"I don't think just because someone's underwater they say I don't have to stay there. But they're supposed to pay the mortgage, and we should teach the American people, you're supposed to meet your obligations, not run from them. Because you have a mortgage doesn't mean you should run away as it goes down."
I'm not sure of the exact numbers but I do believe that $25B is more than his heap is worth. I guess that unlike a mortgagee there is nobody at Chase that is responsible for their bad bets on derivatives. Apparently it has something to do with the name and the size of the failure whether you need to meet your obligations. As I understand it on one end of failure you get stuck with something worth less than what you owe and on the other you get millions of dollars of bonuses. Now if we were to try recover what these people are responsible for from them Dimon and his colleagues would be fighting for space in a homeless shelter and leave us a whole lot of billions in the hole, but you have a sacred obligation to his bank. Hmmm.
I keep trying to wrap my head around what these people stand for and I just cannot make it. There just isn't anything there, the disconnect is too large. I honestly wonder if the only way to reach them is a .30 lesson. You just cannot sit in the wreckage of a $25B bailout and tell Joe Schmoe he has to sit in his $200K disaster as though he is something different in the nature of self-interest. This economy was going to get roughed up by the housing bubble correction, but these guys leveraging of it created disaster and this guy alone has made somewhere around $1B for his part in it. No matter what happens, if Chase plain implodes, he's going to be fine and in fact increase his wealth at the trough of firesales if he cares to put that effort into it. Joe Schmoe is screwed no matter how this plays out, the only sensible thing he can do is load his junk in a trailer and get the hell out.
Stupid arrogance and wishful thinking greed led these banks into this position and we're to understand that they are somehow different and more special than ordinary citizens. If we're going to play this obligations game then I want his ever living hide nailed on a foreclosed door.
Not gonna happen, only the peons will pay.
2 comments:
I think this editorial cartoon originally from The Economist sums the situation up succinctly.
The stories coming out of this bank bailout are so contrary to reason -- it's like these people are addicted to money, have no self reflection whatsoever, empathy, or sense.
You picked a perfect example. Telling the little guy to buck up and pay them their money when they're being handed a golden parachute from millions of said little guys. With which they buy luxury items and give bonuses to the people who are responsible for tanking these financial ships.
WHAT?
It's, literally, insane.
Bp
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