The Evil Bankers

[+ Lucky]

Jesus sure knew what he was doing when he went after the money changers, and now their heirs continue to find ways to milk us out of our own hard-earned money. When South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson had a stroke, I joined a multitude of others in offering good wishes for a speedy recovery. So how does he reward us? He sells out heart and soul to the banks, just like most of his fellow senators.

And how do the banks reward us for the bailout help we gave them? They try to screw us even more.

The New York times columnist Bob Herbert hits the nail right on the head:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/opinion/14herbert.html?_r=1

[Guest greatness]

Well

 

They are indeed evil. We live in a country where people spend more than they earn. This practice is promoted by these bankers to get rich very fast. Don't worry Lucky they can't keep doing this. Either this country will be sold to China or people have to start to live within one's means.

 

Jesus sure knew what he was doing when he went after the money changers, and now their heirs continue to find ways to milk us out of our own hard-earned money. When South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson had a stroke, I joined a multitude of others in offering good wishes for a speedy recovery. So how does he reward us? He sells out heart and soul to the banks, just like most of his fellow senators.

And how do the banks reward us for the bailout help we gave them? They try to screw us even more.

The New York times columnist Bob Herbert hits the nail right on the head:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/opinion/14herbert.html?_r=1

[+ Lucky]

In New york, landlords of apartment buildings are often in foreclosure and cannot afford the repairs necessary in tenants apartments. The Times reports:

 

"Many of these landlords, particularly those who bought in recent years when the real estate market was at its peak, are struggling to make mortgage payments, let alone pump thousands of dollars into buildings for repairs. Elected officials and tenant advocates place much of the blame for the distress of multifamily apartment buildings not on landlords, but on the lenders who financed many of those now in default, saying the loans for the properties were based on shoddy lending practices and unrealistic projections of rising rents."

[+ g56whiz]

Hold it just a damn minute out their. Us shoddy bankers (I'm actually just a recovering banker: I haven't made a loan in more than a decade) could not have concluded any of these evil mortgage transactions without the complicit participation of a slew of evil lawyers, pernicious appraisers and bank regulators who conveniently looked the other way to say nothing of the see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil rating agencies. And then there were the poor fools who just had to have the jacuzzi, three car garage and extra 2,000 square feet of built in air conditioned living space. There's plenty of blame to go around here. Us bankers are willing to share it. Oh and by the way your were probably happier with the rates we were paying on your accounts back then than you are now. Hey and if you don't like the rates we're now asking, just go elsewhere . . . . if you can.

 

Oh and greateness, I hate to be the one to break the news to you but China has already bought us. You don't have to worry about our be living within our means: we'll be living with in those they impose on us soon enough. Just wait . . . . .

[Guest greatness]

let's not be so pessimistic

 

We still can recover. Let's be optimistic. China doesn't not own us yet. As long as we can recover our growth we will be fine. I didn't mean to single out bankers so I apologize. I see a lot of people recovering common senses around me these days. Please do not look down on Americans. We can recover.

 

 

Hold it just a damn minute out their. Us shoddy bankers (I'm actually just a recovering banker: I haven't made a loan in more than a decade) could not have concluded any of these evil mortgage transactions without the complicit participation of a slew of evil lawyers, pernicious appraisers and bank regulators who conveniently looked the other way to say nothing of the see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil rating agencies. And then there were the poor fools who just had to have the jacuzzi, three car garage and extra 2,000 square feet of built in air conditioned living space. There's plenty of blame to go around here. Us bankers are willing to share it. Oh and by the way your were probably happier with the rates we were paying on your accounts back then than you are now. Hey and if you don't like the rates we're now asking, just go elsewhere . . . . if you can.

 

Oh and greateness, I hate to be the one to break the news to you but China has already bought us. You don't have to worry about our be living within our means: we'll be living with in those they impose on us soon enough. Just wait . . . . .

[+ Lucky]

"China doesn't not own us yet."

 

Does that double negative imply anything? Are you secretly agreeing with g56whiz?

[+ g56whiz]

The most Freudian of slips I guess.

[Guest alanm]

Millions of Foreclosures

 

From someone who supervises a slew of overworked housing counselors who are trying to keep families from foreclosure, I agree that there are many villains. Yes, some folks bought homes they could not possibly afford. But, many did not understand the "fine print." They weren't alone; even some non-real estate lawyers would not have understood either.

 

Lenders put extremely tempting products out there, a few with no docs, no downpayment options. The refi market has its share of predatory loans.

 

The problem with the Obama plan (Making Home Affordable) is that servicers are being asked to underwrite bad loans (for loan modifications), without the necessary time, experience, or financial incentive.

 

I can tell from g56whiz's comments that he is very far removed from the daily reality of millions of foreclosures in 2008, 2009, 2010 and perhaps beyond. Don't mean to pick on ya, whiz. But, you really are out of touch.

[Guest greatness]

lol

 

I do that all the time. Sometimes I call someone with someone else's name. I have seen doctors several times for it.

 

The most Freudian of slips I guess.

