I'm getting ready to get 950 pgs of entirely redacted docs even though FOIA officer agreed they should be reviewed for factual + statistical items that aren't exempt. But then, of course, you go straight into complex track & wait 36 months -> effective denial #FOIAFriday
My latest: I've been on the mortgage trail lately, trying to figure out why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would buy and securitize loans like these.
Fake tenants, fake income, but real loans? U.S. pursues one of the largest mortgage-fraud probes since 2008 wsj.com/articles/u-s-p…
Loans for apartment buildings where owners allegedly staged units to make them look occupied -- by playing radios inside units or putting doormats outside -- have sparked one of the biggest mortgage fraud probes since the 2008 financial crisis.
Lax and fraudulent lending on single-family homes before 2008 played a role in inflating and popping the housing bubble a decade ago. As demand for rental housing grows, will lax standards spread to the multifamily housing market?
This is remarkable: @NYSHCR is refusing to tell @housingrightsNY the names of landlords it is targeting as part of a compliance initiative with a popular NYC tax break, J-51, that requires landlord to limit rent increases on tenants: nydailynews.com/new-york/dhcr-…
Remarkable because @NewYorkStateAG had a similar compliance initiative for another tax break, 421-A, which also resulted in letters being sent to scofflaw landlords. Anyone remember this? propublica.org/article/landlo…
I filed a public records request w/ @NewYorkStateAG to see who they were targeting and got the list. So it's interesting to see another arm of NY state government argue that it can't disclose substantially the same information b/c it "would interfere with law enforcement"
1/ When I was a senior @Penn in 2006 studying business and getting ready to go off to Wall Street, I never dreamed I’d someday get the honor to work on a project like this – a data-driven @WSJ look back on the lingering legacy of the 2008 financial crisis: graphics.dev.wsj.com/how-the-world-…
2/ This was an ambitious effort with my talented @WSJGraphics colleagues @tylerpaige@no_such_zone@jessiekuronen@gianordoli who helped me distill complex financial jargon into beautiful charts and illustrations anyone can understand – what financial journalism’s all about!
3/ Here are a few highlights from of my reporting which they helped bring to life in this first tap-through mobile story we've put together: graphics.dev.wsj.com/how-the-world-…