Hi everybody, we are opening up another blog site just for like-minded people who like to discuss and disseminate pertinent info about our great journey from democracy (so called) to a real honest-to-goodness Republic, all 50 of them. Many great souls, for decades, have been working on this righting of the wrongs that came about in the mid 1800’s. ESPECIALLY AS ARESULT OF District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871,
The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 is an Act of Congress that repealed the individual charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown and established a new territorial government for the whole District of Columbia. Though Congress repealed the territorial government in 1874, the legislation was the first to create a single municipal government for the federal district. Direct rule by… Wikipedia
Some house keeping rules:
By now we all know the common sense rules for blogging etiquette; if you don’t know, then just ask, we’ll try to guide you as gently as possible. This reminds me of a time when I went, years ago in Ft. Lauderdale, to brand new Broward Center for the Performing Arts to hear one of my favorite composers, Henry Mancini, performing with his orchestra. In the beginning he gave a short introduction and concluded by saying “we are going to play some of my favorite pieces of music, we hope you like them also, if not, get your own band and go play what you like.” He and we in the audience all chuckled and we hope every blogger here also chuckles, having understood the message.
Also, please note that not everybody likes to scroll through dozens of lines of an article that is important to you and others as well, but we need to let people choose what they want to read. So, please post only a few lines or a jist of an article and then post a link to the rest of it. Thanks Folks.
FREEDOM MINDS FOR THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS 
Thanks for your help Barry. 🙂
LikeLike
My pleasure.
LikeLike
Andy, what do you think about posting TT address to the Republic on the blog?
LikeLike
There is no address on any of the paperwork they sent today.
Is there an official “press release” dated July 27th, 2010? Peter just posted a link for the u-tube video where somebody reads the whole thing.
I thought that one was deemed to be a draft copy, it still has the same mistakes on it?
LikeLike
The one Peter posted was the old draft copy. Not valid.
LikeLike
I did not receive these when first came out. Do you have to send an email to press to have them add you to their list for these reports as they come out?
LikeLike
I understood that the documents were going to be on the republic website by now. Any update on this?
LikeLike
Need a little leadership from the press rather than a few folks trying to figure this out for the entire country.
Is there going to be any release to the public to help recruiting?
LikeLike
MississippiGal, Andy and others.. thank you for all of the information!
Rocknee, I have ‘no doubts’ that release to the public will be coming ‘at the right time.’ My prayer is, ‘Lord, please let us be ready!!’ It’s all in timing.
LikeLike
My thanks to everyone too, esp. MissGal. Rec. everything and boy do I have a lot of reading to do!!! 🙂
LikeLike
Next court event:
Just a reminder to keep him in our prayer’s today.
Wednesday, October 13
at Ft McNair- 12:00 pm
Wednesday’s court appearance will address LTC Lakin’s change of counsel and should be only a brief session. Fort McNair is located at 4th and P streets, SW, near the Waterfront/Marina. Some landmarks are the Waterfront Metro, the EPA building at Waterside Mall, Arena Stage. Use the P Street Entrance to enter the installation. The hearing will be in the Fort McNair courtroom on the third floor of building 32.
LikeLike
Kelby is live on RJ Hender show
http://republicbroadcasting.org/shoutcast/shoutcast.html
LikeLike
Wonder what the good news is Kelby was talking about coming out in a few days? Can’t wait!
LikeLike
Oh man…….. hope it is something the whole country will notice. At least something that we can point to, so we can convince some of the toughest “non-believers”, our relatives etc.
LikeLike
I hope it has something to do with the people’s treasury OR announcements on CNN!! The statement made by Kelby 2 times now about the Homeland Security folks being arrested because of them trying to steal wire transfers is curious. I am gonna email him to get the info he was talking about concerning this.
LikeLike
Been gone most of day. Sound like things are rumbling. Like to hear your reply from Kelby. Tks.
LikeLike
Does anyone know what the Republic stance is on banking? Are they recommending a bank? Are we going to have our own bank? I want to get out of my theiving bank.
LikeLike
There are about 450 banks that have collapsed/fed taken overs, in last 2 years, and I bet some of them were bankers that wanted to do the right thing but because of the crooked regulations were doing what they had to do to stay open as long as they could.
LikeLike
Hey gang
Long time lurker but I feel like I know all here as friends in the cause.
Thanks for all the imfo and gods blessing to all
LikeLike
Lurk or post, either way or both, Welcome tn_eric,
LikeLike
Waking up in America starts now. Kelby and CW are guests
http://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=685
LikeLike
Thanks for the link. This is the first time in weeks I have been able to listen live!!
LikeLike
Watch this trailer and send it to everybody, then go see the movie.
Thanks Greg.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/
LikeLike
Did everyone see what happened with Silver today !
LikeLike
tn_eric | October 13, 2010 at 1:00 pm | Reply
///////
What part of Tenn are you in? About Mar or April I plan on moving back to Western Tenn.
Welcome!
LikeLike
I’ve been out of pocket. What happened to silver?????
LikeLike
I just have to share this…just in from Gino, the Independent candidate for Governor in Nevada, de facto for now but who knows when the twain shall meet? Thank you all for your indulgence on this.
I was overjoyed to hear the message from interim Pres Turner this AM. Love his order not to send in a compaint without a solution and don’t sing if you can’t sing…”God said to make a joyful noise.
