I got this e-mail from a law school professor this evening:
wtf is with Eric Holder personally meeting with Jaimie Dimon? Since when do other targets of investigations get such access and solicitude? Do you think any AG would have met with Michael Milken when he was being investigated? Unreal.
It should be no surprise by now to see the degree to which Administration officials toady and scrape to the banks. Oh yes, you’ll witness the occasional stern word in public from Obama and his minions to maintain the appearance that that they operate independently of their financial lords and masters. But Holder has been so absent from any meaningful action that it’s surprising to see him pretend to play a hands-on role. I’d was certain he had forgotten how to practice law, since his main job seemed to be acting as propagandist for Team Obama enforcement theater.
In case you wondered what the indignation was about, here’s a Washington Post recap:
The sage of Wall Street journeyed to Washington on Thursday, but Jamie Dimon’s visit was unlike any the JPMorgan Chase chief has made before.
Dimon sought a meeting with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in an urgent bid to dispose of multiple government investigations into the bank’s conduct leading up to the financial crisis — and avoid criminal charges. The deal that Dimon discussed with Holder would involve paying the government at least $11 billion, the biggest settlement a single company has ever undertaken, according to several people familiar with the negotiations…
For Holder, 62, meanwhile, a landmark settlement with JPMorgan could help quiet criticism that the Justice Department has failed to hold Wall Street accountable for sparking the housing market’s crash and the ensuing recession. Holder was criticized by lawmakers and consumer advocates this year for saying that some banks had become too big to prosecute.
“Sage of Wall Street”? Ready the barf bag. The most lofty title Dimon has been given before it “titan” which is acceptable, if cloying, given JP Morgan’s size. But “sage of Wall Street” has heretofore been limited to Warren Buffett, who has not only his investment record but his cagey corn pone to legitimate that label. “Sage” connotes wisdom above all, and Dimon’s conduct during and after the Whale affair was anything but.
But the more disturbing bit is the Administration’s high odds of jumping on what I suspect is a JP Morgan PR line, that touting this settlement as “the largest evah” will give Holder & Co. some sort of newfound credibility. Even the WaPo isn’t buying it:
Even at $11 billion or more, the bank would be paying just a fraction of the damage it wreaked on mortgage investors, government agencies and homeowners. And a deal might ensure that no senior executives go to jail, which some experts say would let Wall Street avoid full responsibility.
Comparing the past settlements to the pending JP Morgan deal is like comparing apples to stinky fruit. The next biggest one was for a single abuse, that of GlaxoSmithKline for selling antidepressants illegally. This settlement, by contrast, even though it involves only one product, covers a swathe of bad conduct across three institutions: Bear, WaMu, and JP Morgan. And it also includes the monster Fannie and Freddie putback liability. All the banks that had large subprime businesses are going to stump up large payments to put those claims to bed. By going out early and wrapping other outstanding litigation into the mix, the Morgan bank makes the settlement look more serious than it really is.
In addition, JP Morgan has managed to promulgate the myth it was less deeply involved in the mortgage business because it perceived the risks and stayed away. Not true. For instance, it was rumored in February 2007 that Dimon was sniffing around Bear as a possible acquisition. Several correspondents wrote today of how eager JP Morgan was to increase its participation in the CDO business (mind you, I’ve heard this repeatedly over the years from insiders). From one message:
I had JPM CDO salesmen banging down my door in 2006 and early 2007. They wanted to do more, but didn’t have the staff, assets etc. They didn’t miss out on CDO carnage because of good risk management. They just weren’t that good at it.
