JOBS Act Will Be Holiday For Fraudsters: Seven And A Half Things To Know

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), speaks about the Jobs act during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on February 28, 2012 in Washington, DC.

This will be the last Seven And A Half Things for this week, so today's seven and a half things are going to have to last you for two days. We've made them extra chunky for you:

Thing One: Turn Back The Clock: Are you sad that you missed a chance to blow all of your money on tech IPOs like Pets.com or Webvan back in the 1990s? Well, buck up, because happy days are here again.

President Obama this afternoon will sign into law an abomination known as the JOBS Act, something he pushed through Congress, an easy task given its wide bipartisan support. It's a terrible bill, as we and others have written in the past, and the rest of the world seems to slowly be catching on to the idea.

Wall Street banks are searching the bill, which strips away investor protections put in place after the dot-com bust, for holes they can exploit, report Susanne Craig and Ben Protess of The New York Times. According to the NYT, law firm Davis Polk calls the bill “the most significant legislative loosening in memory of restrictions around the I.P.O. process and public company reporting obligations.” A guy who's spent time in the hoosegow for bilking investors agrees, telling Bloomberg's Susan Antilla the JOBS Act "amounts to an open invitation for fraud."

But don't think the banks are satisfied with this. They are still crying loud and long over all the terrible regulations under which they're forced to toil, led by their Proselytizer In Chief Jamie Dimon, who did more such crying in a letter to JPMorgan Chase shareholders yesterday, in which he warned that our future alien overlords would look back at this time and write a book entitled "It Could Have Been Much Better" without all of this regulation. But don't worry, Jamie, you still have plenty of friends in Congress, where still more bills to water down the Dodd-Frank financial-reform act are slouching their way toward President Obama's desk to be born.

Thing Two: I Need A Fix 'Cause I'm Going Down: Speaking of dissatisfied, the stock market tumbled again on Wednesday, in even tumble-ier fashion than it did on Tuesday, in a second-day response to the Federal Reserve denying financial markets an immediate fix of monetary stimulus, bolstered by an equally unwilling European Central Bank, write Jonathan Cheng and Charles Forelle on Page One of the Wall Street Journal. The selloff was also fueled by the completely unexpected revival of the European debt crisis, which this time has bitten Spain. Along with some downbeat factory data out of Germany, that is hurting European stocks yet again this morning.

Thing Three: Foreclosure Fear: You may have heard that the housing market is in the process of finally turning around, nearly six years into its collapse. If so, then you'd better brace yourself for another wave of foreclosures that's about to hit the market, writes Reuters. Meanwhile, foreclosed homes in minority neighborhoods are sitting untended, according to a report by the National Fair Housing Alliance, which could make those homes, and the homes surrounding them, even harder to sell, writes The Huffington Post's Janell Ross.

Thing Four: One Way Or Another, You'll Pay: The good news: Oil prices may finally be responding to an oversupply of oil in the United States, which has helped drive prices to their lowest in nearly a month, the Financial Times writes. The bad news: Global food prices rose for the third straight month in March, according to a United Nations report.

Thing Five: Insurers May Need Adjusting: New York's top financial-services regulator is investigating claims that insurance companies overcharged people for homeowners' insurance, report Liz Rappaport and Leslie Scism in the Wall Street Journal: "Insurers issue such 'force-placed' policies to homeowners who miss mortgage payments or allow their homeowners' policy to lapse. Critics say that rates are often exorbitant, partly because of close ties between insurers, agents, mortgage servicers and brokers. Mr. Lawsky's investigation also is scrutinizing those relationships, these people said."

Thing Six: Chrysler's Shield: If your Chrysler van once caught on fire and you're thinking of suing, be warned that you'll only be able to sue the company for the cost of getting yourself patched up in the hospital, the Wall Street Journal reports, thanks to a nifty legal shield Chrysler managed to get along with its bankruptcy back in 2009. "The legal protection afforded Chrysler, now profitable for the first time in six years, allows the Auburn Hills, Mich., company to 'essentially get a free pass on some of their most egregious past mistakes,' said Douglas Laycock, a University of Virginia law professor and punitive-damages expert."