********************************
Hello Team,
I wanted to update you on a number of items.
1. I may be receiving a couple of Republican endorsements. We already have 1 from Nye County, Mr. Ed Goedhart.
2. Fallon Tea Party, is now a county Tea Party and goes by Churchill County Tea Party. They are planning to endorse candidates. I am the likely Tea Party candidate for Governor. They will close on this soon and make a public announcement and wide spread press release.
3. I am working with the Churchill County Tea Party in their efforts to make a public demand for the arrest of Harry Reid. This demand will cite criminal charges for violations against the Constitution, the People and the State. There will be a mass civil gathering in the county with Sheriffs and constables present. The people will present this demand with cited criminal violations to the Sheriff and demand the Sheriff openly state he will arrest Harry Reid if he enters the county. A watchdog team will monitor Harry Reids where abouts.
4. I will be sending out a form to everyone. This is a criminal complaint form. Please make copies and send it to as many people as you know. The criminal complaint form lists the charges against Harry Reid and demands his arrest. Sign the form and take it to your local Sheriffs office to be officially recorded.
5. The Churchill County Tea Party will be asking all of Northern Nevada to come to the Constitution vigil where they will publicly call for the arrest of Harry Reid. This will occur within a few days, targeting Friday evening or Saturday evening. Sorry about the short notice, but I just now was able to invigorate this group. Time is not our friend and we must act. Tell all your friends and acquaintances to open up their schedules. All surrounding counties and towns SHOULD ATTEND and show a massive crowd.
Bring and wear your guns if you have one.
Ok, so as I have been telling everyone, I will have Harry Reid arrested. Now you see it in action, one county at a time. If I become Governor there is no escape. We are setting the foundation. Once we get Churchill county Sheriff to publicly commit to arresting Harry Reid, we will work to getting this into the Sheriff Chiefs Association and drive all counties.
…no place to hide, no place to run. Harry goes to jail.
Please continue to push our campaign, it is working and working very well. Drive as hard as possible. We are in the sprint weeks!! GIN!! GIN!!
Sincerely,
Gino DiSimone
Candidate, Governor of Nevada 2010, Independent non-partisan, GIN ! (Go Independent Nevada ! )
http://www.ginoforgov.com
775-544-2765
LikeLike
This is absolutely WONDERFUL! Thanks Steph!!!!
LikeLike
http://www.cnbc.com/id/39641282
Gold and silver news
LikeLike
http://www.cnbc.com/id/33057388
More
LikeLike
Hottest Commodity?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/39654597
LikeLike
Monday Justices- 4:30 P.S.T.
Prayer 6-7pm P.S.T.
Tuesday Statesmen & Delegates 6-8pm P.S.T.
GJ Foreman 6-8pm P.S.T.
Ambassadors 6-8pm P.S.T.
Governors 6-8pm P.S.T.
Wednesday Republic call 6-8pm P.S.T. – Everyone in Republic invited (Starting 10/20/2010)
Friday, Saturday, Sunday Recruit, Recruit, Recruit,
Sunday 6-8pm P.S.T. – Conference Call or Radio Show for New People that want to come into the republic
Sub-Committee Meetings TBA Statesmen, Delegates, GJ Foremen, Ambassadors
Media Relations: (269) 978-5630
Fax: (949) 416-2623
Email: info@republicoftheunitedstates.org
Website: http://www.RepublicoftheunitedStates.org
How to Sign up On-Line: http://republicoftheunitedstates.org/user/register
LikeLike
http://www.myprivateaudio.com/
check out dave mack site where does the fraud begin
LikeLike
ps
long read 27 pages but he makes it simple for us non legal types
LikeLike
Hi tn_eric, off the subject but part of my younger brothers email is “chainsaw……”
LikeLike
rrc2003 | October 13, 2010 at 4:16 pm | Reply
Did everyone see what happened with Silver today !
*****************************************
rrc2003 Just for you info, silver is now up to $24.11.
LikeLike
Andy v
I moved my ira to gold and silver about a year ago thanks to RA and TT
LikeLike
I bought some silver from the fellow who was on Dave Mack’s show few months ago.
LikeLike
the fraud is exposed
all loans are fraudulant. we created the money with our signature and the evil bankers took it to the bank.
LikeLike
Andy V
is he a sculptor?
LikeLike
WOW, he did make all kinds sculptures from wood, fish and gators etc. Are they called sculptures?
LikeLike
lol
i carved a lot of ice w/ the chainsaw
LikeLike
Tad’s show tonight …….
Tonight we have a special guest on the call.
Bruce Myers will be discussing a very successful method for eliminating credit card debt.
Bruce has worked successfully with about 10,000 people to help them eliminate credit card debt and has a unique method for doing so.
Please join us tonight to hear how Bruce and his program can help you with your credit card and collection agency problems.
http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=46256&cmd=tc
LikeLike
Kelby on RJ’s show this morning mentioned that you could email him to get information about a Utah case and HLS arrest. Has anyone done this and did you get info. back from Kelby.
LikeLike
Yes I emailed him right after RJ’s show. He almost always answers me right away. Have not heard anything yet. He has been busy today tho. Maybe later tonight or tomorrow.
LikeLike
He responded to me but only sent a name. Just wondering.
LikeLike
Utah case, could it be Sam Davis?
LikeLike
Sorry, he might be from Idaho.
