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Too bad the tea parties were in favor of these guys...I gues they got what they paid for...

That is good! I don't understand why people who fail to pay their mortgage get to keep their house .... I pay mine because it is what I agreed to pay, those people agreed to pay theirs and if they don't then they don't get to have the golden goose also.

Simple in my eyes.

That is good! I don't understand why people who fail to pay their mortgage get to keep their house .... I pay mine because it is what I agreed to pay, those people agreed to pay theirs and if they don't then they don't get to have the golden goose also.

Simple in my eyes.

Wow...you are incredibly cold and clueless.

Bise, that is a bit black and white.

Bise, that is a bit black and white.

Not only is it "black and white" it shows a complete lack of understanding of the current financial crisis and the culpability of the banks and the politicians they own.

Honk if I'm paying your mortgage too.

Honk if I'm paying your mortgage too.

I see you bought into the bullshit. There was never going to be or ever was a taxpayer bailout of people in mortgages distress. In fact voting this in would have saved upwards of 2 million homes and preserved over 300 billion dollars in equity at a total cost to taxpayers of....0 The only thing it would have prevented is all of the bullshit additional fees from the banks and attorneys who have a financial interest in not preventing foreclosures. In other words...you got punked...now go out and protest for them...for free...LOL...they get you to work for them for free....LOL..now that is funny.

But I will honk because you are paying their salaries, benefits and bonuses and those bankers love that you do...so much so...they raised your credit card interest.

In fact...you paid for that expensive Washington function they were at in the video...

If you can't pay the fees they charge then you cant afford a mortgage.... just save up your money in a jar and in 30 years go buy a house for cash.

If you can't pay the fees they charge then you cant afford a mortgage.... just save up your money in a jar and in 30 years go buy a house for cash.

It's not that simple Bise, that is not what the problem is. Hey, if you support the infiltration by these scumbags into your elected representatives then so be it...you can only lose in the end.

Don't be so foolish that you think this is the fault of the borrowers...only the most ignorant would buy that line.

Private companies are in business to make a profit? Horrible!

Private companies are in business to make a profit? Horrible!


Yes basically my point....

Profit Uber Alles

Elie Wiesel called him a "God." His investors called him a "genius." But, proving correct that old adage from the country and western song, you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.

Bernie Madoff, for at least 20 years, ran a Ponzi scheme on thousands of clients, among them the people you and I would consider the best and brightest. Business leaders, celebrities, charities, even some of his own relatives and his defense attorney were taken for a ride (this has to be the first time a lawyer was hosed by the client).

We're clearly in one of those historic, game changing years: up is down, red is blue and black is President. Aside from Obama himself, no person will provide a more iconic face of this end-of-capitalism-as-we-know-it year than Bernard Lawrence Madoff.

Which is too bad. Yes, he stole $65 billion from some already quite wealthy people. I know that's upsetting to them because rich guys like Bernie are not supposed to be stealing from their own kind. Crime, thievery, looting — that's what happens on the other side of town. The rules of the money game on Park Avenue and Wall Street are comprised of things like charging the public 29% credit card interest, tricking people into taking out a second mortgage they can't afford, and concocting a student loan system that has graduates in hock for the next 20 years. Now that's smart business! And it's legal. That's where Bernie went wrong — his scheming, his trickery was an outrage both because it was illegal and because he preyed on his side of the tracks.

Had Mr. Madoff just followed the example of his fellow top one-percenters, there were many ways he could have legally multiplied his wealth many times over. Here's how it's done. First, threaten your workers that you'll move their jobs offshore if they don't agree to reduce their pay and benefits. Then move those jobs offshore. Then place that income on the shores of the Cayman Islands and pay no taxes. Don't put the money back into your company. Put it into your pocket and the pockets of your shareholders. There! Done! Legal!

But Bernie wanted to play X-games Capitalism, run by the mantra that's at the core of all capitalistic endeavors: Enough Is Never Enough. You have the right to make as much as you can, and if people are too stupid to read the fine print of their health insurance policy or their GM "100,000-mile warranty," well, tough luck, losers. Buyers beware!

