It's amazing (depressing, really) how entrenched it has become in our national conscience that financial elites ought to be able to do whatever the fuck they want, expect the government to come to their rescue when they inevitably blow up the economy, and pay no price for their crimes. Numerous, overt cases of fraud, billions of dollars shoveled into their coffers, essentially free money from the Fed's discount window, and not so much as a single major indictment out of the Department of Justice.
But when it comes time to helping the average citizen in something so basic as keeping them in their homes? We better make goddamned sure that government aid only goes to "deserving" individuals:
“Their behavior did not well serve the country,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who led House negotiations to enact the change, known as “cramdown.” It was “extremely disappointing.”
Instead, the administration has relied on a voluntary program with few sticks, that simply offers banks incentives to modify mortgages. Known as Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, the program was modeled after an industry plan. The administration also wrote it carefully to exclude millions of homeowners seen as undeserving.
The administration launched the program with a promise that it would help 3 million to 4 million homeowners avoid foreclosure, but it’s likely to fall far short of that goal. The Congressional Oversight Panel now estimates fewer than 800,000 homeowners will ultimately get lasting mortgage modifications.
[...]
But the president struck a cautious note when he unveiled the plan in February 2009. The program will “not rescue the unscrupulous or irresponsible by throwing good taxpayer money after bad loans,” said Obama. “It will not reward folks who bought homes they knew from the beginning they would never be able to afford.”
It's a good thing that we were so judicious in choosing which banks to bail out, not rescuing any unscrupulous or irresponsible institutions, or throwing good taxpayer money after bad behavior, or reward folks who dealt in shit securities and CDOs that they know from the beginning were shit securities and would have dire consequences for their clients and the economy. HAMP has ultimately been a laughable failure because it uses the very criminals responsible for the financial crisis as intermediaries for aiding their own victims. That's about as brilliant as putting known child molesters in a position of oversight of young boys. Wait, bad example. But why else can't we help homeowners?
The measure faced stark conservative opposition. It was opposed by Republicans in Congress and earlier by the Bush administration, who argued that government interference to change mortgage contracts would reduce the security of all kinds of future contracts.
“It undermines the foundation of the capitalist economy,” said Phillip Swagel, a Bush Treasury official. “What separates us from [Russian Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin is not retroactively changing contracts.”
Sanctity of contracts! Because contracts are only secure and capitalism can only fire on all cylinders and flourish and enable the Free Market Jesus to bless us all when only moneyed elites are allowed to break them and do whatever they want and still have society come to their rescue. Helping the masses is something only commies would do.
You hear this refrain no matter who you talk to: crying about the thought of someone scamming the welfare state while we spend $900 billion a year on defense, or whining about a lazy/undeserving homeowner receiving cramdown on their mortgage while Wall Street engages in the wholesale fucking of the country and continues doing business as usual. We have our heads so far up our own collective asses focusing on the wrong problems that it's a wonder that we even manage to function as a nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment