It's been almost a year since Horatio Bernard effectively lost his Baltimore row house to foreclosure and roughly 15 months since he last made a payment on his primary mortgage.
And yet to his amazement and those following his story, Bernard continues living in the home with his ailing mother without any sign of an eviction notice or word from his lender, in this case JP Morgan Chase and then US Bank.
"I haven't paid a dime," Bernard told me, sounding gleeful over the phone.
Earlier this year, Bernard was defiant on staying in his home even though the bank had already tried selling it at auction last November. Bernard, a Liberian immigrant, took a shot at the American dream at a time in 2005 when that dream involved risky subprime loans. On top of that, he'd been victimized by a foreclosure prevention scam by New Hope Modifications, which the New Jersey attorney general since indicted on fraud charges.
"We're as mystified by it as he is," said Joe Cox, a community organizer with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now in Baltimore. ACORN, under fire for unrelated allegations that two branches may have helped an activist posing as a pimp avoid taxes, actually spends considerable resources dealing with cases like Bernard's.
LINK HERE
Wow thanks. Watched it from beginning to end. What a wake up call.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8LPNRI_6T8
Thanks to the previous poster.
I wonder if he's saving all of his money so he can either make a refi deal with the bank for cash or afford rent went they catch up with him.
ReplyDeleteA year ago I would call him a freeloader, now I call him a victim of corporate fraud. Screw the banks.
ReplyDeleteHe is a freeloader and should have never been allowed to access a mortgage to begin with. Millions of these "victims" have been the cause of the economic collapse of this country. Hard working folks that pay their bills are the victims!
ReplyDelete11:27 I don't think you get it. The Illuminati hoodwinks us daily. They create money out of thin air at no cost. Then they send it to the bank at an inflated interest rate they create. The bank takes the fake money and inflates the interest again and supplies this rate to their debt slaves. "YOU" the consumer slave, believing this is the way it should be, slaves away paying these bills until you die. Who is the "victim"? You have been cordially conditioned by your owner.
ReplyDelete11:27 What planet are you from? Don't you see what has happened? The same bank that gave you a loan for your house gave EVERYONE a loan for a house. You got ripped off just like the rest of us. How much did you lose on the bank loan scam? Your house aint worth shit. Its all an illusion. Then the same banks got a trillion $ bailout with your future granddaughters money and you still pay them for your mortgage? You dont see a problem with this? YOU WILL IN 6-9 MONTHS! You're a victim of ignorance. Good luck sucker!
ReplyDeleteFellas, fellas be nice. It is not easy on any level to be conditioned your whole life to believe in a system of slavery then all of a sudden awaken. A little patience and sympathy for the sheeple goes a long way. We were all sheeple once.
ReplyDelete@ 12:11
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I went to college in the 90s I can attest to these practices. While first walking on campus the credit card folks were just handing out apps to every young naive college student. Since it was a credit card tailored for "students" their was really no need for a credit score.
Needless to say I wound up a few years later not only trapped in college school loans up to my eyeballs but also credit cards all maxed out.
Amazingly, I wrote dunning letters and validation letters and I managed to NOT pay a single dime after a certain point and had ALL the negatives removed from my credit file. At first I thought “I” was the big winner since I didn’t have to pay off the amounts. However, just as you stated all this money created by these lending institutions is out of thin air and whatever amount I did pay over the first few years more then sufficed. Hence, I was still the sucker because even with my “minimum” payments over a few years they made out big time.
Today I own 1 credit card with a very low limit for the "just In Case" scenario.
Never again will I go in such debt. However, as for my school loans I am a debt slave to the Federal Loan Program for life which is just the way they want it.
1:34 - I hear you. The student loan debt is the cruelest of them all. The banksters load up a young person with debt then use their bought politicians to write laws to insure that student loans are not dismissable in bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteOh well at least you did graduate. As in they 'gradually indoctrinated' you. Then you got to wear the square mortar-board on your head to symbolize that you are square with the system. Like Mecca. Or maybe they don't do that anymore.
It never ends. Chess, pawns, fun.
Schooling discourages free thought and individualism. You are given info. If you retain the info and can repeat it perfectly you get an A. In essence, a student is like a parrot that way. Stray away from the norm and reason something out yourself and you get an F.
I can remember everything. Always got an A. Now looking back on it I was a stooge.
The person in class, whether grade school, HS, College, that seemed a little off kilter or strange - remember that person? He/she was probably a free thinker and we didn't see it that way at the time.
Non-comformity is not allowed. We look to people to agree with us, think like us, because we want confirmation that we are rational and sane.
You must disregard that as you learn certain truths because the groupthink will always gravitate back to the Matrix.