So let’s understand what Dimon’s confab with Holder was likely about (the JP Morgan chief also brought his general counsel and bank regulatory uberlawyer Rodg Cohen). The subtext of the article was that Dimon was pressing for a deal to be done quickly. Why the urgency? Well, one has to wonder how much Dimon is effectively appearing in a personal versus an executive capacity. It would be, um, inappropriate to conflate the two discussions, but it’s not hard to imagine that Dimon thought a personal meeting with Holder, showing what an impressive figure he is, could only work in his favor (it isn’t only Dimon who is impressed with his own impressiveness; journalists like Andrew Ross Sorkin and Gillian Tett, who uncharacteristically looks to have been swayed by being embedded at JP Morgan, have also fawned over him). Remember, the CFTC has not settled its Whale charges, and it might unearth some further violations or facts that make JP Morgan top brass look even worse. The DoJ (through its Southern District of New York office) has charged two JP Morgan traders. It isn’t clear whether it will succeed in getting either one extradited, but if it did, you can be sure they prosecutors would be seeing if they could get them to cop a plea bargain to implicate more senior management.
Thus it’s nuts for the DoJ to enter into any settlement that includes JP Morgan executives as individuals until it sees how the pending cases play out. And recall that we’ve already said even before the $920 million settlement that Dimon was a clear-cut case for a criminal Sarbanes Oxley prosecution. The information in the SEC’s order only strengthens our view (mind you, that does not mean we think in a nanosecond that Dimon will be charged criminally. But that threat could be used to force long-overdue corporate governance changes and if more damaging evidence were to surface, a timetable for Dimon’s departure).
But the flip side is that the negotiations supposedly included the question of whether the bank would be charged criminally. That sort of move has not been all that well received, since past criminal settlements have involved only subsidiaries (having a parent or critically important sub admit to criminal conduct would bar quite a few customers from doing business with it, and that’s widely viewed as a nuclear option and thus unusable in practice). And JP Morgan may be playing “don’t throw us in the briar patch,” acting as if it is extremely loath to admit to criminal charges at a subsidiary level when it hopes that that sort of sanction will buy the Administration enough PR points so as to make it less eager to pursue individuals to the maximum extent.
Holder indirectly acknowledged that issue. The Washington Post again:
The discussion centered partly on whether the bank could avoid criminal prosecution if it paid the fine and whether it would have to admit guilt. Asked about the negotiations in an unrelated news conference, Holder acknowledged the meeting but snapped at a reporter who suggested that “prison time” was not part of the talks. “You weren’t in the room when I said I was talking to them,” Holder said.
Mind you, the Financial Times makes the meeting sound more like normal commercial haggling. If so, why did Dimon press to make a personal appearance? From the pink paper:
Mr Dimon’s trip to Washington followed Mr Holder personally rejecting a previous offer to resolve the matters as being too low. Talks were rekindled after the US threatened on Tuesday to sue the bank…
JPMorgan is arguing over the extent to which it should be responsible for the actions of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, both institutions that the bank bought during the crisis with the encouragement of the government.
The bank has said in disclosures to investors that it “believes it has no remaining exposure related to loans” sold to Fannie and Freddie. Mr Dimon has suggested it is not fair to punish the bank for past allegations of the two companies.
Yves again. The only reason one might normally use to legitimate a meeting like this, is if talks between the two sides has become so acrimonious that the principals needed to meet. But that makes no sense with Dimon represented by the best lawyers money can buy, who happen also to be much cooler headed than he is, both in general and by virtue of not having to negotiate for themselves.
So the good news is Jamie is actually breaking a sweat. The bad news is the Administration has signaled how accommodating it is likely to be through the unseemly act of giving him an audience.
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I’m surprised that Holder isn’t going, hat in hand, to meet with Dimon at his place.
He’ll be wearing knee-pads to meet Dimon.
The fact that Jamie has not/will not be indicted for SarBox violations shows that nothing really will happen to him. Ever.
You clearly did not read carefully- Jamie was out of town when his orders were carried out. The telegraph lines were down and bison blocked the tracks, so there was no way he could have known what was happening. Sarbanes explicitly waives liability under those conditions.
“The telegraph lines were down and bison blocked the tracks” – HILARIOUS – thanks for the laugh I needed that to keep my head from exploding!
Until we start decorating lamp posts with people like Dimon and Holder, nothing is going to change.
Unfortunately, conservatives don’t believe in punishing folks like Dimon and Holder, and liberals don’t believe in punishing anybody.
