The City Of Camden, New
Jersey Is Under Intense, Military-Style Surveillance - (www.businessinsider.com) Big
Brother is watching Camden, N.J. A Rolling Stone article published earlier this month highlighted
the intense surveillance tactics police have employed in an effort to drive out
drugs and reduce crime in Camden, one of America's most dangerous cities. It sounds pretty intimidating: Energized
county officials say they have a plan now for retaking Camden's streets one
impenetrable neighborhood at a time, using old-school techniques like foot
patrols and simple get-to-know-you community interactions (new officers stop
and talk to residents as a matter of strategy and policy). But the plan also
involves the use of space-age cameras and military-style surveillance, which
ironically will turn this crumbling dead-poor dopescape of barred row homes and
deserted factories into a high-end proving ground for futuristic crowd-control
technology.
BofA's legal costs mount in Countrywide mortgage fiasco - (www.latimes.com) A federal judge will soon decide how much Bank of America should pay for some of Countrywide Financial Corp.'s sins in the lead-up to the financial crisis. Federal prosecutors want BofA to pay $864 million after the bank's stinging defeat in a major civil fraud trial in October. A jury found BofA liable in a case centered on a Countrywide program called "The Hustle," which churned out risky home loans before selling them to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But whatever penalty the bank might pay, it will amount to a mere drop in the bucket of BofA's legal bills — much of it stemming from its ill-fated acquisition of the former Calabasas mortgage lender in 2008. "It's chump change," said Dick Bove, bank analyst at Rafferty Capital Markets. The bank already has shouldered about $50 billion in loan and foreclosure losses, lawsuit settlements and investigations and legal defense costs stemming from its purchase of Countrywide, just as the housing market cratered.
Ally
Financial pays $98 million to settle auto lending bias probe - (www.latimes.com) Ally
Financial Inc., a former General Motors Corp. lending arm that taxpayers bailed out
during the financial crisis, will pay $98 million to settle federal government
allegations that car dealers overcharged blacks, Latinos and Asians for Ally’s
auto loans. Without admitting wrongdoing, Ally agreed to pay restitution of $80
million and an $18 million penalty. It also agreed to work with the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau and
the Department of Justice to monitor dealer loan pricing to prevent
discrimination. Ally, which is no longer part of GM, has the option of
eliminating dealer markups of interest rates altogether, government officials
said Friday.
The real problem with France's 75% tax - (www.cnbc.com) Plans
for a 75 percent tax on the superwealthy in France will finally become reality
in 2014. (Read more: France
approves 75 percent tax on high earners) Following a French court ruling published
Sunday, the tax will be leveled on companies paying salaries of more than one
million euros ($1.4 million). Earlier versions of the bill, one of the key
tenet of France's left-leaning Prime Minister Francois Hollande's election promises,
had already raised the ire of the country's footballers -- who threatened to
strike earlier this year -- and actor Gerard Depardieu, who registered as a
Russian citizen as well as moving moved to
Belgium in protest.
The tax was originally supposed to be paid directly by individuals, but that
was ruled to be illegal. Hollande reformulated the tax to make it so that
companies or organisations paying salaries above 1 million euros would have to pay
the tax. However, the tax's impact appears to be a lot less than the
controversy it has generated: it is expected to raise less than 1 billion
euros, which will not go very far towards solving France's economic problems.
AMERICA
TODAY: Heartbreaking Pictures From New Jersey's Homeless 'Tent City' - (www.businessinsider.com) Doug
Hardman wakes up every morning with a song in his head—a vague memory of his days on stage. Inside his tepee in the woods outside
Lakewood, NJ, at the homeless Tent City, the roosters wake early and the
mornings are already cooler. A musician who lost his Florida home in the
housing crisis, Hardman says he floats in and out of Tent City, that he's proud
of his kids, and misses the life he no longer has. He has a lot of company out
here. Click here for the pictures and story > Tent City made the news recently and while
community leader Steven Brigham says the media attention brought in greater
donations, it also brought unwanted attention from the local politicians.
Target
Says Encrypted PIN Information Stolen in Breach - (www.bloomberg.com)
GM recalls 1.5 million cars in China over fuel pump bracket - (www.bloomberg.com)
GM recalls 1.5 million cars in China over fuel pump bracket - (www.bloomberg.com)
Report: 70 journalists died on the job in 2013 - (www.finance.yahoo.com)
China Says Abe Closed Door to New Meetings After Visiting Shrine - (www.bloomberg.com)
How to Prevent a War Between China and Japan - (www.bloomberg.com)
China Says Abe Closed Door to New Meetings After Visiting Shrine - (www.bloomberg.com)
How to Prevent a War Between China and Japan - (www.bloomberg.com)
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