Neil Barofsky

Foreclosure Crisis Lessons Not Yet Learned

Neil Barofsky | Posted 12.05.2011

Neil Barofsky

When I stepped down as the Special Inspector General for TARP at the end of March, I warned that HAMP was falling far short of its stated goals and even further short of meeting the urgent needs of American homeowners. Unfortunately, there has been little improvement since then.

What Is Truth?

Lydia Fisher | Posted 09.10.2011

Lydia Fisher

Falsehood creates a convoluted mess, a sense of disorder. Hold that thought and think "cause and effect" -- the financial crisis largely created our fiscal crisis leading now to the US national debt ceiling problem.

Lessons From the Crisis

Neil Barofsky | Posted 09.06.2011

Neil Barofsky

The most striking lessons from the financial crisis and its aftermath already appear either to have been forgotten or to have never been learned. The American financial system can still be brought to its knees by the poor decisions of a small group of executives.

Shahien Nasiripour

Treasury Punishes Three Banks For Poor Mortgage Servicing

HuffingtonPost.com | Shahien Nasiripour | Posted 08.09.2011

WASHINGTON -- The Treasury Department will temporarily withhold payments to the nation's three largest mortgage companies for failing to comply with t...

"A Moral Disaster" Coming Near You, Produced by Wall Street and Washington

Lydia Fisher | Posted 08.09.2011

Lydia Fisher

Managing to the short-term, managing to self-interest and hoping for a "happily ever after." It's beginning to feel a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Shahien Nasiripour

Obama Treasury Celebrates Bailout Profits While Ignoring Costs, Legacy

HuffingtonPost.com | Shahien Nasiripour | Posted 05.30.2011

NEW YORK -- On Wednesday, the Treasury Department celebrated the fact that its $250 billion investment in the nation's banking system has officially m...

Top Government Watchdog Stepping Down

AP | DANIEL WAGNER | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — The government's top watchdog over the $700 billion financial bailout said Monday that he will step down next month, after leading ...

Watchdog Says Overhaul Won't Stopped Future Bailouts

AP | DANIEL WAGNER | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — A Treasury Department official said Wednesday that the financial regulatory law enacted last summer will help the government avoid ...

Treasury Concealed Likely AIG Bailout Loss, Federal Auditor Says

Posted 05.25.2011

The U.S. Treasury concealed $40 billion in likely taxpayer losses on the bailout of American International Group (AIG.N), the New York Times said, c...

Bailout Watchdog Investigating Alleged Foreclosure Fraud

AP | DANIEL WAGNER | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — A government watchdog is investigating government-owned GMAC Mortgage after a company employee admitted to approving thousands of f...

Gretchen Morgenson: General Motors 'Paid Back' Bailout Funds With Other Taxpayer Dollars

New York Times | Posted 05.25.2011

Taxpayers are naturally eager for news about bailout repayments. But what neither G.M. nor the Treasury disclosed was that the company simply used oth...

Neil Barofsky, TARP Watchdog: Criminal Charges Could Be Coming For New York Fed In AIG Scandal

Huffington Post | Ryan McCarthy | Posted 05.25.2011

The government-appointed watchdog for the government's $700 billion bailout program says that the New York Federal Reserve could be hit with criminal ...

Shahien Nasiripour

Watchdog: Obama Foreclosure Program Is Likely To Be A Failure

HuffingtonPost.com | Shahien Nasiripour | Posted 05.25.2011

The Obama administration's signature foreclosure-prevention program is likely to be a failure and has not done enough to help struggling homeowners wh...

Bailout Watchdog To Shine Light On Mortgage Program

AP | ALAN ZIBEL | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — The federal bank bailout watchdog is planning to scrutinize the formula used by mortgage companies to evaluate borrowers for the Ob...

The CDOs That Destroyed AIG: The Big Short Doesn't Quite Reveal What They Knew and When They Knew It

David Fiderer | Posted 05.25.2011

David Fiderer

It's been eighteen months since AIG collapsed, and Congress has yet to seriously focus on the most important questions: What did they know and when did they know it?

Treasury Bailout Records Fail To Include Key Details, Says Watchdog

AP | DANIEL WAGNER | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department is lax about keeping records of its negotiations with bailed-out banks, including undocumented conversation...

Cuomo: Bank Of America, Ken Lewis Charged With Fraud

Posted 05.25.2011

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed fraud charges against Bank of America and its former top executives this morning, alleging the bank manip...

Neil Barofsky: 'My Job Is To Be A Pain In The Ass'

New York Magazine | Jessica Pressler | Posted 05.25.2011

...

TARP Watchdog Neil Barofsky: Government Bailout Has Increased Risk Of Economic Crisis

AP | DANIEL WAGNER and ALAN ZIBEL | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — The government's response to the financial meltdown has made it more likely the United States will face a deeper crisis in the futu...

Holden Caulfield on Banking

Norb Vonnegut | Posted 05.25.2011

Norb Vonnegut

Do you get the sense that the banking reform melee is like one massive free-for-all where the combatants, all snarling and backbiting each another, will stymie true and productive reform and turn it "phony?"

TARP Watchdog, Neil Brofsky, To Launch Investigation Into Fed's Secrecy On AIG Bailout

AP | DANIEL WAGNER | Posted 05.25.2011

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Shahien Nasiripour

Geithner Singled Out In TARP Watchdog's Scathing Report On AIG Bailout

HuffingtonPost.com | Shahien Nasiripour | Posted 05.25.2011

A brutal report issued Monday by a government watchdog holds Timothy Geithner -- then the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and now the nat...

Neil Barofsky: Bailout Helped But At A Great Cost

AP | JIM KUHNHENN | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — The man who watches over the $700 billion in government money given to banks and other institutions to avert a financial collapse said ...

After Helping Gordon Gekko Evade the SEC, Will Geithner Finally Now Be Fired?

David Sirota | Posted 05.25.2011

David Sirota

It's appalling to learn that one government agency was actively encouraging a private corporation to withhold information from another government agency.

Revisiting The Fed's Bailout Of AIG And The Benefits For Goldman Sachs

New York Times | GRETCHEN MORGENSON | Posted 05.25.2011

A RAY of sunlight broke through the Washington fog last week when Neil M. Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, p...