Making Money Online Scams

An online marketer who lured consumers into a bogus work-at-home scheme that charged them hidden fees by masquerading as a Google company has been shut down by the Federal Trade Commission.



Under a settlement agreement with the FTC, the defendants, which did business under names such as "Google Money Tree," "Google Pro," and "Google Treasure Chest," are barred from making misleading or unsupported claims while marketing or selling any product or service, and have been forced to surrender cash and other assets exceeding $3.5 million.



The defendants also are forbidden from marketing products via "negative option" transactions ­– a classic marketing scheme in which companies use fine print to trick victims into unwittingly agreeing to pay for a product or service for which they are billed on a regular basis until they cancel.



The FTC first took action against the defendants, Infusion Media, Inc., West Coast Internet Media, Inc., Two Warnings, LLC and Two Part Investments, LLC, in July 2009 as part of "Operation Short Change," an ongoing crackdown against scammers taking advantage of the recession to prey upon vulnerable consumers.



By using Google's household name and logo and falsely promising consumers could earn $100,000 in six months, the defendants lured consumers into providing their financial information to pay a small shipping fee for a work-at-home kit, according to the complaint.



What consumers didn't realize, thanks to the fine print, was that purchasing the useless work-at-home kit automatically triggered monthly charges of $72.21 for another product which continued until they took steps to cancel.



The complaint charged that the defendants violated the FTC Act by failing to adequately disclose that consumers would be subjected to monthly charges; by making false or unsupported claims that consumers were likely to earn substantial income; and by falsely claiming they were affiliated with Google Inc.



The defendants also violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E by debiting consumers' bank accounts on a recurring basis without obtaining written authorization, the FTC charged.



The settlement includes a $29.5 million penalty against defendants Jonathan Eborn; Michael McLain Miller; Tony Norton; Infusion Media, Inc.; West Coast Internet Media, Inc.; Two Warnings, LLC; Two Part Investments, LLC; and Platinum Teleservices, Inc. A fourth defendant, Stephanie Burnside, is subject to a $741,900 fine.



The defendants have relinquished cash and other assets including two cars, a boat and a gun collection totaling approximately $3.5 million. The remaining $26 million has been suspended due to the defendants' inability to pay, but the full $29.5 million will be due if it's found the defendants lied about their finances.
An online marketer who lured consumers into a bogus work-at-home scheme that charged them hidden fees by masquerading as a Google company has been shut down by the Federal Trade Commission.



Under a settlement agreement with the FTC, the defendants, which did business under names such as "Google Money Tree," "Google Pro," and "Google Treasure Chest," are barred from making misleading or unsupported claims while marketing or selling any product or service, and have been forced to surrender cash and other assets exceeding $3.5 million.



The defendants also are forbidden from marketing products via "negative option" transactions ­– a classic marketing scheme in which companies use fine print to trick victims into unwittingly agreeing to pay for a product or service for which they are billed on a regular basis until they cancel.



The FTC first took action against the defendants, Infusion Media, Inc., West Coast Internet Media, Inc., Two Warnings, LLC and Two Part Investments, LLC, in July 2009 as part of "Operation Short Change," an ongoing crackdown against scammers taking advantage of the recession to prey upon vulnerable consumers.



By using Google's household name and logo and falsely promising consumers could earn $100,000 in six months, the defendants lured consumers into providing their financial information to pay a small shipping fee for a work-at-home kit, according to the complaint.



What consumers didn't realize, thanks to the fine print, was that purchasing the useless work-at-home kit automatically triggered monthly charges of $72.21 for another product which continued until they took steps to cancel.



The complaint charged that the defendants violated the FTC Act by failing to adequately disclose that consumers would be subjected to monthly charges; by making false or unsupported claims that consumers were likely to earn substantial income; and by falsely claiming they were affiliated with Google Inc.



The defendants also violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E by debiting consumers' bank accounts on a recurring basis without obtaining written authorization, the FTC charged.



The settlement includes a $29.5 million penalty against defendants Jonathan Eborn; Michael McLain Miller; Tony Norton; Infusion Media, Inc.; West Coast Internet Media, Inc.; Two Warnings, LLC; Two Part Investments, LLC; and Platinum Teleservices, Inc. A fourth defendant, Stephanie Burnside, is subject to a $741,900 fine.



The defendants have relinquished cash and other assets including two cars, a boat and a gun collection totaling approximately $3.5 million. The remaining $26 million has been suspended due to the defendants' inability to pay, but the full $29.5 million will be due if it's found the defendants lied about their finances.

Nevada Voters Complain Of Problems At Polls - Las Vegas <b>News</b> Story <b>...</b>

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines. Wednesday, October 27, 2010.

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News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

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The night is darkest ere the dawn... and dawn has ever been the hope of Men! After days of closed door talks between New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and.

atlanta property management

Nevada Voters Complain Of Problems At Polls - Las Vegas <b>News</b> Story <b>...</b>

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines. Wednesday, October 27, 2010.

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: In Afghanistan, &#39;The insurgency seems to be <b>...</b>

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: The Hobbit Stays In New Zealand | Hobbit Movie <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

The night is darkest ere the dawn... and dawn has ever been the hope of Men! After days of closed door talks between New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and.

An online marketer who lured consumers into a bogus work-at-home scheme that charged them hidden fees by masquerading as a Google company has been shut down by the Federal Trade Commission.



Under a settlement agreement with the FTC, the defendants, which did business under names such as "Google Money Tree," "Google Pro," and "Google Treasure Chest," are barred from making misleading or unsupported claims while marketing or selling any product or service, and have been forced to surrender cash and other assets exceeding $3.5 million.



The defendants also are forbidden from marketing products via "negative option" transactions ­– a classic marketing scheme in which companies use fine print to trick victims into unwittingly agreeing to pay for a product or service for which they are billed on a regular basis until they cancel.



The FTC first took action against the defendants, Infusion Media, Inc., West Coast Internet Media, Inc., Two Warnings, LLC and Two Part Investments, LLC, in July 2009 as part of "Operation Short Change," an ongoing crackdown against scammers taking advantage of the recession to prey upon vulnerable consumers.



By using Google's household name and logo and falsely promising consumers could earn $100,000 in six months, the defendants lured consumers into providing their financial information to pay a small shipping fee for a work-at-home kit, according to the complaint.



What consumers didn't realize, thanks to the fine print, was that purchasing the useless work-at-home kit automatically triggered monthly charges of $72.21 for another product which continued until they took steps to cancel.



The complaint charged that the defendants violated the FTC Act by failing to adequately disclose that consumers would be subjected to monthly charges; by making false or unsupported claims that consumers were likely to earn substantial income; and by falsely claiming they were affiliated with Google Inc.



The defendants also violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E by debiting consumers' bank accounts on a recurring basis without obtaining written authorization, the FTC charged.



The settlement includes a $29.5 million penalty against defendants Jonathan Eborn; Michael McLain Miller; Tony Norton; Infusion Media, Inc.; West Coast Internet Media, Inc.; Two Warnings, LLC; Two Part Investments, LLC; and Platinum Teleservices, Inc. A fourth defendant, Stephanie Burnside, is subject to a $741,900 fine.



The defendants have relinquished cash and other assets including two cars, a boat and a gun collection totaling approximately $3.5 million. The remaining $26 million has been suspended due to the defendants' inability to pay, but the full $29.5 million will be due if it's found the defendants lied about their finances.
An online marketer who lured consumers into a bogus work-at-home scheme that charged them hidden fees by masquerading as a Google company has been shut down by the Federal Trade Commission.



Under a settlement agreement with the FTC, the defendants, which did business under names such as "Google Money Tree," "Google Pro," and "Google Treasure Chest," are barred from making misleading or unsupported claims while marketing or selling any product or service, and have been forced to surrender cash and other assets exceeding $3.5 million.



The defendants also are forbidden from marketing products via "negative option" transactions ­– a classic marketing scheme in which companies use fine print to trick victims into unwittingly agreeing to pay for a product or service for which they are billed on a regular basis until they cancel.



The FTC first took action against the defendants, Infusion Media, Inc., West Coast Internet Media, Inc., Two Warnings, LLC and Two Part Investments, LLC, in July 2009 as part of "Operation Short Change," an ongoing crackdown against scammers taking advantage of the recession to prey upon vulnerable consumers.



By using Google's household name and logo and falsely promising consumers could earn $100,000 in six months, the defendants lured consumers into providing their financial information to pay a small shipping fee for a work-at-home kit, according to the complaint.



What consumers didn't realize, thanks to the fine print, was that purchasing the useless work-at-home kit automatically triggered monthly charges of $72.21 for another product which continued until they took steps to cancel.



The complaint charged that the defendants violated the FTC Act by failing to adequately disclose that consumers would be subjected to monthly charges; by making false or unsupported claims that consumers were likely to earn substantial income; and by falsely claiming they were affiliated with Google Inc.



The defendants also violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E by debiting consumers' bank accounts on a recurring basis without obtaining written authorization, the FTC charged.



The settlement includes a $29.5 million penalty against defendants Jonathan Eborn; Michael McLain Miller; Tony Norton; Infusion Media, Inc.; West Coast Internet Media, Inc.; Two Warnings, LLC; Two Part Investments, LLC; and Platinum Teleservices, Inc. A fourth defendant, Stephanie Burnside, is subject to a $741,900 fine.



The defendants have relinquished cash and other assets including two cars, a boat and a gun collection totaling approximately $3.5 million. The remaining $26 million has been suspended due to the defendants' inability to pay, but the full $29.5 million will be due if it's found the defendants lied about their finances.

Nevada Voters Complain Of Problems At Polls - Las Vegas <b>News</b> Story <b>...</b>

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines. Wednesday, October 27, 2010.

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: In Afghanistan, &#39;The insurgency seems to be <b>...</b>

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: The Hobbit Stays In New Zealand | Hobbit Movie <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

The night is darkest ere the dawn... and dawn has ever been the hope of Men! After days of closed door talks between New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and.

Nevada Voters Complain Of Problems At Polls - Las Vegas <b>News</b> Story <b>...</b>

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines. Wednesday, October 27, 2010.

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: In Afghanistan, &#39;The insurgency seems to be <b>...</b>

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: The Hobbit Stays In New Zealand | Hobbit Movie <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

The night is darkest ere the dawn... and dawn has ever been the hope of Men! After days of closed door talks between New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and.

foreclosure homes

Before we get into the latest bank assessment of fauxclosure, this
time from BofA's Michelle Meyer, we wanted to highlight one point from
today's JPM financial supplement which appears to have evaded pretty
much everyone (perhaps due to its appearance on the last page, and only
lawyers go that far). In today's earning call, Jamie Dimon stated that
the average length a mortgage is delinquent before it is finally
foreclosed upon is 14 months, or 448 days. However, it seems that average
and median in this metric are quite different. To wit, on page 21 of the supplement we read that the average delinquency at foreclosure for Florida is 678 days, while for New York, it is, get ready, 792 days! That's right, a house is delinquent on its payments, which usually means not paying anything, for over two years in New York before it is foreclosed upon. Which
also means that only now are those who stopped paying their mortgage
around the days when Lehman filed being foreclosed upon. And guess
what happened to the economy, and the stock market in the 6 months
immediately after... In other words, there is such a huge cliff of
accrued foreclosures that is supposed to be hitting right about...now,
that the double whammy of foreclosure gate and the accrued foreclosures
will blow right through the balance sheets of banks like JPM. And with
that out of the way, here is why BofA believes that there is a
"heightened risk of a more dismal scenario. If negative momentum in
the housing market kicks in, and feeds into the banking system and
broader economy, it will be hard to fight." Alas, Michelle, it already has.