I have expressed my fears here previously that unless a Rule of Law is re-established, some enterprising young patriot may take the law into his own hands. The last thing we need is for the NSA to fail to stop economic terrorists such as Dimon and for street justice to rear its ugly head.
We must protect Jamie Dimon so he can face justice, serve his time in jail, and be reintegrated into civilized society.
“We must protect Jamie Dimon so he can face justice, serve his time in jail, and be reintegrated into civilized society.”
What are you thinking? Who the hell would ever let him out of jail?
I disagree. The conservative establishment will punish individuals who become embarrassments, and the liberal establishment like the conservative establishment doesn’t believe the behavior of the various cartels are immoral or illegal but unlike the conservative establishment the liberal establishment labors under the delusion they will remain popular for all time and maintain a control over their voters.
and they will
“…the liberal establishment labors under the delusion they will remain popular for all time and maintain a control over their voters.”
If a Democratic president can absolve bankers, torturers, and war criminals of any meaningful responsibility, bomb more countries than his Republican predecessor, kill American citizens with impunity, and still get re-elected, as a Democrat, perhaps it’s not the establishment that’s delusional.
+10
Dimon and shyster would be swinging right alongside Benmosche … if we had a valid Ministry of Justice. And then we’d have a jobs program—manufacturing lampposts. But showing mercy where it’s undeserved, lock these guys up in a buggers’ prison—where they are the prey and where they can no longer victimize others.
JPM’s rap sheet is so long and dirty that the gall of such in-your-face cronyism is simply breathtaking. They really do take people for fools. Sadly…
To repeat Dallas Fed Head Richard Fisher from a few days ago:
“The TBTF banks are a dagger pointed at the heart of the U.S. economy”.
JPM will outlast the Fed.They are in charge of the Treasury Bond scam and their Trillions ofinterest rate derivatives tie them Directly into “National Security” considerations. The FED will be shut down when it chokes on all the bad debt it has lifted off the insolvent banks, and politicians will claim a (conveniently distracting) “Victory for the People”, while loading the losses onto taxpayers and then establishing an identical replacement, after waiting 3 months for memories to fade (that is how long it takes for Americans).
Jamie Dimon may be realizing that he is expendable, and may be offered a deal- a few months in minimum security, or a sudden “heart attack”.
We’ve gone down the rabbit hole. Dimon is a psycopath who won’t go to prison because he has done nothing wrong in his mind, and considering Obama’s efforts to date, Dimon probably has the goods on Holder.
When W. was President, he (his Adminstration to be accurate) made sure to prosecute public figures who crossed a line, but Obama has pretended the problem didn’t exist. If its Dimon, who is next? Obama’s popularity is fading and largely the result of the appearance of partisan conflict. Dimon is one of the crooks at the top of the food chain, and Obama is just an employee with diminishing returns. Prosecuting Dimon works against the other crooks. Letting an unpopular President who can’t even pass legislation favored by over 90% of the population in the wake of a mass shooting of children by a mentally unstable individual prosecute one of them even for symbolic standards opens up a can of worms. Dimon is more important for these people than an unpopular Obama.
Well, I for one am happy to see that our dear friend Eric is taking the time to talk to Mr. Morgan.
A few questions though –
Eric, are you and DOJ beginning a new era of openness ?
After all we Americans pride ourselves in insuring that everyone no matter their place in this society can and should expect equal justice. After all the Supreme Court building is emblazoned with “Equal Justice for All”.
So Eric will you and your department, in the pursuit of equal justice, now offer all defendants the opportunity to visit your offices and discuss their case directly with you ?
And for NC readers – would it be possible for a “friend of the court” brief to be filled ?
One area in which the DOJ / US Government clearly needs help is in the prosecution of folks for wire and mail fraud.
Dear Eric:
Thanks for opening up the opportunity for defendants to speak directly to the director of the DOJ.
Since we Americans pride ourselves in ensuring that there is “Equal Justice for All” is it now DOJ policy for all defendants to have the opportunity to speak to you directly and personally ?
