"Over 300K home owner suicides attributed to foreclosures." 25APR14

 
WHILE it seems this chain e mail is targeting wall street and the bank-financial cabal, spreading false information doesn't do the cause any good at all. The American people are right to be angry about the bailout of the "too big to fail, too big to jail" banks and their executive boards, but to spread falsehoods like this only make the movement look stupid, dishonest and extreme. From PolitiFact.....

The Truth-O-Meter Says:

"Over 300K home owner suicides attributed to foreclosures."

Facebook posts on Friday, April 25th, 2014 in a meme shared on social media

Social media meme says 300,000 suicides are attributable to foreclosures

A reader sent us this meme; we looked at whether its claim is correct.

A reader recently asked us to check a social media meme with a striking statistic about foreclosures and suicides.
It said, "1.4 million homes stolen by banks since 2008. Over 300K home owner suicides attributed to foreclosures. Why won't anyone defend these American property owners' rights?"
Have there really been 300,000 suicides linked to foreclosures? We decided to take a look.
We first checked with the group credited with creating the meme -- a news and opinion site called occupycorporatism.com -- but an email to the site’s general inbox was not returned.
So we next checked annual death statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most recent report came out in December 2013, covering statistics for 2010.
For 2010, CDC found that suicide was the 10th most common cause of death, with 38,364 cases. Here’s the number for the past nine years:

Year	Suicides
2010	38,364
2009	36,909
2008	36,035
2007	34,598
2006	33,300
2005	32,637
2004	32,439
2003	31,484
2002	31,655
Total, 2002-10	307,151

So the total number of suicides from 2002-10 is around 300,000. But for the meme to be correct, you’d have to believe that every single American suicide between 2002 and 2010 was caused by a foreclosure.
Of course, that assumes there was a reliable way to measure this kind of causal effect. (The CDC reports don't address what caused a person to commit suicide.) And the meme is even further off-base it it intends to be referring only to suicides since 2008.
We asked several experts whether the meme's claim was even remotely possible.
"There is no basis for this claim," said Douglas Massey, a population-research professor at Princeton University.
"It isn't plausible that every suicide over a nine-year period could be attributed to foreclosure," agreed Janet M. Currie, a Princeton University economist who, along with Erdal Tekin of Georgia State University, has studied the health impacts of the rising tide of foreclosures in the United States. Tekin expressed similar skepticism when contacted by PolitiFact.
In their own research, Currie and Tekin found that a location with about 400 foreclosures in a year might see 24 more medical visits for mental health conditions, including suicide attempts. But that wouldn’t be enough to support the meme’s claim, Currie said.
Our ruling
The meme said that over 300,000 homeowner suicides are attributable to foreclosures. But that would mean every suicide over a nine-year period would have been caused by a foreclosure, and experts say that’s not credible. We rate the claim Pants on Fire.

About this statement:

Published: Friday, April 25th, 2014 at 4:52 p.m.
Subjects: Economy, Health Care, Housing, Public Health
Sources:
Social media meme submitted to PolitiFact
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, annual reports on deaths, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, "Facts and Figures," accessed April 25, 2014
Wall Street Journal, "Tying Health Problems to Rise in Home Foreclosures," Aug. 31, 2011
Huffington Post, "Foreclosure Related Suicide on the Rise," July 17, 2012
Email interview with Douglas Massey, Princeton University professor of population research, April 25, 2014
Email interview with Janet M. Currie, Princeton University economist, April 25, 2014
Email interview with Erdal Tekin, economist at Georgia State University, April 25, 2014
Written by: Louis Jacobson
Researched by: Louis Jacobson
Edited by: Aaron Sharockmanhttp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/apr/25/facebook-posts/social-media-meme-says-300000-suicides-are-attribu/

Three Democrats seek audience with Eric Holder over FBI's making mortgage fraud a low priority 17MAR14