From Bank of America:

The vulnerable housing market

The
housing market has taken another leg down as potential homebuyers
remain on the sidelines and inventory swells. This widening imbalance
should push prices lower in the near term. Clearly the market is
vulnerable, which means we should pay attention to the brewing
foreclosure problems.

Frazzled foreclosures

As we
have been arguing for some time, the main risk to the housing market
comes from the massive foreclosure overhang. The main concern has been
that if the foreclosure process speeds up, distressed properties will
flood the market, creating an even greater disequilibrium in the market.
Unfortunately, we now have another reason to worry. Attorneys general
nationwide have launched a joint investigation into the foreclosure
process on allegations that banks used “robosigners” (sign documents
without ensuring accurate information). Banks have put foreclosure
moratoriums in place to examine their foreclosure processes.

The best case scenario

This
foreclosure probe should lead lenders to review policies and cure
deficiencies, which could be a clean and simple process. Under this best
case scenario, the effect on the housing market will be negligible. In
fact, it could be positive in the short-term, since moratoriums will
temporarily reduce inventory of distressed homes, thereby supporting
home prices. But this is clearly transitory.

And the worst case

The
foreclosure probe could open the door to more litigation. Most notably,
if a foreclosure is deemed to be under false pretences, the title could
be reinstated to the prior owner, and whoever bought the home out of
foreclosure could lose title. This could have a ripple effect on title
insurers. In addition, involving the courts could result in a wholesale
re-evaluation of the foreclosure process.

This could seriously
hurt confidence. If potential buyers of foreclosures doubt the legality
of the foreclosure process, they will be hesitant to purchase. This
means it will be even more difficult to clear distressed inventory,
further depressing sales and prices. Confidence can suffer for some time simply from fear of this worst case scenario materializing.

On red alert

In
our view, the most likely outcome is somewhere between these two
extreme scenarios. The foreclosure process is likely to be dragged out
further, prolonging the weakness in the housing market, consistent with a
painful U-shaped recovery. However, we admit that there is a heightened
risk of a more dismal scenario. If negative momentum in the housing
market kicks in, and feeds into the banking system and broader economy,
it will be hard to fight.

 

New fronts are opening in the foreclosure mess.

A lot of people have wondered why no one has gone to jail over what by commonsense standards is fraudulent activity. The possibility that the violations were indeed criminal is finally being investigated. From the Washington Post:

Federal law enforcement officials are investigating possible criminal violations in connection with the national foreclosure crisis, examining whether financial firms broke federal laws when they filed fraudulent court documents to seize people’s homes, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Obama administration’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is in the early stages of an investigation into whether banks and other companies that submitted flawed paperwork in state foreclosure proceedings may also have misled federal housing agencies, which now own or insure a majority of home loans, according to these sources.

The task force, which includes investigators from the Justice Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies, is also looking into whether the submission of flawed paperwork during the foreclosure process violated mail or wire fraud laws. Financial fraud cases often involve these statutes.

Yves here. On the one hand, I would not underestimate the ability of Team Obama to give the banking industry a free pass when tough action is warranted. On the other hand, there is a proud tradition of the Federal government rousing itself when measure by the states run the risk of showing it to have been complacent to the point of negligence (one well known example is when state securities law suits force the generally lapdog SEC to take swing into gear). So if state or even private lawsuits expose enough damaging material, it will be hard for this task force to sit on its hands.

On another front, the ACLU is starting to obtain information to determine whether foreclosures in Florida (the so called rocket docket) violated Constitutional “due process” requirements:

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Florida today filed public records requests with judicial officials in Florida to determine whether homeowners are having their constitutional rights violated during foreclosure proceedings and being unlawfully removed from their homes.

In Florida, where almost half a million foreclosure cases are pending, the state legislature recently spent over $9 million to create special foreclosure courts, staffed by retired judges, with the intent of speeding through the state’s backlog of such cases. But recent media reports in Florida and around the country, which reveal rampant error and fraud in the foreclosure process, have shown that courts should take particular care with foreclosure cases. Instead, in the rush to push foreclosure cases through the courts, Florida may be taking shortcuts and, in the process, forsaking constitutionally-required due process protections….

Filed with the Office of the State Court Administrator and the chief judges of all 20 of Florida’s circuit courts, the requests seek access to, among other things, all documents related to special court systems created to dispose of foreclosure cases and the rules and procedures in place that govern those systems…

Copies of the ACLU’s public records requests are available online at: www.aclu.org/racial-justice/aclu-seeks-information-about-constitutionality-florida-foreclosure-courts

Yves here. These initiatives are only in the early stages, but both show that the foreclosure crisis is moving from narrow legal issues to much bigger ones.

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ABC News investigates BMW fuel pump problems – Click above to watch video after the jump ABC News has cottoned on to the story that BMW.

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The life of a 49-year old miner was yesterday afternoon snuffed out after a tree fell on him while he was working at a mining area at Mahdia in Region 8.

Google donates $5 million for <b>news</b> innovation to Knight Foundation <b>...</b>

Google and news organizations have had a rocky time of it. To overdramatize the situation only slightly: Google insists that it cares about journalism as a.

bench craft company complaints
bench craft company complaints

ABC <b>News</b> airs big exposé on BMW N54 engine problems, lawsuits [w <b>...</b>

ABC News investigates BMW fuel pump problems – Click above to watch video after the jump ABC News has cottoned on to the story that BMW.

Tree crushes miner to death at Mahdia - Stabroek <b>News</b> - Guyana

The life of a 49-year old miner was yesterday afternoon snuffed out after a tree fell on him while he was working at a mining area at Mahdia in Region 8.

Google donates $5 million for <b>news</b> innovation to Knight Foundation <b>...</b>

Google and news organizations have had a rocky time of it. To overdramatize the situation only slightly: Google insists that it cares about journalism as a.

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Before we get into the latest bank assessment of fauxclosure, this
time from BofA's Michelle Meyer, we wanted to highlight one point from
today's JPM financial supplement which appears to have evaded pretty
much everyone (perhaps due to its appearance on the last page, and only
lawyers go that far). In today's earning call, Jamie Dimon stated that
the average length a mortgage is delinquent before it is finally
foreclosed upon is 14 months, or 448 days. However, it seems that average
and median in this metric are quite different. To wit, on page 21 of the supplement we read that the average delinquency at foreclosure for Florida is 678 days, while for New York, it is, get ready, 792 days! That's right, a house is delinquent on its payments, which usually means not paying anything, for over two years in New York before it is foreclosed upon. Which
also means that only now are those who stopped paying their mortgage
around the days when Lehman filed being foreclosed upon. And guess
what happened to the economy, and the stock market in the 6 months
immediately after... In other words, there is such a huge cliff of
accrued foreclosures that is supposed to be hitting right about...now,
that the double whammy of foreclosure gate and the accrued foreclosures
will blow right through the balance sheets of banks like JPM. And with
that out of the way, here is why BofA believes that there is a
"heightened risk of a more dismal scenario. If negative momentum in
the housing market kicks in, and feeds into the banking system and
broader economy, it will be hard to fight." Alas, Michelle, it already has.

From Bank of America:

The vulnerable housing market

The
housing market has taken another leg down as potential homebuyers
remain on the sidelines and inventory swells. This widening imbalance
should push prices lower in the near term. Clearly the market is
vulnerable, which means we should pay attention to the brewing
foreclosure problems.

Frazzled foreclosures

As we
have been arguing for some time, the main risk to the housing market
comes from the massive foreclosure overhang. The main concern has been
that if the foreclosure process speeds up, distressed properties will
flood the market, creating an even greater disequilibrium in the market.
Unfortunately, we now have another reason to worry. Attorneys general
nationwide have launched a joint investigation into the foreclosure
process on allegations that banks used “robosigners” (sign documents
without ensuring accurate information). Banks have put foreclosure
moratoriums in place to examine their foreclosure processes.

The best case scenario

This
foreclosure probe should lead lenders to review policies and cure
deficiencies, which could be a clean and simple process. Under this best
case scenario, the effect on the housing market will be negligible. In
fact, it could be positive in the short-term, since moratoriums will
temporarily reduce inventory of distressed homes, thereby supporting
home prices. But this is clearly transitory.

And the worst case

The
foreclosure probe could open the door to more litigation. Most notably,
if a foreclosure is deemed to be under false pretences, the title could
be reinstated to the prior owner, and whoever bought the home out of
foreclosure could lose title. This could have a ripple effect on title
insurers. In addition, involving the courts could result in a wholesale
re-evaluation of the foreclosure process.

This could seriously
hurt confidence. If potential buyers of foreclosures doubt the legality
of the foreclosure process, they will be hesitant to purchase. This
means it will be even more difficult to clear distressed inventory,
further depressing sales and prices. Confidence can suffer for some time simply from fear of this worst case scenario materializing.

On red alert

In
our view, the most likely outcome is somewhere between these two
extreme scenarios. The foreclosure process is likely to be dragged out
further, prolonging the weakness in the housing market, consistent with a
painful U-shaped recovery. However, we admit that there is a heightened
risk of a more dismal scenario. If negative momentum in the housing
market kicks in, and feeds into the banking system and broader economy,
it will be hard to fight.

 

New fronts are opening in the foreclosure mess.

A lot of people have wondered why no one has gone to jail over what by commonsense standards is fraudulent activity. The possibility that the violations were indeed criminal is finally being investigated. From the Washington Post:

Federal law enforcement officials are investigating possible criminal violations in connection with the national foreclosure crisis, examining whether financial firms broke federal laws when they filed fraudulent court documents to seize people’s homes, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Obama administration’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is in the early stages of an investigation into whether banks and other companies that submitted flawed paperwork in state foreclosure proceedings may also have misled federal housing agencies, which now own or insure a majority of home loans, according to these sources.

The task force, which includes investigators from the Justice Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies, is also looking into whether the submission of flawed paperwork during the foreclosure process violated mail or wire fraud laws. Financial fraud cases often involve these statutes.

Yves here. On the one hand, I would not underestimate the ability of Team Obama to give the banking industry a free pass when tough action is warranted. On the other hand, there is a proud tradition of the Federal government rousing itself when measure by the states run the risk of showing it to have been complacent to the point of negligence (one well known example is when state securities law suits force the generally lapdog SEC to take swing into gear). So if state or even private lawsuits expose enough damaging material, it will be hard for this task force to sit on its hands.

On another front, the ACLU is starting to obtain information to determine whether foreclosures in Florida (the so called rocket docket) violated Constitutional “due process” requirements:

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Florida today filed public records requests with judicial officials in Florida to determine whether homeowners are having their constitutional rights violated during foreclosure proceedings and being unlawfully removed from their homes.

In Florida, where almost half a million foreclosure cases are pending, the state legislature recently spent over $9 million to create special foreclosure courts, staffed by retired judges, with the intent of speeding through the state’s backlog of such cases. But recent media reports in Florida and around the country, which reveal rampant error and fraud in the foreclosure process, have shown that courts should take particular care with foreclosure cases. Instead, in the rush to push foreclosure cases through the courts, Florida may be taking shortcuts and, in the process, forsaking constitutionally-required due process protections….

Filed with the Office of the State Court Administrator and the chief judges of all 20 of Florida’s circuit courts, the requests seek access to, among other things, all documents related to special court systems created to dispose of foreclosure cases and the rules and procedures in place that govern those systems…

Copies of the ACLU’s public records requests are available online at: www.aclu.org/racial-justice/aclu-seeks-information-about-constitutionality-florida-foreclosure-courts

Yves here. These initiatives are only in the early stages, but both show that the foreclosure crisis is moving from narrow legal issues to much bigger ones.

bench craft company complaints

ABC <b>News</b> airs big exposé on BMW N54 engine problems, lawsuits [w <b>...</b>

ABC News investigates BMW fuel pump problems – Click above to watch video after the jump ABC News has cottoned on to the story that BMW.

