February 23, 2008

The banks now want the taxpayers to bail them out. What message would you like to get out to the banks? Fire away, and don't be kind.


The banks, led by Rich Whitey himself, Ken Lewis at Bank of America, are appealing to Congress for the biggest financial bailout in the history of the civilized world, which will run in the hundreds of billions if not trillions.

So after they made hundreds of billions in profits and fees and commissions and bonuses these past few years getting us into this mess, they now want the taxpayers to bail them out, while they keep their ill-gotten gains.

Here's HP's simple message to the bankers.

BANKERS OF THE WORLD WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THE SUBPRIME/ALT-A/OPTION-ARM/CDO/SIV/ETC MESS, HOUSINGPANIC HAS A MESSAGE FOR YOU. GO F*CK YOURSELVES.

WE ARE ROOTING FOR YOU TO FAIL. WE ARE ROOTING FOR HOME VALUES TO GO DOWN TO REASONABLE LEVELS. WE ARE ROOTING FOR HOMEDEBTORS TO WALK WAY. AND YOU WILL NOT GET OUR MONEY, NOT WITHOUT AN EPIC BATTLE.

A ‘Moral Hazard’ for a Housing Bailout

A confidential proposal that Bank of America circulated to members of Congress this month provides a stunning glimpse of how quickly the industry has reversed its laissez-faire disdain for second-guessing by the government — now that it is in trouble.

The proposal warns that up to $739 billion in mortgages are at “moderate to high risk” of defaulting over the next five years and that millions of families could lose their homes.

To prevent that, Bank of America suggested creating a Federal Homeowner Preservation Corporation that would buy up billions of dollars in troubled mortgages at a deep discount, forgive debt above the current market value of the homes and use federal loan guarantees to refinance the borrowers at lower rates.

“We believe that any intervention by the federal government will be acceptable only if it is not perceived as a bailout of the bond market,” the financial institution noted.

In practice, taxpayers would almost certainly view such a move as a bailout. If lawmakers and the Bush administration agreed to this step, it could be on a scale similar to the government’s $200 billion bailout of the savings and loan industry in the 1990s.

The arguments against a bailout are powerful. It would mostly benefit banks and Wall Street firms that earned huge fees by packaging trillions of dollars in risky mortgages, often without documenting the incomes of borrowers and often turning a blind eye to clear fraud by borrowers or mortgage brokers.

A rescue would also create a “moral hazard,” many experts contend, by encouraging banks and home buyers to take outsize risks in the future, in the expectation of another government bailout if things go wrong again.

53 comments:

Anonymous said...

It may be time to break out the AK 47.

Burn Baby Burn

RiperDurian said...

I want to see these BANKER CRIMINALS out on the street corner begging for beer money.

I want to see them in their MIME OUTFITS walking against the wind.

I want to see them PLAYING BANJOS BADLY pathetic smiles plastered on their faces.

Anonymous said...

Don't you think this was all thought out before? Postings here and at other sites like HP seem to think the people loaning out all this money were just ignorant of the risks.

I can't believe that. People internally knew perfectly well the consequences that were coming in the near future. A bailout like this has been their end game all along.

Anonymous said...

Actually, if my history serves me, Vlad the Impaler had the best solution of all. He impaled 20,000 Turks in a valley in front of his castle in Transylvania. Impaling is a long unpleasant process requiring days to finally reach death.

I would like to see them ALL impaled from Wall Street straight to the White House. Just line em up all along I95, and there should also be big parades.

Anonymous said...

THERE IS NO MONEY FOR COLLEGE LOANS THIS FALL.
Is everyone awake to that fact? A crisis is upon us.
Well, we will just have to go back to the good old days when a college education went to the people who were qualified to be there based on scores, grades, influence peddling, money and family legacy.

Anonymous said...

is that an american flag on his lapel?

fracking prick.

Anonymous said...

Essentially we have a "heads I win, tails you lose" economy.

Anonymous said...

THE UNIVERSE TENDS TO UNFOLD AS IT SHOULD. THOSE OF US THAT HAD THE CLARITY OF MIND TO FORSEE THAT UNCLE SAM WOULD EVENTUALLY PAY FOR OUR MCCMANSIONS AND LIFESTYLE WILL BE VINDICATED. (IF NOT WE WALK AWAY!)

DOPES!!

Mitesh Damania said...

They'll put some kind of spin to it and they'll get the bailout. The average JOE and JANE are clueless.

Devestment said...

Sure, I'll bail you out, close your doors and you can have my funds over 100k per institution. Don't mention it, it's the least I can do considering the rules in place at the time of your irresponsible behavior.

