The administrative mistakes of the largest lenders is surpassed only by their arrogance.
With all the rhetoric spewed on American homeowners by banks and politicians about "continued efforts" to help struggling homeowners you would think that the now depressingly familiar stories of lenders unwilling to help would have stopped. People who deal with mortgage lenders and borrowers hoping for help know that the horror stories continue.
Big banks like J.P.Morgan Chase, Bank of America & Wells Fargo are realizing unprecedented profits.They measure their assets in trillions of dollars. Helping struggling homeowners is not a priority. They make no mistake about that. Bank of America & Wells Fargo have announced that they are cutting 30,0000 jobs. A move likely designed to appease shareholders and likely detrimental to anyone hoping that they may get help through a mortgage modification or some other "foreclosure alternative" they've applied for.
Together the George W.Bush and Obama administration spent over a trillion dollars of taxpayer money to bail out big banks and corporations with no requirement to utilize any portion of that taxpayer money to help struggling homeowners. No "quid pro quo" as it's called. No responsibility or obligation to help hundreds of thousands of struggling homeowners while these same corporations continue to enjoy tremendous profits. The struggle to hold big banks accountable is somehow delegated to state and local governments. Most of these fights are insignificant. They are merely a nuisance to big banks because of their size and financial clout. NY City officials consider banking as important to them as the auto industry is to Detroit.
The Obama administrations parade of mortgage relief programs have failed miserably, largely due to the lack of any requirement by lenders to adhere to them. Any government program that has been touted by the administration as mortgage relief attaches financial incentives for banks. Like a reward for a good grade. It's like asking banks to choose between record profits or "atta boy"
What does it take for the American people to wake up? What would it take for the American public to say "no more"? I struggle everyday with these questions and I always come away with this. I know that the answers are in the American public, not the politicians, not the power mongers and not the corporate giants feeding off taxpayer money. Unless we Americans regain control of "our government" we will continue to spend days and nights struggling for answers in our own lives.
George Sinacori
GES Real Estate, LLC
