Securitizations) but Goldman didn't listen to the companies' recommendations to exclude a significant number of loans. Goldman included the loans in its Securitizations anyway. Then it got the ratings agencies to rate them attractively. But it stated in offering documents that the loans had generally met the guidelines of the due diligence review.
Our takeaways: Dan Sparks is full-on attacked in the lawsuit. The FHFA basically blames the rot of Goldman's mortgage business on him and his team's "traveling the world" to "make some lemonade from some big old lemons" (his words).
Of all the Goldman employees named as defendants, Sparks is the bad guy this time. The others are barely mentioned.
It's the FHFA's imperative to encourage the mortgage industry to support a robust housing market. So at first it might seem that the lawsuits are counter-productive for discouraging lending during a time when already, few are lending.
And in a way, it is. But the FHFA lost billions. And they're a regulator that has to disincentivize fraud, which of course makes home buyers wary of the housing market.
This lawsuit, and any others that might follow, help achieve that goal.
Endgame: It seems like a settlement is coming.
It's a hard sell, to us at least, that Goldman can be found directly at fault for Fannie and Freddie's losses because 1) No matter who it paid to do so, Goldman didn't originate most of the loans, and that's where the real fraud took place; 2) Fannie and Freddie should have investigated the quality of the loans before investing in them (although the FHFA says it could not have known); and 3) Much of the blame is on this system that created impossible loans to pay off so that someone would actually invest in those loans (incredible yield) so that it could grant loans to people who couldn't pay them off because discriminating against poor people was litigously discouraged back in 1992.
This lawsuit certainly spells out Goldman's role in each step of that system (Using evidence from the lawsuit, we could probably create a flip book of Sparks blazing the trail for each of them), but Fannie and Freddie remain "sophisticated investors."
* The lawsuit says "Defendants had enormous financial incentives to complete as many offerings as quickly as possible without regard to ensuring the accuracy or completeness of the Registration Statements or conducting adequate and reasonable due diligence... if for no other reason than to quickly get them off Goldman's books."
In reality Goldman and its employees had two incentives:
1. GS Mortgage Securities was paid a percentage of the total dollar amount of the offering whenever the Securitization was complete, if GSMS was the depositor (and it was in most of the relevant instances in this lawsuit regarding securities that Fannie and Freddie invested in).
2. GS, the underwriter, got a commission based on how much it sold the Certificates for.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/sl37LdjFijM/goldman-fhfa-lawsuit-2011
How important is your input when it comes to investing? Studies of successful investors show they get personally involved in the decisions that affect their investments by conducting their own research.
For example, 64% of ultra-wealthy investors (those with $25 million or more in assets) rely equally on information from their financial advisors and daily financial publications as part of their research. More than half of them also go online to check out financial services companies and research investments every week.
While you may not have $25 million to invest (yet!), you can do what rich people do and research your investments as well. For mutual fund investing like Dave recommends, online mutual fund screeners are a good option to help you find and choose good funds.
These screeners are simply databases of information about individual mutual funds. Yahoo! finance has a good screener you can check out for free. With some digging, you can answer the three most important questions about a mutual fund: What's the long-term track record? What is the fund's rank within its category? What are the fund's expenses?
Most screeners work the same way and allow you to organize the information to suit you. Screeners allow you to:
But gathering more in-depth information will be a challenge, and you can't really do an apples-to-apples comparison of funds with incomplete data. For example, the free screener shows only 1-, 3- and 5-year returns, but you may want to know about a fund's performance over 15 or 20 years. If you're the kind of investor who needs extensive detail on your investments, consider subscribing to a professional-grade mutual fund screening system.
No matter how powerful your screening program is, it can't make your investing decisions for you. Those studies of wealthy investors' habits also show that, although 68% said they have the skills and talent to manage their own portfolios, 70% of them trust their financial advisors to help them grow their investments.
That's why Dave recommends you combine your research with the advice of an investing professional. These experts will work with you to make sure your investments are on target to meet your goals?and help you keep them that way. Dave's investing Endorsed Local Providers are pros in your area who will give you the same great investing advice Dave would. Contact your ELP today!
Source: http://www.daveramsey.com/article/how-to-research-funds-on-your-own/lifeandmoney_investing
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Do you use shop therapy to feel better when you're depressed? When you see something you want, do feel the need to buy it as if driven by an unseen force? Are you over your head in debt but keep on shopping anyway? Is your spending affecting your relationships and personal life? Do you find yourself feeling depressed and guilty after a big shopping spree?Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6522575
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Is the US headed for a recession, or just an ongoing stretch of really mediocre growth?
The question is significant according to a new note from Nomura's Ian Scott.
When you have periods of sub-2% growth (on average, over three years), equity returns drop off big-time.

One problem with the exercise: There just aren't many that periods in history of negative returns, and negative extended bad growth.
Here's an interesting look at 3-year growth rates over the last 100+ years.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/A068_Ec1EWo/low-growth-vs-no-growth-2011-9
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