First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.
GSE Commentary; DJT and Russia
I’ve heard from GSE
allies and friends concerned about my growing negativity on GSE legal or
possible Trump Administration progress.
That’s an accurate
assessment of what I’ve been writing and also reflects what I think I am
seeing, specifically my thesis has been the infamous “GSE Shit Wall” –or Tim
Howard’s “financial establishment”--will preclude DC policy makers from ever
making a decision supporting the GSEs or their shareholders, save some ersatz calls that are halfhearted but ineffectual, i.e. “Yes your rights were violated
but you don’t get any damages.”
The friends claim;
“No Maloni, you are
ignoring the inherent value (and difference) between preferred stock and common
stock and the fact that Judges Millett-Ginsburg in their negative
appeals decision, which most of us hate, specifically did ask Judge Lamberth—or
whomever picks up these still unanswered legal questions—to closely examine American
contract law, which my GSE friends believe might contain the seeds of a
GSE settlement and hope for a future mortgage finance system with major roles
for the GSEs.
That rendition may be a
little more than the judges asked, but the Appeals opinion did tell Lamberth to
go back and look specifically at that preferred matter since his original
decision didn’t reflect that analysis.
(Although the “Maloni Devil
theory” concurs--just like Judge Lamberth argues--unless barred by the
SCOTUS or the Trump Administration--the government will do whatever it wants to
GSE interests and nobody will say boo.)
Excuse me, but at the
mention of Judge Millett and Judge Ginsburg, I must invoke the ancient Maloni family curse:
“May those two jurists, for the rest of their lives, require kaopectate daily
for their stomach distress.”
I can’t/won’t try and make the case for common versus preferred
GSE securities, because I’m not smart enough, but will merely point out that because of
the “preferred contract” there is a difference.
In an email to me, here is what my friends argue and I think they
are right.
(A) GSE shareholders say that
Fannie, Freddie, FHFA and Treasury have breached their contracts. Those
contracts are the prospectuses under which the GSEs made their pitch to
potential investors and the corporate documents under which those securities
were issued. In America, contracts are important, and parties are
expected to honor their contractual obligations even when it's inconvenient.
(B) After reviewing Judge Lamberth's decision, the D.C. Circuit says Judge Lamberth improperly ignored and needs to review GSE shareholders' contract-based claims. Specifically, the D.C. Circuit says Judge Lamberth needs to think about investors' liquidation preference and dividend rights buried in the contracts under which the securities were issued.
(C) There is some confusion in the marketplace today about whether GSE investors' contractual rights travel with a security as it changes hands or whether those rights mutate as securities are bought and sold in the secondary market. The U.S. Supreme Court has clearly said multiple times that an investor's bundle of rights is fixed when a security is issued and don't expand or contract based on the identity of the current holder. All GSE security holders are equal. The time at which a GSE security traded hands and the price paid for a GSE security is irrelevant.
(B) After reviewing Judge Lamberth's decision, the D.C. Circuit says Judge Lamberth improperly ignored and needs to review GSE shareholders' contract-based claims. Specifically, the D.C. Circuit says Judge Lamberth needs to think about investors' liquidation preference and dividend rights buried in the contracts under which the securities were issued.
(C) There is some confusion in the marketplace today about whether GSE investors' contractual rights travel with a security as it changes hands or whether those rights mutate as securities are bought and sold in the secondary market. The U.S. Supreme Court has clearly said multiple times that an investor's bundle of rights is fixed when a security is issued and don't expand or contract based on the identity of the current holder. All GSE security holders are equal. The time at which a GSE security traded hands and the price paid for a GSE security is irrelevant.
(D) The D.C. Circuit says that Judge Lamberth was incorrect when he said shareholders' claims are not ripe. That's an important point no other court has squarely addressed. Judge Sweeney should find that instructive as the takings litigation proceeds in her court.
******************************************************************
The
President's Up and Down Week
First off, I want to
apologize to anyone who will be offended with my examination, below, of a
certain rumor currently circulating “inside the Beltway” about Russian intelligence
services, the President Trump, and Mrs. Trump.
I discuss it because the information is not new but it
answers a few questions I had, initially, when these same matters were raised
by others but seemed to disappear amid the hoopla of the Republican primary
campaign and DJT’s win.
If close to accurate,
this information would explain a lot, i.e. DJT's long time Kremlin investment
goals, as well as President Trump’s Russian infatuation, his near unfathomable
Russian toadying, and Vlad P bromance.
Again, the operative
word here is rumor—it all could be nonsense--but when this story touches
certifiable details, some perspective gets added.
The narrative is kind of
a reverse “Russian honey trap” using
sex and related matters, likely embarrassing photos, plus inarguable evidence
of wrong doing, as well as fears of exposure in the face of blackmail/coercion.
As explained to me
midweek: US security services, likely
the FBI, reaping their electronic surveillance activities have evidence
Russia possesses and threatened to detail evidence showing First Lady Melania
Trump was in the country illegally--before
her wedding to DJT--and engaged in disreputable
employment that will not be found on any First Baptist Church Ladies Club
list of acceptable vocational options for young ladies, even when they are
beautiful and came from Eastern Europe (Slovenia) or not.
