2009.07.28: July 28, 2009: Headlines: Figures: COS - Dominican Republic: Politics: Congress: Huffington Post: David Fiderer writes: Senator Dodd's Accusers: Lying Liars and the Reporters Who Enable Them
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2009.07.28: July 28, 2009: Headlines: Figures: COS - Dominican Republic: Politics: Congress: Huffington Post: David Fiderer writes: Senator Dodd's Accusers: Lying Liars and the Reporters Who Enable Them
David Fiderer writes: Senator Dodd's Accusers: Lying Liars and the Reporters Who Enable Them
Feinberg lied by claiming that Dodd received free "float-downs" when he refinanced the mortgage loans on his homes in Connecticut and Washington. The free float-downs purportedly reduced the interest rate on one $275,000 loan from 4.875 percent to 4.5 percent, and reduced the rate on another $506,000 loan from 4.875 percent to 4.25 percent. (For an analysis of why the calculation of a $75,000 savings was fraudulent, go here.) But there never was any float-down. The truth is far more banal and obvious. When Dodd applied to refinance his mortgages in April 2003, the market rate was 4.875 percent. At the time of his application, Dodd did not lock in his rate. Instead, he assumed the risk that rates might rise above 4.875 percent or that they might decline further. When Dodd closed on his mortgages several months later, market rates had fallen, and he got the lower spot rates, which were same rates extended to any comparable borrower at the time. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the 1960's.
David Fiderer writes: Senator Dodd's Accusers: Lying Liars and the Reporters Who Enable Them
Senator Dodd's Accusers: Lying Liars and the Reporters Who Enable Them
There's definitive, ironclad proof that Senator Dodd's accuser has been lying from the start. The entire Countrywide VIP loan scandal is predicated on the flimsy recollections of this liar, named Robert Feinberg. Luckily for Feinberg and some Republican hit men, some less-than-professional reporters like Larry Margasak of the Associated Press are more than willing to embellish Feinberg's story.
More than a year ago, Feinberg, a loan processor laid off from Countrywide Financial, stole some confidential loan documents on mortgages extended to 17 Democrats, and persuaded Conde Nast Portfolio that he had evidence of a big scandal. His documents never demonstrated much of anything. The "sweetheart deals" or "VIP treatment" were mostly nickel and dime stuff, waivers of "garbage fees" that are only paid by suckers. Nothing in the paperwork suggested that anyone was paying a below-market interest rate on his loan.
So, in order to inflate the dollar benefit of the "sweetheart deals," Feinberg made up some facts. He offered no written backup, but Portfolio, desperate to uncover a "scandal," took his word for it. In fact, there was written documentation disproving Feinberg's lie. But since Feinberg concealed that information, Portfolio was able to maintain plausible deniability.
"Portfolio calculated that lower rates and waived fees would save Dodd more than $75,000 over the life of the loans," reported NPR and dozens of other media outlets. About $2,700 of those savings were traceable to written documents, and Feinberg made up the remaining $72,000.
Feinberg lied by claiming that Dodd received free "float-downs" when he refinanced the mortgage loans on his homes in Connecticut and Washington. The free float-downs purportedly reduced the interest rate on one $275,000 loan from 4.875 percent to 4.5 percent, and reduced the rate on another $506,000 loan from 4.875 percent to 4.25 percent. (For an analysis of why the calculation of a $75,000 savings was fraudulent, go here.)
But there never was any float-down. The truth is far more banal and obvious. When Dodd applied to refinance his mortgages in April 2003, the market rate was 4.875 percent. At the time of his application, Dodd did not lock in his rate. Instead, he assumed the risk that rates might rise above 4.875 percent or that they might decline further. When Dodd closed on his mortgages several months later, market rates had fallen, and he got the lower spot rates, which were same rates extended to any comparable borrower at the time.
We now know the truth based on documents that Feinberg concealed from Portfolio but handed over to Rep. Darrel Issa, who is unilaterally attempting an end-run around the Senate Ethics Committee investigation into the matter. The documents for Dodd's mortgage application show "Not Applicable" on the line for a rate-lock, a product which would have allowed Dodd to lock in his rates at the time of his application in April 2003, before his closings in June and July 2003.
Since Dodd never had a rate lock, he never had the famous float-downs that, according to Feinberg and Portfolio, saved Dodd $72,000. A float-down is a promise that you are entitled to the lower of your locked-in rate or the spot rate at the time of closing. If you don't have a rate lock, you don't have a float-down. Of course, Washington media types are not especially interested in things like details.
Imagine for a moment that you have left the Gossip Girl world of Washington media, and lived in a world where reporters acted professionally and ethically. A reporter covering the Countrywide VIP loan story would ask the following questions:
Did Dodd actually benefit from a sweetheart deal? That is, did he receive terms better than those available to anyone else on the open market? And if Dodd did receive better terms, was the discount so glaringly obvious that anyone would have been suspicious? The clear-cut answer to all of those questions is, "No." A reporter who showed some interest in fact checking would have read and evaluated the substance of Dodd's written response on the matter. Or he might have called a real estate professional and asked, "Suppose a customer gets a $2,700 reduction in upfront fees on mortgage refinancings totaling $781,000, would he have reason to suspect that the reduction was something out of the ordinary?"
Instead, Washington media types say that Dodd disputes the allegations, but go no further into the substance of the data that validates Dodd's version of events.
What did Dodd hear or see that made him think that he got a better deal than someone else? The answer to that question is that a low-level paper pusher, Feinberg, repeated some standard marketing tag lines on the phone. Check out Feinberg's appearance on CNBC.
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Headlines: July, 2009; RPCV Chris Dodd (Dominican Republic); Figures; Peace Corps Dominican Republic; Directory of Dominican Republic RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Dominican Republic RPCVs; Politics; Congress; Connecticut
When this story was posted in August 2009, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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| Director Ron Tschetter: The PCOL Interview Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter sat down for an in-depth interview to discuss the evacuation from Bolivia, political appointees at Peace Corps headquarters, the five year rule, the Peace Corps Foundation, the internet and the Peace Corps, how the transition is going, and what the prospects are for doubling the size of the Peace Corps by 2011. Read the interview and you are sure to learn something new about the Peace Corps. PCOL previously did an interview with Director Gaddi Vasquez. |
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Story Source: Huffington Post
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Dominican Republic; Politics; Congress
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