Thursday, March 08, 2007

More on rich white men

My local paper had a story in the business section about a Vancouver, Washington mortgage banker laying off 76 people because of defaults in the subprime market. This is what got me: a quote from a VP at that company.....

"Our personnel moves are a reaction to sudden, dramatic, and unforeseeable changes in the mortgage industry."

Come on now. This guy must be a repug also living in the world of illusion that the ones in D.C. live in.

When mortgage interest rates went down, lending companies urged people to buy and/or refinance often with non-traditional types of mortgages...

One did not need an MBA or any degree in financing to see that this was going to create problems. Unforeseeable? Nope - deniable like civil wars in Iraq and dead people in the streets of New Orleans....

Most all people I knew predicted that the rates would not stay low, the so called housing bubble would burst and any problems in the general economy would result in mortgage problems for people with subprime and non-traditional mortgages.

and now another piece of news - same topic - same admin "chatter"

"Like everyone else, they misjudged and didn't keep track of how badly their loans were performing, and when they found out, they weren't well capitalized enough to deal with it," said Allan Berliant, an asset-backed portfolio manager at GMO in Boston, which owns some bonds backed by New Century loans. Read article here

familiar words...misjudged, didn't keep track ...
geeze.... these are bankers - no wonder our economy is in the state it's in - no one in minding the store


So who wins? the rich white men...and I am assuming that the lenders where predominantly white and the people with mortgage defaults are predominantly poor, female headed households and/or people of color...

If there are any rich white men who are defaulting - please comment below and let me know

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