Frank R said...

"forgive debt above the current market value of the homes and use federal loan guarantees to refinance the borrowers at lower rates."

Geez, this would cause a revolt. The people who bought at the peak on risky loans are a small minority of Americans. If the majority see them getting away with it and keeping their houses for today's values, there's gonna be trouble.

Anonymous said...

How come the "let the market handle it" mantra NEVER applies to those who invented it? The proponents (big finance, WSJ, etc.) of "free trade" and "free market" use a megaphone to bully the rest of the world but God forbid that "they" have to succumb to "free market forces".

A blatant case of "do as I say, not as I do".

Fvcking hyporcrites!!!

Anonymous said...

That dude is the whitest guy on earth

Anonymous said...

Kill the bankers

Anonymous said...

The prostitutes in congress are already bought and paid for. They will be more than happy to oblige.

Anonymous said...

F@ck you mr banker!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:54PM has the best idea i've heard all year: kill the bankers.

Anonymous said...

The obscenely over-paid leeches running our financial systems are simply unbelievable. They have spent years lobbying successfully for less regulation and government oversight in the name of free markets. They lobbied successfully for draconian changes in bankruptcy laws in the name of personal responsibility. And when their own greed, miserable business judgement and incompetence leads to failure, what is their proposed remedy? To fasten their oily lips on the government teat for a bail-out that will be paid for by the same (mainly) middle class taxpayers they have already bled white through their "exotic" financial instruments. Shooting is too good for the whole miserable lot of them.

What ever happened to the good old tradition of hanging highwaymen at the crossroads?

Anonymous said...

thanks hp renters

not only are you subsidizing by mortgage via the tax deduction I get. now you will further subsidize my mortgage low interest rate if and when I refinance.

keep renting guys, i'll just go on making my mortgage payment month after month. in 10 years as the dollar is worthless and your rent will have doubled, my mortgage will be the same and i'll still be getting tax advantages

Anonymous said...

Waterboard the bankers

Mark in San Diego said...

If they throw in a bailout for my Pets.com and Looksmart.com, I'm all for it. . .oh, and DrKoop.com (remember that one??). . .other than that, I am afriad I agree with ANON that the American public is clueless, and will be sold this bailout as helping poor people who got into trouble with a subprime - little do they realize that they are bailing out the criminals here, not the little guy.

Of course all this shows how bad things really are, and the whole house of cards is one step away from falling.

Anonymous said...

Hang them ALL !!!!!

Anonymous said...

Forget all the rhetoric for a moment, from all sides. The issue is pretty simple fundamentally. There are huge losses to be had in housing, and a game of hot potato is brewing over who is going to have these losses pasted to their foreheads. Now, as it stands, the banks are the lucky owners of these properties. They have the deeds (in many cases, they appear to have lost the deeds, but this is another issue). Their only way out -- other than bankruptcy -- is to convince the American taxpayer that for some reason the government should be buying houses right now.

This is a bunch of billion-dollar bank fraudsters and bid-riggers trying to hang on to their billions by legal thievery from the federal treasury. Unfortunately, their bought politicians are in the White House. Still, we need to mobilize the broader public to this problem. They may be apathetic, or even eager, for a "homeowner" bailout, but this next round is so nakedly a bailout of the banks that even sheeple should "get it" with some help.

Anonymous said...

Oh my HPers, where is your compassion? Where is your sense of decency? How can you all ignore the plight of your fellow man? Lewis is just putting into action what we all surely feel in our generous, forgiving hearts.

He has the best Congress money can buy, and that sweet deal he cut last year gives him 1/3 of the mortgages in the USA. Now when he asks for a little help to cover some petty expenses, you HP dragons want to piss all over his plans.

Let's see, he has thousands of lawyers, $$ billions in cash, and Congress, and HPers have a blog that nobody reads. Hmm, I wonder who will come out ahead on this one?

Anonymous said...

Hey I guess housing *does* always go up.....no downside risk to gambers & banks whatsoever with this proposal.......

AndrewHac said...

This nation and most of its citizens, residents, dwellers have no ethic, no moral, no responsibility. What it has in plenty is greed, self-centerness, ignorance, pompousness.

The housing bubble is a shiny mirror in which the Americano can look at itself and ponder upon what may the future brings upon this land of the Snapper Turtle.

A nation that mostly comprises of pigs feeding, tearing, roosting, chomping at the trough.
A nation with most of its dwellers obese, fat, diabetic, and plain ugly like a chimpanzee.
A nation where a Walmart cashier can buy a house for $500K.
A nation in which its citizen's brain IQ is lower than a snapper turtle.
A nation which rules by turkey and skunk.