Thing Seven: A Computer For Your Face: Is your iPhone too cumbersome a device for you? Tired of wearing out your fingertips looking stuff up? Well, Google is working on a solution for you, a set of glasses you can wear that will turn your eyeballs and head into a mobile device that will in no way make you look like The Terminator or a unit of The Borg.

Thing Seven And One Half: Shoot Down The Paywall, While You're At It: The art for what is actually a very good article in The New York Times Magazine by Sam Anderson about "dumb" video games is itself a very "dumb" video game, which allows you to shoot up stuff all over the page, including ads and NYT columnists' pictures, if you're so inclined.

Special Bonus Thing: See that tiny little box over there on the right-hand side of the page? Jammed narrowly between the ad and the "Social News" box? If you enter your email address in that slim box and click the button, nothing horrible will happen to you, unless you consider getting this story in your email inbox every day something horrible. With the imminent launch of this daily email -- coming soon -- we have also added a couple of new features: a daily calendar, and a small roundup of business-related tweets. Free of charge.

Economic Data:

8:30 a.m. ET: Weekly jobless claims. Economists expect them to dip to 355,000 from 359,000 the week before, according to Briefing.com.

Corporate Earnings:

Before 9:30 a.m.: Pier 1 Imports

After 4:00 p.m.: WD-40

Heard On The Tweets:

@LaMonicaBuzz: Things I didn't hear from local businesses while on mini-vacation in Florida. "You know, tourists would spend so much more if Fed did QE3."

@TheStalwart: The great debate now is not bull v. bear. It's fundamentalistas v. liquidistas.

@ReformedBroker: I think it's great that private equity firms catch and release Burger King every 18 months. Creating so much value.

@zseward: "I think I'm one of the most underpaid executives in the history of executive payment," says man making $125 million

-- Tweets rounded up by Khadeeja Safdar.

And follow us on Twitter, why don't you: @markgongloff and @byKhadeeja

Comments

[authorized-user]

09:15 AM on 04/06/2012

Once again, we see years of financial regulation created to limit greed, lies, and fraud have been eliminated to appease the banksters.

Those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it.

[Michigan Joe]

11:43 PM on 04/05/2012

I love these doom reports. It makes remember Bush.

[Broderick Crawford]

06:53 PM on 04/05/2012

Of course, Jennifer Granholm, the former failed Michigan governor, leads off the video.

Michigan Capitol Confidential reported:

A virtually unseen video has surfaced that highlights the high-powered political rhetoric and unrealized promises put forth by President Barack Obama and Michigan's top Democratic politicians regarding the heavily subsidized and now-troubled A123 Systems battery manufacturer.

The video, which had just over 600 views since it was posted in Oct. 2010 on Youtube, has Obama, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow singing the praises of the now-troubled advanced battery manufacturer A123 Systems.

A123 Systems, which opened its lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Livonia in September 2010, saw its stock plummet to the lowest price ever at 82 cents this week. The previous high was nearly $26.

A class action lawsuit was filed against A123 Systems this week on behalf of shareholders alleging a violation of federal security laws.

In 2010 Barack Obama hailed the opening of the Michigan A123 Plant that makes a $33,000 car battery. And, you wonder why the company is failing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbaDxmK3djE

[loki]

05:57 PM on 04/05/2012

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/federal-indictment-of-us-fidelis-founder-revealed-hours-after-guilty/article_5fce8f66-7f3d-11e1-9f5e-0019bb30f31a.html


More once well respected Modern American capitalist go down for illegal acts. To bad they are just the small fish and not the big crooks like the ones on wallstreet

[Neets101]

04:32 PM on 04/05/2012

Enron Lives

[loki]

05:58 PM on 04/05/2012

well, W did have many from Enron and Goldman sachs in his administration.

