Your Questions About Wholesale Property Brokers

What do you think of my "bailout" plan?

Instead of bailing out the large banks who caused this mess I have a real solution.

Freeze all foreclosures. Legislate that the money that would otherwise go to a "bailout" to banks, be given to the lending institutions that the foreclosing property owners owe in back payments to make them current, so they can start from scratch. Do not include mortgage brokers but the direct banks involved, so there are no closing costs, title searches or that litany of costs typically incurred in refinancing.

Restructure the loans for 40 or 50 years if necessary so that the new payments will be lowered (yes people will die before it is paid, but leave that to the heirs to decide to keep the property and continue payments or sell it).

Provide the lowest possible interest rate at .01% above the cost of the bank loan based upon the wholesale interest rate. Prevent the selling of any loan on the secondary market to any institution that is not solvent to again prevent another disaster. This way, people get to keep their home, lower their payment and the bank still gets its cash flow that they need to stay in business.

Then, legislate that the negative credit reports of these distressed homeowners be erased; with the stipulation that it only include home mortgages; not credit cards or any other kind of debt.

Finally, if all else fails, repeal the Bush bankruptcy code so that individuals can claim bankruptcy if they must, and make it so that one does not have to hire a lawyer (which they cannot afford) in order for it to be discharged. It's easy for a big bank to do it, so why shouldn't it be easy for me?
My plan does limit compensation to CEO's. The reason I place the money toward the distressed homeowners is because it would be less expensive than $700 billion. If we "bailed out" these predatory lenders, it would send a signal that we will do it again.

The people who received these loans are not at fault. The banks told them (ME) that they qualified and that they would refinance these loans later, "No problem" they said. Then when it came time to do that, the banks said, "You don't qualify". My three year ARM was ABOVE prime rate at 6.76% to adjust to 8.9% in 3 years. Didn't tell me that I couldn't refinance before that without paying a $4000 penalty. These were predatory loans that consumers knew nothing about. Why would a bank lend me money if they KNEW couldn't be paid back? I paid my loan on time every month + $50. Then tell me that I don't qualify for a new loan? Because I put 30% down and they wanted my house to sell for a profit.

The Jungle by Sinclair - perversion of scripture?

Here is a text from the book. I need to know, as a Christian, how to dispute this...

"Well, then," cried Lucas, "and why should Jesus have nothing to do with his church--why should his words and his life be of no authority among those who profess to adore him? Here is a man who was the world's first revolutionist, the true founder of the Socialist movement; a man whose whole being was one flame of hatred for wealth, and all that wealth stands for,--for the pride of wealth, and the luxury of wealth, and the tyranny of wealth; who was himself a beggar and a tramp, a man of the people, an associate of saloon-keepers and women of the town; who again and again, in the most explicit language, denounced wealth and the holding of wealth: 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth!'--'Sell that ye have and give alms!'--'Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of Heaven!'--'Woe unto you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation!'--'Verily, I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of Heaven!' Who denounced in unmeasured terms the exploiters of his own time: 'Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites!'-- 'Woe unto you also, you lawyers!'--'Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?' Who drove out the businessmen and brokers from the temple with a whip! Who was crucified--think of it--for an incendiary and a disturber of the social order! And this man they have made into the high priest of property and smug respectability, a divine sanction of all the horrors and abominations of modern commercial civilization! Jeweled images are made of him, sensual priests burn incense to him, and modern pirates of industry bring their dollars, wrung from the toil of helpless women and children, and build temples to him, and sit in cushioned seats and listen to his teachings expounded by doctors of dusty divinity--"

"Bravo!" cried Schliemann, laughing. But the other was in full career--he had talked this subject every day for five years, and had never yet let himself be stopped. "This Jesus of Nazareth!" he cried. "This class-conscious working-man! This union carpenter! This agitator, law-breaker, firebrand, anarchist! He, the sovereign lord and master of a world which grinds the bodies and souls of human beings into dollars--if he could come into the world this day and see the things that men have made in his name, would it not blast his soul with horror? Would he not go mad at the sight of it, he the Prince of Mercy and Love! That dreadful night when he lay in the Garden of Gethsemane and writhed in agony until he sweat blood--do you think that he saw anything worse than he might see tonight upon the plains of Manchuria, where men march out with a jeweled image of him before them, to do wholesale murder for the benefit of foul monsters of sensuality and cruelty? Do you not know that if he were in St. Petersburg now, he would take the whip with which he drove out the bankers from his temple--"