The Americano nation is as toasted as a roasted armadillo skewered from mouth to ass sizzling, popping, oozing with melted golden fat over a bed of white hot charcoal.

Anonymous said...

Can't burn em,nor kill them.

But under ground,what taxes.

STOP PAYING THE BTICHS.

it's our paycheques,come and get it.

You best bring some friends and bullets.

Or EVERYONE stop paying,WTF can they do with 100 million people?

Anonymous said...

If a bailout is needed to "save the system" at this point, then so be it. But, no greedy, corrupt, bastard Wall Street types should get any bonuses whatsoever until the "loan" is payed back in full to the taxpayers. Furthermore, large salary cuts for executives should be instated at the banks so the little guys' jobs can be preserved and their wages can remain intact (rather than the mass layoffs). The f@ckers controlling these companies need to work for a GD living for a while like the rest of us.

Anonymous said...

After the bail out how does anyone buy a house? The reason this stuff stopped was bec the prices got too high! If prices are not allowed to fall back down, NOBODY will be able to get back in.

Anonymous said...

Federal Homeowner Preservation Corporation??

Here's a more accurate acromym:

Bankrupt
And
Insolvent
Lenders
Off-loading (bad debt)
Using
Treasonous (legislation)

Anonymous said...

This is totally outrageous. Let me get this straight: Bank of America kept their gains: that's capitalism. When they talk about losses, where's the capitalism? Now they want socialized losses.

So its privatized gains and socialized losses. Give me a break! GIVE ME A FU&KING BREAK!

THIS IS THE LAND OF THE SNAPPER TURTLE!

p.s. the americano is toast

Anonymous said...

If this goes through, I suggest everyone stop paying their debts on autos, student loans, houses, credit cards. Why should we pay them twice?

Anonymous said...

What do I want to say to the bankers?

Does the name Franklin Delano Roosevelt ring a bell with you guys?

Anonymous said...

New Age luminary Deepak Chopra said in a Jan. 5 op-ed piece on the Huffington Post that "the X factor which sets Barack Obama aside as a unique candidate is his hard-won self-awareness."

"If we are lucky, we will wake up and begin the journey back to self-awareness as people," Chopra wrote. "That happens only rarely, and now it has happened to a junior senator from Illinois."

Chopra asserted that if Obama "makes it all the way to the White House, it will represent a quantum leap in American consciousness and a promise to restore America's position in the world."

MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews recently claimed he felt a "thrill going up my leg" listening to an Obama speech.

Matthews bubbled on, claiming Obama "speaks about America in a way that has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the feeling we have about our country. And that is an objective assessment."

Oprah Winfrey, after listening to speech Obama gave to a Des Moines audience Dec. 8, told reporters, "When you listen to Barack Obama, when you really hear him, you witness a very rare thing. You witness a politician who has an ear for eloquence and a tongue dipped in the unvarnished truth."

Anonymous said...

It is time to write your Senator or Representative and be heard. This is unfair to all of those who made rationale decisions in the hopes the market would correct itself. It is morally wrong to try and lock prices in at this point when there was nothing in place to try and put the brakes on when there was double digit growth year over year for many years. Now that its unaffordable to all but the top 1% we're going to be asked to foot a taxpayer bailout of the banks?

Not on our watch!

Anonymous said...

Jody Klein of Centralia, Wash., about two hours-drive south of Seattle, was near tears as she recounted her Obama experience. At age 20, she'll vote in a presidential election for the first time.

"There's just this amazing excitement that's here," she said. "When he was talking about hope, it actually almost made me cry. Like it really made sense, like, for the first, like, whoa … how important a time this is for us. It was really exciting."

Anonymous said...

Sure, I'll take that deal....

*IF* in return, a 80% tax rate on banks who benefit and their top 200 executives. For 25 years.

Oh yeah. Also, total cooperation with DOJ and complete document dump. Any hint of illegal behavior or fraud, and the deal's off. Mandatory prison terms. Interpol warrants, the works.

Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards, special prosecutors.

Anonymous said...

All other attempts at saving their hides have failed and so will this plan. This is not the S&L crisis where a few hundred billion will cover everything, this is trillions upon trillions of dollars. We're not even a year into the housing crisis and already the numbers are staggering and just get worse every week. What's the government going to do? Print a few trillion bucks? I'm sure US citizens will love $15 for a gallon of gas. Ok, so they don't run the printing presses, are they going to jack us for another 10% of our pay? You think the Asians and Arabs are going to lend us a few trillion? Banks will fail, people will lose everything, but life will go on.

