I thought about the ghost that we left behind
In case you missed the comments section yesterday, Professor Shays left this little jewel for everybody. It doesn’t help the Alliance employees yet, but recovering 92% of the unpaid vacation, commissions, notary fees for the Financial and Lender’s Choice folks is pretty remarkable. A big PBE thumbs up to the Labor Commissioner and in particular David Balter who prosecuted this one. Nice job dog. They’re still working on the Alliance case and for all of you who got stiffed, I hope he’s equally successful. The law has been laid down, what Jerry Hauptman and Patty Hauptman did was wrong. For what it cost them in attorney’s fees, and the settlement, they did not benefit and that’s a good thing. You know how a lot of companies do stuff wrong because it’s cheaper to fix it when they’re caught? Not so much for Jerry and Patty.
Yesterday I went out to throw some people out of their home. Merry Christmas. Actually in this guy’s case Merry Christmas asshole. This house is in a gated community, although I’m not really sure why. The houses aren’t that nice. I’ve seen much nicer homes that weren’t gated. The house is actually in his wife’s name, never a good sign. He barked at me about how he was going to sue me. You’re not going to sue me you jackass. You sue the bank. I’m just the schmuck standing at your door. Then he went on about how much money he put down on the house. At the end of the day it was about $40k more than I put down on this place. Only he paid over a million. Maybe they overbought. BTW, he still hasn’t really pissed me off yet, so I’m just letting him run. I reiterate how he needs to call our office and let them know what he’s planning on doing and how his rights are spelled out in the letter I gave him. I also tell him that if he feels the foreclosure was not just he should talk with an attorney. I would get sued if I told him he didn’t have a case or told him an attorney couldn’t help him. So I always tell them that if that’s what they feel they need to do then they should do it. Then he says “It’s all Obama’s fault”. For some reason I could not help myself. I said “Actually, no it’s not.” There may be a lot of things that will ultimately be laid at Obama’s doorstep but the mortgage meltdown ain’t one of them. That’s Bush. And a few pals.
Historically the real estate market is cyclical. There was an adjustment in the early 70′s, the early 80′s and the early 90′s. I remember the one in 1991 the most simply because it was severe. People who bought homes in 1991 spent the next six years upside down. And a Bush was in the White House. Savings and Loans failed. Coincidence? I think not. Flippers and investors get caught flat footed. Homeowners shouldn’t matter unless they’ve had a catastrophic event in their lives, like job loss, loss of income, serious illness or a death in the immediate family. Otherwise they can just keep tooling along until the market comes back. And it will. It always does. There’s a reason that as financial advisors we never put older people in stocks, only bonds. If the stock market crashes they may not be able to make up the loss in the period of time they have to make it up. The bond market is much more stable. It’s like investors and homeowners. So when this guy whined to me that the house was worth less than what he owed on it I didn’t have a lot of sympathy. My feeling on that is “so what?”. Are you going to continue to live indoors? Then shut up.
This turd of an economy can be laid squarely on the doorstep of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan and George W. Bush, saving a bit for Paul O’Neill, John Snow and Henry Paulson. Glass Stegall? Never should have been repealed. The removal of all of the regulation? Bad move. And I’m well aware the Bill Clinton participated in it. Bush and Greenspan used smoke and mirrored economics after 9/11 to keep the economy rolling because it was stuck in a snow drift on 9/12/2001. I was sitting in an office at Morgan Stanley looking at my telephone. I couldn’t get a wrong number to ring through on that bitch. It was two weeks of nothing but crickets. It was stalled out. It was the end of irrational exuberance. Then the barely regulated mortgage industry got busy. 2001 should have been the beginning of a market contraction but Greenspan and Bush opened up the Treasury Fun House. And here we are. It’s a lot of things, but it’s not Obama’s fault.
So when this guy tells me it’s Obama’s fault that he lost his house all I can say is “you’re an idiot”. Get off of your fat ass and get a job. And for the love of God turn off Fox. The mortgage mess is not Obama’s fault. He’s actually done some good things to help people stay in their homes. There’s a DIL/Lease exchange program out there. These things will help prevent blight in the neighborhoods and help families in danger of being displaced. It will also weed out the riff raff who think they’re going to walk away since they’re upside down. It could potentially speed recovery. For those who did chose to walk away even though they had no change in circumstance, I hope it does speed recovery. And I hope we’re recovered long before those asshats can get another home.
Yesterday I walked away from this jackass, because in my book he’s just another jerkoff who blames everyone else for his problems. Two words for you dude. Personal responsibility.
Well it’s good to see somebody is going to get something out of Mercury. The real test will be the Alliance bankruptcy situation and where they rank the ex-employees claims.