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$38 Billion in Bonuses for Wall Streeters, Home Foreclosures for Regular Folks. Really?
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While executives at the top five Wall Street firms are getting a record $38 billion in bonuses this Christmas season, millions of working families are worrying whether they will lose their homes in the New Year—in the wake of the nation’s mortgage crisis.
The AFL-CIO called today for major mortgage lenders to impose a one-year moratorium on subprime mortgage foreclosures. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, in a letter to the largest subprime mortgage lenders and underwriters, writes:
Wall Street seems to be giving unprecedented cash rewards to the very people whose conduct threatens to strip millions of Americans of their homes and drive our country into recession, while at the same time refusing to take the actions necessary to address the crisis.
The letter, also signed by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, said in part:
This crisis threatens the health of our economy, the solvency of our financial institutions and the wellbeing of our communities….A foreclosure moratorium will preserve the American Dream for millions of families and preserve value for your investors.
Click here to read the letter and here for the press release announcing it.
Speaking on Fox TV this morning, Daniel Pedrotty, director of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, said investors have lost stock equity worth $74 billion and to reward executives with such huge bonuses is
pay for failure in many cases and in some cases these are the same people who brought us the subprime mortgage crisis. (See video above.)
Earlier this month, Damon Silvers, AFL-CIO associate general counsel, presented to the U.S. House Financial Services Committee our policy recommendations to prevent America’s home owners from disaster and the country from economic free fall. Noting the federal government must reach out to subprime borrowers to let them know how they can keep their homes, Silvers said action should include:
- Imposing an immediate moratorium on foreclosures on foreclosures on subprime mortgages—any mortgage with a teaser rate structure.
- Restructuring subprime loans for 30 years at the original low teaser rates.
- Rewarding restructuring—not foreclosures. Loan servicers must renounce those servicing agreements that reward mortgage companies for foreclosing on homes rather than encourage refinancing or other workout strategies.
- Demanding mortgage servicers commit to publicly reporting, company by company, the number of subprime loans they are servicing; how many have reset; how many have been restructured; and where and how many foreclosures are occurring.
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[...] Matt Stoller wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe AFL-CIO called today for major mortgage lenders to impose a one-year moratorium on subprime mortgage foreclosures. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, in a letter to the largest subprime mortgage lenders and underwriters, writes: … [...]
This is exactly why we must all get behind Dennis Kucinich! He is the ONLY candidate running who will do something about this obvious imbalance in wealth that we have in this country. $38 billion in bonuses?! That is DISGUSTING! It truly makes me ill, especially when the majority of HARD WORKING Americans are barely scraping by with their measley wages and pitiful Christmas bonuses (if we are lucky!). Please, please, do not vote against your own best interests in this election. Most of the candidates are corporatists and are receiving campaign funds to keep this kind of greed going. Dennis Kucinich is NOT – never has and never will! – and he will stop this injustice and help the average American worker and their families to share in the vast wealth that we have in this country!
K U C I N I C H ‘ 0 8 ! ! !
There is an interesting book that claims that 4% of people are psychopaths, that they have a character disorder “distinguished by amoral or antisocial behavior without feelings of remorse”, i.e, they have no conscience and will do whatever it takes to get what they want without any regard to other people.
So that is obviously why we have all these greedy execs, self-serving politicians and a media that wants us to believe that this is acceptable behavior. The 4% rules now and the other 96% is supposed to just quit their whining and get on with life…..or as one joker said “Just put on your big girl panties and deal with it”.
Corporate Greed Corporate Greed Corporate Greed, we hear about it all day and all night, But when is someone going to DO something about it? When US voters stop paying attention to a media controlled by corporate interests, When Consumers stop worrying about saving $2 on a $20 item by shopping at Slavemart/Scams Club and look at the Taxes we are paying in subsidizing their corporate greed, and the manufacturing Jobs they are sending to our good friends the Chinese!
When we hear our friends and co-workers complain, we must ask them Who they voted for in the past elections, when they reply either they did not vote or they voted ANTI LABOR, remember to tell them they have NO MORAL RIGHT to complain!
We need to question people running for office, and let them know on a personal level that WE ARE WATCHING what they do! We need to get the BIG MONEY OUT of the electoral system, If there are no favors purchased, there are no favors due! Public funding of elections with equal funds going to ALL qualified candidates, and as a condition of access to PUBLIC OWNED airwaves all media should be required to donate equal uncensored airtime to all qualified candidates!
Dear dearjohn –
Here! Here! Right on!