Citing Administration’s Failure and Unwillingness to use funds to Prevent Foreclosures, as Congress Intended

Washington D.C. (November 17, 2008) – Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today sent a letter to Representative Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, recommending that Congress inform the White House that it will not authorize the second $350 billion tranche of the bailout funds to the Treasury Department. The Financial Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing tomorrow examining oversight of the implementation of the bailout and of government lending and insurance facilities.

Massachusetts judge stops foreclosures on H&R Block unit's loans
By Jerry Kronenberg, Boston Herald

A Massachusetts judge is blocking H&R Block from automatically foreclosing on up to 9,700 Bay State homeowners, ruling that the firm apparently wrote mortgages with "reckless disregard (for) the risk of foreclosure."

"Any lender with even a modicum of business morality should recognize that it is immoral, unethical and unscrupulous to issue a home loan with reckless disregard (for) the risk of foreclosure," Suffolk Superior Court Judge Ralph Gants wrote in a preliminary injunction against H&R Block.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has sued Block over Bay State subprime mortgages issued by the firm's Option One subsidiary.

Washington D.C. (November 12, 2008) – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, today announced the witness list for the upcoming Subcommittee hearing “Is Treasury Using Bailout Funds to Increase Foreclosure Prevention, as Congress Intended?” The hearing will be held on Friday, November 14, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. in Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2154.

Paulson Says Troubled Assets Will Not Be Purchased
Paulson: bailout program won't purchase troubled assets; focus remains on financial markets
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER | ABCNews.com | November 12, 2008

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday the $700 billion government rescue program will not be used to purchase troubled assets as originally planned.

Paulson said the administration will continue to use $250 billion of the program to purchase stock in banks as a way to bolster their balance sheets and encourage them to resume more normal lending.

He announced a new goal for the program to support financial markets, which supply consumer credit in such areas as credit card debt, auto loans and student loans.

Washington D.C. (November 11, 2008) – The leading Democrat and Republican of a House Oversight Subcommittee insisted on the testimony of a top Treasury official today. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to Secretary Paulson insisting that Mr. Neel Kashkari, the Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, testify before a hearing of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee on Friday, November 14, 2008. Congressman Kucinich is the Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee and Congressman Issa is the Ranking Minority Member.

“There are serious questions about Treasury Department’s plans to realize the goals of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that can only be addressed by the official in charge,” Kucinich and Issa wrote in the letter.

By Dave Lindorff

The one thing we are not hearing from Congress or from incoming
president Barack Obama in the current economic crisis facing the
country are the words “anti-trust” and “public ownership.”

From the moment the crisis first struck, with the near collapse of
AIG, the mantra has been that companies like AIG, Morgan Stanley,
Merrill Lynch, Citibank, etc.--and more recently General Motors Corp.
and Ford--are “too big to fail.” That is, it is argued that these
companies are so huge that if they were to collapse into the rubble
they deserve to be, it would damage the nation irreparably.

The question is, if that is genuinely the case, why were they
allowed to be that big in the first place, and why aren’t we rethinking
that policy?

Bloomberg Sues Fed to Force Disclosure of Collateral (Update1)
By Mark Pittman | Bloomberg.com

Bloomberg News asked a U.S. court today to force the Federal Reserve to disclose securities the central bank is accepting on behalf of American taxpayers as collateral for $1.5 trillion of loans to banks.

An Open Letter Regarding the Upcoming G-20 Meeting in Washington, D.C.

To add your name, register, log in, and sign the petition.

From Dennis Kucinich:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 6, 2008) — On Friday, November 14, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. in Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2154, the Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled, “Is Treasury Using Bailout Funds to Increase Foreclosure Prevention, as Congress Intended?” This will be the Subcommittee’s sixth hearing in the 110th Congress examining the foreclosure crisis and its solutions.