prospects in British Columbia. I hope some of these prospective mines come into production. Equiz.

tinyurl.com/yfna8ef

Brian Burke on Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson:

During a press conference today, Toronto Maple Leafs GM, Brian Burke, gave what appeared to be a strong vote of confidence to Maple Leafs’ coach, Ron Wilson: “I don’t fault the coaches at all for where we are,” Burke said. “I can tell you right now, there’s not going to be a coaching change here. That’s not been considered, discussed, whatever - he is as safe as you can be. As safe as the gold in the treasury of Fort Knox.”

If the Leafs’ coach was a regular reader of GATA’s analyses of the gold market or Mr Turk’s GoldMoney.com, then he would have serious cause to worry about his employment prospects, given that Fort Knox simile!

i’m going to be involved with a medical research project on jan 28th. after that, i’m off to visit irish for a week or so.

rno

January 15, 2010
Golden Lily

www.rutilusallec.com/?p=5307” title=”http://www.rutilusallec.com/?p=5307\”>www.rutilusallec.com/?p=5307” target=”_blank”>www.rutilusallec.com/?p=5307″>www.rutilusallec.com/?p=5307

I Purchased the Seagraves Book years ago along with 2 CD via a friend in England. Their websites Sold the whole enchelada.
USA Booksellers were forbidden to include the 2 CD’s.

Don’t ask…….so I didn’t, and also couldn’t buy directly from the UK site.
Thus, the 3rd party purchase and shipment.

Anybody interested in where in hell the Black Bloody Gold which was used extensively by various CIA and other enterprises?

Think I know where it came from. If not read, at least look @ Prezone’s 2 videos.
May answer a few questions.

Merci Prezone for bringing that forth.

Ike

Ya’ll been having quite the varity in Oklahoma in the last year or so!  I like the no burning permit with a foot of snow on the ground best! 

www.rutilusallec.com/?p=5307

central oklahoma had two earthquakes yesterday. not much on the richter scale but created enought to generate lots of phone calls. mother nature must be a little miffed at the “redneck riviera”.

rno

Interesting story in which Citi and J.P. Morgan among second lien holders are demanding cash payments “off the books” from homeowners in order to allow a short sale to proceed in lieu of a foreclosure and a total loss.

Was my characterization of the big banks as ’sociopathic’ harsh? More likely understated.

Change you can believe in.

CNBC
Big Banks Accused of Short Sales Fraud
January 15, 2010, 12:55 pm EST

Just as regulators, lawmakers and all forms of financial oversight boards are talking about new regulations to guard against mortgage fraud and another mortgage meltdown, there appears to be yet a new mortgage fraud out there today, allegedly perpetuated by agents of, yes, the big banks.

I was first alerted to this by Jeremy Brandt, the CEO of several companies that bring short sale agents, investors and sellers together.

His companies include 1800CashOffer, HomeFlux.com and FastHomeOffer.com. Brandt has a huge network of short sale real estate agents, and over the past several months he’s been receiving all kinds of questions and complaints about trouble with second lien holders.

As we all know, during the housing boom, millions of Americans pulled cash out of their homes in the form of home equity loans and lines of credit. They also used “piggy back” loans in order to get even lower interest rates on their primary mortgages. Now, many of the borrowers in trouble, and many who are so far underwater on their loans that they don’t qualify for any refi or modification, are choosing short sales as a way out. (Short sales are when the lender allows the home to be sold for less than the value of the loan). About 12 percent of all home sales by the end of 2009 were short sales, according to the National Association of Realtors.

In order for a short sale with two loans to happen, the second lien holder has to drop the lien.

If they don’t, and there’s no short sale, the home goes to foreclosure and the first lien holder gets the house because second liens are subordinated debt to the primary loan.

In short, the second lien holder gets nothing. In order to get the second lien holder to drop the lien, the first lien holder generally negotiates some partial payment to the second lien holder. The second lien holder doesn’t have to agree, but more and more are doing so.

That’s all legal.

But here’s what’s not legal and what’s apparently happening quite often recently. Since many second lien holders are getting very little, they are now allegedly requesting money on the side from either real estate agents or the buyers in the short sale. When I say “on the side,” I mean in cash, off the HUD settlement statements, so the first lien holder doesn’t see it.

