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Predatory Lending – Tim Miller – “Love, Your Broken Home”
A little while back I listened to an interview on the radio involving
predatory lending practices. On one side, they had a family on the
verge of being homeless because of these predatory practices. On the
other side, they interviewed a twenty something year old lender.
I
know there are a lot of borrowers out there who were greedy and got
burned because of it. This family, however, was not one of those
borrowers.
Essentially, this family trusted the lender and was
taken advantage of. The family was persuaded to "lock in" a variable
rate loan because of its "favorable" terms. Because of the "favorable"
terms, of course, the lender told the family they could borrow much more
money than, in reality, the family should have.
The lender
prospered by exploiting families like this - actually saying in the
interview how he and buddies would fly to Vegas, go to the best clubs,
etc. etc.
Not surprisingly, the family's home was foreclosed after their interest rate reset according to the terms of the loan.
The interview had a profound effect on me and inspired me to write a song about this American tragedy.
I stopped by producer/engineer Chris Bell's place and we ran it down using his Canon 7D camera.
LOVE, YOUR BROKEN HOME
By: Tim Miller © 2010
VERSE 1:
I'M IN WITH AN AMERICAN WHORE
I LAID DOWN WHEN YOU SAID HEY SIR,
YOU COULD HAVE SO MUCH MORE
GOT ME RIGHT TO THE LINE
A GENTLE NUDGE BEGINS THE FALL
HEY, HOW COME YOU NEVER FELL AT ALL
CHORUS 1:
FOOLISH CHILD, I'M FEELING LIKE A FOOLISH CHILD
HOW YOU PUSHED ME ON, OH THE BULLY HAS A BLINDED PAWN
AND I, I I ...
I'M SEEING WHY YOU WERE SO FAST AND LOOSE FOR THE CLOSE
LOVE, YOUR BROKEN HOME
VERSE 2:
HEY SIR SO WISE WITH YOUR BIG DEGREE
I HEAR YOU'RE OUT THERE LIVING LARGE IN SOME VELVET ROPE RED CARPET SCENE
WELL I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING A VERY NICE TIME YOU LITTLE SHIT
THEY LOCKED US OUT OF OUR HOUSE WE CAN'T GET IN
CHORUS 2:
FOOLISH CHILD, I'M FEELING LIKE A FOOLISH CHILD
WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, OH THE PAPER MAN WON'T LEAVE US ALONE
AND I, I I ...
I'M HERE WITH MY FAMILY WE'RE BARELY AFLOAT
LOVE YOUR BROKEN HOME
BRIDGE:
I GUESS I MISREAD YOUR ROLE
PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW I SHOULD TELL MY WIFE AND KIDS
IT'S TIME TO GO
CHORUS 3:
FOOLISH CHILD, I'M FEELING LIKE A FOOLISH CHILD
WE'RE ALL ALONE
HEY MISTER IT'S YOUR FAMILY OF PAWNS
AND I, I I ...
I AM NOT SURE WHERE YOU THOUGHT WE COULD GO
MY KIDS ARE TRYING TO OPEN UP THEIR FRONT DOOR
HEY FUCK YOU FOR IGNORING MY CALLS
LOVE, YOUR BROKEN HOME
~
4closureFraud.org
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It's all about financial illiteracy. Anyone remember the classes they offered in school about fractional reserve banking? How about Debt ponzi 101? Gov't run schools don't attempt to teach kids how to read lease agreements, mortgages docs, balance checkbooks or how to write and follow a budget. That's not in the curriculum. Because it's not in their interest. The idea is to create robotic consumers that graduate with a debt time bomb mentality securely strapped to their foreheads. Amazing after convincing parents to deliver their kids daily for 12 years to government workers, not only do the majority leave without the ability to read past an 8th grade level; they leave with a degree in Idiocracy. Three Cheers for the US Department of Education.
Exactly how much intelligence does one need to understand that a variable rate is just that, and is subject to rise to levels where a mortgage payment cannot be maintained? How much intelligence is required to understand that the price of an asset cannot rise indefinitely? Is it too much to ask that a potential borrower understand that barely making the DTI threshold for a variable rate loan on two incomes, less than 3% down, and virtually no savings buffer is an incredibly foolish risk?
Expect more out of people and they will rise to the occasion. As it is we expect idiocy out of the masses, and they happily comply.
Its really pretty simple. I keep paying my mortgage because I can afford to. Doesn't matter that I'm underwater. I borrowed the money and agreed to pay it back. I would kick your ass if you borrowed money from me and didnt pay it back if you could afford to. If I lost my job thats a different story.
Love your broken home, file a third divorce, "marry" a fag, and kiss your failed nation of truth-terrorists goodbye.
Ain't it great to be a vet defending this shithole?
As much as I *really* *REALLY* hate the bankers I don't understand all the sympathy for the people that bought homes they couldn't afford and now can't pay their mortgages but still want to live there rent and mortgage free because someone forgot to dot an i or cross a t
Bob, a lot of people see it as having been an orchestrated trap to some degree. If the fed starts absorbing all mbs obligations, then it is safe to say it was a trap.
I tried to use this logic on my wife this weekend who was watching the movie The Firm... It went something like this:
Ms Elizabeth: I forgot he fucked that whore on the beach.
Randy: The Firm set him up honey. He was seduced, and I think drugged maybe.
Ms Elizabeth: He was not drugged you fucking idiot. So you're trying to tell me The Firm made him drag his dick through her?