Sleeper
There’s a lot at stake here. There’s going to be hell to pay if Mr. Dimon is not satisfied with his moustache ride.
comment posting, take 2, after waiting 2+ minutes and doing relink to posting
Lets take this mustache ride a bit further.
Obama has been a recent disappointment to Jamie and the plutocrats and is in need of a little tightening of the collar.
It would be inappropriate for Jamie to scold Obama in person and get him back on the right path but using Holder that helped set up MERS is a nobrainer. It is not like Holder is that much less complicit in the fraud game than Dimon but Jamie and his plutocrats have all the money, power and control. In this regard Holder is just a wannabe, whose collar is working well and the perfect instrument to deliver the proper message to Obama…..Jamie gets the NSA reports BEFORE Obama, remember!
Money, power and control, kabuki style.
The NSA has “clients” as that NSA representative said in Wisconsin to the college students they were on campus pitching to.
I think there is a perfectly innocent explanation for this meeting. Holder just wanted to drop off his resume in person.
I think Jamie brought his Bank Physicist along so he could explain to Eric how all the charges are BS anyway. The risk models clearly show that Jamie couldn’t possibly have done any of these things.
The real problem was that Plank’s Constant did a once in a hundred year change in late 2008. Messed everything up!
I think one of the things that looks the worse just at first glance w.r.t. the Q1 of 2012 SEC filings is that it’s been acknowledged that the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors was not kept informed of the risks reviews re: The Whale Trade. The whole purpose of a Board of Directors is that the Board collectively watches over the doings of the CEO, CFO and other executives. To me, informing the Audit Committee with “crumbs” whilst that Committee should have been kept well-informed of the Reviews looks pretty damning bad.
Yes, Holder is a credit to his wallet, a debit to his race. Yves has just discovered a new medicinal use of sage as an emetic.
OMG OMG OMG – EXACTLY.
Hugh, you made me guffaw. I do want to note that Holder worked at Covington defending banks, and he continues to do so today at the Debevoise and Covington DC subsidiary affectionately known as “DOJ”.
So yes, while Holder proffered his resume formally, it was also a great time to catch up with Dimon, play a little bridge, and badmouth lazy and greedy Americans who want this thing called “justice” which really is just a way to extricate poor plutocrats from their money which they earned fair and square, as anyone with connections knows.
Furthermore, as we all know, the hoi polloi’s demanding “justice” is just like demanding lynchings resume in the South or that Germany invade Poland.
These little people are so gauche. They just don’t get it.
There is a latin term for WaPo’s Dimon which translates as “Wise as the beard.” Meaning Dimon LOOKS wise, regardless of facts on the ground. Sharp, criminogenic, ruthless, psychopathic, yes, Sage – not even the $3,000 suit and those stupid solid pastel ties can put lipstick on that pig and make him a “Sage.”
As Yves said, please to have barf bag handy. I didn’t so had to make use of a folded up old copy of the U.S. constitution I keep around for laughs.
The one word missing from this series of articles is “BRIBED.”
Yes, the President of the United States has been bribed by the upper .1% (via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment later — and a big Obama library) to widen the gap between the rich and the rest.
The crime is to give “Get-out-of-jail-free” cards to the world’s biggest criminals, but without mentioning the motive, no one can understand it all.
The motive is bribery. Obama has sold his soul for future wealth and the glory of hobnobbing with the rich and famous.
Call it the “Clinton syndrome.”
This is a demonstration of what a small person Obama really is. A former, popular President would hob nob with the rich and famous because…oh yeah, he is a popular former President of the United States. Wow, we have one person left for our party. Who do we invite Barack Obama or…insert random celebrity or rich person? The answer is always the popular former President. The ghost written memoir would bring in more money than god, and there would always be a seat at any event for the President except a Ted Nugent concert. He would be the guest at palaces around the world, but instead Obama and the US are becoming a bit of an election issue. The movers won’t want him around.
They are trotting out Bill to defend ACA because Obama’s sheen is gone, and they are turning to the popular, former President who wasn’t popular enough to crack 50% of the vote.