LikeLike
I emailed him too but have not heard anything yet.
LikeLike
Does this surprise anyone?http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/royals/3179040/O-glum-all-ye-faithful-Royal-party-axed.html#ixzz12HrWm1CT
LikeLike
UPDATE ON HALF PAST HUMAN (CLIF)
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=184870
LikeLike
White House Insider On Obama: The President Is Losing It
http://newsflavor.com/opinions/white-house-insider-on-obama-the-president-is-losing-it/
LikeLike
from the article – Obama is not up to the job of being president. He simply doesn’t seem to care about the work involved. You want to know what? Obama is lazy. He really is. And it is getting worse and worse. Would another four years of Obama be the best thing for America? No it would not.
Ok, so he does not want to be there and we certainly don’t want him there…looks like this is a no brainer and a win-win. Should we all go in on a moving truck?
LikeLike
Dump Truck. Amazing he hasn’t been removed yet.
LikeLike
Cant imagine him, having any furniture. Sorta like Clintons, lived off the govt their entire life. Everything issued!!
LikeLike
Truth be known…..he is probably drawing thousands of dollars from all the social security numbers he has….this guy is a criminal and needs to be arrested and executed. He can’t be allowed to live because of what he now knows!
LikeLike
Germak says:
.. . . . . “He can’t be allowed to live because of what he now knows!”
How about maybe in a little cell or cage under constant surveilance……??? And what about Madam P? what to do with her?
But what he/O knows won’t matter will it? In our new way of living (honorably and in the LIGHT?)
LikeLike
I am just scared the RuSA will let all the clowns walk. Altho, is all the arrests true and accurate or is someone blowing smoke up tha A$$?
LikeLike
Clowns walking is the least of our problems, job #1 is to talk to a lot of people and get them on board with us. Clowns time will come, whatever it entails.
LikeLike
Here Is Your Chance To Check If You Are The Victim Of Mortgage Fraud
You can fill out your info. on this site and have it emailed to demand a copy of your mortgage note.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/here-your-chance-check-if-you-are-victim-mortgage-fraud
LikeLike
Foreclosure Fraud: It’s Worse Than You Think
Published: Tuesday, 12 Oct 2010 | 1:14 PM ET
Text Size
By: Diana Olick
CNBC Real Estate Reporter
*
Digg
* Buzz
* Facebook
* Twitter
* More Share
There has been plenty of pontificating over the ramifications of foreclosure freezes on troubled borrowers, foreclosure buyers and the larger housing market, not to mention lawsuits, investor losses and bank write downs.
There has been precious little talk of what the real legal issues are behind the robosigning scandal. Yes, you can’t/shouldn’t sign documents you never read, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The real issue is ownership of these loans and who has the right to foreclose. By the way, despite various comments from the Obama administration, foreclosures are governed by state law. There is no real federal jurisdiction.
A source of mine pointed me to a recent conference call Citigroup [C 4.25 — UNCH (0) ] had with investors/clients. It featured Adam Levitin, a Georgetown University Law professor who specializes in, among many other financial regulatory issues, mortgage finance.
Levitin says the documentation problems involved in the mortgage mess have the potential “to cloud title on not just foreclosed mortgages but on performing mortgages.”
The issues are securitization, modernization and a whole lot of cut corners.
Real estate law requires real paper transfer of documents and titles, and a lot of the system went electronic without much regard to that persnickety rule.
Mortgages and property titles are transferred several times in the process of a home purchase from:
originators to
securitization sponsors to
depositors to
trusts.
Trustees hold the note (which is the IOU on the mortgage), the mortgage (the security that says the house is collateral) and the assignment of the note and security instrument.
The issue is in that final stage getting to the trust. The law demands that when the papers get moved around they are “wet ink,” that is, real signatures on real paper. But Prof. Levin tells me that’s not the worst of it. Affidavits assigned to the notes and security instruments are supposed to be endorsed over to the trust at the time of sale, but in many foreclosure scenarios the affidavits have been backdated illegally.
So with the chain of documentation now in question, and trustee ownership in question, here is one legal scenario, according to Prof. Levitin:
The mortgage is still owed, but there’s going to be a problem figuring out who actually holds the mortgage, and they would be the ones bringing the foreclosure. You have a trust that has been getting payments from borrowers for years that it has no right to receive.
So you might see borrowers suing the trusts saying give me my money back, you’re stealing my money.
You’re going to then have trusts that don’t have any assets that have been issuing securities that say they’re backed by a whole bunch of assets.
And, you’re going to have investors suing the trustees for failing to inspect the collateral files, which the trustees say they’re going to do.
And, you’re going to have trustees suing the securitization sponsors for violating their representations and warrantees about what they were transferring.
Josh Rosner, of Graham-Fisher, put the following out in a note today, claiming violations of pooling and servicing agreements on mortgages could dwarf the Lehman weekend:
Nearly all Pooling and Servicing Agreements require that “On the Closing Date, the Purchaser will assign to the Trustee pursuant to the Pooling and Servicing Agreement all of its right, title and interest in and to the Mortgage Loans and its rights under this Agreement (to the extent set forth in Section 15), and the Trustee shall succeed to such right, title and interest in and to the Mortgage Loans and the Purchaser’s rights under this Agreement (to the extent set forth in Section 15)”.