AGAIN it is Sen Elizabeth Warren D MA, joined by Rep Elijah Cummings D MD and Rep Maxine D Waters, challenging the Obama administration and AG Eric Holder on the FBI deliberately NOT prosecuting the bank-financial cabal for the mortgage fraud that brought us the great recession we are still in. One of my senators, Tim Kaine D VA, serves on the Senate Banking Committee, but again, he is silent on this travesty of justice. My other senator, Mark Warner D VA is up for reelection this year. One has to wonder how much he is receiving from the bank-financial cabal in campaign contributions to remain silent on this issue. Democrats are concerned about loosing control of the US Senate and have given up plans for taking back the House this year. They should be supporting prosecution of mortgage fraud to achieve justice for the American people, but if they are able to bring the banks and their executives involved with mortgage fraud up on charges and vigorously prosecuted it may help with the 2014 congressional elections. From Daily Kos......

We have long suspected this, but now we have proof: according to the Justice Department’s own audit, the FBI has placed mortgage fraud as its LOWEST priority in criminal investigations.

The report also found that much of the data collected on mortgage fraud prosecutions was not accurate.

More than five years after Wall Street crashed our economy, the banksters continue to get a slap on the wrist—while families lose their homes.


Meteor Blades

Working for us. Again

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Rep. Maxine Waters of California, all Democrats, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Monday expressing their "deep concern" about an investigative report released last week that concluded the FBI placed mortgage fraud as its lowest priority for criminal investigations. The report by Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice also found that much of the data collected regarding mortgage fraud prosecutions was not accurate. Diane Olick reported Thursday:

One glaring example of inaccurate reporting was cited by the OIG. Specifically, it says, the Justice Department inflated the number of criminal defendants by five-fold during an October 2012 highly publicized press conference. The event was held to tout the success of the Distressed Homeowners Initiative, a mortgage fraud program involving the Justice Department and the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. It took a year for the Justice Department to correct the mistake.

It's not exactly the first time anyone has called into question the lack of criminal prosecutions of mortgage fraud, but this is the highest-placed source of such an accusation so far. A DOJ spokeswoman implied the OIG report was misleading and said prosecutions for mortgage fraud had doubled under the Obama administration and convictions had risen by 100 percent. The DOJ itself has called mortgage fraud investigations a high priority, and the FBI was allocated $196 million to investigate such activities from 2009 through 2011. But the OIG report found that in the FBI offices it checked in the giant real estate markets of Los Angeles, Miami and New York City, mortgage fraud was a low priority or none at all. Read more about the OIG report below the fold.

The OIG report stated:

DOJ and its components have repeatedly stated publicly that mortgage fraud
is a high priority and during this audit we found some examples of DOJ-led efforts
that supported those claims. Two such examples are the Criminal Division’s
leadership of its mortgage fraud working group and the FBI and USAOs’
participation on more than 90 local task forces and working groups. However, we
also determined during this audit that DOJ did not uniformly ensure that mortgage
fraud was prioritized at a level commensurate with its public statements.

Warren is a member of the Senate Banking Committee, Cummings is the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight panel, and Waters is the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee. This isn't the first time they have collaborated in such matters. In their letter to Holder, the three concluded:

For most Americans, a home purchase is the single largest investment they will ever make and the single largest source of intergenerational wealth transfer. According to CoreLogic, 4.9 million Americans have now lost their homes to foreclosure since the beginning of the financial crisis. The number of Americans who have been the victims of mortgage fraud is unknown and the Inspector General's report indicates that the Department's own data are unreliable indicators of the extent of the Department's efforts to identify and prosecute those responsible for illegal lending schemes. The report calls into question the Department's commitment to investigate and prosecute crimes such as predatory lending, loan modification scams, and abusive mortgage servicing practices. For that reason, we would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to review the Inspector General's findings and discuss the steps the Department is taking to protect consumers from fraudulent mortgage lending practices.

Even a lowball calculation of mortgage fraud among those 4.9 million foreclosures, not to mention fraud that didn't result in foreclosure, has to put the number of illegal doings around mortgages in the tens of thousands. Good to see Warren and her two partners in the matter trying to get to the bottom of this. If only we had a couple of hundred making the same push.