Tree crushes miner to death at Mahdia - Stabroek <b>News</b> - Guyana

The life of a 49-year old miner was yesterday afternoon snuffed out after a tree fell on him while he was working at a mining area at Mahdia in Region 8.

Google donates $5 million for <b>news</b> innovation to Knight Foundation <b>...</b>

Google and news organizations have had a rocky time of it. To overdramatize the situation only slightly: Google insists that it cares about journalism as a.

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

ABC <b>News</b> airs big exposé on BMW N54 engine problems, lawsuits [w <b>...</b>

ABC News investigates BMW fuel pump problems – Click above to watch video after the jump ABC News has cottoned on to the story that BMW.

Tree crushes miner to death at Mahdia - Stabroek <b>News</b> - Guyana

The life of a 49-year old miner was yesterday afternoon snuffed out after a tree fell on him while he was working at a mining area at Mahdia in Region 8.

Google donates $5 million for <b>news</b> innovation to Knight Foundation <b>...</b>

Google and news organizations have had a rocky time of it. To overdramatize the situation only slightly: Google insists that it cares about journalism as a.

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

ABC <b>News</b> airs big exposé on BMW N54 engine problems, lawsuits [w <b>...</b>

ABC News investigates BMW fuel pump problems – Click above to watch video after the jump ABC News has cottoned on to the story that BMW.

Tree crushes miner to death at Mahdia - Stabroek <b>News</b> - Guyana

The life of a 49-year old miner was yesterday afternoon snuffed out after a tree fell on him while he was working at a mining area at Mahdia in Region 8.

Google donates $5 million for <b>news</b> innovation to Knight Foundation <b>...</b>

Google and news organizations have had a rocky time of it. To overdramatize the situation only slightly: Google insists that it cares about journalism as a.

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Ways of Making Money

Despite the positive-sounding headline, the NYT article was actually negative in tone, starting off with a joke about how an Android developer making $1-$2 per day on his app was laughed at by his peers, while insisting "that's pretty good money!"

The blows against Android then continue with a quote from Matt Hall, co-founder of Larva Labs, who talked about the problems with Google Checkout. Then Rovio's (maker of Angry Birds) Peter Vesterbacka complained about the challenges of developing for such a fragmented environment. And then it was Hall again, with a quote that's already getting repeated on Apple-watching blogs like John Gruber’s Daring Fireball:

"Google is not associated with things you pay for, and Android is an extension of that," said Mr. Hall of Larva Labs. "You don't pay for Google apps, so it bleeds into the expectations for the third-party apps, too."

There Are Ways to Get Paid

If you want to debate the merit of the above statements, feel free to head to the comments section, but we feel the need to point out the obvious miss from the NYT article: there are alternative revenue streams for developers besides direct app sales. (After all, even Google's "free" services aren't actually free - they're monetized through advertising.)

We recently highlighted some findings related to this matter earlier this month. For example, research from mobile ad company Millennial Media found that Android ad revenue has, for the first time ever, beaten iPhone ad revenue on the company's ad network.

At the time, we wondered why, given the lower ad impression numbers (as compared with iPhone/iOS). As it turns out, Millennial's Michael Avon had some thoughts on the matter. Besides the fact that there is simply less ad inventory amid soaring demand on Android, he also shared that Android is currently a "hot" platform for advertisers as it allows them to reach first-time smartphone buyers and a more diverse set of consumers.

"We believe some advertisers are paying a premium to reach those users early in their smartphone experience," he said. "Our advertisers have also shared that Android allows them to reach a diverse set of consumers across all major carriers, making the platform highly desirable and increasing demand for the platform...With more advertiser demand per each available impression on Android, it resulted in more revenue per impression."

The NYT article also makes brief mention of the lack of an in-app purchases model for Android, another disappointment for developers, especially since we recently learned that in-app purchases generate more revenue than ads, in some app categories.

However, as we also noted last week, developers don't have to wait on Google to implement an official in-app purchase mechanism, because there are several third-party solutions already available, including Boku and Zong for virtual goods and PayPal's in-app purchases technology for physical goods.

NYT had one good thing to say about Android development: because of the store sizes (100K vs 300K apps/Android vs iPhone) it's easier to get noticed in the Android Market today than it is in the iTunes App Store. Well, at least there's that.

Justin Hartfield of WeedMaps is about as ballsy as entrepreneurs get. I mean that as a compliment. Not only is he building an online business that facilitates and profits off of the recreational use of marijuana– which let’s remember is still illegal in the United States– but he’s essentially rushing his small company out into the public markets, via an acquisition by the mostly-unknown but publicly-traded LC Luxuries Limited, which will build a new business around all things cannabis.

Between the anticipated closing of the deal, which will make WeedMaps essentially a publicly traded company on the Pink Sheets and California’s vote on a proposition to legalize marijuana, the next month will be huge for Hartfield– one way or another. Meanwhile revenues are soaring. WeedMaps was making $20,000 a month a year ago, made $300,000 in August and $400,000 in September– all off of just 50,000 registered users.

Obviously, the money-making potential is huge, but is there a greater moral issue here? Hartfield doesn’t see one. Hartfield was the guest on NBC’s Press:Here this week, where he discussed a unique dilemma in Silicon Valley: Having a $120 billion market to yourself in which no VCs want to invest. It’s a reality that’s driven him to this odd, back-door IPO.

It’s also helping make his company a cause. “We want to make buying a share in this company like buying a share in the legalization of marijuana cause,” he says. Hartfield — so unabashedly libertarian he could make Peter Thiel swoon– thinks markets are better ways of assessing public opinion than media or political polls. So, he argues, if people vote with their money for WeedMaps, it’ll be a proxy for how people feel about the practicality of legalization, which he sees as an inevitability. (Morality aside, I take issue with his certainty in this clip. Even in gung-ho California, some medical marijuana advocates oppose recreational legalization.)

But the deal is about more than just finding a way to go public. The new company will acquire and roll-up several smaller companies, likely also around the cannabis issue. Meanwhile, Hartfield is doing a weed/Web landgrab, taking nearly every business model that’s worked on the Web and building a weed version. His core site is like Yelp for weed, containing a database of more than 25,000 strains, where they can be found and reviews on dispensaries and headshops. He even offers an “elite” status.

The company has another site called WeedVote.com that helps get out the legalization vote, and the newly launched WeedMart.com is an online headship and he’s about to launch a new daily deals site for pot– that’s right, yet another Groupon clone, this time to get high. There’s also a feature called “Weed or Skin”– like Hot or Not but where you vote for scantily clad women or pictures of pot. I’m not kidding. While Hartfield isn’t the first to try to make money off of a vice, he revels in it more than most. “We don’t like to be hypocritical, and we don’t think there should be arbitrary differences between recreational and medicinal,” he says. This is clearly as much about the cause as it is about the company for him. Agree with his stance or not, you have to respect the conviction.

In the clip below, Hartfield talks about America’s “chronic fear of freedom” and the challenges he’s faced building this business. Go here for the full episode, which includes his rebuttal to medical marijuana advocates that say recreational legalization is bad for those who need the drug for medical reasons

Poll Has More of the Same Bad <b>News</b> for Democrats, Worse <b>News</b> for Obama

Congressional Democrats hold their own reasonably well against their GOP counterparts when voters are asked who would better handle key issues. By contrast, they trust Republicans more than Obama on most of those issues.

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Good morning! We have a full day of Kansas City Chiefs news. O-line love and praise for the running game and a shout out to DJ are ahead. There are also a few articles on the Buffalo offense and how productive they've been recently.

bench craft company complaints
bench craft company complaints

Poll Has More of the Same Bad <b>News</b> for Democrats, Worse <b>News</b> for Obama

Congressional Democrats hold their own reasonably well against their GOP counterparts when voters are asked who would better handle key issues. By contrast, they trust Republicans more than Obama on most of those issues.

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Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/26 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning! We have a full day of Kansas City Chiefs news. O-line love and praise for the running game and a shout out to DJ are ahead. There are also a few articles on the Buffalo offense and how productive they've been recently.

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Despite the positive-sounding headline, the NYT article was actually negative in tone, starting off with a joke about how an Android developer making $1-$2 per day on his app was laughed at by his peers, while insisting "that's pretty good money!"

The blows against Android then continue with a quote from Matt Hall, co-founder of Larva Labs, who talked about the problems with Google Checkout. Then Rovio's (maker of Angry Birds) Peter Vesterbacka complained about the challenges of developing for such a fragmented environment. And then it was Hall again, with a quote that's already getting repeated on Apple-watching blogs like John Gruber’s Daring Fireball:

"Google is not associated with things you pay for, and Android is an extension of that," said Mr. Hall of Larva Labs. "You don't pay for Google apps, so it bleeds into the expectations for the third-party apps, too."

There Are Ways to Get Paid

If you want to debate the merit of the above statements, feel free to head to the comments section, but we feel the need to point out the obvious miss from the NYT article: there are alternative revenue streams for developers besides direct app sales. (After all, even Google's "free" services aren't actually free - they're monetized through advertising.)

We recently highlighted some findings related to this matter earlier this month. For example, research from mobile ad company Millennial Media found that Android ad revenue has, for the first time ever, beaten iPhone ad revenue on the company's ad network.

At the time, we wondered why, given the lower ad impression numbers (as compared with iPhone/iOS). As it turns out, Millennial's Michael Avon had some thoughts on the matter. Besides the fact that there is simply less ad inventory amid soaring demand on Android, he also shared that Android is currently a "hot" platform for advertisers as it allows them to reach first-time smartphone buyers and a more diverse set of consumers.

"We believe some advertisers are paying a premium to reach those users early in their smartphone experience," he said. "Our advertisers have also shared that Android allows them to reach a diverse set of consumers across all major carriers, making the platform highly desirable and increasing demand for the platform...With more advertiser demand per each available impression on Android, it resulted in more revenue per impression."

The NYT article also makes brief mention of the lack of an in-app purchases model for Android, another disappointment for developers, especially since we recently learned that in-app purchases generate more revenue than ads, in some app categories.

However, as we also noted last week, developers don't have to wait on Google to implement an official in-app purchase mechanism, because there are several third-party solutions already available, including Boku and Zong for virtual goods and PayPal's in-app purchases technology for physical goods.

NYT had one good thing to say about Android development: because of the store sizes (100K vs 300K apps/Android vs iPhone) it's easier to get noticed in the Android Market today than it is in the iTunes App Store. Well, at least there's that.

Justin Hartfield of WeedMaps is about as ballsy as entrepreneurs get. I mean that as a compliment. Not only is he building an online business that facilitates and profits off of the recreational use of marijuana– which let’s remember is still illegal in the United States– but he’s essentially rushing his small company out into the public markets, via an acquisition by the mostly-unknown but publicly-traded LC Luxuries Limited, which will build a new business around all things cannabis.

Between the anticipated closing of the deal, which will make WeedMaps essentially a publicly traded company on the Pink Sheets and California’s vote on a proposition to legalize marijuana, the next month will be huge for Hartfield– one way or another. Meanwhile revenues are soaring. WeedMaps was making $20,000 a month a year ago, made $300,000 in August and $400,000 in September– all off of just 50,000 registered users.

Obviously, the money-making potential is huge, but is there a greater moral issue here? Hartfield doesn’t see one. Hartfield was the guest on NBC’s Press:Here this week, where he discussed a unique dilemma in Silicon Valley: Having a $120 billion market to yourself in which no VCs want to invest. It’s a reality that’s driven him to this odd, back-door IPO.