Anonymous said...

February 23, 2008 6:46 PM
Bailouts like this have been their game since 1913!

Anonymous said...

Hey! Goddamnit!You banker assmonkeys pull that thing out of my ass this instant!I mean it ,right now mister!Ohhh wait a sec,hmmmmmmmmmmm that's not so bad,yeah just like that.Do it again ooohhhhhhhhhlala.Oh yeah Getme banker boy.Harder! OOHHEEEEEYEAAHHHH!!!

Anonymous said...

Direct quote:“There are a lot of ideas out there,” said Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for President Bush, when asked at a White House press briefing on Friday about a possible buyout program. “There are many different ways in which we can address this problem and we continue to look at ways in which we can do that.”
-------------------------

"There are many different ways in which we can address this problem"

Excuse me- NO there arent- if there were, they would have come up with a sensible solution ALREADY.

THIS IS THE BIGGEST FINANCIAL MESS IN THE HISTORY OF THE US! THATS THE PROBLEM. AND THE SOLUTIONS RUN THE GAMUT FROM BAD TO WORSE!

Look at all the different "schemes" Paulson, Bernake and Bush have conived to get us out of this mess. None of them really will help- and everyone knows that a FU*king bailout will most definitely make things worse in the long run. YOU CANT keep proping up housing prices that are fundamentally out of whack with income ratios.

Thats the fu*king problem. And it got worse when people starting spending thier helocs like drunken whores. Now that the bill is coming due, they want ALL OF US TO SHARE THE BURDEN.

Well we, HPers have just one thing to say to the gamblers, the Flippers, REIC Establishment, and the Banks:

FU*K YOU- AND GO TO HELL- WE DIDNT SHARE IN YOUR GAINS AND WE NOW CERTAINLY DONT WANT OUR TAX MONEY TO BAIL YOU OUT-YOU GREEDY BASTARD PIECES OF SH!T!

Anonymous said...

Let them sink. Dont worry, someone will take up their place. After all, isnt that what capitalism and neo liberalism is all about?;)

Anonymous said...

ahahah... neo liberaismo... the way of the future...lol... its funny to see the advocates of free market scrambling for state hand outs...

Anonymous said...

"What's the government going to do? Print a few trillion bucks?"

Yes, that's the way it usually plays out. Got gold?

Anonymous said...

Eric in Las Vegas says:

"What's the government going to do? Print a few trillion bucks? I'm sure US citizens will love $15 for a gallon of gas. Ok, so they don't run the printing presses"

WRONG. Thats exactly what they are already doing. You will be stuck in denial so long, you won't know what hit you when you finally wake up. Pull your head out. Your government has turned on you and yours like a rabid dog.

-Matt C

Anonymous said...

ANDREW HAC:

FOR FUCKS SAKE. Snapper turtle OR roasted
armadillo! One or the other. Stop mixing metaphors, my poor stupid americano brain can't take no more.

-Matt C

Ed said...

If you think this will benefit banks, profit from it. Buy shares of BofA.

Anonymous said...

I think it is a great idea and after the government buys all these homes from the banks then give them to us who paid our bills. Also give us who paid all our bills interest free, fee free loans for the rest of our lives with money from these banks along with voting rights to any bank decisions in the future.

Anonymous said...

banks are supposed to be the fundamental building blocks of capitalism. yet our banks are espousing communist ideas.

i guess it goes to show you that risk in our country has been socialized.

banks have brilliantly figured out how to shift the downside risk of their activities onto the government, while keeping the upside for themselves.
The taxpayers who subsidize their behavior are too stupid to figure it out or do anything about it.

Anonymous said...

Why don't we find the sellers who received the monies 'above the value of the houses' in 2004-2006. Why don't they pay for this bail-out?

alba said...

Wall Street supposedly gets a whiff of a bailout for the insurers, and the market jumps 200 points in an hour. Its clear they expect to be bailed out, and its clear they have no sympathy for the folks at the end of the food chain. Just remember, those homeowners in distress did not receive any substantial assistance, but the banks? Regardless of who deserves help, and which side of politics you are on, the priveleged will become more priveleged.

buttcrackofdoom said...

a lot of people don't believe in the electric chair, but if i'm elected king we will have electric BLEACHERS fot the sunzabichin bankers!

Anonymous said...


Yes, that's the way it usually plays out. Got gold?


Obama will confiscate it just like FDR did in 1933.