So after they basically screwed up the whole economy, a mess we are finally begining to claw our way out of. These guys have the sociopathic gall to spend to lobby against regulatoin.

Leaders of the nation’s financial industry are turning up the heat on lawmakers to put the kibosh on some of the stiffest regulatory proposals pending in Congress — lobbying expenditures have leapt from 12 percent in 2008 to nearly 30 percent this year in an effort to quash financial-reform proposals such as a bank tax, limits on big bank size and curbs on lenders’ flexibility in risky hedge funds and private equity funds. JP Morgan is the biggest lobbying spender, followed closely by Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley.

They got bailed out so they could lobby against the American people.

Homeowner Belva Davis of Detroit’s East English Village fell behind on her mortgage while unemployed. She has a new job and wants to pay the mortgage, but Wells Fargo refuses to modify the loan.

Last year, bailout bandit Wells Fargo pocketed $25 billion in taxpayer money. Even after the government gave it another $2.8 billion to modify mortgages, Wells Fargo has restructured only 6% of its eligible loans, well below most banks (see http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/).

Wells Fargo spends millions lobbying against pro-citizen bills like the Employee Free Choice Act, the Foreclosure Prevention Act (S 2636), and House Bill 3609, which would allow judges to modify mortgages.  Where is the bailout for Wells Fargo customers & their neighborhoods?

I honestly don’t know why I even bank there. But alas, many of these banks are just like Wells Fargo.

So we bailed out the banks so that Wells Fargo could do this?

A Wells Fargo & Co. executive who oversees foreclosed properties hosted parties and spent long summer weekends in a $12 million Malibu beach house, moving into the home just after it had been surrendered to Wells Fargo to satisfy debts, neighbors said.

The previous owners of the beachfront home in Malibu Colony – a densely built stretch of luxury homes that has been a favorite of celebrities over the years – were financially devastated in Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud scheme, real estate agent Irene Dazzan-Palmer said.

The couple signed the property over to Wells Fargo last spring, and the bank subsequently denied requests to show the house to prospective buyers, Dazzan-Palmer said.

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So you would think that Wells Fargo would take a hint after the workers at Hartmarx and Republic Windows and Doors won their fights.

Wells Fargo bank has instructed Quad City Die Casting not to pay contractual wages and benefits legally due to workers at the Illinois company. So the union is filing charges to make sure the workers get paid. Leah Fried is an organizer with the United Electrical workers.

[Fried]: “They’re clearly illegal. Wells Fargo’s decision not paying benefits is in violation of the law. It’s also immoral and repugnant – and just outrageous.”

UE is fighting Wells Fargo’s decision to cut off financing for Quad City Die Casting. The bank’s decision means the plant is scheduled to close by the end of August.

[Fried 2]: “This is a huge financial institution. They need to take responsibility – not just for the fact that they helped contribute to this crisis – but they’re actually acting as a roadblock to our economic recovery.”

Obviously they need more public shaming. Do I sense another occupation of a plant in the future?

I think this paragraph from the Workers United Union’s website says it all.

The worker and labor activists’ efforts successfully thwarted Wells Fargo’s push for liquidation.  Last week, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved a pro-worker acquisition deal by British private equity firm Emerisque.  The deal brings the 125-year-old suit maker out of bankruptcy and comes with Emerisque’s assurance that they will protect Hartmarx jobs.

This is really unbelievable in this day and age.

Here's the official court filing (PDF) so you can get the full details on how Wells Fargo pushed or even fraudulently placed black borrowers into sub-prime loans, even when those borrowers could afford prime loans, along with an office environment where employees threw around racist slurs, calling black borrowers "mud people" and their mortgages "ghetto loans."

Just think they now own Wachovia Bank.

Posted via email from Jason’s posterous

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.

So even after they were bailed out with all of that tax-payer money they refuse to lend.

While inter-bank lending rates have fallen since Congress approved the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program on Oct. 3, most bank lending to consumers remains tight and interest rates high. The average credit-card rate was 14.33 percent on Dec. 16, according to IndexCreditCards.com in Cleveland, almost unchanged from 14.41 percent in October 2007.

This is absolutely pathetic. Just think of how Washington grilled the auto industry executives but have let the banks have a free lunch. I’m not a fan of the big three automakers either, but seriously the government is going to have to open these banks up. If they don’t start lending then I’d say don’t reward them with your deposit accounts.