If you believe that the economy is in bad trouble or in a depression and things are getting a lot worse you are correct but you are also no longer in sync with the collective hive mentality of lemmings who would label you irrational and misinformed.
I read everyone's post, and considered all the points each poster makes. What remains is how can anyone be justified in buying something they can't pay for, and probably knew at the time they bought it that they could not pay for it?
ReplyDeleteIsn't this the whole bottom line? Not just this story, but all of the subprime stuff out there? I would rather not be called an idiot or jerk or dumbass, until the question is answered.
@4:46
ReplyDeleteFair enough. BTW I'm not the one that called you names but I will answer your question.
Do you remember early on when Bush came out and stated he wanted to make this the "ownership" generation?
Bush was given the orders by Alan Greenspan to push for this. In other words this was a concerted effort between the Fed and Govt. to create its next bubble.
Now the question is why? Well, after the Dot.Com crash the US was officially finished, DOA, and sunk. There was no way to recover from the last recession except by one last ingenious ploy. What was it? It was to push home ownership to ANYONE. The US is driven by 72% consumer consumption. What better way to create consumption then by flooding the US with cheap credit of which would go through a multiplier through the economy as a whole. Also, not to mention the banks were all too excited about it. They were going to make a killing for as long as the ride would last.
Now your probably asking why "THAT" was the choice economic paradigm. Well, since we create nothing in the US we needed to rely on what the US does best and that is to CONSUME.
By creating the "illusion" of wealth by creating debt for literally anyone who breathed (the hell with your FICO score).
And so here is what happened:
Every house needs a contractor.
Every contractor needs supplies
Every Home Depot needed new sales people
Every House needs a driveway
Every driveway needs a new car.
Every Car dealership needed more cars
Detroit needed more workers
Every House needs new appliances
Every Sears needed new shipments
Every appliance manufacturer needed more employees
Every House needs energy
Every Utility company needed new equipment.
Equipment manufacturers needed more employees
I think you get the idea. You can create even MORE examples of what the credit multiplier did. I just through in a couple examples above so you could get the point.
Do you see where I am going with this?
In other words the US Govt. and the Fed were slick salesman who had the go ahead to sell to EVERYBODY. It was the only way out of the last recession and it worked beautifully until the bubble burst.
Say what you will about the people who didn't deserve a house. However, it was your very Govt. and Fed that was pushing it.
Now however the US is officially finished. We can’t create any new debt for the consumer because the consumer is officially tapped out. Also, even with 0% rates Consumers are NOT taking the bait this time and the banks are NOT lending to anyone anyways.
So now the US which is nothing but consumption & debt is officially dead. There is no more short term bubble to create. No more boom/bust cycles. The Housing scam crated last time around was the last go around.
I hope that cleared things up.
6;47 Thank you for your well written response to the sub prime crisis. I would have mirrored your words had I been writing the same response.
ReplyDeleteWhat I was actually hoping for in an answer is the simple word "Greed". I totally agree with all you had to say, but in every real estate transaction involving a loan, there must be both a lender and a borrower. Irregardless of the willingness of a lender to make a loan to someone not having the ability to pay it back, the responsibility rests with the borrower. The borrower must know within reasonable terms, that he/she can service the loan to its term. My question asked "Why" would someone knowingly sign a contract they in all respects knew they could not service? Even in the face of total willingness, and even encouragement of Government, lenders, agents, etc? The answer my friend is simply "GREED". Again thank you for your response, and you are on target, and 110% correct on "what caused" the sub prime crisis.
@ Anonymous 4:34: You asked, "My question asked "Why" would someone knowingly sign a contract they in all respects knew they could not service?"
ReplyDeleteA lot of people bought homes when they had incomes to pay for their mortgage. The job disappeared, no equivalent income could be found b/c jobs have and are still disappearing, and that's your answer.
It happened to me although I'm a renter. I had to find a cheaper place to live, and wonder if next year I'll have find an even cheaper place if something doesn't come through soon.
BTW, I'm renting (house sharing) from a guy now who has been self-employed electrician for over 20 years and financially did quite well. People are now calling him only when desperate and rarely for renovating. He had to rent out part of his house and is STILL struggling. I'm cold right now b/c I'm helping him keep the heat bill down low, b/c if he can't make it, I'm out too.
Now do you get it?
5:11 I am NOT refering to those having lost jobs and being foreclosed. Not at all. I am refering to those who KNEW IN ADVANCE they were buying too much house. Those who lost their jobs are the result of the too much house buyers. Now do you get it?
ReplyDeleteGREED--not job losss. Blame the greedy for the job losses.