Bankers that received federal bailouts are complaining that the government is changing the terms and conditions of their loans after the fact. Sounds familiar.
TARP: Because It’s Payback Time
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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It's why I use a credit union.
Somehow, I think that fine print is going to affect more than just bankers.
TOO FUCKING BAD.
Shoot the bankers as "wreckers" and "kulaks" and we begin on the road to sanity.
– Strelnikov
You forgot about the evil "insufficient funds" fee that banks love to charge people.
the funny is back, ted.
This time, its personal.
Anyone who bought a home had to sign and initial reams of paperwork disclosing fees and terms. Included was the rate, and whether it was adjustable or not. The fact is, people got greedy with the teaser rates, and assumed they could sell their home within 5 years when their payment ballooned. Strangely enough there were no complaints when housing was appreciating, but as soon as the bubble burst all the cry babies and so called victims appeared. Unless you can prove your bank forged your signature or falsified documents, you made a contract and it is your fault not the banks, Bush, Cheney, The Smirking Chimp or anyone else.
The bank lent money to deadbeats and scumbags knowing the consequences. That isn't the evil guv'mint's fault either, yet they get billions in welfare.
Anon 12:26,
I am quite certain that Ted was referencing credit cards in this cartoon. Chase recently took my card from 11% to 40% and then added several "Fees." I had a similar conversation with a young lady in India to the one that the Banker in Ted's cartoon has. I also find it interesting that you don't think people have to move sometimes, that there are blameless people who are caught up in the mortgage mess or that some people just thought "geez, this house is too much, but the Bank says I can afford it and I need a place to raise my kids." I know several people who are going through that right now. I had to move and lost $100k. Your shit may not stink, but you are sort of an arrogant, misinformed asswipe.
You forgot about the evil "insufficient funds" fee that banks love to charge people.
The reason you have "NSF" is because you were taught feel good, new math promoted by so called "educators". It made you feel good in school, but it doesn't work in real life.
Unless you can prove your bank forged your signature or falsified documents…
Funny, I've been hearing anecdotes about people dumping their toxic mortgages because the corporate debt holders are unable to produce the paperwork that was allegedly signed. (This reminds me of the time I received a credit card without signing the form.)
The banks and debt collectors can't prove that a contract exits. They eat it in court. Sunk by their own bureaucracy. I love these stories…
One can only wish Ted's cartoon was so…
Kurt,
You are correct, I assumed Ted was referring to mortgages. Thank you for the gratuitous insults and anecdotal stories. I was specifically addressing this notion that banks change the terms of the mortgages. My wife and I went through a foreclosure last year. It was not the banks fault, not Bush's fault, not evil rich CEO's fault, it was our fault. We tried to play the game I described in my previous post: We bought at the teaser rate thinking we could refi and pull equity out before the balloon payment was due in five years. We got greedy and caught at the top, just like thousands of other home owners.
Grouchy,
Let me get this straight, a person is living in a home but drops the mortgage on the home because the lender cannot produce the original documents? So the lender takes them to court to foreclose and the lender loses so the person lives in the home free for life?
No, they don't get to live in the home "free for life." I've heard a couple of different scenarios:
a.) The lender doesn't want the property because its worth so little and would be hard to unload, and the person has walked away because their debt is so much more than the post-bubble market value of property. Since the lender (or current owner of the lien) can't produce the documents, the person who walked away gets to retain their credit score and not have to pay back taxes, court costs, fees, etc.
b.) I think it was CNN that ran a report on people fighting evictions by demanding original copies of the documents (an estimated 40% of the time they no longer exist). It seems that these folks are mostly using it as stalling tactic to keep from getting thrown out on the street.
Anyway, I wish some of these people were getting to live in these homes for "free" because of shoddy bureaucracy. You see, I question the morality of absentee landownership. And if some giant, nameless, conglomerate can't even keep its records straight, fuck em. I know any judge would nail the little guy's ass to the wall if they had lost their paperwork…
Anon,
First off, sorry if I was over the top on the insults but you seemed to be lecturing a whole bunch of people about whom you had no clue as to their circumstances. It pissed me off because I didn't get a teaser rate, didn't piss any money away (I spent my own money making my house nice) and I got hosed to the tune of $100 grand. I could have paid off my student loans. I had to move and I am not going to have the "its all your irresponsible fault that you got hosed" bullshit. I heard the TV telling us all that the housing market was going up forever, in spite of the fact that Sacramento was already in free fall and Stockton was a nuclear wasteland. You bought what you were sold. You believed the "experts" who said you could count on your house value rising or staying stable forever. You definitely are culpable, but you didn't turn the news into a pretend program to sell you shit you don't need and you didn't do anything that we aren't all expected to do here in America. You know, buy a house, raise a family… I am tired at the anger being misplaced on the people trying to just get a little ahead, and put it squarely where it belongs, on the developers, banks and republican run government that perpetrated the biggest mass fraud in the history of the world. We should have our pitchforks and torches out and we should be storming the homes of the nearest captain of industry and getting our shit back.
You forgot about the evil "insufficient funds" fee that banks love to charge people.
The reason you have "NSF" is because you were taught feel good, new math promoted by so called "educators". It made you feel good in school, but it doesn't work in real life.
Okay….
Blame my educators for this if question but how is "NSF" Feel good math? I could understand if I worked in a bank and NSF worked to my advantage (Woo-Hoo! Another broke sucker has to pay us for being broke! At this rate we will have our bail out paid back in no time). How is it feel good? Maybe I feel good that I know what this charge is really for unlike the various other charges on my statement?
I ready an article the other day how people who recieve unemployment on the debt cards are getting hit left and right with bank fees and charges. The banks give you a one time shot to pull money off of it and then the gloves are off.
I was never taught in school how to balance a check book but they certainly took the time to teach me about buying stock.
some people just thought "geez, this house is too much, but the Bank says I can afford it and I need a place to raise my kids."
But shouldn't people know what they can afford? When we bought our first house, the loan officer told us we could afford to pay 50% more than we knew we could comfortably pay. I laughed at her. The bank sees how things look on paper. The borrowers know how far their money actually goes. It's simple math.
I don't believe the majority of the mortgage crisis is due to stupid borrowers, because banks will steal us blind, and nickel and dime us to death. They don't have to be given the opportunity. They'll just create one. But "this house is too much, but the Bank says I can afford it" doesn't fly. They already know they can't afford it. I don't know if they do it because of stupidity, irresponsibility or a desire to keep up with their friends, but if someone listens to a lying ass loan officer, in the face of solid numbers to the contrary, they have to accept some blame.