Dan Fisher, Forbes' legal reporter, doesn't break a lot of new ground in his take-down today of the "mortgage fraud" settlement announced yesterday but he does repeat a central fact of the story that can't be repeated often enough:
The outcome shouldn’t come as a surprise. After I wrote a piece critical of the parallel mortgage settlement with state attorneys general last year,comparing it to the deeply flawed tobacco settlement, I was barraged with comments from critics accusing me of downplaying foreclosure fraud. I responded with one simple question: Has there been a single case in the past five years of a homeowner who was current on his mortgage being foreclosed through fraud?
The answer was silence, he reports. Banks don't want to own foreclosed properties, they lose money on them. What people getting checks from the banks today are getting is the equivalent of drawing the "bank error in your favor" card in Monopoly - and come to think of it the checks are for about $200.
Sure, the banks broke paperwork rules but at the end of the day, nobody who was actually paying his or her mortgage was harmed. And the people who weren't, well, if you borrow money and you don't pay it back, shouldn't you expect something bad to happen?
I'm happy to get a comment that isn't about pharmaceuticals and where to buy them less expensively but it would be nice if you addressed the argument in the post before denouncing me personally in capital letters.
It really is as simple as you are making it out to be - you're just wrong. If you borrow money pledged to an asset, then the lender has the right to reclaim that asset if you don't pay. If that asset is your house, then you will lose the house.
The banks lose money when they foreclose. Bankers don't want the house back, they don't even want to be paid back early. They want the interest payments.
That was the point of Fisher's original article and my subsequent point in reviewing it. If you have something more substantive to say in response, I'll gladly publish a reply.
Posted by: Sean Dougherty | 02/10/2013 at 10:42 AM
Well, not it YOU WERE LIED TO ABOUT THE LOAN AND SET UP TO FAIL FROM THE VERY BEGINNING AND THE BANKS KNEW THEY WERE BREAKING THE LAW NUMEROUS TIMES AND JUST DIDN'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THAT OR THE PEOPLE THEY WERE SCREWING OVER AND STEALING THEIR LIFESAVINGS FROM AND THEN THROWING THEM OUT IN THE STREET BROKE AND DESTITUTE YOU MORON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 GOT IT YOU IDIOT????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ROT IN HELL WITH THE LOWLIFE BANKSTERS YOU FOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Posted by: JACKIE@AOL.COM | 02/10/2013 at 03:11 AM