Obama will be on the George W. Bush tractor pull circuit without the Right Wing Establishment welfare system until he isn’t drawing a crowd. It will be amusing to see him booed at entertainment venues in the future.
Don’t fool yourself. Obama has a huge following of ferociously loyal (and inwardly terrified) people almost neurotically convinced he is the only thing between their still comfortable life style and utter ruin.
yep.
Doesn’t this meeting constitute a mistrial?
Dimon’s shyster, Rodg(!) Cohen, is a cagey one, isn’t he? It’s an effective pre-emptive strike. It’s also good PR to have Zeus descend from Olympus occasionally to impress the mortals.
The simplest explanation for this is HEY EVERYBODY LOOK AT TED CRUZ.
Given the Obama administration’s sorry record in the haggling department, before this is all over Holder and Justice will be paying JP Morgan, and sending gold-embossed apology notes for lynching the plutocrats.
Wouldn’t it have been better for shareholders if they’d just thrown Dimon & the worst of management in jail?
Just saying.
I’m curious on a logistical issue: How does Dimon get his gold crown, jewelled sceptre, and long ermine train through the metal detectors at Justice? Or is there a separate entrance for VIPs?
And what about his entourage?
You guys are killing me today…
Can you imagine if you or I robbed an bank and then set up a meeting with the FBI to negoiate how much of our haul we would be willng to return to the bank? And no matter how many promises to never do it again and/or billions in cost of doing business fines they extract, how will that make any investor or homeowner or dredit card customer whole again? It’s big time wrestling choreographed to deceive noone. While the Wall Street crowd fills the arena waving big foam middle fingers at the 99%.
Or got busted red handed smoking pot and offered the cop a bong hit?
HAH! Good one! reefer madness would actually explain alot
Yes, and it’s no analogy; that is exactly what’s happening. Dimon is proving in front of God and everybody that yes, the very best way to rob and bank and get away clean is to own one. The Criminal Reserve cartel, of which Jamie is a member, owns the Federal government and all its ministries. (Okay, so we can call it the Fed after all.)
What’s surprising is why this is not done more discreetly. Don’t they even care about appearances anymore? I suppose the MSM won’t pay much attention, anyway, not while they’ve got a faux budget crisis to flog.
Well as Bill Black always says, “The best way to rob a bank is to own one.” And by extension, the best way catch a break from a Justice Department is to own one.
Washington is the land of the deal. Dimon feels he is vulnerable and needs a deal and he’ll get it. Holder’s job is to hold off his people with carrots and sticks. I sense the staff is probably a bit discouraged. Holder has shown to be a very adept Machiavellian leader.
On the other hand, our Jamie might have overplayed his hand and his rivals at J.P. Morgan might be ready to stab him in the back in exchange of whatever and Dimon may be offering his own play. He may well have something on Holder or Obama and is calling in his chips. Whatever it is you can rest assured the deals on the table are complex and sordid.
No matter the size of the fine, one thing is certain: those who were most injured by JPM’s crimes will see none of it.
Any possibility issues involving JPM wrongdoing are a smoke screen obscuring what this meeting might otherwise have been about? Say, the fast approaching blowout of the euro-zone and how JPM figures in this, possibly involving guarantees Treasury might provide JPM (thereby giving back some portion of fines it’s likely to suffer for its mortgage business related wrongdoing) should it be forced to absorb, say, MS? In fact maybe the use of the word “sage” from the mouthpiece of the Federal Reserve provided something of a signal to this effect.
[hums] “Are you going to Obama’s Faire?
Banksters, sage[s], corruption, and crime?
Remember me to one who lives there
He was once… a major contributor to my campaign, and also to my Presidential library, so back off, buster!”
Adding… Doubtless these lyrics can be improved…
I’ll try:
Are you going to the Good Negro’s Fair:
Silver, gold, white partners in crime?
Remember us to Malcolm’s martyrdom there,
Truth was once a virtue in time.
Obambi The Great Black Hope!
I’m disgusted. Poking a little fun in a song is all fair game, but nothing about this needs to rise to a race war. Those words are utterly inappropriate.