It’s also helping make his company a cause. “We want to make buying a share in this company like buying a share in the legalization of marijuana cause,” he says. Hartfield — so unabashedly libertarian he could make Peter Thiel swoon– thinks markets are better ways of assessing public opinion than media or political polls. So, he argues, if people vote with their money for WeedMaps, it’ll be a proxy for how people feel about the practicality of legalization, which he sees as an inevitability. (Morality aside, I take issue with his certainty in this clip. Even in gung-ho California, some medical marijuana advocates oppose recreational legalization.)

But the deal is about more than just finding a way to go public. The new company will acquire and roll-up several smaller companies, likely also around the cannabis issue. Meanwhile, Hartfield is doing a weed/Web landgrab, taking nearly every business model that’s worked on the Web and building a weed version. His core site is like Yelp for weed, containing a database of more than 25,000 strains, where they can be found and reviews on dispensaries and headshops. He even offers an “elite” status.

The company has another site called WeedVote.com that helps get out the legalization vote, and the newly launched WeedMart.com is an online headship and he’s about to launch a new daily deals site for pot– that’s right, yet another Groupon clone, this time to get high. There’s also a feature called “Weed or Skin”– like Hot or Not but where you vote for scantily clad women or pictures of pot. I’m not kidding. While Hartfield isn’t the first to try to make money off of a vice, he revels in it more than most. “We don’t like to be hypocritical, and we don’t think there should be arbitrary differences between recreational and medicinal,” he says. This is clearly as much about the cause as it is about the company for him. Agree with his stance or not, you have to respect the conviction.

In the clip below, Hartfield talks about America’s “chronic fear of freedom” and the challenges he’s faced building this business. Go here for the full episode, which includes his rebuttal to medical marijuana advocates that say recreational legalization is bad for those who need the drug for medical reasons

bench craft company complaints

Poll Has More of the Same Bad <b>News</b> for Democrats, Worse <b>News</b> for Obama

Congressional Democrats hold their own reasonably well against their GOP counterparts when voters are asked who would better handle key issues. By contrast, they trust Republicans more than Obama on most of those issues.

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Good morning! We have a full day of Kansas City Chiefs news. O-line love and praise for the running game and a shout out to DJ are ahead. There are also a few articles on the Buffalo offense and how productive they've been recently.

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Poll Has More of the Same Bad <b>News</b> for Democrats, Worse <b>News</b> for Obama

Congressional Democrats hold their own reasonably well against their GOP counterparts when voters are asked who would better handle key issues. By contrast, they trust Republicans more than Obama on most of those issues.

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> And Views About China Stocks (Oct. 26 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: The dollar fell to a 15-year low against the yen yesterday, fueling speculation that major countries will continue ...

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/26 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning! We have a full day of Kansas City Chiefs news. O-line love and praise for the running game and a shout out to DJ are ahead. There are also a few articles on the Buffalo offense and how productive they've been recently.

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Poll Has More of the Same Bad <b>News</b> for Democrats, Worse <b>News</b> for Obama

Congressional Democrats hold their own reasonably well against their GOP counterparts when voters are asked who would better handle key issues. By contrast, they trust Republicans more than Obama on most of those issues.

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> And Views About China Stocks (Oct. 26 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: The dollar fell to a 15-year low against the yen yesterday, fueling speculation that major countries will continue ...

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/26 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning! We have a full day of Kansas City Chiefs news. O-line love and praise for the running game and a shout out to DJ are ahead. There are also a few articles on the Buffalo offense and how productive they've been recently.

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Im Making Money

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was on Fox Business News today, and she was plenty Bartz-y. When Fox anchor Liz Clamen asked her repeatedly if she was on the way out, she said she was there to stay, adding “Do I look like a wimp?”

No. You do not. Even if you think Bartz is running the company into the ground, you have to give her credit for not holing up and hiding the way her predecessor Jerry Yang did, for continuing to be herself and holding her head high amid a pretty nasty storm of rumors. She further added that she wasn’t hiring a strong number two, saying she didn’t need one.

The question is, do we believe her? I don’t mean that question as a knock on her; frequently CEOs say they’re not going anywhere or not doing a deal or not launching a product just before they do. But Bartz didn’t help her credibility with her answer to Clamen’s question about whether she was tough to work for. She said: “So change just happens with new management and it’s actually refreshing for all of us.  So 15,000 employees, three people left?  That’s OK.”

Am I totally misunderstanding this or is she saying only three people have left Yahoo in the last year and a half? I think I’ve talked to three this week. I’m not convinced Bartz was a good fit for Yahoo, but I’ve long been a fan of her outspoken, here’s-the-way-it-is management style. And that statement isn’t how things are at Yahoo.

I’m somewhere between those onlookers who loathe Bartz and those who love her. I know a lot of talented executives who have left Yahoo in part because of her. They aren’t haters; they just don’t feel she gets the product or the business. And few metrics have been up during her short tenure, other than profitability which is up 80%, but that’s mostly through cost cutting and frankly, Yahoo had a lot of fat to cut. But on the other hand, I think Bartz is cleaning up a big mess that was a long time in the making. Not even a fictional wonder-CEO could do that in 18 months.

Let’s remember: The business hasn’t grown for six years and Bartz has only been there 18 months. She’s not the one who turned down Microsoft’s $31 a share offer. She’s not the one who bungled an acquisition of Google, YouTube or Facebook. And while we had some fun at her expense over her comments about the technical challenges of blogging– I can tell you from experience Yahoo’s in house content management system was impossible to use. Should it have taken this long and a pile of money to update it? Of course not. But it shows just how asleep the board and prior management was when it came to building a strong modern content creation company– not just a content aggregation company. Eight years after Google bought Blogger, and at least five years after most old media companies embraced blogging platforms like Moveable Type and WordPress, Yahoo is finally figuring it out. You can’t put that on Bartz.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The Yahoo CEO job has a way of making smart people look inept. Maybe she wasn’t the best pick, but who is this magical better person who’s out there just dying to take her spot?

Back to the Fox segment: There were two rumors Bartz didn’t deny. The first was when she was asked about the takeover rumors and she, as expected, said it wasn’t appropriate for her to speculate. The second was about Yahoo’s investment in Alibaba. She didn’t say they were selling the assets– even when needled by Clamen– but she didn’t say they weren’t  selling them, the way she categorically denied an upcoming ouster or talk of a strong number two joining her team. She definitely signaled that she views Alibaba as a wise financial investment and of little strategic value.

Given how much of global Internet traffic is increasingly coming from overseas, and how brilliantly Jack Ma has navigated infrastructure and political challenges endemic to a country like China, I just don’t see how Bartz doesn’t get how much Yahoo could learn from Alibaba or on a more basic level, the advantages of having someone like that as an ally. For sheer entertainment value, I’d give an arm to see Bartz, Jerry Yang and Jack Ma at a board meeting, when and if Yahoo get its contractually-obligated second seat on Alibaba’s board.

From the transcript:

CLAMAN:  I need to ask you about Alibaba, this Chinese site in which you have a near 40 percent stake that is extraordinarily valuable.  Everyone is wondering are you going to cash in on that.  What are you going to do with Alibaba?

First of all, is it 7 billion in value?  Is it 11 billion?  I can’t get a straight number from anybody.

BARTZ:  Well, I think one of the reasons you can’t get a straight number is it’s a private company, so there’s a lot of people that are doing their best analysis of that.

You know, the company five years ago had some trouble in China and made such a wise decision to move the business out of China and not operate in China cause we see what can happen in some of the issues with that.

CLAMAN:  Meaning Google and that situation.

BARTZ:  And we partnered up with a fantastic entrepreneur named Jack Ma. Five years later, everybody is salivating because it was such a good decision and such a good investment.

So we continue to watch this investment.  We’re on the board of Alibaba.  And we’re also always watching what is best for the shareholders.

CLAMAN:  Would you wait until it goes public or do you not want to miss an opportunity that may be before that?

BARTZ:  You’re always evaluating things like this, Liz.  Any investment you’re evaluating should I take some out now, should I wait and do these things later.

We have a team of very strong financial experts that both work here and advise us, and we will do the right thing for the shareholders, no doubt about it.

CLAMAN:  It must be tempting, though, when you look at — OK, let’s use the low number — $7 billion, if that’s what Alibaba is valued at, to say, boy, you know, this would get some of the analyst heat off my back.

(LAUGHTER)

BARTZ:  You know, I have a job that absorbs the heat.  That is my job.  And so, hey, listen, sometimes it is not fun  that you get a little more heat than you expect.  But we have such confidence in what we’re doing and we have such confidence in that investment that we will not do anything silly because of supposed heat.  We will do the right thing as a management team and the right thing for the shareholders.

Google made a stunning revelation this morning: the existence of a secret self-driving car project. Even more amazing: it has been in testing for months, on actual roads across California, and things seem to be running smoothly. Fans of Total Recall, Minority Report, and Knight Rider are hyperventilating at the prospects. And while the technology is likely still a long way from being widely implemented (The New York Times piece on it suggests eight years), there is one big question: why?

Google’s answer seems to be a “betterment of society” one. “We’ve always been optimistic about technology’s ability to advance society, which is why we have pushed so hard to improve the capabilities of self-driving cars beyond where they are today,” Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, who spearheaded the project (and also runs Stanford’s AI Labs, and co-invented Street View), writes today.

That’s great. But Google is still a public company in the business of making money for its shareholders. So one can’t help but wonder what, if any, money-making prospects there are here?

“The Google researchers said the company did not yet have a clear plan to create a business from the experiments,” according to the NYT. Further, they quote Thrun as saying that this project is an example of Google’s “willingness to gamble on technology that may not pay off for years.”

We know Google has a history of idealism — co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, in particular — but this project cannot come cheap. And the fact is that Google remains basically a one-trick-pony when it comes to making money. They are so reliant on search advertising revenues, that if something suddenly happened to the market, they’d be totally screwed. Android may prove to be their second trick, but it’s not there yet.

But there may be more to these automated cars than just an awesomely cool concept. At our TechCrunch Disrupt event a couple weeks ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a speech about “an augmented version of humanity.” He noted that the future is about getting computers to do the things we’re not good at. One of those things is driving cars, Schmidt slyly said at the time. “Your car should drive itself. It just makes sense,” he noted. “It’s a bug that cars were invented before computers.”

If your car can drive itself, a lot of commuters would be freed up to do other things in the car — such as surf the web. One of Google’s stated goals for this project is to “free up people’s time”. That matched with Schmidt’s vision of mobile devices being with us all the time every day, likely will translate into more usage of Google.

That may sound silly and not worth all the R&D an undertaking as huge as this will require, but don’t underestimate Google. This is a company who cares deeply about shaving fractions of a second off of each search query so that you can do more of them in your waking hours. Imagine if you suddenly had an hour or more a day in your car to do whatever you wanted because you no longer had to focus on driving? Yeah. Cha-ching.

Or imagine if your on-board maps where showing you Google ads. Or you were watching Google TV in your car since you didn’t have to drive. Or you were listening to Google Music with Google ads. It’s all the same. This automated driving technology would free you up to use more Google products — which in turn make them more money. Make no mistake, Google will enter your car in a big way. And automated driving would up their return in a big way.

And, of course, none of this speaks to what, if anything, Google would actually charge for such technology implementation. You would have to believe that if and when it’s available, this automated driving tech would be built-in to cars. Would car manufacturers pay Google for it and pass off some of the costs to customers? Or would this all be subsidized by the above ideas?

