There are some deeply nervous and scared investment banks on Wall Street about now, probably wishing they’d never heard the word “subprime.”

“When they start using the Martin Act, you don’t run, you don’t hide, you don’t fight. You settle early, and often,” a veteran of an earlier round of Martin Act subpoenas told us.

With the Martin Act, the prosecutor doesn’t need to prove intent. Think big penalties. Also, the subpoenas “don’t spell out whether matters are civil or criminal in nature,” which could certainly imply that criminal indictments could be forthcoming for those who don’t cooperate.

As with Enron and Worldcom, some of those involved in mortgage and securities fraud should go to prison. Why? Because they are criminals, that’s why.

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Two brothers were found guilty in L.A. of participating in home invasion robberies staged to look like police raids which netted them over $1 million. They will probably spend decades in prison.

One was an LAPD officer, the other a Long Beach police officer. The ringleader was also an LAPD officer. They weren’t pretending to be cops, they weren’t retired cops, they were active duty cops. AKA Criminal thugs with badges.

The judge said “the case underscored the need for aggressive outside oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department.”

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Obama is within three points of Clinton in California, this before Edwards withdrew, while Romney is balking about spending more money, a sure sign of a dying candidacy.

As mentioned yesterday, if Ron Paul runs on the Libertarian Party ticket he will unquestionably pull votes from the Republican ticket.

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El Piolín, Latino radio radio show host extraordinaire in southern California, just gave Obama a huge boost by having Ted Kennedy on the show for 20 minutes talking about why he endorses Obama.

You must understand, in the lead up to the massive, historic immigration rights march in L.A. in March 2006 it was Latino radio that spread the word. In the days before the march Latino friends told me that Latino radio hosts stopped playing music so they could talk about the march. The buzz was incredible and Latino radio was what did it.

And the biggest and most influential of all of them is El Piolín, who has the highest ratings of any radio host in southern California, Latino or otherwise.

This could be important.

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Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief-of-staff to Colin Powell, on why the US badly needs a new policy towards Latin America and Cuba.

Whoever is the new president in January 2009, two things need to happen with regard to Latin America and Cuba. First, Cuba, never on the front burner, needs at least to be put on the stove. Second, U.S. relations with Latin America should be completely refurbished. And there is the connection: no more effective and swifter way exists to signal a new approach to Latin America than to effect a rapprochement with Cuba as the opening gambit. Mr./Madam President, over to you.

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Genetically modified trees are being used on oil spill sites. They “remove pollutants 100 times faster than non-genetically modified poplars.”

They will be cut down after three years before they can pass their genes on. A Frankentree perhaps, but certainly a useful one.

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Best knife sharpener ever. 6-8 swipes sharpens a dull blade without hassling about getting the edge at just the perfect angle. The secret of the Furi Ozitech knife sharpener is the diamond coated fingers. Folds up into a compact case too.

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A bank CEO says, unlike in previous economic downturns, once homeowners go 30 days late on the mortgage they never make another payment. In previous times, they might have kept paying, remaining 30 days late. But no more. They just walk away from the home, and mail those jingling keys back to the bank.

This is something quite new. In the past, people would try to hold on to the house. However, they probably also put 20% or so down and thus had a financial stake in the house.  But many current homeowners in trouble today probably got NINJA loans (No Income, No Job, No  Assets) and might have only put a few thousand dollars down, if that. Some put nothing down.

Thus, the homeowner has little or no money in the house, can live in it for several months as foreclosure happens without paying anything, then walks away. Sure, their credit is damaged for a while, but if their mortgage just reset to a higher level they probably have no real choice anyway.

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Venture capitalists invested $1 billion in solar companies last year, up from just $100 million in 2005. This is an exponential increase and it’s really only just begun. Solar is still just a toddler.

The country is going into a recession, or at least a slowdown. Huge amounts of money is exiting Wall Street, fleeing the now-toxic wasteland that is debt-backed securities.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all that money got put to actual use, building and creating stuff, rather than in creating bizarre financial instruments that benefit few, if any. The long-term effect of the current debt crisis will be years of pain. The long-term effect of r&d into cleantech will be an economy and country transformed.

Hey, if most of our transportation were EVs powered by renewable energy sources, then we wouldn’t have to go to war to get oil, now would we? Many countries would then breathe a sigh of relief and the world would become a more peaceful place as countries everywhere moved to renewable power and clean transportation.

Such a future can happen. In fact, I’ll say that it will happen. Because it has to. And such a development may be precisely what pulls us out of the coming economic slump too.

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