Also, an Assignment of Mortgage must accompany each note and this almost never happens.
We believe nearly every single loan transferred was transferred to the Trust in “blank” name. That is to say the actual loans were apparently not, as of either the cut-off or closing dates, assigned to the Trust as required by the Pool Servicing Agreement.
Rather than continue to fight for the “put-back” of individual loans, the investors may be able to sue for and argue that the “true sale” was never achieved.
Quite the can of worms. Anyone who says that the banks will fix all this in a few months is seriously delusional.
LikeLike
That was certainly a good read. I even got a chuckle or two out of it!! I’m sure the longer this Mortgage Mess is “LOOKED” at from all the different angles, more and more scenarios will come to light.
LikeLike
By the way did you see silver hit 24.83 overnight, now at 24.42.
LikeLike
Zero Hedge Check Out Your Mortgage link leads to seiu.org? Those union thugs are NOT your friends.
I would definitely not add my name to an SEIU database, because Zero Hedge offers a scared mortgage holder a link.
LikeLike
Robo-signers: Mortgage experience not necessary
Banks hired hair stylists, teens to process foreclosure documents, workers’ testimony shows
Lawyers Peter Ticktin, and Josh Bleil, of The Ticktin Law Group, are photographed in a copyrighted by Lynne Sladky/AP Photo with depositions from 150 robosigners, alleging that the court documents reveal an industry-wide banking scheme to defraud homeowners, in Deerfield Beach, Fla. Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010.
Michelle Conlin, AP Real Estate Writer,
On Tuesday October 12, 2010, 9:21 pm EDT
NEW YORK (AP) — In an effort to rush through thousands of home foreclosures since 2007, financial institutions and their mortgage servicing departments hired hair stylists, Walmart floor workers and people who had worked on assembly lines and installed them in “foreclosure expert” jobs with no formal training, a Florida lawyer says.
In depositions released Tuesday, many of those workers testified that they barely knew what a mortgage was. Some couldn’t define the word “affidavit.” Others didn’t know what a complaint was, or even what was meant by personal property. Most troubling, several said they knew they were lying when they signed the foreclosure affidavits and that they agreed with the defense lawyers’ accusations about document fraud.
“The mortgage servicers hired people who would never question authority,” said Peter Ticktin, a Deerfield Beach, Fla., lawyer who is defending 3,000 homeowners in foreclosure cases. As part of his work, Ticktin gathered 150 depositions from bank employees who say they signed foreclosure affidavits without reviewing the documents or ever laying eyes on them — earning them the name “robo-signers.”
The deposed employees worked for the mortgage service divisions of banks such as Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, as well as for mortgage servicers like Litton Loan Servicing, a division of Goldman Sachs.
Ticktin said he would make the testimony available to state and federal agencies that are investigating financial institutions for allegations of possible mortgage fraud. This comes on the eve of an expected announcement Wednesday from 40 state attorneys general that they will launch a collective probe into the mortgage industry.
“This was an industry-wide scheme designed to defraud homeowners,” Ticktin said.
The depositions paint a surreal picture of foreclosure experts who didn’t understand even the most elementary aspects of the mortgage or foreclosure process — even though they were entrusted as the records custodians of homeowners’ loans. In one deposition taken in Houston, a foreclosure supervisor with Litton Loan couldn’t define basic terms like promissory note, mortgagee, lien, receiver, jurisdiction, circuit court, plaintiff’s assignor or defendant. She testified that she didn’t know why a spouse might claim interest in a property, what the required conditions were for a bank to foreclose or who the holder of the mortgage note was. “I don’t know the ins and outs of the loan, I just sign documents,” she said at one point.
Until now, only a handful of depositions from robo-signers have come to light. But the sheer volume of the new depositions will make it more difficult for financial institutions to argue that robo-signing was an aberrant practice in a handful of rogue back offices.
Judges are unlikely to look favorably on a bank that claims paperwork flaws don’t matter because the borrower was in default on the loan, said Kendall Coffey, a former Miami U.S. attorney and author of the book “Foreclosures.”
“There has to be a cornerstone of integrity to the process,” Coffey said.
Bank of America responded to Tiktin’s depositions by re-affirming that an internal review has shown that its foreclosures have been accurate. “This review will ensure we have a full understanding of any potential issues and quickly address them,” Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm said. Frahm added that, on average, the bank’s foreclosure customers have not made a payment in more than 18 months.
JP Morgan Chase spokesman Thomas Kelly said the bank has requested that courts not enter into any judgments until the bank had reviewed its procedures. But Kelly added that the bank believes that all the underlying facts of the cases involved in the document fraud allegations are true.
Litton Loan Servicing did not respond to a request for comment.
Even before the foreclosure scandal broke, the housing market was in the midst of an ugly detoxification. Now the escalating crisis is likely to prolong the housing depression for at least another few years. The allegations are opening the entire chain of foreclosure proceedings to legal challenge. Some foreclosures could be overturned. Others could be deemed illegal.
For a housing recovery to occur, all the foreclosed properties — which could account for 40 percent of all residential sales by 2012 — need to be re-scrutinized by the banks and resold on the market. Now, with so much inventory under a legal threat, the process will become severely delayed.
“This just adds more uncertainty to the whole mortgage process, so buyers are asking themselves: do I want to buy a home in this environment?” says Cris deRitis, director of credit analytics at Moody’s Analytics. “We need to fix these issues before the economy can recover.”
