wallyg /Foter

Yep. It’s still aright to think that the banks are the scum of the earth. It’s still alright for the Occupy movement to do what they do and harass bankers if they can. I say all this because today we learn that the Federal Reserve gave 13 billion in secret loans to these bankers banksters.

Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.

Saved by the bailout, bankers lobbied against government regulations, a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of the rescue to lawmakers even as Congress doled out more money and debated new rules aimed at preventing the next collapse.

Banks like Goldman Sachs are the enemy. Did you know Goldman actually took back money from a community bank that had opened an account for Occupy Wall Street?

Looks like the Attorney General of the state of California also has issues with the settlement that is being pushed by the Obama Administration.

The proposal being sought by the big banks “is not the deal California homeowners have been waiting for,” wrote Kamala D. Harris, the state attorney general, in a letter to those leading the talks. It is “inadequate,” she wrote.

The banks want amnesty from any future legal actions pertaining to the mortgage meltdown. If they can’t get that then they won’t be open to a settlement. The California Attorney General also doesn’t want to be limited to a settlement on just the robo-signing issue either.

Paulson gave Wells Fargo a tax break to purchase Wachovia. He circumvented Congress. Ten Wachovia executives walked away with parachutes equaling 98 million dollars. Basically any big bank that wants to buy a small bank will now have an even larger incentive to do so.

Opponents of automaker bailout call industry ‘dinosaur’

“Companies fail everyday and others take their place. I think this is a road we should not go down,” said Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. “They’re not building the right products,” he said. “They’ve got good workers but I don’t believe they’ve got good management. They don’t innovate. They’re a dinosaur in a sense.”

As much as I like what Shelby is saying there’s a reality that we can’t ignore. The reality is that there are millions of workers tied to the auto industry. Despite all of the offshoring and layoffs of workers by the American auto industry—there still appears to be many people left that would be effected if the industry were to fail. Of course if you do go and bail them out you’re going to want to attach many stipulations and that seems to be the best way to approach this.

I’ve been amazed by the activism of people in Boston over evictions. This story here is just one of the thousands of people all over the country facing foreclosures and evictions.

Ana, 51 and Raul Esquivel, 55 have considered Boston their home for the last 22 years. They are immigrants—Raul is from Guatemala and Ana is from The Dominican Republic. They bought their home at 21-23 Rowe Street in March 2006, with hopes of renting out one half of the house to pay the mortgage. Their bank, Deutsche Bank, had valued the property at $498,000—a gross over-inflation of the actual value. Last year, the Esquivels began falling behind on their payments. They asked Deutsche Bank to refinance. Unfortunately, in a matter of months, the value of their house had dropped to $285,000, making refinancing no longer feasible. Their monthly payments rose from $3,200/month to $4,200/month, an increase that Ana and Raul, who both work, could simply not afford.

This is why any bailout plan that is going to pass will not really help the American people. Sure it will probably save the country as far as a complete meltdown is concerned, but we’re not doing anything to help stop evictions and foreclosures.

Despite all this, Deutsche Bank refused to negotiate with the Esquivels. Raul’s sister even offered to buy the house back at market value—which wouldn’t cost the bank a cent of real money—but the bank still refused to negotiate and instead continued with the eviction. This type of policy has been indicative of the investment banks, whose predatory lending practices have led to a national surge in foreclosures.

So banks are probably going to get bailed out and all this worthless paper is going to be picked up by the governemnt. But who’s picking up the people with no homes anymore? Granted some people got mortgages who should not have been granted them in the first place, but cases like the Esquivel’s are a serious problem. The Esquivels wanted a house–the American dream like many people—and they did have a plan that would’ve made this a reality. They had a way they were going to pay for their home even though it was over-valued. So when the price of their home came tumbiling down they were stuck with a mortage they could not refinance and they no longer could afford.