Remember the headlines last week? All the breathless headlines about the “Historic $25 Billion Settlement With The Banks”? Well, have a seat folks. This one is going to knock you on your collective arses….
THERE IS NO SETTLEMENT WITH THE BANKS!
YOU’VE ALL BEEN LIED TO. SUCKERED, TRICKED!
(again)
We all knew that something was coming between the banks and the government leaders from both parties at the state and federal levels on this deal. They’d all been marching and arm twisting for so many months and it was damn apparent that all of them were conspiring against all of us to shove some great big piece of stinking garbage of a deal down our throats…and that’s exactly what they did. And by “they”, I mean the banks and our government, all meeting together in secret with teams of lobbyists, attorneys, press hacks and internet folks conspiring against us all along with the same teams from the attorney general’s offices.
They were meeting for months, drafting out the terms of a very bad deal. Draft after draft, detail after detail, conspiring together against every American taxpayer and importantly, against the investors in mortgage backed securities (that’s virtually everyone who has any retirement or investment). Although how much meeting was actualy going on is not at all clear? How many physical meetings? What kind of arm twisting? Where are the evolution of all the draft agreements? Right. We don’t know and apparently, they don’t think the serfs in this kingdom are entitled to know.
They emerged last week from some lair, then issued bank-sponsored public relations statements that the gullible media all picked up and ran without much critical analysis. Why, they even released a glossy, fluffy website that had all sorts of pretty pictures and graphics to sucker you into believing something happened. But importantly, the website contains no deal terms. Oh and here’s the part I love. The website ownership and control is secret. Check this find out from a friend:
There’s also something peculiar about the Federal Department of Justice and 49 states setting up an informational web site that ends in .com instead of .gov. Register.com<https://register.
Why the secret website? Why the lack of transparency? Who really owns this thing?
Why even the exciting headlines and press releases and charts and graphs were public relations, hacked, fill in the blank propaganda. I’m betting it was all produced by the banks themselves. Check out the hacked press releases that were found by Naked Capitalism here. I mean seriously, look carefully at these slick graphic intensive documents with perfect bullet point statements and fill in the blank numbers. Suitable for the attorney general press people to just cut and paste and add their official logo (Insert State Logo Here) on then distribute to the media who likewise can just cut and paste themselves and drop into their stories and headlines. THE MEDIA WAS SUCKERED INTO TALKING ABOUT A DEAL WITH THIS ABSURD PROPAGANDA!
But then, right after the headlines, real reporters started doing their job…..digging beneath all the press hacks and looking for real deals…..
Reporter: “Um, excuse me Attorney General, you said $X Billion for the State of X, I’d like to see the terms of the deal in writing.”
Attorney General Press: “Don’t you worry, we’re committed to the people of the state of X, and we’re gonna get that to you.”
Reporter: “But you said it was a done deal, show me the deal”
Attorney General Press: “Trust Us, the deal is on the way.”
Reporter: “You mean there is no deal?”
Attorney General Press: “Don’t worry, we’ve got an agreement in principle, just waiting to get it back from the banks and then well sign and release it!”
WHOA….it just hit me. You know what these con artists at the banks of done to millions of consumers?
You know what this sounds an awful lot like?
Send us your three trial payments and we’ll give you a modification.
Honest we will. Just send them in. We’ll get your deal done. Trust us.
It is just utterly absurd for parties in a legal negotiation to go out broadcasting a settlement, when there are no signatures on any bottom line. That’s just crazy. That’s like legal malpractice. As one commentator noted,
“They put the settlement press release cart before the signed agreement horse.”
And with they’ve done it while dealing with the most untrustworthy and deceptive opponents in the world…the banks. I mean, how many millions of homeowners were suckered into the whole three payment rope a dope scam. Even if they really did hammer out most of the details (it doesn’t look like they got all the big pieces) to announce a settlement is just crazy because now the banks have boxed the AGs into a political corner. They’ve told their people there’s a deal….so there’s got to be a deal…..right?
Oh and here’s the other thing….
YOU WERE INVESTIGATING THE BANKS FOR FALSE AND DECEPTIVE PRACTICES!
Wasn’t that some kind of a tip off that the parties you’re negotiating with aren’t exactly the kind of people that you can trust to deal with in good faith?
Two more big points here….First, where are the legislators in all 49 istates with respect to this fictional deal? The AGs are talking about bajillions of dollars in Monopoly money and it goes where? Pursuant to what authority? Right, another pecky detail. I don’t want one state official with all the power to negotiate billion dollar deals. Isn’t that what legislators are for? Where is the legislative input, consent, oversight on this HISTORIC BILLION DOLLAR DEAL?
And now here’s a biggie. Sort of the bottom line. How many states or private investor analysts did the number crunching on the deal to figure out just how much of this was going to be paid for from the state’s retirement funds? Proportionally it may not be huge from each state, but the proportion of what’s being paid by the banks versus what’s being paid by the investors is way, way, way out of whack. Here’s my favorite part from the website:
Q: Will investors in mortgage-backed securities ultimately pay for part of this settlement?
A: Participating banks own the vast majority of the mortgage loans that this settlement is expected to affect. The settlement could affect some investor-owned loans, depending on existing agreements servicers have with those investors.
In other words, this settlement will not force investors to incur losses. (LIE!) That’s because any loan modification tied to this settlement will result in more of a financial return for an investor than a foreclosure would. (HERE’S WHERE IT IS….WE’VE MADE THE DECISION THAT THIS GOVERNMENT-FORCED TAKEDOWN IS BETTER FOR YOU IN THE LONG RUN.)
