Couple Owns Home After One Payment Due to Foreclosure Glitch|AOL Real Estate

Couple Owns Home After One Payment Due to Foreclosure Glitch|AOL Real Estate

JPMorgan Chase Made Nearly a Billion Dollars from Madoff-Chase is too Gangsta for TV!

cnbc.com

A new study of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme concludes that JPMorgan Chase made over $900 million in pretax profits from the Madoff scam.

The academic paper by Dr. Linus Wilson, a finance professor at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, makes use of newly released data and different methods of calculation than previous studies.

Wilson's paper looks at total Madoff- linked account balances at JPMorgan Chase [JPM  45.25    -0.83  (-1.8%)   ] from 1986 to 2008, a longer period than earlier studies, which may have underestimated JPMorgan's profits.

The total figure Wilson arrives at is $907 million.

That figure assumes JPMorgan's reinvestment of Madoff client money, and the generation of a similar rate to that of other funds invested by the bank during a similar time period.

But even without any reinvestment at all, Wilson finds that JPMorgan's pre-tax profits from Madoff money would have amounted to an estimated $398 million.

In addition to the magnitude of their alleged gains, Wilson reaches another conclusion that is likely to give JPMorgan agita.

Namely, he concludes based on prior academic research, that enough 'red flags' existed to make a reasonable observer suspicious—which presumably includes JPMorgan Chase.

Wilson lists two facts as being particularly problematic. First, that Madoff's custody over his client accounts resulted in no third party verification of trades (which, as it turns out, Madoff seems to have never made). And second, the very size and regularity of Madoff's returns should have raised suspicion in itself.

Wilson's complete journal article—provocatively titled 'Madoff’s Dirty Money'—can be found here.

Obama hit the brakes on selling those old Government bldgs...WHY?

Obama Administration Scraps Sale of Government Buildings

Posted by Carole VanSickle on Wednesday, March 2nd 2011     

The current administration has been forced to “scrap” plans announced last summer to sell off thousands of government buildings because plan was simply “unworkable”[1]. Now, a new commission has been tasked with finding replacement savings in the amount of $15 billion, the number that the administration believed it would save by selling off the buildings, 14,000 of which are currently vacant and 55,000 of which are “underused.” Thanks to poor conditions, bad locations and sluggish real estate markets, the sales of the buildings were not only difficult to accomplish, but less advantageous than the planning commission had originally hoped. Thus, the decision to abort the plan.

The administration is not giving up on its hopes to sell of buildings entirely, however. In fact, a new commission is now in the works – although no one yet has been asked to serve on the board – to identify ways to revamp the plan and shed the excess real estate – and upkeep costs – that the government no longer needs[2]. Local governments would, in many cases, be glad to see government-owned buildings back in private hands since they often sit vacant. However, there is a “cumbersome review process” before the buildings can be sold and “most of the excess properties are likely old, poorly located World War II-era sites,” reported the Washington Post.

Many people have criticized the government’s plan to sell off “excess” buildings that it could, theoretically, be using instead of spending billions in rental dollars on other facilities. Do you think that selling off these properties is a good idea? Tell me what you think...