Originally posted to Meteor Blades on Mon Mar 17, 2014 at 04:18 PM EDT.

Also republished by Maryland Kos, Massachusetts Kosmopolitans, and Daily Kos. 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/17/1285493/-Three-Democrats-seek-audience-with-Eric-Holder-over-FBI-s-making-mortgage-fraud-a-low-priority?detail=action 

WHAT WOULD YOU TWEET TO JP MORGAN? HERE'S A FEW......

bank

The White House And Mortgage Fraud: So Far It's All Talk, No Action 19APR12

PUNDITS like to point out how the gop / tea-baggers keep shooting themselves in the foot with the war on women and attacks on immigrants and minorities this election year but the Obama campaign is doing the same with issues like this. The Pres has the authority to force the A.G. to bring charges against the bankers who have destroyed our economy and caused so many to loose their homes. Talking the talk while not walking the walk is not the way to get re-elected. If the plan is to let these criminals avoid prosecution (just like the gop / tea-baggers position) what is the difference between a repiglican and Democratic administration? Call the White House or e mail the President at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
and demand the President follow through on his promise of justice for victims of illegal foreclosure. This from HuffPost.....
The Obama Administration worked for months on a deal that would have let America's biggest banks off the hook for a crime wave of runaway mortgage fraud. All they had to do in return was pledge a negligible sum of money, to be paid by their shareholders and not themselves, and which they would dispense themselves. In return, crooked bankers received immunity from prosecution - and even from investigation.
After the deal came under attack from a number of its allies, the Administration settled with the banks anyway. But it promised millions of wronged homeowners - and the nation as a whole - that it would move "aggressively" to investigate criminal misdeeds and prosecute bankers and anyone else who broke the law.
That was then, this is now. Two and half months later the Administration hasn't even started to take the inadequate steps it promised it would take. The clock is running out on the statute of limitations and there's no sign that the Administration has lifted a finger to investigate criminal bankers.
Talk vs. Action
hThe New York Daily News did something simple and smart today - so simple and smart, in fact, that some of us wish we'd thought of it first. It called the Justice Department switchboard and asked for the "Mortgage Fraud Task Force." The operators didn't know what they were talking about. As of a couple weeks ago Eric Schneiderman, the New York State Attorney General who was appointed to the Task Force as the homeowner's champion, didn't even have a phone yet.
The contrast between the talk and the action - or lack thereof - couldn't be clearer. Look at some of the statements made by the President and members of his team when this deal was signed, and compare them to this week's Daily News report:
"The mortgage fraud task force I announced in my State of the Union address retains its full authority to aggressively investigate the packaging and selling of risky mortgages that led to this crisis."
- President Obama, February 9
"On March 9 -- 45 days after the speech and 30 days after the announcement -- we met with Schneiderman in New York City and asked him for an update. He had just returned from Washington, where he had been personally looking for office space. As of that date, he had no office, no phones, no staff and no executive director."
- Daily News
"This investigation is already well underway."
- President Obama, February 9
"None of the 55 staff members promised by Holder had materialized."
- Daily News
"And working closely with state attorneys general, we're going to keep at it until we hold those who broke the law fully accountable."
- President Obama, February 9
"On April 2, we bumped into Schneiderman on a train leaving Washington for New York and learned that the situation was the same."
- Daily News
"[The deal] benefits struggling homeowners now, not some time in the future when the help they need may be too late."
- Senior Justice Department official Bob Ryan, February 9
"Tuesday (April 17), calls to the Justice Department's switchboard requesting to be connected with the working group produced the answer, 'I really don't know where to send you.'"
- Daily News
"This action, while significant, is only one step of many. But this action is momentous."
- Spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, February 9
"After being transferred to the attorney general's office and asking for a phone number for the working group, the answer was, "'I'm not aware of one.'"
- Daily News
Small Talk
The Administration only promised 55 staffers for the Task Force, despite the fact that the much smaller Savings and Loan scandal was investigated by roughly 1,000 staffers. But they haven't even met that meager goal. An anonymous Justice Department official told David Dayen, for example, that "at least 50" people were working on mortgage fraud.
Yet when I spoke with David at length on The Breakdown (a great conversation - check out the whole hour) it seemed that a clarification was needed: Did the official say specifically that these 50 people were working full-time on the investigation? No, said Dayen. Did he say whether they were professional staff, support people, or another type of employee? No. (They clearly weren't telephone operators.)
And let's not mince words: There's a reason why a judge in Louisiana recently called Wells Fargo "highly reprehensible" as she slapped it with a $3.1 million judgement. As her ruling makes perfectly clear, the bank cheated its customers, broke its contracts, and then spent a fortune in court trying to wear the plaintiff down.
That's how they all operate. An audit in San Francisco found that 84 percent of foreclosures were performed illegally,reports Reuters, while 4500 out of 6100 mortgage documents studied in North Carolina showed "signature irregularities" (a clear warning sign for fraud).
As we were saying, there's a reason for the judge's outrage: These guys are slime balls.
In the face of such wanton crookedness and downright evil, the Administration's overall handling on bank fraud is quickly moving from disappointing to disillusioning even for some of its most diehard supporters. After all, it's been three years since the banks' crimes have come to light. Where are the prosecutions?
Watchdogs
And fraud isn't the only area where the White House is failing. Here's what President Obama said on February 9:

