Once again, banks are in the news. I only saw a bit of a Congressional hearing on CNN last night, but now I'm reading about it on the internet. Every time I see bank executives speak in front of a panel, I just know that they're lying to save their fat a$$. Here some statements as posted on Yahoo:
"We are frugal," said Wells Fargo's John Stumpf. "We're Americans first. We're bankers second."
I can imagine this guy lying all the while dreaming of the fat bonu$ he just gave to himself for being such a good liar...
"We understand taxpayers are angry" and they are right in demanding that institutions receiving their money take a "conservative, sober and frugal" approach to using it, said Kenneth D. Lewis of Bank of America.
Another liar. Let me translate: He understands that we taxpayers are angry, but he really does not give a crap! Oh I really hate Bank Of America...
You just know they're lying... "FBI Deputy Director John Pistole told that Senate panel that there are 530 active corporate fraud investigations, and 38 of them involve corporate fraud and financial institution matters directly related to the economic crisis."
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Problem With Banks
I know that banks exist for the sole purpose of making more money out of some money. But I also thought that they are helpful. They can still make money by helping regular people like you and me save and invest. But banks don't really care about people. They only care about money. Think Mr. Potter from Frank Cappra's It's A Wonderful Life...
Actually, it's not the employees but the institution and its policies that don't care... There is a real need to boycott banks whenever possible! Check out your credit union. Really.
I'm really glad that Lehman Brothers failed. That's real capitalism. None of this quasi-socialist/capitalist BS.
The government is bailing out Wall Street and I keep hearing news of bank programs that help homeowners. But I'm seeing stories about the attitudes from banks and reactions from distressed homeowners. Here is one story from ireport.com:
Actually, it's not the employees but the institution and its policies that don't care... There is a real need to boycott banks whenever possible! Check out your credit union. Really.
I'm really glad that Lehman Brothers failed. That's real capitalism. None of this quasi-socialist/capitalist BS.
The government is bailing out Wall Street and I keep hearing news of bank programs that help homeowners. But I'm seeing stories about the attitudes from banks and reactions from distressed homeowners. Here is one story from ireport.com:
My very good friend has a home in Weymouth, MA. The Chase Mortgage Company is the note holder. She slipped behind a month and tried to catch up on payments. She called numerous times to arrange a payment catch up plan. Chase refused to discuss it. After two months of run arounds her lawyer recommended she make weekly payments to Chase. This she did. Chase called several times to tell her to stop sending payments. Chase said the mortgage was going into foreclosure. Chase refused to acknowledge that these weekly payments were even made. It took a letter from the Bank president of the bank the checks were drawn on for Chase to admit they had cashed the checks and money orders. Chase said they were going to return the money over an undisclosed period of time and take the matter under advisement. Another month has passed and Chase still has not returned all the funds or stated what the conditions of a re written mortgage will be.
When you hear of people falling months behind in their mortgage payments think of this. It is not the homeowner but the banks themselves which are letting peoples home loans slip deeper and deeper in debt. The Congressional bailout has done absolutely nothing for this home owner and if Congress claims it is helping they are so wrong. There are most likely thousands of homeowners just like my dear friend who are in the same predicament. My hope is thousands of people will read this and push their legislators to really do something not just spin a tale of how wonderful they and their plan are. It is an outright lie! The banks DO NOT want to help homeowners and never did.
When you hear of people falling months behind in their mortgage payments think of this. It is not the homeowner but the banks themselves which are letting peoples home loans slip deeper and deeper in debt. The Congressional bailout has done absolutely nothing for this home owner and if Congress claims it is helping they are so wrong. There are most likely thousands of homeowners just like my dear friend who are in the same predicament. My hope is thousands of people will read this and push their legislators to really do something not just spin a tale of how wonderful they and their plan are. It is an outright lie! The banks DO NOT want to help homeowners and never did.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Obama is now President
Barack Obama was sworn in today as the 44th US President. By tomorrow, I expect the economy to have completely recovered.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Romeonomics
Henry Paulson is an idiot. That's all I have to say.
As I drive from home to work and back, I listen to NPR on KPCC (89.3 FM). It seems Treasury Secretary Paulson does not want to help homeowners with their mortgages. Well, he is an idiot. How can he justify taking money from tax payers to bail out the big banks on Wall Street but not help the lowly homeowner on Main Street?!
If he feels that government should not interfere and just allow market forces to correct themselves, then he has no business giving money to the big banks. That's socialism! But he goes further than that. He perpetuates elitism. He thinks that only big banks are deserving of government rescue because they know how to be responsible. But isn't it the big banks that allowed and even rewarded... undocumented loan originations?!
Certainly, the homeowner deserves to lose a house that is beyond his means. Even I believe in that. But the same should apply to the big banks. They should be allowed to crumble. But because they are so big and vital to the global economy, Paulson will not allow them to fail. But this happens at the expense of the tax payer. How unfair is that?
Not only is it unfair, it does not help the economy recover. Imagine a bank lending commercial paper to a manufacturing company. The bank is happy because it will benefit from interest charges. The manufacturing company will be happy because it has capital purchase raw materials and manufacture goods. But what if nobody buys? If the homeowner is not helped, he will have not enough disposable income. He cannot buy goods from the manufacturer. Instead it will remain in inventory.
Paulson is an idiot. He will change his mind again when "the facts change". But I thought facts don't change? Unless he got his facts wrong in the first place...
As I drive from home to work and back, I listen to NPR on KPCC (89.3 FM). It seems Treasury Secretary Paulson does not want to help homeowners with their mortgages. Well, he is an idiot. How can he justify taking money from tax payers to bail out the big banks on Wall Street but not help the lowly homeowner on Main Street?!
If he feels that government should not interfere and just allow market forces to correct themselves, then he has no business giving money to the big banks. That's socialism! But he goes further than that. He perpetuates elitism. He thinks that only big banks are deserving of government rescue because they know how to be responsible. But isn't it the big banks that allowed and even rewarded... undocumented loan originations?!
Certainly, the homeowner deserves to lose a house that is beyond his means. Even I believe in that. But the same should apply to the big banks. They should be allowed to crumble. But because they are so big and vital to the global economy, Paulson will not allow them to fail. But this happens at the expense of the tax payer. How unfair is that?
Not only is it unfair, it does not help the economy recover. Imagine a bank lending commercial paper to a manufacturing company. The bank is happy because it will benefit from interest charges. The manufacturing company will be happy because it has capital purchase raw materials and manufacture goods. But what if nobody buys? If the homeowner is not helped, he will have not enough disposable income. He cannot buy goods from the manufacturer. Instead it will remain in inventory.
Paulson is an idiot. He will change his mind again when "the facts change". But I thought facts don't change? Unless he got his facts wrong in the first place...
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