WHAT IS THIS I DONT EVEN Read it and weep, then discuss. It’s an account of the criminality in the subprime mess: don’t you even try to blame the borrowers. The lenders would get a signature on some innocuous form and then forge that on a variable-rate mortgage with all its attendant papers. Not just once, but often. Federal regulators let all this slide because they were either understaffed, shifted to other departments, or co-opted by their bosses hired from the financial world.
Man, I really don’t understand how this can keep going on, and so widespread. I mean, it seems like lots of people know about it, but no law enforcement agencies are doing much about it. Couldn’t people, the ones who aren’t slaves to lobbyists, charge them with so many crimes and get them busted?
I just don’t get how this can continue.
If this subprime mess elicits total economic collapse, what barterable and consumer available assets would you recommend we dump our soon-to-be worthless money into? Gold perhaps?
@Chad: One must have authority to enforce the law. Can’t do a citizen’s arrest for white-collar crime.
@Tyler: Not now for gold. It’s, what, $1300 an ounce? Moreover, there are government moves that can be done to make illegal using gold in transactions. It’s happened before, both here and in Europe. It can happen again.
Today in class you told us about how you experienced fraud and that you called the people, told them to stop and they did. Is it like “stealing candy from a baby” scenario where citizens don’t know the fraud is going on or are they aware but helpless to doing anything about it?
Pretty much. I had to really be firm in demanding that they cut that out. They were trying to be firmer in demanding that they were in the right and I had to just lump it. Imagine how much harder they’d hold on if a mortgage was at stake.