It’s way too early to get into that, I’m sure. And in 8 years, there will be things out there that we can’t even imagine right now. But it’s interesting to think about. The Google Car.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have little doubt Google is being sincere in their broader hopes for such a technology. Here’s their key blurb on that:

According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents. We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half. We’re also confident that self-driving cars will transform car sharing, significantly reducing car usage, as well as help create the new “highway trains of tomorrow.” These highway trains should cut energy consumption while also increasing the number of people that can be transported on our major roads. In terms of time efficiency, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that people spend on average 52 minutes each working day commuting. Imagine being able to spend that time more productively.

That first part is awesome. If we could halve the number of traffic deaths each year, it would be world-changing. And if energy consumption could be cut, it could re-shape economies and save our future. But again, don’t gloss over the last part. Freeing up those 52 minutes a day to be productive — that’s a lot of potential money for Google.

And that’s great too. If Google can spend the time and money working on such amazing technology they should be rewarded for it. There’s no rule that says you shouldn’t be able to make money by changing the world. And Google can’t be praised enough for trying.

More:

• Google Has A Secret Fleet Of Automated Toyota Priuses; 140,000 Miles Logged So Far.


• Google’s Self-Driving Car Spotted On The Highway Almost A Year Ago 

[images: Dreamworks and TriStar Entertainment]

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eric seiger eric seiger

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was on Fox Business News today, and she was plenty Bartz-y. When Fox anchor Liz Clamen asked her repeatedly if she was on the way out, she said she was there to stay, adding “Do I look like a wimp?”

No. You do not. Even if you think Bartz is running the company into the ground, you have to give her credit for not holing up and hiding the way her predecessor Jerry Yang did, for continuing to be herself and holding her head high amid a pretty nasty storm of rumors. She further added that she wasn’t hiring a strong number two, saying she didn’t need one.

The question is, do we believe her? I don’t mean that question as a knock on her; frequently CEOs say they’re not going anywhere or not doing a deal or not launching a product just before they do. But Bartz didn’t help her credibility with her answer to Clamen’s question about whether she was tough to work for. She said: “So change just happens with new management and it’s actually refreshing for all of us.  So 15,000 employees, three people left?  That’s OK.”

Am I totally misunderstanding this or is she saying only three people have left Yahoo in the last year and a half? I think I’ve talked to three this week. I’m not convinced Bartz was a good fit for Yahoo, but I’ve long been a fan of her outspoken, here’s-the-way-it-is management style. And that statement isn’t how things are at Yahoo.

I’m somewhere between those onlookers who loathe Bartz and those who love her. I know a lot of talented executives who have left Yahoo in part because of her. They aren’t haters; they just don’t feel she gets the product or the business. And few metrics have been up during her short tenure, other than profitability which is up 80%, but that’s mostly through cost cutting and frankly, Yahoo had a lot of fat to cut. But on the other hand, I think Bartz is cleaning up a big mess that was a long time in the making. Not even a fictional wonder-CEO could do that in 18 months.

Let’s remember: The business hasn’t grown for six years and Bartz has only been there 18 months. She’s not the one who turned down Microsoft’s $31 a share offer. She’s not the one who bungled an acquisition of Google, YouTube or Facebook. And while we had some fun at her expense over her comments about the technical challenges of blogging– I can tell you from experience Yahoo’s in house content management system was impossible to use. Should it have taken this long and a pile of money to update it? Of course not. But it shows just how asleep the board and prior management was when it came to building a strong modern content creation company– not just a content aggregation company. Eight years after Google bought Blogger, and at least five years after most old media companies embraced blogging platforms like Moveable Type and WordPress, Yahoo is finally figuring it out. You can’t put that on Bartz.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The Yahoo CEO job has a way of making smart people look inept. Maybe she wasn’t the best pick, but who is this magical better person who’s out there just dying to take her spot?

Back to the Fox segment: There were two rumors Bartz didn’t deny. The first was when she was asked about the takeover rumors and she, as expected, said it wasn’t appropriate for her to speculate. The second was about Yahoo’s investment in Alibaba. She didn’t say they were selling the assets– even when needled by Clamen– but she didn’t say they weren’t  selling them, the way she categorically denied an upcoming ouster or talk of a strong number two joining her team. She definitely signaled that she views Alibaba as a wise financial investment and of little strategic value.

Given how much of global Internet traffic is increasingly coming from overseas, and how brilliantly Jack Ma has navigated infrastructure and political challenges endemic to a country like China, I just don’t see how Bartz doesn’t get how much Yahoo could learn from Alibaba or on a more basic level, the advantages of having someone like that as an ally. For sheer entertainment value, I’d give an arm to see Bartz, Jerry Yang and Jack Ma at a board meeting, when and if Yahoo get its contractually-obligated second seat on Alibaba’s board.

From the transcript:

CLAMAN:  I need to ask you about Alibaba, this Chinese site in which you have a near 40 percent stake that is extraordinarily valuable.  Everyone is wondering are you going to cash in on that.  What are you going to do with Alibaba?

First of all, is it 7 billion in value?  Is it 11 billion?  I can’t get a straight number from anybody.

BARTZ:  Well, I think one of the reasons you can’t get a straight number is it’s a private company, so there’s a lot of people that are doing their best analysis of that.

You know, the company five years ago had some trouble in China and made such a wise decision to move the business out of China and not operate in China cause we see what can happen in some of the issues with that.

CLAMAN:  Meaning Google and that situation.

BARTZ:  And we partnered up with a fantastic entrepreneur named Jack Ma. Five years later, everybody is salivating because it was such a good decision and such a good investment.

So we continue to watch this investment.  We’re on the board of Alibaba.  And we’re also always watching what is best for the shareholders.

CLAMAN:  Would you wait until it goes public or do you not want to miss an opportunity that may be before that?

BARTZ:  You’re always evaluating things like this, Liz.  Any investment you’re evaluating should I take some out now, should I wait and do these things later.

We have a team of very strong financial experts that both work here and advise us, and we will do the right thing for the shareholders, no doubt about it.

CLAMAN:  It must be tempting, though, when you look at — OK, let’s use the low number — $7 billion, if that’s what Alibaba is valued at, to say, boy, you know, this would get some of the analyst heat off my back.

(LAUGHTER)

BARTZ:  You know, I have a job that absorbs the heat.  That is my job.  And so, hey, listen, sometimes it is not fun  that you get a little more heat than you expect.  But we have such confidence in what we’re doing and we have such confidence in that investment that we will not do anything silly because of supposed heat.  We will do the right thing as a management team and the right thing for the shareholders.

Google made a stunning revelation this morning: the existence of a secret self-driving car project. Even more amazing: it has been in testing for months, on actual roads across California, and things seem to be running smoothly. Fans of Total Recall, Minority Report, and Knight Rider are hyperventilating at the prospects. And while the technology is likely still a long way from being widely implemented (The New York Times piece on it suggests eight years), there is one big question: why?

Google’s answer seems to be a “betterment of society” one. “We’ve always been optimistic about technology’s ability to advance society, which is why we have pushed so hard to improve the capabilities of self-driving cars beyond where they are today,” Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, who spearheaded the project (and also runs Stanford’s AI Labs, and co-invented Street View), writes today.

That’s great. But Google is still a public company in the business of making money for its shareholders. So one can’t help but wonder what, if any, money-making prospects there are here?

“The Google researchers said the company did not yet have a clear plan to create a business from the experiments,” according to the NYT. Further, they quote Thrun as saying that this project is an example of Google’s “willingness to gamble on technology that may not pay off for years.”

We know Google has a history of idealism — co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, in particular — but this project cannot come cheap. And the fact is that Google remains basically a one-trick-pony when it comes to making money. They are so reliant on search advertising revenues, that if something suddenly happened to the market, they’d be totally screwed. Android may prove to be their second trick, but it’s not there yet.

But there may be more to these automated cars than just an awesomely cool concept. At our TechCrunch Disrupt event a couple weeks ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a speech about “an augmented version of humanity.” He noted that the future is about getting computers to do the things we’re not good at. One of those things is driving cars, Schmidt slyly said at the time. “Your car should drive itself. It just makes sense,” he noted. “It’s a bug that cars were invented before computers.”

If your car can drive itself, a lot of commuters would be freed up to do other things in the car — such as surf the web. One of Google’s stated goals for this project is to “free up people’s time”. That matched with Schmidt’s vision of mobile devices being with us all the time every day, likely will translate into more usage of Google.

That may sound silly and not worth all the R&D an undertaking as huge as this will require, but don’t underestimate Google. This is a company who cares deeply about shaving fractions of a second off of each search query so that you can do more of them in your waking hours. Imagine if you suddenly had an hour or more a day in your car to do whatever you wanted because you no longer had to focus on driving? Yeah. Cha-ching.

Or imagine if your on-board maps where showing you Google ads. Or you were watching Google TV in your car since you didn’t have to drive. Or you were listening to Google Music with Google ads. It’s all the same. This automated driving technology would free you up to use more Google products — which in turn make them more money. Make no mistake, Google will enter your car in a big way. And automated driving would up their return in a big way.

And, of course, none of this speaks to what, if anything, Google would actually charge for such technology implementation. You would have to believe that if and when it’s available, this automated driving tech would be built-in to cars. Would car manufacturers pay Google for it and pass off some of the costs to customers? Or would this all be subsidized by the above ideas?

It’s way too early to get into that, I’m sure. And in 8 years, there will be things out there that we can’t even imagine right now. But it’s interesting to think about. The Google Car.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have little doubt Google is being sincere in their broader hopes for such a technology. Here’s their key blurb on that:

According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents. We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half. We’re also confident that self-driving cars will transform car sharing, significantly reducing car usage, as well as help create the new “highway trains of tomorrow.” These highway trains should cut energy consumption while also increasing the number of people that can be transported on our major roads. In terms of time efficiency, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that people spend on average 52 minutes each working day commuting. Imagine being able to spend that time more productively.

That first part is awesome. If we could halve the number of traffic deaths each year, it would be world-changing. And if energy consumption could be cut, it could re-shape economies and save our future. But again, don’t gloss over the last part. Freeing up those 52 minutes a day to be productive — that’s a lot of potential money for Google.

And that’s great too. If Google can spend the time and money working on such amazing technology they should be rewarded for it. There’s no rule that says you shouldn’t be able to make money by changing the world. And Google can’t be praised enough for trying.

More:

• Google Has A Secret Fleet Of Automated Toyota Priuses; 140,000 Miles Logged So Far.


• Google’s Self-Driving Car Spotted On The Highway Almost A Year Ago 

[images: Dreamworks and TriStar Entertainment]

Nuclear submarine runs aground off Skye | Scotland | STV <b>News</b>

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BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: No Jail For Lindsay Lohan - Judge Orders Her To <b>...</b>

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eric seiger eric seiger

foreclosure listings

MOVIES

Nevada Smith: Steve McQueen plays novelist Harold Robbins' character at a younger age in this 1966 Western that sends the title character on a mission of vengeance after his father is murdered by three men in a dispute over gold — and nothing and no one will stand in his way. The strong supporting cast includes Karl Malden, Brian Keith and Suzanne Pleshette (2:30 p.m. TCM). 

The Lovely Bones: Director Peter Jackson's 2009 adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestseller stars Stanley Tucci as a neighbor of a murdered youngster (Saoirse Ronan). Her survivors, including her parents (Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg), are seen through her eyes as her spirit witnesses the aftermath of the tragedy from above (8 p.m. HBO). 

SPORTS

College football: Boston College at Florida State (9 a.m. ESPN); Arkansas at Auburn (12:30 p.m. CBS); Texas at Nebraska (12:30 p.m. ABC); Iowa at Michigan (12:30 p.m. ESPN); California at USC (12:30 p.m. FS Prime); South Carolina at Kentucky (3 p.m. ESPN2); Ohio State at Wisconsin (4 p.m. ESPN); Iowa State at Oklahoma (4 p.m. FS Prime); Arizona at Washington State (4:30 p.m. VS); Mississippi at Alabama (6 p.m. ESPN2); Oregon State at Washington (7:15 p.m. ESPN).