Though some have chalked up the foreclosure debacle to an overblown case of paperwork bungling, the underlying legal issues are far more serious. Yes, swearing that you’ve reviewed documents you’ve never seen is a legal offense. But at the center of the foreclosure scandal looms something much larger: the question of who actually owns the loans and who has the right to foreclose upon them. The paperwork issues being raised by lawyers and attorneys generals have the potential to blight not just the titles of foreclosed properties but also those belonging to homeowners who have never missed a mortgage payment.
So far, JP Morgan Chase, PNC Financial and Litton Loan Servicing have stopped some foreclosure proceedings in 23 states. Bank of America and GMAC, recently renamed Ally, have extended their moratoriums to all 50 states. Wells Fargo and Citigroup have said they are continuing with foreclosures, adding that they are confident in their documents and processes.
But Citigroup has now backpedaled some on that assertion. The bank sent out a press release Tuesday that it was no longer using the law firm of “foreclosure king” David Stern, now under investigation by the Florida attorney general’s office. “Pending the outcome of the AG’s investigation, Citi is not referring new matters to this firm,” the bank said in an e-mailed statement.
Late last week, in an interview with the Florida attorney general, a former senior paralegal in Stern’s firm described a boiler-room atmosphere in which employees were pressured to forge signatures, backdate documents, swap Social Security numbers, inflate billings and pass around notary stamps as if they were salt.
Stern’s lawyer, Jeffrey Tew, did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, the public outrage continues to mount.
In what is perhaps a sign of things to come, a Simi Valley, Calif., couple and their nine children broke into their foreclosed home over the weekend and moved back in, according to television station KABC of Simi Valley. The couple, Jim and Danielle Earl, say they were working with the bank to catch up on payments until they discovered a $25,000 difference between what they owed and what the bank said they owed. The family was evicted from their Spanish-style two-story in July. The home has been sold, and the new owner was due to move in soon.
The Earls and their attorney now allege that they were victims of fraudulent paperwork.
LikeLike
ambrose,
Will you have andy send me your email addy. Like to ask you about my mortgage that is paid off.
Thanks
LikeLike
ambrose | October 14, 2010 at 9:28 am | Reply
Zero Hedge Check Out Your Mortgage link leads to seiu.org? Those union thugs are NOT your friends.
I would definitely not add my name to an SEIU database, because Zero Hedge offers a scared mortgage holder a link.
___________________________________________________
What is seiu?
LikeLike
SEIU, Service Employees International Unipon, UGH
LikeLike
None of your personal information goes into a database. It sends out a generic email to your provider stating that you have the lawful right to see if your provider does in fact have the note so you can be sure you are paying the right company. It is suggested that you place your loan number on the email being sent out so the provider can respond faster. They have 20 days to respond to you and then 60 days to provide what you have ask for. If the response comes back that they are unable to provide you with the note, well that’s a whole new ballgame now isn’t it.
LikeLike
Andy V. | October 14, 2010 at 10:33 am | Reply
By the way did you see silver hit 24.83 overnight, now at 24.42
Yes I did Andy !! and right now I’m seeing it at $24.56. Gotta love it !
LikeLike
Silver!!! I love it!!!
LikeLike
OK, Folks, we’ve got our marching orders, what are we going to do to include more people in Republic of the united States of America?
One little thing I did was to order some business cards with the Republic web site address, my phone number, my email, other pertinent info, even put in a slogan you like, and some pictures of the Old Glory. 250 cards free, with $5.98 shipping. Send me your email addy to my email ” valisalo@yahoo.com ” and I can forward the offer from Vista print to you. They say it’s good for 48 hrs. I have used them several times and they do great work. All on line, painless. 100’s of designs to pick from.
LikeLike
In some totally and completely unrelated news, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group announced today that it would begin listing and trading RAINFALL futures on November 1 of this year. Yep – you heard it right – now you can bet on whether or not it will rain and maybe make money doing it!
Poor Tom Skilling (Chicago’s premier meteorologist whose every word is hung upon by grain traders from about April onward through August).
Now almost as soon as he utters his forecasts, the hedge fund algorithms will be slamming the rain futures market before he even gets to go to put up his maps.
Let’s see, they’ve already got futures contracts on temperature,
snowfall,
frost,
and hurricanes.
now comes this.
About the only thing missing is thunder and lightning.
I have put in a request that they offer sunrise and sunset futures because as we all are so painfully aware, there is a risk element involved here as to whether or not the sun will rise in the East and set in the West.
With Quantitative Easing 2 coming from the Federal Reserve in November, there is a chance that it could cause the Earth to reverse the direction that it spins on its axis, and heaven knows, we need to be hedged against such a development.
And one wonders why America is in decline.
What’s next – alien visitation futures?
LikeLike
Bank of America Re-Remics Cut Mortgage Debt as Basel Rules Loom
By Miles Weiss and David Mildenberg – Oct 14, 2010 9:38 AM MT
Bank of America Corp., seeking to reduce risk and meet new capital standards, upgraded billions of dollars of distressed mortgage bonds by repackaging them into new securities using a variation of a Wall Street technique that failed during the credit crisis.
The transactions, known as re-remics, are designed to add a layer of protection to residential mortgage-backed securities that sustained losses, enabling them to regain investment-grade ratings. The strategy helped the bank pare its RMBS holdings by $5.2 billion in the second quarter, or about 15 percent, according to a company filing.
