bankdecay

Let’s stop blaming the victims of predatory lending

Reblogged from squashed

squashed:

This is important.

The primary cause of the subprime collapse—which heralded in the Great Recession was bad loans not bad borrowers. At the peak of the subprime boom lenders structured loans in a way that virtually guaranteed that those loans would fail because it was profitable. Borrowers—particularly minority borrowers—were steered toward these designed-to-fail loans even when they would have qualified for a prime loan. It doesn’t matter how good your credit is or how high your income is. I can write you a loan with terms so bad that I know you won’t be able to pay it back. I’m afraid this post may require tossing around some numbers—but please bear with me. Even if correcting the banks efforts to shift blame isn’t sufficient, this stuff is worth knowing if you plan on someday getting a home loan.

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Posted February 14, 2012 at 1:27 pm 27 notes

Reblogged from capshunz

(Source: internerd)

Posted February 10, 2012 at 12:10 pm 3560 notes

Stevie NYC: Dear Fucker from Kansas that tried using my Debit Card today,

Reblogged from stevienyc

stevienyc:

I WILL FUCKING DESTROY YOU.

I had my card declined today while trying to get lunch and was confused because for once in my life I actually have money in my account. I don’t carry cash with me because I’m a NYer and this is 2012, so I wasn’t able to get my lunch. Now I am hungry AND angry.

Did…

Posted February 9, 2012 at 3:27 pm 6 notes

youngmegadethite: OFFICIAL POSITION EVERYDAY

Reblogged from youngmegadethite

youngmegadethite:

OFFICIAL POSITION EVERYDAY

Posted January 31, 2012 at 10:46 am 45 notes

The siren call of austerity

Reblogged from azspot

The United States government, which has a monopoly on its currency, is $15.2 trillion in debt, roughly the same as the entire output of the economy for a year.

That figure has been sung in a refrain about massive debt threatening to bring down the economy and cause inflation. Facts, however, show otherwise.

The country was much deeper in debt, relative to the size of the economy, in 1946 than it is today and yet what followed was decades of prosperity. The 1946 debt remains and, after six decades of growth, it is inconsequential.

In Japan, government debt is roughly twice annual economic output and yet the country continues to function because real interest rates are at or below zero.

To be sure, conditions can change and interest rates can rise sharply, though central banks have ways to limit that. But that is not the problem today. The problem today is shrinking incomes due to shrinking spending.

Austerity budgets, by reducing government spending, will only make incomes fall more. The only way to make incomes rise is to make spending rise, which in the short run means more borrowing by governments to enable more public sector spending.

(Source: azspot)

Posted January 28, 2012 at 3:29 pm 27 notes

"Some banks have gone in the seemingly wrong direction. For example, Bank of America caused outrage recently when it announced it would be charging monthly fees for customers to withdraw or use their own money in checking accounts with debit cards. This attempt to generate profits led to a mass exodus from customers, who instead opened banks with smaller financial institutions. It wasn’t long before BofA announced a cancellation of the plan."

Banks on Facebook: Any Hope to Build Trust? | Pronet Advertising

Posted January 4, 2012 at 2:06 pm

Reblogged from mohandasgandhi

mohandasgandhi:

STUNNING Facts On Income Inequality and Bank Bonuses

Stunning facts about bank bonuses on Wall Street, average compensation and homeless kids are shared by The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur.

From ThinkProgress:

In the United States, the top 1 percent controls roughly 40 percent of the nation’s wealth. According to the study, which examined Roman ledgers, previous estimates, imperial edicts, and Biblical passages, Rome’s top 1 percent controlled less than half that at the height of its economic power, as Tim De Chant notes at Per Square Mile:

Their target was the state of the economy when the empire was at its population zenith, around 150 C.E. Schiedel and Friesen estimate that the top 1 percent of Roman society controlled 16 percent of the wealth, less than half of what America’s top 1 percent control.

Of course, the millions of Romans at the bottom of the empire’s class structure — the conquered and enslaved, the poorest Romans, and the women who had little civic or economic empowerment — would probably disagree with the study’s conclusion. Still, it serves as yet another highlight of how large the income gap in the United States has become over the last three decades.

Still, it’s unbelievable that the wealth of the bottom 60% in the U.S. is less than the Forbes 400 richest and that the 6 heirs to the Walmart franchise have the combined wealth equal to the bottom 30% in this country. Give the bankers their record bonuses anyway. They’re doing a fantastic job.

Posted December 26, 2011 at 5:44 pm

"These material misstatements occurred during a time of acute investor interest in financial institutions’ exposure to subprime loans, and misled the market about the amount of risk on the company’s books."

Reblogged from thecallus

Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement division director Robert Khuzami • Discussing the civil fraud charges that the SEC filed against six former top execs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, charges that came about due to alleged misrepresentation of investors’ exposure to the subprime mortgage crisis. Lawyers for the six officials claim that the executives acted in the best interests of investors despite the allegations otherwise. (via shortformblog)

So…Fannie Mae mis-stated risks. The banks mis-stated risks. The originators and servicers mis-stated risks. Borrowers mis-states risks. The entire value chain of the mortgage market was founded on fraud.

And the SEC let it happen for decades, which is why it gets to sue everybody.

(via thecallus)

Posted December 17, 2011 at 11:29 am

Reblogged from loveyourchaos

(Source: defacedbook)

Posted December 11, 2011 at 9:33 pm 3298 notes

pancakenation: Well, hot damn.

Reblogged from redcloud

pancakenation:

Well, hot damn.

(Source: deac0n)

Posted December 9, 2011 at 10:29 am 76 notes