Baseball: Playoffs: The New York Yankees visit the Texas Rangers (1 p.m. TBS); the San Francisco Giants visit the Philadelphia Phillies (4:30 p.m. Fox). 

Exhibition basketball: The Denver Nuggets visit the Lakers (7:30 p.m. FSN).

Photo: Justin Stephens / Cartoon Network

The Foreclosure Mess-a Follow-up

October 18, 2010

David Kotok

>

Wow, there were many, many emails in response to the recent piece entitled “Foreclosure Mess.” Here are some of those observations.

Some folks missed the opening disclaimer and attributed the piece to me; that was their error. I did not write it [BR: The original was from Gonzalo Lira's blog]. I only edited out the expletives. I do not believe that F this and F that add anything. MK wrote back: “The article’s issues needed the expletives. In this particular case they would have been in context and not extraneous. Next time leave them in. &%$)@%%$.” Readers who get to the end of today’s follow-up will be able to judge for themselves.

The piece had many technical and legal errors, although most professionals agreed with this overall theme. Barry Ritholtz summarized the legal side with a “lawyer’s hat” on: “The flaw in this piece is that courts have long been authorized to apply principles of equity, as opposed to law, to cases brought before it. This means that we do not want to create unjust enrichment for either wrongdoers or other bad outcomes. We have two bad actors here: The homeowner who is in default, and the banks/securitizes who failed to do the document creation and title management correctly. Most judges do not want to see, in civil cases, an absurd outcome. Rewarding the homeowner (free house!) or the lenders (No penalty for massive screw-ups!), a total victory would offend those principles. An example of a possible outcome in a full-blown litigation might be for the court to order the mortgage modified to the current equity value of the home, so that it punishes the lenders who failed to do their proper legal work on the documents, but does not give a home to a defaulted homeowner free. Courts of “equity” (meaning fairness, not ownership) apply these principles to avoid ridiculous outcomes.”

A senior bank executive with extensive mortgage experience also responded. WP wrote: “There are technical errors made by the writer, but much of it is accurate.”

JR replied: “David, how are you, my mother fwd this to me as I am in the business. Is it safe to assume that the bank foreclosures will be taken off the market, which would then decrease the amount of homes that are listed dramatically (over 70%) in some markets. The market has been saturated with foreclosure listings. Over the past 2 years, it has been very easy to get a foreclosure sale, where individuals were able to buy a home for 76 cents on the dollar, in essence bringing the values down on sales-cost comparisons (appraisals). What impact will we see to the market? I’m thinking that with the foreclosures no longer as easy to get as a McDonalds happy meal, the remaining properties that are listed will now sell at or above market value, because the “value foreclosure meal” will be no longer available to the buyer. What will this do to the short sale market, being that short sales were the bank alternative to foreclosure?”

Another lawyer weighed in. Mr. B wrote: “In this case, I must quibble. I believe that the mortgagor cannot go scot-free. While enforcing the mortgage is by far the more convenient route, the claimant standing in the shoes of the mortgagee/note owner could claim against the home “owner” for unjust enrichment outside the mortgage enforcement procedure. Evidence of the existence of the claim can be adduced from related documentation. The “home owner” could be required to prove the source of funds for buying the house…, which of course he could not. All very inconvenient, time consuming and expensive. But look on the bright side. It’s employment for lawyers.”

And another lawyer. Jay wrote: “Despite what your friend says, just because the chain of ownership of the note is broken does NOT mean a borrower is relieved of his debt. Observers have speculated for a long time about what would happen if a judge demanded that only the right owner could foreclose, and that particular chicken has come home to roost. It may take awhile, but sooner or later the banks will find the original note and the proper successor in interest will be found and the defaulting borrower will have to make a deal or be foreclosed out. Meanwhile, all the shenanigans are true and they will result in big delays and huge costs as lenders have to go back and do things right. Some homeowners who were improperly evicted will have claims and they will get some relief but they won’t get their houses back. This is indeed a mess and the lenders deserve everything they are getting – particularly Bank of America, which bought one of the worst offenders, Countrywide.

In addition, another lawyer named Howard said: “While it is true that some may take advantage of the mortgage mess, the process will always win. You do not make good law for the bad cases. You cannot have people lying and fraudulently fixing chain of title due to the inconvenience. I once had a mortgage foreclosure that XXXXXX handled. It took years, and at the end he had made a theoretical mistake and was forced to start over or seek judicial help in fixing the error. While the client was furious, the process was righteous.

Michael G. added to the debate: “We’re talking about estimates of $20bn or more in losses (from put-backs, etc.). I agree that you do not make good law from bad cases. And I know that shortcuts were taken when loans were securitized. I was not suggesting a solution, only the gravity of the problem. The halting of foreclosures is one more factor that will prevent the housing market from finding equilibrium and weigh on the health of American banks. Stagnant economic growth, a financial system under heavy stress, and plenty of landmines to side-step… but hey, at least NBER says that the recession ended!”

Kathy is a skilled observer of our system. She wrote “Suggesting the dissolution of civil society is fear mongering/hyperbole. I believe the US is in for a long uncertain meandering period as housing unravels, but I don’t think we’re going back to keeping cash and guns under the mattress.”

A senior partner in a major accounting firm liked the original piece. JB replied: “Whoever wrote it explained this situation as clearly as the Big Short explained the base mess. Please pass on my thanks for a job well done.”

CG chimed in from Hawaii: “The whole purpose of MBSs was for Wall Street to “Madoff the World.”

MS is a skilled lawyer and former judge. He wrote: “First paragraph starts off wrong. The note does not permit foreclosure. Suing on the note gives plaintiff a judgment. It is the mortgage which makes the property security for the note. No mortgage, no foreclosure. So I stopped reading.”

Highly tech-savvy businessperson GC wrote: “While it is popular to try and pin all the blame on Fannie and Freddie (and they certainly deserve as much opprobrium as we have energy left to give), in fact the ownership of MERS is a good indictment of all the players in the game. See this link: http://www.mersinc.org/about/shareholders.aspx . ”

Lastly, Elliot S. wrote and linked websites. He did this in response to John Mauldin who ran the original piece in his newsletter. “They are wrong with regards to the Note and chain of title. Actually, they couldn’t more wrong. The Note is just the IOU and gives the lender the right to collect any money lost. MERS has nothing to do with Notes only with mortgages. The mortgage is the controlling document that is used for the foreclosure and the ONLY document. The mortgage gets assigned from one lender to another and often the assignments didn’t get recorded and the last lender, who actually owned the mortgage, didn’t have the right to foreclosure. Therefore, they created MERS, which is a registration of the mortgage but not to a bank, but to MERS. MERS is the mortgage holder and the loans are assigned via registration number. Therefore, if XYZ sells a mortgage to ABC, MERS is notified that the lender’s MERS ID is changed from XYZ to ABC and there is no need for a recorded assignment and that alleviated a huge problem for unrecorded or lost assignment. The foreclosure is actually performed in the name of MERS. So I am not sure what the heck this guy is talking about. The issue with GMAC and other lenders has NOTHING to do with this. The issue is what they are calling “Robo-signers” which are individuals who signed affidavits stating that they had “personal knowledge” of the facts in a foreclosure case, when in fact they did not. http://www.forextv.com/forex-news-story/forex-why-did-the-mortgage-servicers-use-robo-signers Read this actual and in the paragraph that starts with Second, they will provide the support for my claims. Here are additional articles I searched for on the web. http://www.fiercefinance.com/story/robo-signer-wells-fargo-no-foreclosure-halt-yet/2010-10-14 and http://www.housingwire.com/2010/10/15/robo-signers-are-a-drop-in-the-bucket-to-mortgage-industrys-problems I hate people that have no idea what they are talking about and mislead people. They don’t even know what a Note and Mortgage are or what they are used for, holy cows. And MERS doesn’t slice or dice mortgages they are just a repository. Must of the slicing and dicing is done in CDOs, which if needed I will explain why. CDO unlike MBS or RBMS continually slice and dice the junior pieces or Mezz into new CDO whereby they take the more riskier debt make them look like AAA.”

I will stop and add just add a few personal observations. No writer mentioned the role of real estate taxes so we discussed this with NE, a highly skilled, community development real estate professional. He described how a well-informed tax-sale certificate buyer could jump ahead of the other lien holders and get a house on the cheap. In addition, an occupant could keep the tax payments current, delay the mortgage payment while the mess is in the courts, and remain in the house for quite a while. He noted how many mortgage servicers do not collect the real estate taxes and are therefore exposed.

Also, state law prevails on mortgages. That means 50 jurisdictions with 50 different sets of rules. The securities are mostly through NY trusts, noted Josh Rosner. The trust will determine how the securitizations are unwound, not the rules under which the foreclosures will occur. Many of our diverse legal opinions are coming to us because the lawyers involved are citing their own local jurisdictions.

We thank the many, many readers for their thoughtful comments. We do not normally pass on a piece and keep the writer anonymous. Had he written without rudeness and expletives the outcome might have been different. It is too bad he had to resort to abusive language. The original text, despite the technical errors, was provocative and captured the gist of the mess.

Many have asked about the identity of the original writer, LG sent this email: “David Kotok: A simple Google search would have revealed to you who wrote the following. I doubt he is need of you providing him 15 minutes of fame, but who knows…http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2010/10/second-leg-down-of-americas-death.html .” Thank you, LG.

BTW, there is an investment implication in our view. We believe the banking system will weather this mess and the weakness in the sector will evolve into a buying opportunity as a result. The new Fed policy of additional QE implies more liquidity to offset the economic weakness of the foreclosure mess and more subsidies for banks.

robert shumake hall of shame

&#39;Teen Mom 2&#39;?! Has MTV Gone Spin-Off Crazy? | Fancast <b>News</b>

MTV must believe that 'Teen Mom' is forever pregnant with possibilities. Sources tell The New York Post the network has already cast a new yet-to-be-titled spin-off series, and has even begun shooting on location.

RIM co-CEO Balsillie responds to Jobs&#39; comments | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the RIM co-CEO Balsillie responds to Jobs' comments. Find more Apple news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Macsimum <b>News</b> - Apple number 65 on &#39;Newsweek&#39; environmental ranking

MacsimumNews - Your Leading Apple News Alternative. Apple number 65 on 'Newsweek' environmental ranking. Posted by Dennis Sellers Apple ico Oct 19, 2010 at 7:59am. image Yesterday we noted that “Newsweek” has released its list of ...

robert shumake twitter


MOVIES

Nevada Smith: Steve McQueen plays novelist Harold Robbins' character at a younger age in this 1966 Western that sends the title character on a mission of vengeance after his father is murdered by three men in a dispute over gold — and nothing and no one will stand in his way. The strong supporting cast includes Karl Malden, Brian Keith and Suzanne Pleshette (2:30 p.m. TCM). 

The Lovely Bones: Director Peter Jackson's 2009 adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestseller stars Stanley Tucci as a neighbor of a murdered youngster (Saoirse Ronan). Her survivors, including her parents (Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg), are seen through her eyes as her spirit witnesses the aftermath of the tragedy from above (8 p.m. HBO). 

SPORTS

College football: Boston College at Florida State (9 a.m. ESPN); Arkansas at Auburn (12:30 p.m. CBS); Texas at Nebraska (12:30 p.m. ABC); Iowa at Michigan (12:30 p.m. ESPN); California at USC (12:30 p.m. FS Prime); South Carolina at Kentucky (3 p.m. ESPN2); Ohio State at Wisconsin (4 p.m. ESPN); Iowa State at Oklahoma (4 p.m. FS Prime); Arizona at Washington State (4:30 p.m. VS); Mississippi at Alabama (6 p.m. ESPN2); Oregon State at Washington (7:15 p.m. ESPN).

