Economic meltdown Fall 2008: Fed and Treasury run “secret liquidity lifelines” to the big dogs of finance (Bloomberg)

As the banking crisis intensified in the Fall of 2008, with major banking institutions assuming (or on the verge of assuming) ‘underwater’ status, the Federal Reserve ran quickly to the rescue with secret liquidity lifelines” (Bloomberg 8-22-11).

The Fed substantially eased some important collateral rules for banks, “meaning that banks that could once borrow only against sound collateral, like Treasury bills or AAA-rated corporate bonds, could now borrow against pretty much anything – including some of the mortgage-backed sewage that got us into this mess in the first place….  ‘All of a sudden, banks were allowed to post absolute [expletive deleted] to the Fed’s balance sheet,’ [according to] the manager of the prominent hedge fund.” (Source: Bailout Hustle, Matt Taibbi).

The Federal Reserve invented various “facilities” to fire-hose liquidity out to the big banks and big brokerage firms, including these:

Primary Dealers’ Credit Facility                                            

Term Securities Lending Facility                                                          

Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program                                      

Commercial Paper Funding Facility                                               

Term Auction Facility                                                              

Public Private Investment Program

And, here we go – from the top:

Top recipient – Morgan Stanley                                                 

Morgan Stanley, facing a crisis of confidence after the fall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., got a $9 billion injection from Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and agreed to take a $10 billion bailout from the U.S. Treasury to shore up capital. As hedge-fund customers pulled funds out of the New York-based firm, it plugged the hole with $107.3 billion of secret loans from the Federal Reserve’s Primary Dealer Credit Facility and Term Securities Lending Facility, set up earlier in the year to supply brokerage firms with emergency financing.”

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The Leviticus 25 Plan does not seek to ‘interrupt’ or reverse any of the special relationships that have developed in the Fed’s financial sphere.  It only seeks to level the playing field – by providing U.S. citizens the same access to direct liquidity flows that  the big banks enjoyed ‘in their time of need.’

The Leviticus 25 Plan proposes one additional upgrade to the Fed’s liquidity lines:   U.S. Citizens Credit Facility.

U.S. citizens should demand nothing less. We need it now.

 

 

 

 

Big government central-planning and the strange case of REOs… And why America needs a new plan. The Leviticus 25 Plan.

Millions of home loans have fallen into “distressed status” over the past 5 years, as the economy began shriveling up and American families began losing income and falling behind on their mortgage payments.

At a certain point in time lenders (banks, government agencies / loan insurers) file  foreclosure notices on these distressed properties.  A significant number of days may then pass before the process moves on to the next step. The delinquent homeowner may request a short-sale – which the lender may or may not allow.  Or the lender may proceed on to a foreclosure auction.

The “foreclosing beneficiary” (the ‘lender) will set the opening bid for the amount owed on the loan (or the ‘outstanding loan amount’).  And if there are no interested parties willing to bid at that ‘set’ price, then the foreclosing beneficiary comes to legally repossess the property.

These lender-owned properties are known as Real Estate Owned (REO) properties, and are listed on their books as non-performing assets.

RealtyTrac forecasts 500,000 REOs for 2013.  That’s an average of over 1360 “lender repossessions” per day, for each and every day of the year.  That’s over 1360 families daily – losing their homes to banks and government agencies.

And now some big firms like the hedgefund, Blackstone, have been stepping in to buy up these ‘lender-owned’ properties, in mass, in certain markets like Phoenix and Tampa, with support from an “ongoing government-subsidized, GSE/FHFA endorsed REO-to-Rent initiative.”  (ZeroHedge 3-14-13)

Blackstone’s plan is to get the properties fixed up and rented out — with rent-paying tenants in place.

And then they plan to securitize these tranches – similar to the good old mortgage securitizations (MBSs) that were so popular during the housing bubble (the one that ‘popped’ in the Fall of 2008 and pushed the banks underwater and sent the U.S. economy into a tailspin).

So… here is a quick summary.  Homeowners in America (500,000 this year alone) will ‘exit’ their homes as those homes are legally repossessed by lenders (the ‘foreclosing beneficiary’) – banks and government agencies.  The U.S. government then enters the scene to subsidize (yes, SUBSIDIZE) the sale of these homes from the repossessing lender to a hedgefund to turn into rentals for eventual securitization and sale as an  income-producing investment vehicle.

This scheme is a “government-subsidized, GSE/FHFA endorsed REO-to-Rent initiative, through which large asset managers have been encouraged to take advantage of government funded, risk-free financing and purchase foreclosed properties in bulk, with the intention of converting them into rental properties. The REO-To-Rent has traditionally been open to the biggest of financial companies, or at least those who don’t have the stigma of legacy mortgage origination resulting in billions in litigation reserves, which means mostly hedge funds and PE firms.” (ZeroHedge 3-14-13)

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The Leviticus 25 Plan offers a preferred alternative.

Instead of the U.S. government again bailing out the banks by subsidizing the sale of these non-performing assets to investment companies, The Leviticus 25 Plan keeps American families in their homes, so the problem doesn’t develop in the first place.

It is unconscionable that the U.S. government offers no mechanism to provide liquidity to financially distressed American families, but it will provide liquidity to distressed banks to move distressed properties off their books – and into the hands of hedgefunds for ‘grooming’ as securitized investments.

There is only one plan in America that will re-ignite real economic growth, pay for itself over a 10-15 year period, and deliver substantial ‘ground-level’ benefits to Americans.

The Leviticus 25 Plan.