The lyrics remind me of “Scarborough Fair” …
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
(On the side of a hill in the deep forest green)
Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme
(Tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground)
Without no seams nor needlework
(Blankets and bedclothes a child of the mountains)
Then she’ll be a true love of mine
[…]
“Scarcorough Fair”, interpreted by Simon & Garfunkel,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYQaD2CAi9A
Another angle on the relationships: Washington, D.C. reassures Wall Street by singing: “Always on My Mind”, (Pet Shop Boys), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj5sbiW0I2I
Obama gets the empty Solyndra building for his library. I’m not building one 2 by 4 for anything else.
more like the oregano of wall street…
The GodPoppy of Wall Street?
According to Aunty Marialani, oregano is from Oregon, not Wall St.
Oops!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhOfKP_4kmk
i don’t remember the riddler ever getting a personal confab with commissioner gordon.
Just saw this. Maria Bartiromo and whoever the other guy is take umbrage when Alex Pareene from Salon says that JPM is “too corrupt” to be managed by Jamie Dimon or anyone:
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=3000203085
Oy! Maria Bartelomo is Exhibit A in what Seymore Hersh is criticizing in the lousy performance of US media. Yeesh!
That CNBC segment is eyebrow-raising: http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/sep/27/seymour-hersh-obama-nsa-american-media
The Tea Party craziness about shutting down the government makes me nuts, but when I read about something like the USAG meeting with Dimon – despite years of illegal activities by the bank – then I think, “Well… those Tea Partiers make me nuts, and I deplore their tactics, but I kind of empathize with the frustration… ” 8^[
Don’t empathize too much.
The Teabaggers don’t care that Wall Street crashed the world economy and stole trillions from the U.S. taxpayer.
They only care that the poor don’t get food stamps or health care.
Get real.
Well stated.
Which may help explain why their solutions are tragically self-defeating, as they are based on a bogus grasp of the roots of what’s gone wrong.
I don’t know about you, but the people in my social network can’t abide the US news at this point. Too much crazy.
Maria Bartiromo: official fellatrice to Big Bank CEOs.
Imaginary(!!) meeting between Jamie blow-dry and Eric-AG:
Jamie: You gotta help us out here Eric, we never knew that whale was gonna dump on us so bad!
Eric: Don’t you worry none, Jimbo, nobody goin’ to jail. Just pay this little-bitty fine, go on home, and sin no more!
Eric’s probably just arranging for his job with JPMorgan after he leaves government.
It’s always best to negotiate your salary and discuss how to dismiss criminal charges with your new boss to be at the same time.
Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, so a curse without cause does not alight. Proverbs 26:2
But what if there is a cause???
Why doesn’t [fill-in-the-blank], for example, have a case of hemorrhoids so bad he can’t walk? Oh ye of little faith?
Btw, for those of ye who may have cursed me, I cut my thumb pretty badly the other day and I have had to get some anti-fungal for something else but the spray feels so good it’s hardly a curse!
I’m a Christian and am not supposed to curse people but what’s holding you guys back?
How else is Holder going to blow Dimon? I bet Obama has to pay to watch. It’s a retainer for their post government gigs.
Just how off the mark would an $11 billion dollar settlement be? Do you have a fix on a more appropriate number? Has anyone been able to reasonably quantify JPM’s contribution to this catastrophy?
If you were to fatally run someone’s child over with your car and then go up to the mother with your check book open and say, “Will this about cover it?”, that amount times about 4 or 5 million might let your mind wander back to shopping sprees. (5,000,000 * totally_fu*ked_up).
Personally, I think about (120 * 365 * 24 * 60 * 60) seconds of super max jail time in a super max facility with decendants of our all-star-american super-american-exceptionalized-isimo Abu Gharib prison guards would about cover it.
This has been going on since the beginning. JD Rockefeller and Judge Gary met with higher personages than the AG when their firms were being investigated.