Baseball: Playoffs: The New York Yankees visit the Texas Rangers (1 p.m. TBS); the San Francisco Giants visit the Philadelphia Phillies (4:30 p.m. Fox). 

Exhibition basketball: The Denver Nuggets visit the Lakers (7:30 p.m. FSN).

Photo: Justin Stephens / Cartoon Network

The Foreclosure Mess-a Follow-up

October 18, 2010

David Kotok

>

Wow, there were many, many emails in response to the recent piece entitled “Foreclosure Mess.” Here are some of those observations.

Some folks missed the opening disclaimer and attributed the piece to me; that was their error. I did not write it [BR: The original was from Gonzalo Lira's blog]. I only edited out the expletives. I do not believe that F this and F that add anything. MK wrote back: “The article’s issues needed the expletives. In this particular case they would have been in context and not extraneous. Next time leave them in. &%$)@%%$.” Readers who get to the end of today’s follow-up will be able to judge for themselves.

The piece had many technical and legal errors, although most professionals agreed with this overall theme. Barry Ritholtz summarized the legal side with a “lawyer’s hat” on: “The flaw in this piece is that courts have long been authorized to apply principles of equity, as opposed to law, to cases brought before it. This means that we do not want to create unjust enrichment for either wrongdoers or other bad outcomes. We have two bad actors here: The homeowner who is in default, and the banks/securitizes who failed to do the document creation and title management correctly. Most judges do not want to see, in civil cases, an absurd outcome. Rewarding the homeowner (free house!) or the lenders (No penalty for massive screw-ups!), a total victory would offend those principles. An example of a possible outcome in a full-blown litigation might be for the court to order the mortgage modified to the current equity value of the home, so that it punishes the lenders who failed to do their proper legal work on the documents, but does not give a home to a defaulted homeowner free. Courts of “equity” (meaning fairness, not ownership) apply these principles to avoid ridiculous outcomes.”

A senior bank executive with extensive mortgage experience also responded. WP wrote: “There are technical errors made by the writer, but much of it is accurate.”

JR replied: “David, how are you, my mother fwd this to me as I am in the business. Is it safe to assume that the bank foreclosures will be taken off the market, which would then decrease the amount of homes that are listed dramatically (over 70%) in some markets. The market has been saturated with foreclosure listings. Over the past 2 years, it has been very easy to get a foreclosure sale, where individuals were able to buy a home for 76 cents on the dollar, in essence bringing the values down on sales-cost comparisons (appraisals). What impact will we see to the market? I’m thinking that with the foreclosures no longer as easy to get as a McDonalds happy meal, the remaining properties that are listed will now sell at or above market value, because the “value foreclosure meal” will be no longer available to the buyer. What will this do to the short sale market, being that short sales were the bank alternative to foreclosure?”

Another lawyer weighed in. Mr. B wrote: “In this case, I must quibble. I believe that the mortgagor cannot go scot-free. While enforcing the mortgage is by far the more convenient route, the claimant standing in the shoes of the mortgagee/note owner could claim against the home “owner” for unjust enrichment outside the mortgage enforcement procedure. Evidence of the existence of the claim can be adduced from related documentation. The “home owner” could be required to prove the source of funds for buying the house…, which of course he could not. All very inconvenient, time consuming and expensive. But look on the bright side. It’s employment for lawyers.”

And another lawyer. Jay wrote: “Despite what your friend says, just because the chain of ownership of the note is broken does NOT mean a borrower is relieved of his debt. Observers have speculated for a long time about what would happen if a judge demanded that only the right owner could foreclose, and that particular chicken has come home to roost. It may take awhile, but sooner or later the banks will find the original note and the proper successor in interest will be found and the defaulting borrower will have to make a deal or be foreclosed out. Meanwhile, all the shenanigans are true and they will result in big delays and huge costs as lenders have to go back and do things right. Some homeowners who were improperly evicted will have claims and they will get some relief but they won’t get their houses back. This is indeed a mess and the lenders deserve everything they are getting – particularly Bank of America, which bought one of the worst offenders, Countrywide.

In addition, another lawyer named Howard said: “While it is true that some may take advantage of the mortgage mess, the process will always win. You do not make good law for the bad cases. You cannot have people lying and fraudulently fixing chain of title due to the inconvenience. I once had a mortgage foreclosure that XXXXXX handled. It took years, and at the end he had made a theoretical mistake and was forced to start over or seek judicial help in fixing the error. While the client was furious, the process was righteous.

Michael G. added to the debate: “We’re talking about estimates of $20bn or more in losses (from put-backs, etc.). I agree that you do not make good law from bad cases. And I know that shortcuts were taken when loans were securitized. I was not suggesting a solution, only the gravity of the problem. The halting of foreclosures is one more factor that will prevent the housing market from finding equilibrium and weigh on the health of American banks. Stagnant economic growth, a financial system under heavy stress, and plenty of landmines to side-step… but hey, at least NBER says that the recession ended!”

Kathy is a skilled observer of our system. She wrote “Suggesting the dissolution of civil society is fear mongering/hyperbole. I believe the US is in for a long uncertain meandering period as housing unravels, but I don’t think we’re going back to keeping cash and guns under the mattress.”

A senior partner in a major accounting firm liked the original piece. JB replied: “Whoever wrote it explained this situation as clearly as the Big Short explained the base mess. Please pass on my thanks for a job well done.”

CG chimed in from Hawaii: “The whole purpose of MBSs was for Wall Street to “Madoff the World.”

MS is a skilled lawyer and former judge. He wrote: “First paragraph starts off wrong. The note does not permit foreclosure. Suing on the note gives plaintiff a judgment. It is the mortgage which makes the property security for the note. No mortgage, no foreclosure. So I stopped reading.”

Highly tech-savvy businessperson GC wrote: “While it is popular to try and pin all the blame on Fannie and Freddie (and they certainly deserve as much opprobrium as we have energy left to give), in fact the ownership of MERS is a good indictment of all the players in the game. See this link: http://www.mersinc.org/about/shareholders.aspx . ”

Lastly, Elliot S. wrote and linked websites. He did this in response to John Mauldin who ran the original piece in his newsletter. “They are wrong with regards to the Note and chain of title. Actually, they couldn’t more wrong. The Note is just the IOU and gives the lender the right to collect any money lost. MERS has nothing to do with Notes only with mortgages. The mortgage is the controlling document that is used for the foreclosure and the ONLY document. The mortgage gets assigned from one lender to another and often the assignments didn’t get recorded and the last lender, who actually owned the mortgage, didn’t have the right to foreclosure. Therefore, they created MERS, which is a registration of the mortgage but not to a bank, but to MERS. MERS is the mortgage holder and the loans are assigned via registration number. Therefore, if XYZ sells a mortgage to ABC, MERS is notified that the lender’s MERS ID is changed from XYZ to ABC and there is no need for a recorded assignment and that alleviated a huge problem for unrecorded or lost assignment. The foreclosure is actually performed in the name of MERS. So I am not sure what the heck this guy is talking about. The issue with GMAC and other lenders has NOTHING to do with this. The issue is what they are calling “Robo-signers” which are individuals who signed affidavits stating that they had “personal knowledge” of the facts in a foreclosure case, when in fact they did not. http://www.forextv.com/forex-news-story/forex-why-did-the-mortgage-servicers-use-robo-signers Read this actual and in the paragraph that starts with Second, they will provide the support for my claims. Here are additional articles I searched for on the web. http://www.fiercefinance.com/story/robo-signer-wells-fargo-no-foreclosure-halt-yet/2010-10-14 and http://www.housingwire.com/2010/10/15/robo-signers-are-a-drop-in-the-bucket-to-mortgage-industrys-problems I hate people that have no idea what they are talking about and mislead people. They don’t even know what a Note and Mortgage are or what they are used for, holy cows. And MERS doesn’t slice or dice mortgages they are just a repository. Must of the slicing and dicing is done in CDOs, which if needed I will explain why. CDO unlike MBS or RBMS continually slice and dice the junior pieces or Mezz into new CDO whereby they take the more riskier debt make them look like AAA.”

I will stop and add just add a few personal observations. No writer mentioned the role of real estate taxes so we discussed this with NE, a highly skilled, community development real estate professional. He described how a well-informed tax-sale certificate buyer could jump ahead of the other lien holders and get a house on the cheap. In addition, an occupant could keep the tax payments current, delay the mortgage payment while the mess is in the courts, and remain in the house for quite a while. He noted how many mortgage servicers do not collect the real estate taxes and are therefore exposed.

Also, state law prevails on mortgages. That means 50 jurisdictions with 50 different sets of rules. The securities are mostly through NY trusts, noted Josh Rosner. The trust will determine how the securitizations are unwound, not the rules under which the foreclosures will occur. Many of our diverse legal opinions are coming to us because the lawyers involved are citing their own local jurisdictions.

We thank the many, many readers for their thoughtful comments. We do not normally pass on a piece and keep the writer anonymous. Had he written without rudeness and expletives the outcome might have been different. It is too bad he had to resort to abusive language. The original text, despite the technical errors, was provocative and captured the gist of the mess.

Many have asked about the identity of the original writer, LG sent this email: “David Kotok: A simple Google search would have revealed to you who wrote the following. I doubt he is need of you providing him 15 minutes of fame, but who knows…http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2010/10/second-leg-down-of-americas-death.html .” Thank you, LG.

BTW, there is an investment implication in our view. We believe the banking system will weather this mess and the weakness in the sector will evolve into a buying opportunity as a result. The new Fed policy of additional QE implies more liquidity to offset the economic weakness of the foreclosure mess and more subsidies for banks.

benchcraft company portland or

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MOVIES

Nevada Smith: Steve McQueen plays novelist Harold Robbins' character at a younger age in this 1966 Western that sends the title character on a mission of vengeance after his father is murdered by three men in a dispute over gold — and nothing and no one will stand in his way. The strong supporting cast includes Karl Malden, Brian Keith and Suzanne Pleshette (2:30 p.m. TCM). 

The Lovely Bones: Director Peter Jackson's 2009 adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestseller stars Stanley Tucci as a neighbor of a murdered youngster (Saoirse Ronan). Her survivors, including her parents (Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg), are seen through her eyes as her spirit witnesses the aftermath of the tragedy from above (8 p.m. HBO). 

SPORTS

College football: Boston College at Florida State (9 a.m. ESPN); Arkansas at Auburn (12:30 p.m. CBS); Texas at Nebraska (12:30 p.m. ABC); Iowa at Michigan (12:30 p.m. ESPN); California at USC (12:30 p.m. FS Prime); South Carolina at Kentucky (3 p.m. ESPN2); Ohio State at Wisconsin (4 p.m. ESPN); Iowa State at Oklahoma (4 p.m. FS Prime); Arizona at Washington State (4:30 p.m. VS); Mississippi at Alabama (6 p.m. ESPN2); Oregon State at Washington (7:15 p.m. ESPN).

Baseball: Playoffs: The New York Yankees visit the Texas Rangers (1 p.m. TBS); the San Francisco Giants visit the Philadelphia Phillies (4:30 p.m. Fox). 

Exhibition basketball: The Denver Nuggets visit the Lakers (7:30 p.m. FSN).

Photo: Justin Stephens / Cartoon Network

The Foreclosure Mess-a Follow-up

October 18, 2010

David Kotok

>

Wow, there were many, many emails in response to the recent piece entitled “Foreclosure Mess.” Here are some of those observations.