Randy: *goes back to playing videogames with his tail between his legs*
Caveat emptor?
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
delete
The Bankstas were dumb enough to loan me the money, then they were dumb enough to lose it. -- Quote from my brother
Your brother's a dumb ass, not to mention near-sighted.
Imbecile spectacles on sale now at a Federal Reserve Bank nearest you........
That's the problem. The bankstas weren't made to accept their losses. On the contrary, they were made whole. So while THEY were dumb enough to lose it, I am the one now making the payments through devalued dollars along with every other fiscally responsible individual that wasn't involved in either side of your brother's loan.
Your brother should be careful what he spouts off because one day it will be to someone like me who is paying for this shit because both the bank and your brother were reckless and or outright fucking stupid, and it might just be on a bad day (think of the movie Falling Down). I'm sure he won't like the outcome if / when someone finally snaps and says "Fuck it. Execute all the guilty parties."
There's a sucker born every minute.
Any way we can speed that up? Viagra and tequila?
In 1987 the Real Estate broker, the bankers, all said "No problems" for a loan to my new Wife and I for 50% of our take home pay (33% is the recommended maximum).
"Don't worry" they said "You'll make more money soon." Cough. We had a hard time making the payments, would have been better off saving up some cash for a deposit.
This loan was at 10% interest rates, not 5%.
When there is a commission or incentive to get the loan out the door - ethics, morals, and prudence go out the door on all sides.
Solution?: 20% down minimum from the buyer and the originator holds the loan and consequences for the life of the loan. Anything else is a poker table, a craps table, a roullette wheel that we tell ourselves are all the scales of justice so that we can get what we want in the moment.
I agree ebworthen. 10% on 30 loans each equiv to one deposit.... 300% interest.
Banksters should be stopped in their tracks.
Victim bashing could stop right now. Was enough bailout money to pay every mortgage.
Dude people will get sucked into whatever ponzi they're made to believe they can be convinced will work, Dumb ass
"a lot of borrowers out there who were greedy and got burned" Stop with the niceties! It was predatory BORROWING!
Predatory borrowing?
Pick up a book idiot.
The Monster Tells How Predatory Lending Fleeced AmericaA new book by award winning reporter Michael Hudson tells the tale of how predatory lenders and Wall Street stuck it to American homeowners during the housing boom. When it all came crashing down it was the average guy left holding the bag. Hudson captures the essense of how they pulled it off by talking to the insiders who were there. Here’s an excerpt from the book:
Introduction:
Bait and Switch
A few weeks after he started working at Ameriquest Mortgage, Mark Glover looked up from his cubicle and saw a coworker do something odd. The guy stood at his desk on the twenty-third floor of downtown Los Angeles’s Union Bank Building. He placed two sheets of paper against the window. Then he used the light streaming through the window to trace something from one piece of paper to another. Somebody’s signature.
Glover was new to the mortgage business. He was twenty-nine and hadn’t held a steady job in years. But he wasn’t stupid. He knew about financial sleight of hand—at that time, he had a check-fraud charge hanging over his head in the L.A. courthouse a few blocks away. Watching his coworker, Glover’s first thought was: How can I get away with that? As a loan officer at Ameriquest, Glover worked on commission. He knew the only way to earn the six-figure income Ameriquest had promised him was to come up with tricks for pushing deals through the mortgage-financing pipeline that began with Ameriquest and extended through Wall Street’s most respected investment houses.
"a lot of borrowers out there who were greedy and got burned" Stop with the niceties! It was predatory BORROWING!"
Demagogue - dip shit - uneducated - financialy illiterate - eliteist biogot. The millions of homeless & unemployed and foreclosed upon in deindustrialized America also have 80 million guns and they will find YOU.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/in-third-world-america-yo_b_798598.html
While I'm sure there were many speculating flippers and ill-advised refi stupidities, there's something to the notion that originators were directed to steer people into shittier loans because they could. It doesn't excuse the ignorance of the borrowers, but they each made one unwitting mistake, whereas the MBS-bundling dickheads made several million explicit errors in risk management (if you can all their criminal fraud that).
At the end of the day does it matter if it was predatory lending or borrowing? Our economy is in shambles, unemployment is at an almost record high, etc etc...
Wouldn't it have made more sense to keep some "basic" banking laws in place to prevent this from happening? This is deja vu all over again... I grew up with first hand tales of the depression, family members losing houses, businesses etc,, since the dot com bubble it has been fascinating watching the "disconnect" from the "financial markets" to "real productivity".
It matters.
End the fucking Fed........
....or learn to enjoy your daily ration of beets and potatoes folks.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaWvVFERVA
We have heard this argument since the start of the crisis... Its people's own damn fault, the argument goes, no one forced them to get a mortgage or home equity loan!
Its basically an argument by a Stockholm Syndrome sufferer, as far as I can tell.
This is my stance, if people were not:
1) enticed - by years of artificially low interest rates.
2) lied to - real estate = up. So again, we will blame the gullible, not the liars?
3) Intentionally kept in ignorance. Look at the school system. What are you NOT taught? History, money, and most importantly, the history of money, is barely mentioned in school.
Sure, people made some mistakes, but are we going to pretend that a family seeking a mortgage was NOT subject to intense propaganda, teaser rates, and outright misrepresentation/fraud?
Low interest rates result in capital misallocation. You don't blame just the person who misallocated the capital, those who kept rates low deserve their fair share of the blame!
PsychoNews
http://psychonews.site90.net