It’s all sheeple theater. Keeps them thinking Holder is actually in control of the situation. Actually Dimon’s in control, giving Holder instructions on what Justice has to do so they can get a settlement completed and bury all criminal activity under a thick layer of sheeple-proof bulls**t.
Dimon’s giving the orders, Holder is the gopher.
Its the Unclean hands doctrine. Our government, which is our politicians regardless of party affiliation; the “too big too fail” Banks, and all their affiliates,successors and assigns; their respective law firms; are all equally responsible for the damage that has been done to our economy, to our land records,to our constitutional rights,to our contractual rights and protections,to our pensions,damaging even our ability to be patriotic with out shame…( whether we admit it or not). They know it. They also know that the american people do not have the ability on a large enough scale to stop them. And that is where our own fault lies. We wear our ignorance proudly, such as blaming any one person, particularly a later entrant into the shell game as is the current office; such as believing the fox will protect the chickens from his brother, when doing so will cost both fox their way of living. Off of you and I. We are a weak and lazy society with the inability to do what needs to be done to correct what we allowed to happen despite knowing our part in it and that our children and grandchildren will suffer for. We allowed our education system to continue teaching lies to our children; we teach our children that their credit score is more important than if their neighbors children have food or access to health care when sick; We allow sport players to earn more that our teachers; we spend $40k per prisoner per year and $8K per year per student. We may deserve what is happening to us, our children though deserve better.
I personally decided 2 years ago to refuse to pay Wells Fargo Bank another dime, ever, towards my mortgage. I do not use a bank. I do not use credit or debit cards. I grow as much food as I can, shop second hand stores and do every thing I can to not contribute to their wealth any longer.
I am not a dead beat homeowner. I have a large 7 bedroom home that I paid $1530. per month for every month through western union.until I received a notice that AHMSI was raising my mortgage to $2820 per month due to an escrow shortage of $15k. I discovered the ‘errors’, which I assumed they were, and requested they correct. They refused. I sent a QWR, they still refused. So after making me angry, I read my entire contract, researched the laws pertaining to consumer rights and refused payment without dishonor per the U.C.C. and waited. Seven moths later they filed a foreclosure complaint, and I countersued. Fraud, Breach of Contract, and 9 other causes of action. Too detailed to recap here. There was a mandatory settlement hearing, where when the judge saw the false affidavits and out right lies, he referred it to the D.A.’s office for criminal review.we are still in the civil process, and I am sure we will be for a time to come. They are on third law firm. I will win. It isn’t about the money. I will never give them another dime. I will not sign a gag order. I will get a clean title. I will make sure my children never have to deal with these thieves pertaining to our property, which will be theirs someday. and I do not care how long it takes. I have time.I am only 47, and retired. And I get it. I spoke with the New York A.G., faxed him documents he was interested in and removed that portion from my suit. he in turn slapped their wrists and di nothing for the victims. I also provided the S.E.C. with inside documents(obtainded through my Demand for Production) that prove the pyramid scheme called Securitized Trusts which our government gives a REMIC status to(they pay no taxes), which many of our public pension plans are based on, are failing and illegal and will eventually harm every investor involved. Nothing. As I suspected. Because, and here is why you need to stop waiting for someone else to ‘fix it’, our entire system is broken. It is corrupt and not repairable. As painful as it will be, as scared as you have every right to be, it needs to collapse, the banks, the current political system and our heads need to come out of the delusional sand they have been burying us in for decades .We need to take the responsibility and our money away from them. Start over. And I need to go cook dinner. Sorry so long winded.
All of this stuff is pretty much out in the open now. That they barely bother hiding it anymore is the most telling aspect of the degree as well as the extent of corruption. Much the same thing is going on in terms of civil liberties. James Clapper who lied to the Senate under oath and who admitted lying is getting open applause from the same people on whom he committed a felony. Greenwald sums it up nicely,
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/27/ron-wyden-nsa-systematically-deceived
Indeed the pattern of open corruption in the highest places, of not even bothering to hide it, is reproduced everywhere now; in finance, in civil liberties and in all three branches of government. It is the single most salient fact indicating how deeply and irreparably damaged our system of democracy has been.