Smalltownbanker

The New Warren Commission

notso - I believe there is plenty of guilt to go around. I also believe the notsosmart's of the world who want to blame the banks for the actions of people who signed loans they knew they could not pay are too numerous to mention.

Neither of these comments address the substance of the article which is what happens to the toxic assets. My understanding was that TARP funds would be used to purchase these assets at a marked to market price and the assets would then be held until such time that a market returned for them. (This was the proverbial smoke blown where it did not belong because some of these assets had no value and never will. Altogether they are probably worth 10-20 cents on the dollar of the value they are being held at on the books of the big banks).

These so called assets are still showing up as "off balance sheet assets" for many of the large banks and accounting standards were changed to make them look less toxic or worthless in more common language. The banks were allowed to simply borrow TARP money, use it to shore up their capital positions while continuing to hold worthless assets off the balance sheet, and then pay back the borrowed funds and keep the garbage assets.

Nothing has been fixed and the banks will eventually pay the piper.

Living in the American Mafia State

What do you think? Should they reward you for paying late?


On Mar 30 05:23 AM castlegard05 wrote:

> I've always thought of Bank issued Credit Cards being the new Mafia
> - the way they can ruin your credit if you don't pay on time reminds
> me of Mafia like operations.

Messages from the Large Regional Banks

JPM, once the #1 Home Equity lender in the United States, sent letters nationwide this week freezing existing HELOC's even on some of their best customers. No more draws with letters estimating the current value of their customers homes were down as much as 45-50% from the most recent appraisal. Tightening another big notch in the belt. Credit card limits will be next.