It would be too easy — and the wrong lesson learned — to put Bernie on TIME's list all by himself. If Ponzi schemes are such a bad thing, then why have we allowed all of our top banks to deal in credit default swaps and other make-believe rackets? Why did we allow those same banks to create the scam of a sub-prime mortgage? And instead of putting the people responsible in the cell block in Lower Manhattan, where Bernie now resides, why did we give them huge sums of our hard-earned tax dollars to bail them out of their self-inflicted troubles? Bernard Madoff is nothing more than the scab on the wound. He's also a most-needed and convenient distraction. Where's the photo on this list of the ex-chairmen of AIG, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup? Where's the mug shot of Phil Gramm, the senator who wrote the bill to strip the system of its regulations, or of the President who signed that bill? And how 'bout those who ran the fake numbers at the ratings agencies, the lobbyists who succeeded in making sleazy accounting a lawful practice, or the stock market itself — an institution that's treated like the Holy Sepulchre instead of the casino that it is (and, like all other casinos, the house eventually wins).

And what of Madoff's clients themselves? What did they think was going on to guarantee them incredible returns on their investments every single year — when no one else on planet Earth was getting anything like that? Some have admitted they did have an inkling "something was up," but no one really wanted to ask what it was that was making their money grow on trees. They were afraid they might find out it had nothing to do with gardening. Many of Madoff's victims have told investigators that, over the years, they have made much more than the original investment they gave Bernie. If I buy a stolen car from the guy down the street, the police will take that car from me regardless of whether I knew it was stolen. If I knew it was stolen, then I go to jail for receiving stolen property. Will these "victims" give back their gains that were fraudulently obtained? Will the head of Goldman Sachs reveal what he was doing at the meetings with the Fed chairman and the Treasury secretary before the bailout? Will Bank of America please tell us what they've spent $45 billion of our TARP money on?

That's probably going too far. Better that we just put Bernie on this list.

tricking people into taking out a second mortgage they can't afford, and concocting a student loan system that has graduates in hock for the next 20 years.

I stopped reading there. Broken record.

Cmon dude.

The corporation is far more powerful than the individual and there have to be some common sense safeguards to help people protect themselves from dishonest predators.

Just because somebody was financially raped, doesn't mean that person was asking for it.

Can't rape the willing.

Retards are protected by law San, so are the easily fooled.

I see. Give banks a helping hand, but not the people. Par for the course.

Once again, people can not be responsible for themselves..... the government has to save everyone .....

Everyone who was already rich, at least!

Everyone who was already rich, at least!

So true. Wellfare for the rich.

I don't think they should've bailed the banks out either, for what it's worth.

Specially since they were snatching up other banks for billions then turning around asking for bail out money. Now are back to raping us, like business as usual.

The mortgage bankers and financial companies that were raking in money hand over fist selling these mortgages to the bigger outfits to bundle should all be getting looked at for their practices, and prosecuted where it can be shown illegal practices were employed.

And, those folks who took out mortgages requiring payments of 75% of their income, those people who knew their jobs could be gone at any time, those folks who were willing to risk jail to fraudulently fill out mortgage apps just to cash in on the greed of the lenders, etc.; none of them deserve sympathy, as they bear full responsibility for their actions.

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

The mortgage bankers and financial companies that were raking in money hand over fist selling these mortgages to the bigger outfits to bundle should all be getting looked at for their practices, and prosecuted where it can be shown illegal practices were employed.


Exactly!! an amazing amount of people dont get the fact that it wasnt the large TARP reciepants that were writing the loans in the first place but were just the dumbasses who bought the bundled MBS's.

Funny how you dont hear all the ad's on the radio anymore from the flyby night little "mortgage" companies telling you to buy now before it's too late and real estate prices double again in the next year.

People where stupid for getting into these mortgages in the first place. sure hard to say they were'nt.
but lets also remember to put equal blame on the real estate industry and mortgage company's that whipped up the frenzy and rode the wave of ZOMG buy now hype to the bank over and over again.

Exactly!! an amazing amount of people dont get the fact that it wasnt the large TARP reciepants that were writing the loans in the first place but were just the dumbasses who bought the bundled MBS's.

Funny how you dont hear all the ad's on the radio anymore from the flyby night little "mortgage" companies telling you to buy now before it's too late and real estate prices double again in the next year.

People where stupid for getting into these mortgages in the first place. sure hard to say they were'nt.
but lets also remember to put equal blame on the real estate industry and mortgage company's that whipped up the frenzy and rode the wave of ZOMG buy now hype to the bank over and over again.


Correction:

21 of the top 25 subprime lenders were either owned or partly financed by one or more of the top bailed-out banks.

Among those banks: Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs.