ignorance

Hank Paulson Admits He Never Really Understood How Mortgage-Backed Securities Worked

Hank Paulson Admits He Never Really Understood How Mortgage-Backed Securities Worked

Here’s more proof that the people who probably should have known how they were making all that housing bubble money never did—even those who personally made tens of millions off of it. The Business blog at The Atlantic notes a quote Hank Paulson, former Goldman Sachs CEO and Treasury Secretary, gave Newsweek: “I didn’t understand the retail market; I just wasn’t close to it.”

REI Says ATM Photographer Is Welcome In Their Store Any Time

REI Says ATM Photographer Is Welcome In Their Store Any Time

REI’s Director of Corporate Communications contacted us with an official statement about the recent showdown between two Loomis security guards and a customer with an iPhone at one of their Seattle stores. She says despite the document Shane says he was forced to sign at the police station, he is not banned from their stores. Below is REI’s official statement.

Loomis Rent-A-Cops Have Shopper Cuffed, Hauled Away Over ATM Photo

Loomis Rent-A-Cops Have Shopper Cuffed, Hauled Away Over ATM Photo

While Shane was standing in the customer service line at a Seattle REI, he watched two Loomis employees open and change out the cash in an ATM machine. Shane took a photo of them with his iPhone. This apparently freaked out the Loomis guards, the REI security staff, and then the Seattle police, who put handcuffs on Shane, drove him to the police station, and then made him sign a statement that he wouldn’t return to a REI store for a year. You might have noticed in that summary that they didn’t actually bring any charges against him, which should make it clear to anyone who wants to side with the faux Po-Po that what Shane did wasn’t illegal, that the rent-a-cops should be fired, and that REI and Loomis owe Shane a big apology.

Mortgage Fraud Festered Under Housing Bubble, Feds Investigate

Mortgage Fraud Festered Under Housing Bubble, Feds Investigate

In ’05, a small company bought up run-down duplexes in northeast Indiana at $50,000 a pop. Less than a month later, they were selling them for $120,000 to church secretaries, truckers, retirees and factory workers.