Thursday, August 08, 2013

About Time, Maybe

I see Duetschebank and Wells Fargo are shitting their respective knickers and have filed suit against the City of Richmond, CA and San Francisco. The cities are attempting to declare eminent domain of underwater properties. Then, they intend to refinance the properties back to owners with mortgages that reflect the current value of the home. The banks are in an uproar. 

Why, it is (in their opinion) improper use of eminent domain, the confiscating of bank property through basically condemnation and reselling it. Regardless of the fact that the underwater homes causes foreclosed homes to flood the market, cause urban eyesores, drop property values and lose tax revenue, stressing school income. No problem for the banks if that is the case. No skin off their noses. TS to those who used to live there. Let them be homeless, the slackers. But take the banks' properties, big problem.

Wait. Aren't these the properties that the banks had to be bailed out from because they were overvalued? You know, the ones you and I paid for with our taxes? The ones the banks got to keep when other people paid for them?

Yes, the very same ones. So, the public pays for them, bails out the banks, few if any business leaders go to jail for criminal enterprise, few lose their jobs and the majority received bonuses for a job well done. After all the banks got free money and in business that is a good thing. 

Capitalism does not work that way. For everyone who screams about the need to keep the free enterprise system free---it has not been free at upper levels since 2008. It it really were a free enterprise system, instead of corporate welfare, the banks would have failed. They made bad investments, they should lose. But, no. Taxpayers had to bail them out. If you or I do a shitty job at work, we lose our jobs. Not these asses. They get bonuses for doing such a shitty job the government had to cover their asses.

Now when a City wants to take action, they do not want government involvement. Really??? Wells used money they received to purchase Wachovia. I did not see Wells say, "no we are doing okay, don't need government money." Hell, no, they took it and bought out a competitor making them too much bigger to fail. 

Amazing how much capitalists (in name only) squeal when they might lose their welfare-paid for assets (really, the bank bail out was nothing more than corporate handouts) for the greater good of the community. Social contract be damned. It is not what is for the good of the community. John Locke would indeed be rolling in his grave.

Keep in mind that until the 1800s (late 1800s, at that), companies had to have their charters that allowed them to do business granted every X years to stay open. If they broke their social contract they were disbanded. Think Standard Oil, or Bell Telephone (in the 1980s). There is precedence. 

rojo

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