With bank stocks mired near historic lows in relation to book value, firms such as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are searching for alternative ways to meet rules set by global regulators since the 2008 financial crisis. By turning junk-rated securities into investment-grade bonds, Bank of America will need to hold less capital under rules agreed to by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
“The larger banks are going to do anything and everything they can to create capital other than issuing stock,” said Matthew Pieniazek, president of Darling Consulting Group Inc., a Newburyport, Massachusetts, firm that provides asset-liability management advice to banks. “The most punitive way of raising capital is by issuing highly dilutive common equity in the current marketplace.”
‘Scrubbing’ Balance Sheets
Re-remics, short for re-securitizations of real estate mortgage-investment conduits, are one way for lenders to improve capital ratios without issuing stock, according to Pieniazek, who also runs educational programs for bank regulators. Firms such as Bank of New York Mellon Corp. have been doing re-remics since the credit crunch began in 2007, primarily to restructure private-label RMBS to make the bonds easier to divest.
Bank of America repackaged $13 billion of mortgage-linked securities in the first half, according to Jerry Dubrowski, a spokesman for the company, and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank is the only one of the five biggest U.S. lenders to disclose that it used re-remics this year for regulatory capital purposes.
More banks may turn to the technique as they come under pressure to boost capital, said Marty Mosby, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities LLC in Memphis, Tennessee. While the transaction may trigger a writedown, improved profits this year can cushion the blow.
“Re-remics are a way of doing some scrubbing of the balance sheet at a time when banks have other gains that give them a lot of flexibility,” said Mosby, who was chief financial officer at First Horizon National Corp. in Memphis, Tennessee’s largest bank, from 2003 to 2007.
Housing Boom
The housing boom of the past decade was fueled by the securitization market, in which Wall Street firms bundled mortgages into trusts that then issued different classes of securities. A record $1.2 trillion of mortgage bonds lacking government support were issued in both 2005 and 2006, according to newsletter Inside MBS & ABS. Many of them were rated AAA based in part on their priority in receiving payments made on underlying mortgages.
Banks invested heavily in these bonds, also known as private-label or non-agency RMBS because they didn’t have guarantees from government-backed agencies such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, only to suffer big losses after borrowers began defaulting on subprime mortgages in 2007. Lenders held about $197.2 billion of private-label RMBS as of June 30, down from $383.5 billion at the end of 2007, according to data compiled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
‘Toxic Waste’
“When you talk about toxic waste in the banking system, privately issued mortgage-backed securities are at the top of the list,” said Richard Bove, a bank analyst at Rochdale Securities LLC in Lutz, Florida. “The banks have written down these portfolios very aggressively.”
As of July 31, Standard & Poor’s had downgraded $2.4 trillion of the $3.3 trillion in structured-finance securities tied to the U.S. housing market that were issued from 2005 through 2007, according to an Aug. 30 report by the credit- rating firm.
Most securitizations during the housing boom consisted of senior securities that got investment-grade ratings and junior securities that were first in line to absorb losses when borrowers defaulted.
Financial Engineering
In a re-remic, the senior mortgage bonds that have lost their investment-grade ratings are placed in a new trust, which issues a new set of senior and junior securities, with the higher-ranking bonds receiving first rights to cash flows from the original home loans. The junior securities in the re-remics provide an additional layer of protection to the cushion created by subordinated bonds from the original securitization. They’re second in line to bear any losses, which means more senior investors wouldn’t suffer any damage unless the junior securities were wiped out.
The financial engineering allows the senior re-remics securities to regain AAA ratings, lowering the amount of capital a bank needs to hold against them. The junior securities, which retain non-investment-grade ratings, can be sold to investors looking for higher yields.
“What broke the asset-finance market — securitization — is what’s fixing it,” said Matthew Lambiase, managing director at Annaly Capital Management Inc., a New York-based real estate investment trust that owns mortgage-backed securities.
Re-Securitization Trust
Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank by assets, had a net $2.8 billion of unrealized losses on $37.9 billion of non-agency RMBS listed in its financial statements as available for sale at the end of last year, according to company filings. The bank pooled $13 billion of these bonds in a re-securitization trust that issued two new classes of debt during the first half of 2010, said Dubrowski, the company spokesman.
Sales of re-remics, in combination with mortgage repayments, reduced the carrying value of the bank’s RMBS holdings by $5.2 billion, according to a quarterly report the company filed with the SEC on Aug. 6. Dubrowski declined to say which firm rated the bank’s re-remics, what the ratings were or who purchased the securities.
At issue is whether defects in the securitization market that contributed to the financial crisis, including faulty credit ratings and weak underwriting standards, have been eliminated. Janet Tavakoli, a structured-finance consultant who has criticized the financial industry for lax underwriting and excessive leverage, said senior bonds created through re-remics remain vulnerable to losses on soured home loans.
‘Going to Fail’
“The underlying problem is that securitization professionals were securitizing loans they knew were going to fail,” said Tavakoli, founder of Chicago-based Tavakoli Structured Finance Inc. and author of books on securitization. “None of those problems has gone away.”