Some folks missed the opening disclaimer and attributed the piece to me; that was their error. I did not write it [BR: The original was from Gonzalo Lira's blog]. I only edited out the expletives. I do not believe that F this and F that add anything. MK wrote back: “The article’s issues needed the expletives. In this particular case they would have been in context and not extraneous. Next time leave them in. &%$)@%%$.” Readers who get to the end of today’s follow-up will be able to judge for themselves.

The piece had many technical and legal errors, although most professionals agreed with this overall theme. Barry Ritholtz summarized the legal side with a “lawyer’s hat” on: “The flaw in this piece is that courts have long been authorized to apply principles of equity, as opposed to law, to cases brought before it. This means that we do not want to create unjust enrichment for either wrongdoers or other bad outcomes. We have two bad actors here: The homeowner who is in default, and the banks/securitizes who failed to do the document creation and title management correctly. Most judges do not want to see, in civil cases, an absurd outcome. Rewarding the homeowner (free house!) or the lenders (No penalty for massive screw-ups!), a total victory would offend those principles. An example of a possible outcome in a full-blown litigation might be for the court to order the mortgage modified to the current equity value of the home, so that it punishes the lenders who failed to do their proper legal work on the documents, but does not give a home to a defaulted homeowner free. Courts of “equity” (meaning fairness, not ownership) apply these principles to avoid ridiculous outcomes.”

A senior bank executive with extensive mortgage experience also responded. WP wrote: “There are technical errors made by the writer, but much of it is accurate.”

JR replied: “David, how are you, my mother fwd this to me as I am in the business. Is it safe to assume that the bank foreclosures will be taken off the market, which would then decrease the amount of homes that are listed dramatically (over 70%) in some markets. The market has been saturated with foreclosure listings. Over the past 2 years, it has been very easy to get a foreclosure sale, where individuals were able to buy a home for 76 cents on the dollar, in essence bringing the values down on sales-cost comparisons (appraisals). What impact will we see to the market? I’m thinking that with the foreclosures no longer as easy to get as a McDonalds happy meal, the remaining properties that are listed will now sell at or above market value, because the “value foreclosure meal” will be no longer available to the buyer. What will this do to the short sale market, being that short sales were the bank alternative to foreclosure?”

Another lawyer weighed in. Mr. B wrote: “In this case, I must quibble. I believe that the mortgagor cannot go scot-free. While enforcing the mortgage is by far the more convenient route, the claimant standing in the shoes of the mortgagee/note owner could claim against the home “owner” for unjust enrichment outside the mortgage enforcement procedure. Evidence of the existence of the claim can be adduced from related documentation. The “home owner” could be required to prove the source of funds for buying the house…, which of course he could not. All very inconvenient, time consuming and expensive. But look on the bright side. It’s employment for lawyers.”

And another lawyer. Jay wrote: “Despite what your friend says, just because the chain of ownership of the note is broken does NOT mean a borrower is relieved of his debt. Observers have speculated for a long time about what would happen if a judge demanded that only the right owner could foreclose, and that particular chicken has come home to roost. It may take awhile, but sooner or later the banks will find the original note and the proper successor in interest will be found and the defaulting borrower will have to make a deal or be foreclosed out. Meanwhile, all the shenanigans are true and they will result in big delays and huge costs as lenders have to go back and do things right. Some homeowners who were improperly evicted will have claims and they will get some relief but they won’t get their houses back. This is indeed a mess and the lenders deserve everything they are getting – particularly Bank of America, which bought one of the worst offenders, Countrywide.

In addition, another lawyer named Howard said: “While it is true that some may take advantage of the mortgage mess, the process will always win. You do not make good law for the bad cases. You cannot have people lying and fraudulently fixing chain of title due to the inconvenience. I once had a mortgage foreclosure that XXXXXX handled. It took years, and at the end he had made a theoretical mistake and was forced to start over or seek judicial help in fixing the error. While the client was furious, the process was righteous.

Michael G. added to the debate: “We’re talking about estimates of $20bn or more in losses (from put-backs, etc.). I agree that you do not make good law from bad cases. And I know that shortcuts were taken when loans were securitized. I was not suggesting a solution, only the gravity of the problem. The halting of foreclosures is one more factor that will prevent the housing market from finding equilibrium and weigh on the health of American banks. Stagnant economic growth, a financial system under heavy stress, and plenty of landmines to side-step… but hey, at least NBER says that the recession ended!”

Kathy is a skilled observer of our system. She wrote “Suggesting the dissolution of civil society is fear mongering/hyperbole. I believe the US is in for a long uncertain meandering period as housing unravels, but I don’t think we’re going back to keeping cash and guns under the mattress.”

A senior partner in a major accounting firm liked the original piece. JB replied: “Whoever wrote it explained this situation as clearly as the Big Short explained the base mess. Please pass on my thanks for a job well done.”

CG chimed in from Hawaii: “The whole purpose of MBSs was for Wall Street to “Madoff the World.”

MS is a skilled lawyer and former judge. He wrote: “First paragraph starts off wrong. The note does not permit foreclosure. Suing on the note gives plaintiff a judgment. It is the mortgage which makes the property security for the note. No mortgage, no foreclosure. So I stopped reading.”

Highly tech-savvy businessperson GC wrote: “While it is popular to try and pin all the blame on Fannie and Freddie (and they certainly deserve as much opprobrium as we have energy left to give), in fact the ownership of MERS is a good indictment of all the players in the game. See this link: http://www.mersinc.org/about/shareholders.aspx . ”

Lastly, Elliot S. wrote and linked websites. He did this in response to John Mauldin who ran the original piece in his newsletter. “They are wrong with regards to the Note and chain of title. Actually, they couldn’t more wrong. The Note is just the IOU and gives the lender the right to collect any money lost. MERS has nothing to do with Notes only with mortgages. The mortgage is the controlling document that is used for the foreclosure and the ONLY document. The mortgage gets assigned from one lender to another and often the assignments didn’t get recorded and the last lender, who actually owned the mortgage, didn’t have the right to foreclosure. Therefore, they created MERS, which is a registration of the mortgage but not to a bank, but to MERS. MERS is the mortgage holder and the loans are assigned via registration number. Therefore, if XYZ sells a mortgage to ABC, MERS is notified that the lender’s MERS ID is changed from XYZ to ABC and there is no need for a recorded assignment and that alleviated a huge problem for unrecorded or lost assignment. The foreclosure is actually performed in the name of MERS. So I am not sure what the heck this guy is talking about. The issue with GMAC and other lenders has NOTHING to do with this. The issue is what they are calling “Robo-signers” which are individuals who signed affidavits stating that they had “personal knowledge” of the facts in a foreclosure case, when in fact they did not. http://www.forextv.com/forex-news-story/forex-why-did-the-mortgage-servicers-use-robo-signers Read this actual and in the paragraph that starts with Second, they will provide the support for my claims. Here are additional articles I searched for on the web. http://www.fiercefinance.com/story/robo-signer-wells-fargo-no-foreclosure-halt-yet/2010-10-14 and http://www.housingwire.com/2010/10/15/robo-signers-are-a-drop-in-the-bucket-to-mortgage-industrys-problems I hate people that have no idea what they are talking about and mislead people. They don’t even know what a Note and Mortgage are or what they are used for, holy cows. And MERS doesn’t slice or dice mortgages they are just a repository. Must of the slicing and dicing is done in CDOs, which if needed I will explain why. CDO unlike MBS or RBMS continually slice and dice the junior pieces or Mezz into new CDO whereby they take the more riskier debt make them look like AAA.”

I will stop and add just add a few personal observations. No writer mentioned the role of real estate taxes so we discussed this with NE, a highly skilled, community development real estate professional. He described how a well-informed tax-sale certificate buyer could jump ahead of the other lien holders and get a house on the cheap. In addition, an occupant could keep the tax payments current, delay the mortgage payment while the mess is in the courts, and remain in the house for quite a while. He noted how many mortgage servicers do not collect the real estate taxes and are therefore exposed.

Also, state law prevails on mortgages. That means 50 jurisdictions with 50 different sets of rules. The securities are mostly through NY trusts, noted Josh Rosner. The trust will determine how the securitizations are unwound, not the rules under which the foreclosures will occur. Many of our diverse legal opinions are coming to us because the lawyers involved are citing their own local jurisdictions.

We thank the many, many readers for their thoughtful comments. We do not normally pass on a piece and keep the writer anonymous. Had he written without rudeness and expletives the outcome might have been different. It is too bad he had to resort to abusive language. The original text, despite the technical errors, was provocative and captured the gist of the mess.

Many have asked about the identity of the original writer, LG sent this email: “David Kotok: A simple Google search would have revealed to you who wrote the following. I doubt he is need of you providing him 15 minutes of fame, but who knows…http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2010/10/second-leg-down-of-americas-death.html .” Thank you, LG.

BTW, there is an investment implication in our view. We believe the banking system will weather this mess and the weakness in the sector will evolve into a buying opportunity as a result. The new Fed policy of additional QE implies more liquidity to offset the economic weakness of the foreclosure mess and more subsidies for banks.

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The current economy has banks and other financial institutions taking a second - and sometimes a third look at loan applications. With the same token, many potential homeowners seem reluctant to take on the responsibility of a high mortgage payment. Though it is always a sad thing for property owners to loose their land, businesses, and often even their homes due to delinquent mortgages and unpaid taxes we see it happen everyday. What happens to these "distressed" properties? The government and financial institutions put them up for auction to the highest bidder. Some properties, especially those that have not drawn an abundance of attention, literally sell for next to nothing.

You often see commercials on television promising the public access to the "most up-to-date" foreclosure listings - for a nominal fee, of course. How many times have you listened to these commercials and wondered if they were for real? Yes, they are, but why would you pay for listings that are matters of public record and can be obtained for free? Finding these listings yourself may take a little more effort on your part, but will definitely pay off in the long run. The money you save will only make for a better deal on your new property.

When dealing with properties under distress due to tax liens you can begin as easily as making a phone call to your local tax office. Each municipality will have their own guidelines regarding access to these listings. Some may require you to visit the office in person while others property listings over the telephone or by fax. Many agencies now have websites that provide easier access to interested parties without the hassle of fielding phone calls. Be aware of the fact that property owners have the right to satisfy their debt right up to time of auction. Taxes can also be paid up to one year after the sale giving the owner the opportunity to reclaim property in the event that they obtain the means to cover the arrears.

Keep in mind that liens may be placed on property by other government agencies. Property seized in drug raids and other illegal activities could end up on the auction block as well. Agencies on local, state, and/or federal levels have the authority to assess liens. As in the case of tax debts, many of these other government listings can be found on the internet. Many agencies now utilize the services of websites such as www.govdeals.com to display their property listings on everything from old office furniture to vehicles seized in drug busts to real property. These websites not only allow agencies to display their listings to a wider audience, but give potential buyers access to a larger database of listings as well.

When considering property listings under foreclosure by financial institutions your best start may come from investing a few quarters in a local newspaper. Public notices will give you all the information you need on a foreclosure. You can find property descriptions and contact information on listings held by many different institutions all in the same place. Like government listings, bank listings are public record. Many times debts are actually satisfied prior to property actually going up for auction. On line classified ads such as those found at www.marketplacenwpa.com will allow you to view listings all around the Northwest Georgia-Northeast Alabama area.

Many lenders maintain their own website listing foreclosures. Government agencies, such as HUD, as well as private banks often publish full, real time listings on the web. One of the most important pieces of advice offered to individuals considering the purchase of foreclosed property is "Do your homework!" Whether you begin with a phone call to your local tax office or a property search at www.hud.gov/homes, be realistic. It never hurts to always keep in mind that "distressed properties" are just that. Some may not be in perfect condition and many will require the buyer at least some work before being "usable" property.



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