Grapes of Wrath Return (Brent Budowsky)

http://pundits.thehill.com/2007/08/20/grapes-of-wrath-return/

Grapes of Wrath Return (Brent Budowsky)
@ 12:21 pm

snip//


I predict that very few banks will use last week’s discount rate to help average folks. They will either use it to finance mortgages of very high-income homebuyers purchasing top-of-the-line homes at a discount in the current market, or they will use it to buy time, until they finally sell the foreclosed home at a profit.

In effect John and Jane Doe get screwed at each step along the way, from outsourced jobs, eliminated jobs, cost-cut jobs, costs from the ripoff medical system, and foreclosure — where they lose whatever payments they made as well as their homes, and then get a huge tax hit.

Meanwhile, the prime beneficiaries of the Fed action are those who did the foreclosing and the banks, hedge funds and private equity funds who maneuver these assets back and forth between themselves, with fleets of lawyers and accountants helping them minimize costs and maximize ultimate profits with bridge money from the Federal Reserve (ultimately, American people’s money).

The Fed should have lowered the federal funds rate. Then the prime rate should be lowered, which would help all Americans and strengthen the national economy, stabilizing consumer finance and the housing market in the medium and long term.

It is true that credit has been overextended in some cases and in some cases foreclosure was inevitable. However, what the media fails to report is the very large number of cases in which hard-working, law-abiding, honorable Americans were screwed in their jobs, screwed in their healthcare, then screwed by those who foreclosed rather than giving them more time, then screwed by the IRS, then screwed by the Fed that takes the money of the American people to help those who did wrong, without helping those who deserve more time.

It is time for a freeze on foreclosures for this group, and time to establish guarantees that these banks, hedge funds and private equity funds agree to equitable treatment for average Americans as a condition for getting benefits from government policies.

Many of these hedge funds and private equity funds are untaxed. How about taxing them a little, instead of taxing foreclosed-upon Americans? How about ending the new “Grapes of Wrath”?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Yeah like THAT is ever going to happen.