My 3 objectives regarding OWS: Fairness, Justice, and Jobs

[PDittie]

Fairness: Increase taxes on the wealthiest one per cent. Roll back the Bush tax cuts. Institute a financial transactions tax. Do it NOW.

Justice: Prosecute the banksters. Start with those responsible for bundling mortgages at the failed institutions, Bear Stears and Lehman and Countrywide and others, and work out from there. Do it NOW.

Jobs: A national infrastructure rebuilding program modeled on the WPA during the Roosevelt administration would be even better than simply passing Obama's jobs bill. Do it NOW.

If the Republicans and/or Blue Dogs obstruct, then call them out, and run aaginst them in the primary or the general on their obsturction. (Call them anti-American if that's what it takes to get people's -- and the media's -- attention.)

[PDittie]

1. Really? Nothing?

[dkf]

2. Your "justice" section would be aimed at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

And it allowed the banks to make more mortgage loans than they would otherwise.

Do you want availability of mortgage loans or not?

[PDittie]

3. False choice.

What I want is accountability (justice) for those who defrauded the people who had/are having their homes foreclosed.

Is that what you want or not?

[customerserviceguy]

4. The reason people had their homes foreclosed

was the combination of a failing economy, and the popping of the overripe housing bubble.

Aside from the robosigning at banks too eager to beat their competitors to getting those foreclosed houses back on the market, the foreclosure mess has many causes: overzealous realtwhores and commissioned loan reps, three-martini appraisals, too many people watching "Flip This House", naive foreign investors buying the bundling packages to get a few more points of interest, and lax lending standards, including 'liar loans', among the things that immediately come to mind. Do you really want to put all those folks in jail?

You really didn't think the two-bedroom condominium next to me (with a view of nothing) was worth the $420,000 paid for it four years ago, did you? I sure didn't!

[PDittie]

6. Not all of them, no.

But let's get started on putting some of them in jail. NOW.

[customerserviceguy]

9. Which ones?

I guess I'd start with the people who came up with the fairy-dust 'securities', but then, didn't the people and firms who bought them also contribute to this?

I suppose if there were any really easy targets, we'd have seen them perp-walked by now. Greed caused this, on every level of the real estate market, and it's tough to prosecute when everybody was getting high off the punchbowl.

[dkf]

5. The people who defrauded those in foreclosure were realtors, appraisers and loan officers.

The only way to have stopped it was at the point of purchase with a realistic look at proper budgeting.

I honestly don't know how people in those professions can look themselves in the mirror if they knew they were encouraging people to spend beyond their means.

On the back end, the lack of proper transfer of title is just plain sloppy and negligent, but it's not morally egregious in itself. Preventing foreclosure on this basis is more of a loophole for the homeowner. If the banks had done this properly then those in foreclosure have even less of an argument on why they should keep their homes without paying their mortgages.

The bundling of the mortgages hurts investors who bought them based on ratings that were pure crap. But that isn't to the disadvantage of the homeowner, indeed it allowed the homeowner to get the loan. I don't see what your argument with this practice is on behalf of the homeowner. Now if you were going to argue that state pensions and other retirement funds were robbed, then I get that.

[PDittie]

7. Some of it indeed is 'caveat emptor'

and some of it is fraud. Some of it is in a vast grey area between, just as with the many players who have more culpability than others. But let's (Eric Holder, specifically) get started on prosecuting some of the big fish, even it just begins with a lawsuit, like this:

http://blog.chron.com/legaltrade/2010/06/sue-wall-street-like-we-sued-tobacco-hmmmmmm/

[PDittie]

8. So far it seems to be the consensus of those posting that

Fairness and Jobs are OK but Justice isn't (or is too messy to attempt). Is that about right?

Rather than continue a conversation that bogs down in the minutia of mortgage lending, does anyone have any suggestions for a third objective that might replace it?

[customerserviceguy]

12. How about letting the bubble deflate on its own?

Yes, people who made payments, who were then foreclosed on deserve justice due to the extreme sloppiness of the lenders, but the vast majority of foreclosures were from people who paid too much, didn't care about the terms of the loan, then lost good paying jobs, and just couldn't afford the mistake they made.

As soon as we touch bottom on the real estate market, we can see a possible true recovery in the economy. Anything that delays that day, delays the recovery.

[customerserviceguy]

10. I spent 25 years in the title insurance industry

Telling the realtwhores and the loan reps to not give in to the feeding frenzy of the "Flip this House" mentality was like opening a can of dog food, putting it in the bowl, and telling your dog not to eat it, then expecting him to continue to follow your orders after you left for bed for the night.

They had no qualms about looking into the mirror every morning that they intended to pump more hot air into the real estate bubble, that's for sure.

[Avalux]

11. My most critical demand: Strip corporations of personhood. n/t

[PDittie]

13. Are you familiar with the

"Move to Amend" effort?

http://movetoamend.org/

I attended one of those meetings last week also.

[Avalux]

15. Yep. I'm involved. How was your meeting? n/t

[PDittie]

16. Well attended.

About sixty on a Tuesday evening. David Cobb spoke. Very impressive.

[TBF]

14. I'd like to see that happen.

it would be a start. K&R