When I bought my house these sub-prime lenders were all over the place advertising "no money down, bad credit ok." It had a stink to it that unfortuately many people are not capable recognizing, and now they are defaulting.
I'm still getting junk phone calls on my answering machine "Because you've been so reliable making your payments on time (duh, that's because if you're not "good" about it you lose your house) we'd like to offer you a 30 year mortgage at just 1.5%" or something ridiculous like that. They hook the uniformed, like one of the payday loan loansharks.
Buyer beware.
"offer you a 30 year mortgage at just 1.5%"
I got one:
No payments for 12 months! Low rates! (trash bin)
They are sacrificing themselves to defend the financial system. Maybe we should give them some kind of medal or merit badge.:-)
It goes back to the massive paychecks of Clinton cronies in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and of course to many thousands of bank lending officers and mortgage repackagers and the widows and orphans who bought "high-risk" (read Ponzi) mortgage bonds for the extra yield
In case you are wondering, let's see: Jamie Gorelick, vice chairman; Franklin Raines, president, etc. For his efforts, Raines received bonuses that exceeded $100 million "Four years later we received a far different picture from the SEC: that the company's top executives had overstated revenues from 1998 through 2004 to the tune of $10.6 billion."
WASHINGTON -- The government on Monday filed civil charges against former Fannie Mae chief Franklin Raines and two other top executives, accusing them of misconduct costing shareholders billions of dollars. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight announced that it is seeking fines and the return of millions in bonus money. It filed 101 charges against Raines, former chief financial officer Timothy Howard and former controller Leanne Spencer.
From Deseret News, 19 December 2006:
Raines and Howard were swept out of office two years ago in the multibillion-dollar accounting debacle at the government-sponsored company, which finances one of every five home loans in the United States. Fannie Mae earlier this month announced a long-awaited restatement for 2001 through June 30, 2004, that erased $6.3 billion in profit.
OFHEO said it is seeking civil fines of $100 million or more against the three former executives and restitution totaling more than $115 million in bonus money tied to an improper accounting scheme.
But what about criminal charges?