Mortgage Deadbeats Protest For More Money!

My sister-in-law and her husband were off in Manhattan last Friday and ran across this protest across the street from the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street.

These people were protesting that banks were getting a bailout and they were not.

(Poor President Washington!)

To put this whole protest into proper perspective, here is a simple explanation of one reason why there is a credit crisis:

• People borrowed money from banks to buy houses
• People borrowed more money from banks to buy:
--- Home furnishings for their mini-mansion
--- Home electronics including an entertainment system
--- New Cars

• People then borrowed more money to reward all this hard work with vacations
• People then failed to repay the money they borrowed

So the banks had all this money that they have lent out to a bunch of deadbeats. The deadbeats stiff the banks. The banks then ask the Government for a bailout, which one can think of as having the Government pay the deadbeats bills off. What is the response? The deadbeats are pissed off that nobody is interested in giving them more money. You would think that they were asked to repay their loans by how mad their were...

P.S.

Here is what the stopforeclosuresandevictions.org group noted on the signs above has to say on their website:

The stock markets are crashing, the world economy is headed into a deep recession or even depression, and the U.S. government and its top bankers, along with their counterparts around the world, are giving what’s going to amount to trillions of dollars to bailout the richest 1 percent of the people WHILE DOING NOTHING TO RESCUE ORDINARY WORKING AND POOR PEOPLE!

We must stand up and say no to this injustice! NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT. - Link

Why should the 'poor people' get more? They already got their money, either in an initial mortgage, refinancing and 'cashing out' some equity, or otherwise taking money out of their house like it was an ATM. It is the banks and Wall street that lent them this money only for this group to stiff them in return and cry VICTIM!

Here are some more comments from someone who has been burned by these 'victims' who wrote in 'A Wall Street Trader Draws Some Subprime Lessons: Michael Lewis' some thoughts about the poor:

...1) They're masters of public relations.

I had no idea how my open-handedness could be made to look, after the fact. At the time I bought the subprime portfolio I thought: This is sort of like my way of giving something back. I didn't expect a profile in Philanthropy Today or anything like that. I mean, I bought at a discount. But I thought people would admire the Wall Street big shot who found a way to help the little guy. Sort of like a money doctor helping a sick person. Then the little guy wheels around and gives me this financial enema. And I'm the one who gets crap in the papers! Everyone feels sorry for the poor, and no one feels sorry for me. Even though it's my money! No good deed goes unpunished.

2) Poor people don't respect other people's money in the way money deserves to be respected.

Call me a romantic: I want everyone to have a shot at the American dream. Even people who haven't earned it. I did everything I could so that these schlubs could at least own their own place. The media is now making my generosity out to be some kind of scandal. Teaser rates weren't a scandal. Teaser rates were a sign of misplaced trust: I trusted these people to get their teams of lawyers to vet anything before they signed it. Turns out, if you're poor, you don't need to pay lawyers. You don't like the deal you just wave your hands in the air and moan about how poor you are. Then you default.

3) I've grown out of touch with "poor culture.''

Hard to say when this happened; it might have been when I stopped flying commercial. Or maybe it was when I gave up the bleacher seats and got the suite. But the first rule in this business is to know the people you're in business with, and I broke it. People complain about the rich getting richer and the poor being left behind. Is it any wonder? Look at them! Did it ever occur to even one of them that they might pay me back by WORKING HARDER? I don't think so. - Bloomberg

Go read the whole thing.

As for bailouts, the one group that never gets bailed out is the group that never needs bailing out as they have acted responsibly. Well how about giving them more money for them to responsibly inject more capital into the economy.

One of the more ridiculous suggestions that the Democrats have made and that these people are demanding is for Congress to stop these deadbeats from getting foreclosed on. How about giving the rest of us free money to buy these houses? We win for not getting into this mess. They get punished by losing their homes as they should, but otherwise are no longer stuck with a mortgage they cannot afford. The banks get some money back, but not all as home prices need to drop before many of us will buy, even with free money. However, they don't get stuck with a bunch of bank-owned properties or mortgages with non So they are punished for their stupidity as well, but in the end we all win/lose together.

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