Trumps treasury nominee defends his record at bank labeled as foreclosure machine

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Trumps treasury nominee defends his record at bank labeled as foreclosure machine

By Ylan Q. Mui

January 19 at 11:44 AM

Appearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday, treasury secretary nominee Steven T. Mnuchin defended his leadership of a California bank that has been accused of aggressively foreclosing on homeowners and discriminating against minorities.

In prepared testimony at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Mnuchin argued that he has been maligned for his 2009 purchase of failed subprime mortgage lender IndyMac from the federal government. Mnuchin renamed the bank OneWest and ran it for six years, modifying over 100,000 of the countrys most troubled loans and saving thousands of jobs in the process, according to his statement.

I have been maligned as taking advantage of others hardships in order to earn a buck, Mnuchin said in his prepared remarks. Nothing could be further from the truth.

{Whistleblower suit alleges widespread problems at bank run by treasury nominee Mnuchin}*

The hearing began with a sharply combative tone before Mnuchin even began speaking -- an unusual departure for what is typically a staid and wonkish committee. Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) decried stupid arguments over Mnuchins qualifications to manage the nations finances and accused Democrats of obstructing President-elect Donald Trumps nominees. Ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) shot back by accusing Mnuchin of using loopholes in international tax law to shield millions of dollars from taxation.
....

Ylan Q. Mui is a financial reporter at The Washington Post covering the Federal Reserve and the economy. Follow @ylanmui
https://twitter.com/ylanmui

* https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/01/18/whistleblowers-allege-widespread-problems-at-bank-run-by-treasury-nominee/

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/01/19/trumps-treasury-nominee-to-defend-record-at-bank-labelled-as-foreclosure-machine/

[underpants]

1. Sen. Brown just took him apart. Mnuchin turned red

[cstanleytech]

3. Sadly it probably wont make a difference as I suspect that the Republicans would vote yes to

appointing Hitler to an office if it would accomplish their goal of looting and pillaging this country.

[Ilsa]

6. The last I saw of it, mnuchin said it was HAMP rules regarding

Net Present Value vs foreclosure values that drove the decision to foreclose, that they had no choice. What did Brown say to undo his reply to Hatch?

[underpants]

7. He cited reports from OCC auditors and the California Attorney General

Mnuchin had no response. There were other facts cited by Brown that he sent in letter for to Mnuchin in December but never received a response.

[Ilsa]

8. Thanks. I figured Hatch had set up that fact-deprived exchange. nt

[orangecrush]

2. Stop these monsters

Before it is too late!

[lark]

4. Is the "No Filibuster" rule in effect for cabinet nominations?

if so, we are fucked! If not, well then Dems need to filibuster his, Sessions, Davos, EPA head and Perry. None of these are competent in the field Drumpf chose them for and all are rw partisan hacks with no concern for the working class and all about enriching the oligarchs (that's them too, btw).

[orangecrush]

10. Not quite sure

"Democrats are increasingly antsy over the lineup President-elect Donald Trump has announced for his Cabinet, but they are also powerless to do very much to stop him — thanks to their own leader, Sen. Harry Reid.

It’s unlikely Mr. Reid had a President Trump in mind when he pulled the so-called “nuclear option” trigger three years ago, changing Senate rules to eviscerate the use of a filibuster to block presidential nominees.


Set up to help President Obama’s picks overcome GOP opposition, those same rules now will clear the path for Sen. Jeff Sessions to become the new attorney general, Rep. Tom Price to head Health and Human Services and two billionaires to lead the Treasury and Commerce departments.

Liberal interest groups are pleading with Democrats to fight the nominees, even though there’s not a lot they can do without the filibuster and against a unified GOP."

http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/4/donald-trumps-cabinet-nominees-aided-by-harry-reid/

[Mc Mike]

5. That old lady had it coming. I needed those 79 cents.

[jzodda]

9. I worked on some of one west forclosures

They were a terrible client. They had all these bad loans and could never get their story straight. Even when it was in their interest they never wanted to work out a loan mod. I am dubious as to the 100k loans modified. I bet it's a tenth of that.

They didn't care if you were old or sick or anything.

And yet with all the immorality of it he still gets a cabinet post. Sickening