Who’s guilty? Who’s innocent? Who’s greedy? Who isn’t?
To some degree, I have to put a small check mark next to ‘all of the above’ and maybe you do too.
If you are waiting for the other shoe to drop in this self-created credit crisis, don’t. It isn’t really a single shoe at all, it is a veritable millipede’s closet worth of footware. My conservative ‘friends’ would have me believe that it is Barney Frank’s doing. Or that some Democratic hack at Freddie&Fanny was forcing the banks to make these ill-formed loans to the incapable-of-paying-a-mortgage class. Others would tell me it is all because of Jimmy Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act back in ’77. In reply to these idiots that get their ‘news’ from drive time right-wing radio morons, I would put on my best Ted Stevens face and say “NO! We all know exactly what caused this crisis: GREED.”
At least in some states there are still some laws and regulations on the books to keep mortgage brokers in check. Thankfully, the Globe wrote up a little shoe dropping story
Massachusetts regulators in September issued a cease and desist order to First Call Mortgage, alleging the company falsified borrowers’ incomes on loan documents and sold reverse mortgages without notifying state officials, as well as denying it was doing so. McFadden [president of First Call] also faces a $767,500 fine from New Hampshire regulators for other mortgage-related incidents.
This McFadden character was a Romney appointment to the MassHousing board in 2005. I don’t know if the Commonwealth of Massachusetts can make his life miserable, but I sure am glad our friends to the north have got the goods on him. How much vigorish did his company, First Call, slide off the table before he got his Last Call? However much it was, my humble suggestion is that we find a way to pry it all back out of his greedy hands.
Hidden towards the end of the Globe article is an indication of how widespread this cancer of greed has become.
New Hampshire also cited the company for failing to notify regulators that McFadden sold shares of the company in 2007 to former Fidelity Investments star fund managers Peter S. Lynch and George Vanderheiden. Both Lynch and Vanderheiden are now facing $85,000 fines from the state.
Fines to many of these wealthy people mean NOTHING! They often have money or access to money to pay these fines and move on. They need to be sent to prison where no amount of money can help (ok, it can help but they still will be in jail).
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p>There are mistakes and there are even risky business practices which may be detestable but are legal. But I don’t think “falsified borrowers’ incomes on loan documents” is a mistake, it’s a crime!
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p>PS I don’t think your remark about this turd being a “Romney” appointee has any relevance at all.