Bruce Marks, founder of the leftist Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, makes a good living shaking down banks for loans to deadbeat borrowers that he thinks are entitled to homes.

Last month, he and about 100 urban protesters stormed Fannie Mae's headquarters, demanding it stop foreclosures on subprime houses — the same homes his group pressured Fannie to fund.

As usual, the bullying tactics worked: Fannie Mae is now reviewing every foreclosure, while increasing the number of mortgages it restructures by lowering interest rates and extending loan terms to make payments more affordable. The government-backed firm guarantees some 30% of the nation's outstanding mortgages.

Marks founded Boston-based NACA last decade to fulfill his warped sense of the American dream. He thinks owning a home is a right, not a goal. And he thinks every American should have a house — even those who can't pay for one.

Marks, who proudly calls himself a bank terrorist, has extorted billions of dollars from Citigroup and other large banks to subsidize uncreditworthy borrowers in the inner city, where he accused the banks of "redlining."

A trade group representing hedge funds spent nearly $1.1 million in the fourth quarter lobbying federal officials on proposed financial regulations, including a measure that would require hedge funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The $1.08 million that the Managed Funds Association spent on lobbying in the latest quarter was about double the $520,000 it spent in the period a year earlier. The group's lobbying total for the latest quarter also tops the $910,000 it spent the previous quarter.
Unlike mutual funds and money-market funds, hedge funds don't have to register with the SEC and thus don't have to disclose who runs them, how much money they manage and what securities they buy.
Hedge funds, which cater to institutional investors and wealthy individuals, have fended off past attempts to regulate them. They sued, for example, to overturn an SEC push to register them in 2005. But they have come under closer scrutiny after the financial crisis in 2008 and early 2009.

Is it any surprise that hedge funds will escape new reforms in the Dodd bill currently working its way through the house and senate? What I find interesting is that the average investors money will be penalized in the regulatory reform (mutual funds) but not hedge funds for the wealthy (by having their account minimum in the millions) will be exempt from the rules. The small investor gets screwed again. They were screwed by the distorted markets caused by the reckless investments by hedge funds made in the 2000's that led to the credit market meltdown as the collateral damage worked it way through all the markets trampling the small investor. Now we tie down the small investor with new restrictions while letting the hedge funds roam free once again through out the market.

I have one question. When the next bubble bursts will capitalism (if you can still call it that - it looks more like oligarchy and fascism's love child) still stand? Could this be where we are in the next market crisis.