“They are pretty clear and pretty upfront about the fact that if the first lender knows they are getting paid, the first lender will kill the short sale,” says Brandt. “So these second lenders are asking for the payments off the closing documents, off the HUD statement, usually in a cashiers check prior to closing. Once they receive that payment, they will allow the short sale to go through, which according to RESPA laws and the lawyers that we have spoken to on the topic is not legal.”

(RESPA is the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the 2008 law requiring that consumers receive disclosures at various times in the transaction. It outlaws kickbacks that increase the cost of settlement services. RESPA is a HUD consumer protection statute designed to help homebuyers be better shoppers in the home buying process, and is enforced by HUD. Read more about it here.).

I told RESPA specialist Brian Sullivan over at HUD about all this and he replied, “That’s a red flag!”

Clearly illegal.

Brandt told me he’s heard from at least 200 agents that they’ve had these requests made by representatives of Citi Mortgage, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and other large banks.

Most agents wouldn’t go on the record with me, for fear of retribution by the banks with whom they have to work every day. But one agent, Kayte Gentry, of Keller Williams Integrity First Realty, was brave enough to blow the whistle.

“I think it’s wrong, and I think somebody needs to hold them accountable, and every time I lose a house in foreclosure because of this, it hurts my client,” says Gentry matter-of-factly. “Aside from being illegal and a violation of RESPA, it’s immoral and truly it’s just sad for the client that it’s hurting.”

Gentry says she has had the requests made three times and claims she lost one sale because of it.

“The big banks that have recently made this request, specifically payments outside of the closing statement have been Citi Mortgage and JP Morgan Chase.”

JP Morgan Chase simply answered, “No Comment,” when I relayed the charge to their media representative.

Bank of America denied the practice to CNBC in a written statement:

“Bank of America enforces a policy that all disbursements are documented on the settlement statement for short sales. When we are servicing a first mortgage with a second lien held by another investor, if the second lien holder asks for off-HUD payments, we will not approve the transaction (if we have knowledge of it). It is also against Bank of America’s policy to accept off-HUD payments on its second liens.”

Citi ’s reply was a bit more complicated:

“We work very hard to help distressed homeowners find solutions for their financial challenges. In our attempt to amicably resolve the debt, we will generally negotiate a reduced settlement with the homeowner in order to release a second lien. Unlike some lenders who refuse to reduce the payoffs on second liens, we choose to reduce the payoff amounts in some situations to assist the borrower. We do not provide instructions to settlement agents on how to fill out the settlement statement or any other closing documents, and we certainly do not require settlement agents or any other parties to violate applicable laws.”

“When we confront the lenders and tell them that this request is illegal and a violation of RESPA, they tell us it’s been cleared through legal and they don’t care. Do it anyway,” charges Gentry…

Posted by Jesse at 8:23 PM     http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

by CalculatedRisk on 1/15/2010 07:11:00 PM

From the FDIC: First American Bank, Elk Grove Village, Illinois Assumes All of the Deposits of Town Community Bank and Trust, Antioch, Illinois

Town Community Bank and Trust, Antioch, Illinois, was closed today by the Illinois Department of Financial Professional Regulation, Division of Banking, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. …

As of September 30, 2009, Town Community Bank and Trust had approximately $69.6 million in total assets and $67.4 million in total deposits….

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $17.8 million. … Town Community Bank and Trust is the second FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Illinois. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Independent Bankers’ Bank, Springfield, on December 18, 2009.

From the FDIC: First State Bank of St. Joseph, St. Joseph, Minnesota, Assumes All of the Deposits of St. Stephen State Bank, St. Stephen, Minnesota

St. Stephen State Bank, St. Stephen, Minnesota, was closed today by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. …

As of September 30, 2009, St. Stephen State Bank had approximately $24.7 million in total assets and $23.4 million in total deposits. First State Bank of St. …

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $7.2 million…. St. Stephen State Bank is the third FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Minnesota. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Prosperan Bank, Oakdale, on November 6, 2009.

They may be small, but they count!

http://www.nyse.com/about/newsevents/1176373643795.html

heading up to Lake Havasu to connect with a friend from Denver.

And here is the newest, greatest, bestest remedy for our ills on the market:

A bit of a build in volume this week, not enough to keep bulls too excited. The news of late as far as I understand it has been supportive of a big move, but still a total speculation as it stands.

