TRY TO MAKE THEM GO TO REHAB.....ECONOMIC UPDATE

All of Wall Street should check into “Greed” Rehab and we, as a country, should not take no for an answer. The second portion of the much ballyhooed $700 billion dollar economic bail-out has been put on hold until the suits in Washington can make a decision on future distribution. The first half of our money (folks, we are the ones lending since it is taxpayers money) was recklessly given to federally chartered, traded on the stock market, banks; with an additional 40 billion dollars given to AIG. There were no stipulations, just a few suggestions, on what they should do with the money. You read it right. There was no accountability, no report card, no check list. Or, the new buzz word, transparency. The thought behind this decision was that us, poor, common folk could not possibly understand the great, big goings- on of the really smart people on Wall Street. And since they are so smart, we as taxpayers should trust them to do the right thing. Originally, the intent of the bail out money was to help the banks navigate through the mortgage meltdown and credit crunch to give them liquidity to lend to consumers and to help distressed homeowners. Not anymore. Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase is using their “gift” to buy other banks. “It is a great time to buy”, he says. A.I.G. has continued to use their ongoing infusion for employee perks such as spa days and retreats. Other recipients are paying dividends to stockholders and providing pay raises and bonuses to executives. The suits have no idea what these “really smart” people are doing with our money! With this free cash American Express decided to become a bank so they could get a piece of this unsupervised windfall. The credit card companies are screaming, me, me, me. The car giants are jumping up and down for their fair share. According to Thursday’s Financial Times six out of the eight representatives of the Detroit area voted against the bail-out, but now the big 3 have their hands in the till demanding their share: at a cost of $98,000 per member of the United Auto Workers. The functional “greed” addicts look normal and talk about “saving” the economy, but at the end of the day it is about the money and how they can get more cash. The need for discipline and good sense has been overrun by the addiction to lifestyles and mega money. Would you hand over your check book to your drug addicted nephew and ask him to “pretty please” not to buy drugs? FYI: The subprime borrowers that still have their loans and have been waiting for loan modifications, may be left out in the cold. Since our government is hesitant to give directives, just suggestions, few families in our area have been helped by the 2008 Economic Recovery Act. The government is backing away even further with announcements this past Thursday. If the loan is more that 90 days past due Fannie/Freddie declared they will “help”. (Holy modification! Are they installing a Bat phone for instant communication to halt foreclosures?) Chase will “help” their clients by refinancing to a lower payment but typically that will entail taking a chunk of the principal and putting it aside, only to have it pop up when the homeowner goes to sell or refinance. Gee, is saying “thank you” enough? Some lenders are helping their homeowners, but read the small print on the loan documents: Spend a few bucks and have an attorney go over the documents before signing.