"We're going to make sure that the banks live up to their end of the bargain.  If they don't, we've set up an independent inspector, a monitor, that has the power to make sure they pay exactly what they agreed to pay, plus a penalty if they fail to act in accordance with this agreement."

Unfortunately it looks like monitor Joseph Smith isn't being given much of a staff, either, although he tried to put a positive spin on it. American Banker interviewed Smith and reported that "Smith said he wants to keep his own staff small and rely heavily on contractors to help him review the self-monitoring work that must be done."
But the pool of contractors is small. Although Smith says he wants to avoid hiring the "usual suspects," most of the candidate firms will have a built-in conflict of interest. They all depend on the big banks themselves for a large chunk of their revenue. Smith's role is temporary but Wall Street's is permanent - and they all know it.
What's more, all of the large accounting firms have signed off on inaccurate (if not downright fraudulent) financials for the big banks in the past. (See some reflections on bad accounting firms and our own work experience in "Law and Order: AIG.") Are these firms really expected to police dishonest bankers?
Pyramid of Failure
The Administration has already retreated on key elements of Dodd/Frank, the financial reform bill which was already too weak to protect the world's economy from crooked behavior and too-big-to-fail banks. (Here's one recent example; Here's another. ) Its HAMP program was a cruel disappointment, and now we've learned that its "Hardest Hit Fund" has only paid out 2 percent of the money that was allocated to help unemployed homeowners. The only real action seems to be taking place on the state level, but most local officials and state Attorneys General have also been asleep at the switch.
The enforcement failure is dramatic, it is systemic, and it is taking place at every level of government. The chain of failure leads straight to the top. We heard a lot of talk in February but there's been no perceptible action since then. The only concrete thing to come out of this settlement so far is that the banks got a cheap ticket out of the litigation death trap brought on by their own criminality.
This settlement was always profoundly flawed, but it provided some opportunities for further action - or we were told it did. But there's very little evidence anybody's acting on these opportunities - and time is running out.
________
The coalition of progressive groups that worked to improve the original settlement (disclosure: I work for one of them) is now urging people to contact the White House to let them know what they think about the Administration's lack of action.(The White House comment line is  202-456-1111, by the way.) Attorneys General in each state should also get a call, too, and a question: What are you doing to investigate crooked bankers?
Richard (RJ) Eskow, a consultant and writer (and former insurance/finance executive), is a Senior Fellow with the Campaign for America's Future and the host of The Breakdown, broadcast Saturdays nights from 7-9 pm on WeAct Radio, AM 1480 in Washington DC.
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