So too has 250 to 1130 been supportive of a movement,

maybe bowel….

ah shite!

wj

For many, it will only be when they see these in the streets and countryside - unfortunately

if gold went up a 100 bucks today and your pm stock pf went up .15

you should be happy….

…and you might be a goldbug if…..

With all things considered I guess I should be petty happy with a $701.15 gain for today.

I wonder at what point the “nanny state” will be realized to be a “police state.”

Having a Bon Voyage dinner for my parents tonight who are off to Hawaii for 10 weeks.

Steaks on the grill and opening something special

“Rufus Stone” McLaren Vale South Australia Shiraz 1998……ya…… that ones a bit dusty.

“A House with a great wine stored below lives in our imagination as a joyful house, fast and splendidly rooted in the soil”

George Meridith

‘Evening Friends

Winedoc

re bucko, the uup is looking like an ihs while usd a upsloping ihs or flag. The markets are not liking that imo.

For those hoping that gold goes up even though usd is rallying

well it already has.

Lets hope it stays that way.

I had 4 winners today lead by SilverMex Resource  up 12.3%

Biggest looser was SSRI down 2.7%

Me thinks the cabal won this week.

By Charles Feldman

Jan 5th 2010 @ 2:38PM

From the kind folks who brought you the Katrina debacle (OK, OK, I know! Mother Nature gave us the hurricane that wiped out New Orleans. But it was the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, that largely gave us the debacle part!) now comes a new act that has millions of home owners up in arms — if not yet water.

Many homeowners are getting notices they must purchase flood insurance for the first time, even though they may live in areas never known to flood….as in, never!

These premiums can cost anywhere from $500 to a few thousand dollars a year. And, in a sweet-heart deal if ever there was one for insurance companies, flood insurance is a requirement for anyone whose mortgage is backed by the federal government. And, yes, more than 50 percent of all mortgages in this country are now guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (who, by the way, ought to be married by now, don’t you think?)

FEMA is relying on new maps drawn up to highlight areas that could — let me repeat that word again, COULD — get flooded in what is called a once-in-a-100-year storm! (”Just because you haven’t experienced a flood in the past, doesn’t mean you won’t in the future” FEMA helpfuly explains on its floodsmart.gov website.)

According to FEMA, a high-risk area has at least a 1 percent annual chance of flooding, which equates to a 26 percent chance of flooding over the life of a 30-year mortgage. Because “changing weather patterns, erosion, and development” can affect floodplain boundaries, the agency explains, it has spent the past several years updating its county-by-county flood risk maps.

Still, that’s hard for many homeowners to swallow, especially if your typical weather concern is drought, not deluge. Here in mostly dry Southern California, one irate local politico told the Los Angeles Times, “I’m a little bit suspect of FEMA in light of their track record.”

Some cities and municipalities across the country are fighting back and, in some cases, FEMA is backing down and delaying or redrawing its maps.

Famous last words on this go to Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks, once chief of the LAPD: “We don’t understand how all of this area becomes a flood zone,” says he. Yeah, good question, Bernie!

To see if your area is deemed a flood risk, consult FEMA’s maps. That is, if you can make heads or tails of them.

Charles Feldman is a journalist, media consultant and co-author of the book, “No Time To Think-The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-hour News Cycle.” Oh, and he doesn’t have flood insurance!

Sometime this year, we taxpayers may receive another Economic Stimulus payment.  This is a very exciting program.  I will explain it using the Q and A format:
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?.
A. From taxpayers.
Q… So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen.
Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.
Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.
Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:
* If you spend the stimulus money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China .
* If you spend it on gasoline, your money will go to the Arabs.
* If you purchase a computer, it will go to India .
* If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to Mexico , Honduras and Guatemala .
* If you buy a car, it will go to Japan .
* If you purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan .
 
* If you pay your credit cards off, or buy stock, it will go to management bonuses and they will hide it offshore.
Instead, keep the money in America by:
1. spending it at yard sales, or
2. going to ball games, or
3. spending it on prostitutes, or
4. beer or

5. tattoos.

These are the only American businesses still operating in the US.
***
I’m going to go to a ball game with a tattooed prostitute that I met at a yard sale, 
and drink beer!  Yay! Woo Hoo!!  Just call me a patriot!!