Jimmy Carter died

[claptonrocks]

1 hour ago, T-Dub said:

 

 

Yeah you heard him, bring me some eggrolls 

He would too..

[claptonrocks]

He Jaime..you haven't used fascist today

Feelin alllright?

[T-Dub]

10 minutes ago, claptonrocks said:

He Jaime..you haven't used fascist today

Feelin alllright?

 

Hey while we're asking questions, why are your lips all orange?

[claptonrocks]

14 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

 

Hey while we're asking questions, why are your lips all orange?

Your attempts at bad jokes don't suit you.

Stay to whining...

 

[T-Dub]

2 minutes ago, claptonrocks said:

Your attempts at bad jokes font suit you.

Stay to whining...

 

 

Do you have a special pair of MAGA kneepads or just the regular kind?  I sense a business opportunity.

[Jamie_B]

1 hour ago, claptonrocks said:

Yeah.you got your head so far up his ass it's a wonder you can breathe.

 

No

[Jamie_B]

1 hour ago, claptonrocks said:

He Jaime..you haven't used fascist today

Feelin alllright?

 

You're going to have to learn the hard way

 

[Homer_Rice]

More on surveys and polls.

 

Beware the Faux Populism of Corporate Democrats

[Shebengal]

16 hours ago, T-Dub said:

 

Do you have a special pair of MAGA kneepads or just the regular kind?  I sense a business opportunity.

I'm surprised that Trump hasn't included these in his line of merchandise. If he can sell Bibles, watches, and sneakers, why not knee pads?

[Shebengal]

3 hours ago, Homer_Rice said:

More on surveys and polls.

 

Beware the Faux Populism of Corporate Democrats

Interesting read. Sherrod Brown voted against NAFTA, but people forgot that.

 

I also agree that the Obama administration was way too soft on the financial institutions that crashed the housing market. Not one single person was indicted, let alone convicted for that. All it did was enrich people like Wilbur Ross and Steven Mnuchin (both former members of Trump's Cabinet) and big market landlords. However, the beginnings of the housing market issues began with the Clinton administration and his belief that everyone should own a home. I remember in 1998, "non profit" companies started springing up that would allow sellers to legally fund down payments for their buyers. The way it worked was that sellers would make a 3% contribution to these "non profit corporations" plus a service fee, and the "non profit corporations" would then "contribute" it to the buyers. The "contribution" would be added to the sales price. All perfectly legal, and for one of these programs, I had to actually go to a training and become certified to close these transactions. I remember thinking at the time that this was a bad idea. Then, builders got a hold of this and started incorporating it into their programs, and also would agree to pay for closing costs and/or buydowns on the interest rate, sometimes on adjustable rate loans, for their buyers, again, all added to the sales price of the home. The lenders would qualify the buyers on the initial interest rate and not the final interest rate, with the assumption that the buyer's income would increase commensurate with the increase in the rate. They would also use the land value for taxes instead of the full value of the property. By year 3, with taxes fully assessed and the final interest rate being charged, the buyers would find themselves in a hole, but they couldn't sell the property because the builder was still building homes in the development and offering the "attractive" financing. That's why, at least here in Columbus, you saw so many "new slums" for awhile. Then you add in the "liar loans" and 80%-20% financing that was running rampant in the early 2000s, and it was a perfect storm for a housing crash. And no one was held accountable. It got to the point where I could look at a transaction and say "Yep, they'll be in foreclosure in a year." The Columbus Dispatch did a whole series of stories on this back in 2005, before the housing crash, and one of the buyers was quoted as saying, "As I was signing the paperwork, I was thinking this was a bad idea." Well, then, why did you sign the paperwork?" After the housing crash, the Dispatch revisited this and interviewed someone who had lost her house to foreclosure. I had handled her transaction and I remember that she had walked out of the closing with a check, never a good sign. 

 

Sorry to get off on a tangent like this, but this still burns me. 

[Homer_Rice]

Good stuff, Shebengal. I like Sherrod Brown, too.

 

My first real in-person interaction with Dem Party "officialdom" came way back during Abscam. I was trying to get folks to give Harrison Williams a fair chance. Lol. Pretty naive in those days. All I knew was that the fucking FBI was up to it's old tricks. Still are. I've been pretty opposed to the Dem party inner circles ever since Hart (and the Third Way ) ran for office in 84. Looking for the beginning of the end for the party, that's a good place to start. Clinton was the first successful Third Way-ist and boy, did he do some bad stuff.

 

Your insights on the housing industry are appreciated. I remember back in early in Ronnie's time that Regulation Q got dropped and that was the beginning of the end for the Savings and Loan industry. I had friends who stood outside Home Savings and Loan in Cincy trying to get their money when the run on S&L's was on. Fuck Walter Wriston, Charles Keating, McCain, and all those assholes whose greed turned one of the safest means for the working class to get a home into a speculative circus.

 

The Dem party won't learn from this. They've never lost an election. They've only ever been let down by the voters.

 

Bernie was the last chance in 2016 and 2020. And look what the party did to him. We'd be in a different world now had he been elected. Instead, a lot more people are going to suffer and the populist wing of the Dem party will have to be rebuilt. And even then... .

[Homer_Rice]

“There are incentives for the DNC to keep us [members] apart,” Kapp added. “So we can’t organize, so we can’t talk to one another, so we can’t grow and learn.” Most crucially, “so we can’t organize against, or, if we wanted, in favor of whatever leadership wanted. By keeping us apart, they’re really able to organize and control these meetings from the top down.”

 

Opening the DNC’s Black Box

[Shebengal]

Thanks, Homer. I could rant all day about the indignities of the housing industry. I will say that some reforms did come out of the housing collapse, some good, some not so good. Underwriting standards got more strict. But one of the protections passed by the CFPB was a revamping of the document that you get at closing that outlines all of your charges. They changed it to make it more transparent and easier to understand. It did just the opposite, at least for the Columbus market. Also, they instituted a rule that consumers were required to have this form 3 days prior to closing. Those of us in the title industry rejoiced because we naively believed that this would end the practice of getting closing documents an hour before closing, or eliminate the calls to close within a day (or sooner) of receiving final approval. Little did we know. There are some banks who enforce this rule. There are a lot more lenders who consider a “ preliminary” closing disclosure issued early in the process as their compliance with TRID. (The rule.) So our job was not made easier.