[redscarecrow]

03:02 PM on 04/05/2012

After the puppet theatre of Obamney 2012 expect more of the same in 2013.By the way, anyone heard anything from the consumer protection guy lately?

[Siebenstein]

01:05 PM on 04/05/2012

"Holiday For Fraudsters" is the only thing protected in this country.

So, what are you complaining about?

[jeffw545]

12:15 PM on 04/05/2012

Congress is only making it hurt for jobs. Giving cut to those jobs going over sea. Congress should taxes them more becould those jobs take tax money away and cost the American Worker morein taxes.

[AnthonyGalvez]

12:00 PM on 04/05/2012

Why would the President and any responsible Democrat support this legislation if it is so terrible?

Curse the tea partiers if you want but they did not vote for something they did not believe in.

Don't complan when your leader does what you elected him to.

[Birdman 49]

11:31 AM on 04/06/2012

Put the Dems back in office in 2012 and you will see more jobs bills passed and you will see more regulation put back in place. Right now (I don't agree with it, but understand) the Dems are having to do what they can to create any jobs. so they loosen up on some regulation just to slap it back on after and if they take control again this November.

I know one thing for sure. Putting the right in control is NOT going to make it any better. They already want to take all the money from the poor and give to the rich, they want the big business to make their won rules (most already know it won't hurt them much) and even more job killing bills through.

When will the right learn, the right is out to get even them. They laugh daily knowing there are people who really beleive the line of crap they are dishing out daily.

[olephart]

11:55 AM on 04/05/2012

The money is on Mitt and it looks like the inevitable nomination of the one ordained by those actually in charge is a sure bet. In 2008 the money was on Hillary, Obama and any Republican except Ron Paul. The money always buys tickets on each horse in the race. Those who don’t take a knee in their presence are blackballed by the Corporate Media. The Media this year was shamed into allowing Ron Paul to participate. Early in 2008 both Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich were excluded from the race by the Corporate Media.

Obama has dutifully carried water for the money and will be appropriately financed. Mitt is already part of the money so he’s one of them. The choice this year as it has been for some time will be between a center right Democrat and a center righter Republican. If elected each will be allowed some freedom in matters that do not significantly change the status quo of the money. Wall Street will remain untethered and no prosecutions for the millions of cases of fraud, misrepresentation and conspiracy will be brought. The MIC and other “security” boondoggles will be fully funded. Corporate America’s sacred cows will remain unscathed and “Free Trade” will continue to be sold to the public as beneficial. Obama will meekly protest the horrific tax inequities and will be “forced” to accept their continuance. Mitt will make it worse.

There will be one winner, the money, and 300,000,000 losers.

[carolgregor]

10:48 AM on 04/05/2012

The only thing worse than this administration is the last one and the next one. Corruption is in charge and now under Obama, the police cans strip search anyone...Homeowners have no representatives except OWS. Every day civil liberties are stripped. The American Dream is dead.

[ninagoneobama]

12:40 PM on 04/05/2012

Strip search ruling was SCOTUS

[Robert SF]

01:27 PM on 04/05/2012

Why does all that matter to you is defending Obama. Ok, so the strip search was SCOTUS. But NDAA wasn't. Like Carol said, the American Dream is dead, and that part is true. So why are you fluffing Obama?

[humanbeing-rick]

10:33 AM on 04/05/2012

The JOBS ACT was created by a commission stacked with executives, it was not fair or balanced, and neither are the results. It is a slap in the face of American workers, who have already suffered so much! They have got to do better than this!

[smo1111]

10:23 AM on 04/05/2012

Dump the big banks.............enjoy the peace of mind.

[iam99]

10:08 AM on 04/05/2012

1. Politicians need to do their jobs working by their oath of office.
2. Uphold all laws already on the books!

Why is this so impossible for them?

[Birdman 49]

11:35 AM on 04/06/2012

MONEY from BIG BUSINESS!!!

[authorized-user]

10:03 AM on 04/05/2012

No rules means lots of fraud.
You just have to look at Greenspan's reign as he consciously refused to prosecute even when it was under his nose.