Remember the GOP
presidential primary flack over exactly when Melania Knauss Trump, first
arrived to work on our shores? But, with scant evidence beyond Donald Trump’s say
so, all were assured by his attorneys was she was here legally.
The rumor—after a few
modeling jobs—is Miss Knauss opted to become a professional “female escort,”
which is how she met “the Donald,” at a time when he was the talk of NYC with
flamboyant bachelor ways always surrounded by attractive young women.
With these provocative
rumors, I go back to what’s already appeared. During the GOP primary, the New
York Post printed some sultry photos of Melania Knauss, who as we know
later would marry Donald J. Trump, give birth to their son Barron Trump and now
is our current First Lady.
Did Donald Trump’s pre-presidential
life--his desire to conduct major business in Russia—his Manhattan high living
and womanizing allow Vladimir Putin and his spy network to bag themselves an
orange haired “Manchurian Candidate” and use that intelligence eventually to
extort DJT’s cooperation and abuse NATO, our European allies, and more?
That script is very
Russian and very Putin.
Could all of DJT’s
accusations of “fake news,” media hate talk, Tweets commanding his fans not to
trust the major newspapers and networks, be a gigantic anticipatory spin
For when this story—or
other more revealing or humiliating Russian connections disadvantaging our
nation--hit the news?
President Trump proudly
brags he could shoot someone in the middle of NYC and still would be supported
by the American people and exonerated in the courts.
Two congressional investigations, one DoJ/FBI, and microscopic press interest , eventually, will dismiss or provide support for these possibilities.
If the Russians have or
are trying to blackmail the POTUS, President Trump may get his chance to prove
his theory of political invulnerability, although he, Sean Spicer, Kellyanne
“Conwoman,” and Fox will label it all “false news,” no matter what sources
verify it.
______________________________________________
Yay H.R. McMaster
Wonder what Steve “Goebbels”
Bannon did to PO the President and allow H.R. McMaster, his new Director of
National Security, to dump “Goebbels” from that intelligence cast?
Whatever it was it must
have been harrowing for SGB to get dropped like a hot rock, reportedly with a
nudge from first son-in-law Jared “Bartholomew Cubbins” Kushner
(because of his many policy hats).
I want “Goebbels” and
his cabal of angry “nationalists” to keep running afoul of
McMaster, Kushner, and first daughter Ivanka.
In an old “addition by
subtraction” scenario, President Trump’s White House would gain stature and
character, if Bannon and his ideological pug uglies were bounced from his
staff.
I hope there is some substance to this late breaking Sunday news
story.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/04/09/donald-trump-reportedly-planning-a-shift-to-the-center-as-he-tri/22032687/
More Caught in the
Russian Snare?
We have Mike Flynn gone
for lying to VP Pence over Flynn’s Russian dealings and back channel discussions
with Kremlin spies. Flynn still is reported to be seeking testimony immunity.
We have Attorney General
Jeff Sessions recusing himself from the Justice Department’s Trump/Russia
investigation. And last week we saw Chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes (R-Cal), step aside, under ugly clouds for
his House collegial deceit and abdicating his congressional responsibilities by
nakedly cooperating with the guy he is supposed to investigate.
With the President still
insisting that there are no Russian issues here, political or strategic, a lot
of heavy hitter Republican bigshots have been rendered hors de combat on the
sidelines.
I’ll remind you—and
repeat—what was said last week, when Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) suggested,
about Flynn (paraphrasing), “When you seek immunity, it’s probably
because you committed a crime.”
Forty five years ago….
Most of you reading this
blog, likely, weren’t adults during the Richard Nixon denouement. Most didn’t
live in Washington DC or work on the Hill, as I did reading the Washington
Post and other media, which had one Nixon aide or another confirm with on the
record or off the record quotes that President Nixon was guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors related both to the
Watergate DNC headquarters burglary but more significantly in the White House
cover-up, for which Nixon later was impeached.
As the Congress, the
media, the Administration, courts, and the nation today, work its way through
this political and legal Russian quagmire, remember we have been lied to before,
grossly, and that includes Bill Clinton, too.
And once one inside
person starts talking, you soon see a flood, i.e. rats leaving a sinking ship.
Yay DJT, Twice
Before closing on this blog
segment, let me confound and shock some of you by, legitimately, praising President Trump over his muscular response to the
Syrian gas attacks. I was very critical of President Obama, i.e. "red
lines and all" for talking a lot about Syria and other hot spots but doing
little or nothing.
DJT’s military move—and
what I expect will be others—provides him with greater diplomatic and strategic
options than just imploring Russia and Iran--which he did before the cruise
missile attacks--to rein in Assad.
Of possibly of greater
value to the nation, I also welcome the President (finally) using the attack to accept responsibility for his position and ownership of these military steps and associated domestic
action.
Maloni, 4-10-2017
(To the landsmen, best wishes, good health, and Peace on this Passover.)
