We have our own story as to how we got here, to our financial problems. There have been mistakes, yes, but in our case, the mistakes that have been most damaging involved trusting a family member. Those mistakes hurt a lot, not only in the initial damage that occurs, but in the rejection and sadness of the betrayal, and ultimately the lack of justice, regardless of honest efforts, and finally there is empty loneliness. When also topped with accusations and blame, it can be devastating, far beyond the money.
But the money does matter. The threat of foreclosure also means the threat of separation. For how could we survive such a ripping apart of our foundation when we have been so hurt along the way? And if we separate, do we not face greater financial difficulties, along with the tearing of our hearts?
Then just when we negotiate something with the mortgage company, my husband’s wages are garnished for some medical bill left after his quadruple bypass surgery last December. It used to be that hospitals and their doctors wouldn’t come after you like that. They wouldn’t add late fees and interest. There was some humanity in medicine. No more. Now, thanks to industry lobbyists, laws have been changed to favor corporate profit over patient well-being.Apparently, the flow of blood is the only thing that must function in the human heart, according to these standards.
So now there are hundreds of thousands of foreclosure stories across the country, and though some pundits would like us to believe they are the result of irresponsible decisions made by irresponsible people who don’t deserve to be helped, each story is unique, and if someone listened, they’d hear narratives that reflect the kinds of hopes and dreams we’re taught to believe in.
Why, lately, we’ve learned that even responsible, high-functioning, educated, and certifiably successful people can suddenly find themselves crashing financially, losing in one fell swoop chunks of money large enough to have kept thousands of regular people in their homes. Where’s the 50 billion dollars that Madoff "lost"? These victims aren’t going to put up with it. Now, we’ll see if attention is paid where it needs to be.
The U.S. economy is now based on the wheeling and dealing of the Financial Industry rather than manufacturing and production. What is the role of American citizens in this economy? They are merely debtors. Without the work that production requires, eventually the debtors cannot pay. Thus, the manic, insatiable greed of the few has reached it point of self-destruction.
The problem began to build under the rationale of trickle-down Reaganomics, then "the precious" attracted eager Democrats as well, and with everyone aboard, Wall Street lobbyists began to succeed in pulling down regulatory restraints, even gaining significant ground with a foolish Clinton’s approval.
However, the greatest damage has come with the utter disregard for safeguards and ultimate support for illegitimate financing by the Bush/Cheney White House.
What a pair.
George W. Bush is a man who mismanaged a series of failing oil companies, always rescued by investors seeding favors from his father.
He didn't make the big bucks until he illegally dumped his shares in Harken Energy just before the release of an adjusted accounting statement to the shareholders that revealed the company was tanking. An SEC investigation into these criminally corrupt trading practices was dismissed because, by then, Daddy had loaded the Securities and Exchange Commission with chums from James Baker’s infamous Texas law firm – Baker & Botts.
As for Dick Cheney, while it is well known that he was the CEO of Halliburton between Bush administrations, and that this connection undoubtedly increased Halliburton’s worldwide contracts, it is less widely acknowledged that his biggest move as CEO, the acquisition of Dresser industries, widely advertised as a win/win that created the world’s largest oil services company, came at an enormous price to Halliburton shareholders, with Dresser having been notified that one of its subsidiaries would be subject to legal liability for medical claims from employees exposed to asbestos. Cheney’s exit from Halliburton was well-time, allowing him to sell his stock in the company at $50 a share, to the tune of $40 million, before the asbestos issue was publicly known. By August 2002, the stock continually hovered in the $13 a share range.
These are the economic practices of our leaders, our role models.
On Sunday, December 21st, the top headline of the front page of The New York Times read "White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire". The almost 5,000-word article delineates the disastrous combination of two of Mr. Bush’s policies.
First, there was his naive but outspoken push for expanded home ownership, especially to provide minorities with a sense of hope and belief in the stated goal of the Republican party - an "ownership society", as well as providing business for some of his biggest donors, the finance industry – even pushing "the mortgage brokers and lenders to devise their own innovations" which resulted in "too good to be true teaser rates and interest- only loans".
Second, there was his other enormous reward for his short-sighted donors – the deregulating, or the defunding and elimination of those who in charge of regulating, of the finance industry. To keep this loosening of the rules moving required a silencing of the alarms that went unheeded, and deliberate overstatement of well-being. The man Mr. Bush most recently put in charge of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, who demanded of Mr. Bush more power in economic policy than any Treasury secretary before him, appeared to be particularly good at controlling the message, until it was too late.