[+ Lucky]

We're not just talking about people who bought homes they couldn't afford,(although many did because of the bank's deceit), but the credit card scams the bank concocts, and the general way they structure their loans to squeeze the last drop out of people.

[+ g56whiz]

I have to agree with you Lucky about bank cards. As one who has one, I've been dumbfounded with what banks have gotten away with in this area. I did a lot of work with problem loans and became somewhat familiar with the bankruptcy code. As a US citizen, I took some pride that our system of laws reflected our history and the indentured servants who populated areas of our colonies and offered the troubled borrower the opportunity to get back return to solvency. This differed from other countries dire "wind-up" statutes that mandate immediate liquidation of all assets. And then I watched banks buy off senator after senator who voted to disembowel these distinctive features of our bankruptcy code so that the troubled personal debtor just doesn't have a chance now. Even senators I championed, like Clinton drank this evil kool-aid. It sickens me. But it's all part of the same me-first ethos that gave us Enron, Tyco, Bernie Madoff et al.

 

I was traveling last week and caught only a brief snippet of the message of the Pope's latest encyclical as I passed through a foreign airport. In it he apparently opines that profits are not inherently evil as long as there is also some social good involved. Not a bad idea. Ignoring that little caveat has gotten us into the moral morass we're now in. I'm not Catholic and haven't thought very highly of this particular pontiff but if that is his plank I'm all for it.

 

I can tell from g56whiz's comments that he is very far removed from the daily reality of millions of foreclosures in 2008, 2009, 2010 and perhaps beyond. Don't mean to pick on ya, whiz. But, you really are out of touch.

 

You're partially right greatness: I don't deal with these realities day after day but I do have an enormous amount of respect for those like yourself who are in the trenches daily. My remove gives me perhaps a wider perspective on what is transpiring. As I understand it one of the biggest impediments is the ambiguous position of the loan servicing organizations. As trustee, they don't really have the authority to act on their own in restructuring these problem mortgages one by one. I think one of them has to have the balls to go to their beneficiaries with the proposition that they want the right to make these modifications and to charge the corpus of the trust a fee for their labor and if the beneficiaries refuse to grant it they will resign their trusteeship. Once one has done it, the rest (with some pressure from the administration) will fall into line. Then they can go out and hire all us recovering bankers who know how to get this job done expeditiously.

 

Oh greatness on second thought, perhaps you're right: I am too out of touch.

[Guest greatness]

huh???

 

You mean Alanam? I didn't say you're out of touch..

 

I have to agree with you Lucky about bank cards. As one who has one, I've been dumbfounded with what banks have gotten away with in this area. I did a lot of work with problem loans and became somewhat familiar with the bankruptcy code. As a US citizen, I took some pride that our system of laws reflected our history and the indentured servants who populated areas of our colonies and offered the troubled borrower the opportunity to get back return to solvency. This differed from other countries dire "wind-up" statutes that mandate immediate liquidation of all assets. And then I watched banks buy off senator after senator who voted to disembowel these distinctive features of our bankruptcy code so that the troubled personal debtor just doesn't have a chance now. Even senators I championed, like Clinton drank this evil kool-aid. It sickens me. But it's all part of the same me-first ethos that gave us Enron, Tyco, Bernie Madoff et al.

 

I was traveling last week and caught only a brief snippet of the message of the Pope's latest encyclical as I passed through a foreign airport. In it he apparently opines that profits are not inherently evil as long as there is also some social good involved. Not a bad idea. Ignoring that little caveat has gotten us into the moral morass we're now in. I'm not Catholic and haven't thought very highly of this particular pontiff but if that is his plank I'm all for it.

 

 

 

You're partially right greatness: I don't deal with these realities day after day but I do have an enormous amount of respect for those like yourself who are in the trenches daily. My remove gives me perhaps a wider perspective on what is transpiring. As I understand it one of the biggest impediments is the ambiguous position of the loan servicing organizations. As trustee, they don't really have the authority to act on their own in restructuring these problem mortgages one by one. I think one of them has to have the balls to go to their beneficiaries with the proposition that they want the right to make these modifications and to charge the corpus of the trust a fee for their labor and if the beneficiaries refuse to grant it they will resign their trusteeship. Once one has done it, the rest (with some pressure from the administration) will fall into line. Then they can go out and hire all us recovering bankers who know how to get this job done expeditiously.

 

Oh greatness on second thought, perhaps you're right: I am too out of touch.

[Guest alanm]

Mixed Bag

 

As to servicers, it is a mixed bag. Many do have the authority to

okay loan modifications. But, you are partly correct. Those servicers who handle loans that were bundled and sold to investors are often under the gun.

 

Treasury Secretary Geithner has written to the top 25 mortgage servicers demanding their attendance at a meeting in Washington on July 28. The subject of the meeting is loan modifications. The question is why the big servicers are not doing more to modify loans for homeowners who are in danger of defaulting on their mortgages.

 

Let's hope something meaningful happens at that meeting in two weeks.

 

Finally, a word about housing counselors. Here in Philadelphia the average salary is $35,000 a year for a job that requires 10 hours work days right now. That barely a living wage. I really appreciate your comments about being on the front line.