In May, S&P cut to junk the ratings on re-remics granted AAA grades when they were created in 2009 by companies such as Credit Suisse Group AG, Jefferies Group Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. The downgrades to about $150 million of debt “reflect our assessment of the significant deterioration in performance of the loans backing the underlying certificates,” Cesar Romero and Terry G. Osterweil, analysts at the New York- based ratings firm, said in a note at the time.
Tougher Standards
Credit-rating companies such as S&P are using tougher standards before meting out top grades for mortgage bonds, according to Thomas Capasse, a founding member of Merrill Lynch & Co.’s asset-backed securities group. The firms are demanding lower loan-to-value ratios on mortgages that underlie the bonds and higher credit scores for borrowers, as well as full documentation of their income and financial condition, said Capasse, now a principal at Waterfall Asset Management LLC, a New York-based firm that invests in high-yield structured debt.
“The securitization that failed,” said Capasse, was intended to get risk off of bank balance sheets and “create access to higher-risk loans with more leverage.” In contrast, re-remics are designed to restructure distressed mortgage bonds so they qualify for investment-grade ratings under the tougher criteria, Capasse said.
In addition to the $13 billion of its own securities, Bank of America has been carrying out “customer-driven” re- securitizations and re-remics of mortgage bonds backed by the government, according to Dubrowski, the bank spokesman. The company’s overall repackaging, reflecting all three categories, increased to almost $69 billion during the first half of 2010 from $16 billion for the same period last year.
JPMorgan Re-Remics
JPMorgan transferred about $14.3 billion of government- backed mortgage bonds, along with $1 billion of private-label debt, to re-securitization trusts during the first half of this year, according to its quarterly report for the three months ended June 30. The New York-based bank said in the filing that its re-securitizations involve both residential and commercial mortgages and are often structured on behalf of clients.
Bank re-remics of agency mortgage bonds aren’t tied to regulatory relief because the underlying debt carries AAA ratings, thanks to their government backing, reducing the amount of capital firms need to set aside for these assets. Rather, these re-remics are designed to redistribute cash flows on the agency debt to provide investors with securities that have varying sensitivities to interest rate changes, said Scott Buchta, head of investment strategy at New York-based Braver Stern Securities LLC.
Beaten-Down Bonds
With the yield on 10-year Treasuries diving below 2.4 percent, and the Federal Reserve buying $1.25 trillion of agency bonds to support housing and mortgage markets, the supply of higher-yielding AAA securities began to shrink, said Lambiase at Annaly Capital. That provided an opportunity for banks and brokerages to repackage beaten-down private-label mortgage bonds into AAA debt through re-remics.
“There are not a lot of high-yielding AAA assets in the marketplace,” Lambiase said. “People are using re-remic technology to create AAA bonds” that are relatively high yielding, he added.
About $36.2 billion of re-remics for private-label RMBS was issued in the U.S. during the first eight months of the year compared with $45.5 billion for all of 2009, according to data from Austin, Texas-based Amherst Securities Group LP, a dealer in mortgage-backed securities.
Average Life
The re-remics had an average life of 3.2 years and yielded about 4.5 percent, according to Amherst, compared with a 3.55 percent yield on corporate bonds rated BBB, the second-lowest investment-grade rating from S&P, with a life of 5.7 years.
The assets of Bank of America’s re-securitization trusts grew to $32.6 billion as of June 30 from $7.4 billion at the end of last year, according to the Aug. 6 SEC report. Holdings in the senior class of securities issued by these trusts rose to about $17.9 billion from $543 million, the filing said. The bank had about $1.7 billion of the subordinated securities as of June 30 compared with none at the start of the year.
By carving up cash flows from the mortgages that back the bonds in the re-securitization trust, Bank of America was able to cut its junk-rated holdings in the first half, according to Dubrowski. The bank hasn’t disclosed the dollar value of RMBS converted from junk to investment-grade levels.
The cut reflects the sale of newly created subordinated securities as well as upgrades on senior bonds formed through the re-securitizations.
$711 Million Loss
The re-remics resulted in a loss of $711 million in the second quarter that was offset by other trading gains, according to the Aug. 6 filing. Simply selling the junk-rated debt could have triggered even larger losses that would have depleted the bank’s capital, according to Allen Greer, a former Bank of America commercial real estate analyst who now runs Greer Advisors LLC, a market-research company in Los Angeles.
“Bank of America is structuring this re-remic to take the lowest upfront hit possible,” Greer said. “The $711 million they reported is probably a fraction of what the loss should have been, based on what distressed-debt websites are showing.”
Bank of America declined 4.9 percent to $12.64 at 11:32 a.m. today in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have declined 16 percent this year.
Kevin Bailey, the deputy comptroller for capital and regulatory policy in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, declined to comment on bank use of re-remics. Andrew Gray, a spokesman for the FDIC, and Barbara Hagenbaugh, a Fed spokeswoman, also declined to comment.
‘Streamlining’
Bank of America entered into the second-quarter re-remics in late May “following a review of corporate risk objectives in light of proposed Basel regulatory capital changes and liquidity targets,” according to the August SEC filing.
“What we decided to do was reduce non-investment grade RMBS,” Dubrowski said, adding that the bank inherited some securities by its acquisitions of Merrill Lynch & Co. in 2009 and Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2008. “It was part of an overall strategy of streamlining the balance sheet ahead of the Basel standards and meeting certain liquidity targets we had.”
