NYT: When Debtors Decide to Default - AKA: Main St. Bail-out

[ShamelessHussy]

By DAVID STREITFELD
Published: July 25, 2009

...

The lending industry term for these people is “ruthless defaulters.” In a miserable economy where paychecks, savings and expectations are all diminished, their numbers will surely grow.

“They’ve done the math on their account and they’re very angry,” said Corey Calabrese, a Fordham Law student who is an administrator of the school’s walk-in clinic for debtors at Manhattan Civil Court. Public sentiment is on their side, she added: “For the first time, Americans are no longer blaming the borrower but are looking at the credit card companies.”

(That’s certainly true in the mortgage crisis. According to a Quinnipiac University poll in February, 62 percent of those polled blamed lenders “who loaned the money to people who may not be able to pay it back.” Only a quarter blamed homeowners.)

The deteriorating relationship between Americans and their creditors has not yet reached the level of Shays’ Rebellion, the 1786 uprising by poor farmers in western Massachusetts during a recession. But the basic issues are strikingly similar, suggesting an eternal tension between creditor and consumer.

Source...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/weekinreview/26streitfeld.html?_r=3

I wonder what the plan is to deal with this... I guess the banks will need another massive $$$ injection, huh?

:shrug:

[imdjh]

1. Anyone in New York who isn't having t-shirts printed up that say "Ruthless Defaulter" can't...

... claim he's never had an opportunity to make money.

[Hannah Bell]

2. take a page from the mexican middle following the peso crisis: El Barzón debtors movement

"El Barzón is a movement of low and low-middle class private business and farming interests in Mexico.

A Barzón, in terms of agriculture, is the yoke-ring to which a rope or chain is attached to pull a farm plow; a hitch-ring, connecting-ring, a pull-ring. The name comes from a Mexican revolutionary song that speaks about injustice in the fields. Their motto is: "Debo, no niego, pago lo justo" ("I owe, I don't deny it, I'll pay what is fair").

Members of El Barzón were responsible for massive amounts of debt in dollars; which they were expected to pay back with a peso worth half of its previous value. Their debts would amount to ten times the loan they had originally taken out, and El Barzon refers to the massive social movement where elements of the traditionally quiet middle class rose up and refused to pay the monstrous sums of money that were expected of them by lending institutions. It was an accepted public venting of frustrations and helped to set up the PRI's demise in the 2000 presidential elections."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Barz%C3%B3n

[elehhhhna]

3. read this :

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/debt-repudiation-%E2%80%93-table

[Skink]

4. Meanwhile the jobless recovery continues.

[Gogi]

5. My thought exactly on credit scores...

why should I care, the credit card companies don't!