A Secret Deal Between Wall Street and Washington

[karim0028]

http://counterpunch.org/martens10122009.html

Deborah Leggett found out the hard way that HUD, a taxpayer funded agency legislatively mandated to serve the public interest, had joined ranks with the “heads I win, tales you lose” swashbucklers on Wall Street. In a desperate legal battle to save her home that stretched from 2005 through February of this year, HUD and its joint venture partner Citigroup, using the alias of SFJV-4 (Single Family Joint Venture 2004), buried Ms. Leggett under motions, briefs, counter-claims and even a request for sanctions in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. According to their own record put before the court on November 11, 2008 they did not offer Ms. Leggett the HUD required protections of an effort for loan modification or forbearance prior to moving for and obtaining foreclosure. Indeed, Ms. Leggett’s attorney quoted counsel from the other side stating that they could not even produce the mortgage note as proof they even owned the property (raising the question as to whether the property had already been sold off to investors in a securitization).

Ms. Leggett lost her court battle as well as her home and was evicted. There is nothing in the court record to suggest that Ms. Leggett ever knew her court adversary was her own government.

We’re still lynching people in America. It’s not a physical lynching, it’s more nuanced now. Today, the noose is a stack of indecipherable loan papers or a court order compelling one to hand over your home and your dignity to a Wall Street bank that robbed you just because it could; that stripped you of your hope and aspirations just because your government did not stand in its way or, as here, joined forces.

This robbery is really starting to get annoying.....

[bcassill]

Re: A Secret Deal Between Wall Street and Washington

Went to see the latest Michael Moore flick over the weekend. I had not seen any of his earlier works, so aside from reviews and comments on the web, I really did not know what to expect. Aside from some of the sob stories I expected the movie to have, the movie does do some justice in telling the story of how corporatism and the pursuit of the almighty dollar has run roughshod over the ordinary American. Through influence peddling (e.g. Wall Street donations) to outright fraud and corruption (e.g. the "Cash for Kids" scandal in PA), he attempts to show how select business interests have worked to destroy the basic underpinnings of democracy and the free enterprise system all while piling debt and lowering wages on the average worker. One group he focused on were airline pilots many of whom apparently make less than $20K per year: less than a manager of a Taco Bell restaurant. One guy he spoke with had to go on food stamps for a four month period to afford food. Another lady pilot (who happen to die in a plane crash) waited tables as her second job since she only made $16K a year in salary. Even the guy who was hailed as a hero for successfully landing his plane in the Hudson river when the engines failed, lamented on how his pay had been cut by 40%. Kind of makes me real scared to fly now. :eek:

The basic upshot is that both parties are responsible for the mess we are in going back to the time of Reagan. My question is when are we going to break out the torches and pitchforks and take our country back?

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: A Secret Deal Between Wall Street and Washington

My question is when are we going to break out the torches and pitchforks and take our country back?

When it hurts you and and me personally and greatly. Until millions feel big pain, we'll stay home en masse. After all, it's nice at home; comfy couch, big screen tv, hot dinner, cold beer...

[Chomsky]

Re: A Secret Deal Between Wall Street and Washington

Went to see the latest Michael Moore flick over the weekend. I had not seen any of his earlier works, so aside from reviews and comments on the web, I really did not know what to expect. Aside from some of the sob stories I expected the movie to have, the movie does do some justice in telling the story of how corporatism and the pursuit of the almighty dollar has run roughshod over the ordinary American. Through influence peddling (e.g. Wall Street donations) to outright fraud and corruption (e.g. the "Cash for Kids" scandal in PA), he attempts to show how select business interests have worked to destroy the basic underpinnings of democracy and the free enterprise system all while piling debt and lowering wages on the average worker. One group he focused on were airline pilots many of whom apparently make less than $20K per year: less than a manager of a Taco Bell restaurant. One guy he spoke with had to go on food stamps for a four month period to afford food. Another lady pilot (who happen to die in a plane crash) waited tables as her second job since she only made $16K a year in salary. Even the guy who was hailed as a hero for successfully landing his plane in the Hudson river when the engines failed, lamented on how his pay had been cut by 40%. Kind of makes me real scared to fly now. :eek:

The basic upshot is that both parties are responsible for the mess we are in going back to the time of Reagan. My question is when are we going to break out the torches and pitchforks and take our country back?

Wow. That airline pilots make good money is a shibboleth often repeated. Moore is a grandstander but also author of must-see films.