Archive for March, 2008
People have an amazing ability to justify anything in their minds. ‘Abilities’ is defined in the free dictionary as “The quality of being able to do something, especially the physical, mental, financial, or legal power to accomplish something.” Our emphasis is on the financial. (perhaps it should be on the power to accomplish something?) Positive proof exists and suggests that one can be asleep, miss critical factors, destroy their company, and still walk away a bonus, although slightly embarrassed. Take the case of Northern Rock.
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign manager, Maggie Williams, earned about $200,000 on the board of a Long Island subprime lender that charged prepayment penalties — a practice that Clinton, a critic of the subprime industry, now seeks to eliminate.
Katherine M. Porter, a University of Iowa law professor, examined 1,700 recent Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases filed in 24 states, including Georgia. She discovered that mortgage lenders regularly fail to file documents required by law and that fees and charges billed to homeowners often are unreasonable.
One point is perfectly clear after the subprime debacle, which is the need for federal-level regualtors that will actually do something. Finger pointing is frustrating for consumers and mortgage holders. Recently we received a report of a mortage holder who was bounced from the OCC to the FTC, later to be told that the FTC gathers complaints but does not take action on individual complaints.
We strive to stay away from individual politics. There are times, however, when issues such as subprime are politicized by those who think they know what is best. We reported a few days ago on Hillary Clinton’s latest idea. Our article – Clinton’s desire to protect lenders is questioned – also drew immediate fire from the Obama campaign.