The standards, approved by the Basel committee last month, will more than double the ratio of capital banks must hold in relation to the amount of risk on their balance sheets. In separate reports last month, KBW Inc. and Morgan Stanley said Bank of America was likely to have the weakest Tier 1 common equity capital ratio among four major banks under the new rules.
While banks have as long as eight years to comply, they must “maintain prudent earnings retention policies” until they reach a 7 percent Tier 1 common equity ratio, according to Frederick Cannon, an equity strategist at New York-based KBW. In practice, that means they can’t buy back stock or pay dividends until they reach the threshold, he said.
Capital Ratios And New Basel Rules
“The banks are going to want to get to those levels as soon as possible,” Cannon said. Lenders “will continue to be active in trying to manage down their risk-weighted assets.”
Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan, the second-largest U.S. lender by assets, said in an investor presentation last month that the Basel rules would reduce the bank’s capital ratio by about three percentage points. The company also said that the standards would require it to hold a greater proportion of assets in financial instruments that could be sold easily.
The committee, which includes central bank governors and regulators from 27 nations, also adopted a market-risk regulation in July 2009. That rule, scheduled to go into effect by the end of next year, raises the capital requirement for securitized and re-securitized debt.
Cut to Junk Performance Status
Under the market-risk rule, banks would have to hold as much as $100 of capital for a $100 junk-rated mortgage bond. By re-securitizing those bonds, banks can turn a portion of them into AAA rated securities that would lower the capital charge to as little as $1.60 for those bonds.
In pursuing its re-remic strategy, the primary risk for Bank of America is that mortgage delinquencies will increase, causing losses to seep into the AAA re-remics that the company continues to hold, said Pieniazek at Darling Consulting. That’s what happened during the credit crisis, when defaults burned through layer after layer of protection and made some AAA rated securities almost worthless.
“We look at the re-remic trade as being more of a restacking of the credit deck,” said Donald Ramon, chief financial officer of Atlanta-based Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc., a real estate investment trust that trades mortgage-backed securities. “You end up with a security at the bottom that has all of the risk, and there’s not much liquidity.”
LikeLike
Ambrose, thanks for you contributions, however, could you please post few sentences of the article and then post a link to the article. That way people can see if they are interested in the article and don’t have to scroll pages after pages when looking for an older post.
Thanks,
LikeLike
No problem. I won’t bother your blog again.
LikeLike
Ouch
LikeLike
Why so touchy? Andy politely asked you to post a few sentences followed by a link to the ‘whole story’.
It’s proper blog etiquette. It’s very aggravating when people post a 600 line story and everyone has to spend 18 minutes scrolling all the way to the bottom of it to get to the next post.
Don’t be so quick to jump ship; and don’t be so touchy, it’s just a lot nicer when people post a few sentences followed by a link to the rest.
Good Day 🙂
LikeLike
It is my experience most articles do not stay up very long. They are always being bumped off as a hook to sell subscriptions to a seeker pay to view archives. I have no control over that.
Who decides what proper blog etiquette is? You, South?
I didn’t see any FAQs in Andy’s opening Welcome. Etiquette appears to be a fluid idiosyncratic whim based upon self important gripers like South?
My mistake.
LikeLike
Andy- great idea- think I would like to do that too- please forward me the offer when you have a chance. I thought about the same idea a while back but now that there is info with more substance and meat on its bones your idea makes a lot of sense-and there are so many great places to put up flyers, brochures and cards like- college kiosks, coffee shop billboards, craigslist rant & raves, maybe even personal ad’s in local papers like LA Weekly, Daily Planet, Creative Loafing, Village Voice, Penny Savers, etc. and any place you may see other announcements or biz cards.
KS had some great stuff to say on RJ’s show.
God is making it all happen and with Him on our side- WOW- watch out!!’
God Bless everyone.
LikeLike
I just forwarded their ad to you, let me know if the links work.
I just made business cards for now but they make all kinds of other stuff that we can use.
LikeLike
Doesn’t look like The South gripes to me before Any asked you to post differently. FWIW, its a pretty common “unwritten rule” of blogging. Similar to not posting all in caps, or breaking up your writing with the spacebar once in a while making it easier to read.
No need to get snippy with anyone.
LikeLike
OK Julie, you can teach me again, what is “FWIW”?
LikeLike
For what it’s worth
LikeLike
Thanks Miss G.
LikeLike
very welcome Andy
LikeLike
Barry, have you used that link to check out your mortgage?
What exactly would happen if they can’t produce a wet ink signature? Aren’t court hearings necessary?
LikeLike
They would have no standing in trying to collect on either a mortgage or foreclosure.
LikeLike
Well ambrose, I’m sure Andy will soon accommodate your wishes of including proper blog etiquette on his homepage, and here’s why:
1 … No one wants to read through or scroll down 9,000 pixels of print to get to the next post.
2 … Andy can be held liable and sued for allowing you to post entire articles, as well as not providing a link to the original; it’s like claiming it as your own writing.
3 … Micheal Nystom at the Daily Paul is in the middle of a lawsuit for allowing that to happen right now.
4 … Stop being an ass, the man asked you politely.
5 … If you can’t take constructive criticism, maybe you should go play with the 4 yr. olds in the sand box.
LikeLike
JS has stopped posting on Greg’s blog. hmmm… where could she have gone???
LikeLike
SSSHHHH…………… don’t say it so loud.
LikeLike