'If you had a pulse, we give you a loan'

I agree! How did Parker-Jackson get a loan, how? I'm so upset! And, we (the income having taxpayers) are suppose to bail her out? OH NO! She provided the documents - tax returns, correct? A daycare owner and/or a foster mom salary can be approve for a $3M loan? I'm sick to my stomache. And, she (Parker-Jackson) can't find herself somewhat responsible?

Amen,

Everyone that did a loan over the past decade plus had to sign pages of very clear FEDERAL disclosures...a 1st grader could understand them and they have to sign them again at the closing. They are lying if they say they didn't understand, and I find it racist and sexist to continuously show single black women as being victimized.

The crime was on Wall Street...they knowingly over valued these mortgage bonds and stole...if they didn't commit this treasonous fraud the banks, brokers wouldn't have had the loans to sell, and blaming loan originators for selling these loans the way the guidelines dictated (from Wall Street) is like blaming the counter kid at Starbucks for the American Crisis in overpaying for lattes!

Thats were you miss the point. It is the job of the underwriter to make sure that all the information is correct. Look at the tax returns, visit the job, look at bank statements. YOU so easily want to blame the borrower, when it was WALL STREET and GREED that dangled the carrot in front of a hungry mule. It is easy to let "dreams become your master" but it is shameful when those in control, make your dreams their chance to make it big.

The whole country is on the take and driven by greed. All those who participated must share the blame. We don't have to accept it just watch the economy fall. I think we've made it. We're a country of have and havenots. Surely those who signed the applications because they too wanted a piece of the American Dream, can't be compared to someone who walked off with $300m from CountryWide and Madeoff who has "made off" with billions (pun intended). Those of you still trying to hang on to this middleclass status and point the finger because you still have your little bit, will soon be joining the ranks of the havenots with your didactic diatribe. Do we really want a solution? Do we have to be brought to our knees before we understand that if the economy fails, we all will be the poorer for it. As Dateline reports on the Credit Card side next week, the mortgage scams still goes on in the form of Refi and Loan Modifications who are still not being fair to those trying to restructure their debt. Fees and overcharging are driving the American families deeper into debt.

The criminal behavior that was so casually admitted was shocking. Loan fraud by the borrowers, loan fraud by the brokers, and securities fraud by the loan companies and bond packagers. There should be many people going to jail. But the victim here is the American investor not the borrowers. The borrowers have lost nothing because they never owned anything. They had no money down, no equity, and did not keep up their payments. They had the use or occupancy of property that they obtained by fraud. No one should feel sorry for them and they are certainly owed no help. There is no shame in renting and that is the sad fate they are left to.

So many people voicing their outrage and feelings about the individual borrowers, but the bigger picture really was the bank. When you have commercial after commercial and mail everyday telling you that homeownership is possible "Even for You" then you begin to wonder. Then your friend, neighbor, family member, co-worker, Ex girlfriend/ boyfriend and worst enemy are all telling you that they just bought a home, you think well if they could then I should be able to. I have lost 2 / 3 rds of my new client volume to these unethical lending practices. When our company was educating people on why these were bad loans and inflated prices, there were 6 other lenders like Countrywide, BofA, Ameriquest, Ditech, Chase & others telling the American Public that they all had a way to own a piece of the American dream. The banks (not mortgage Brokers) were the biggest perpetrators of all. With their "Controlled Business Arrangements" on 95% of all new Subdivision Home Building in California, they were able to inflate their prices and stick an unsuspecting borrower with a crazy "Toxic" loan, all while small ethical Broker firms like myself sat back and said "That doesn't make good financial Sense" and lost business the minute we said it. Saying "I told you so" doesn't fix the problem and pointing the finger at the causes of the problem are not going to help prevent the general public from being taken advantage of again. While the media plays catch up on the "Mortgage Meltdown" , Americans are being faced with a new Banking scheme to take advantage of new First Time Homebuyers, it's the Selling Tacticts being used by the banks to get rid of or "DUMP" their Toxic properties onto unsuspecting first time homebuyers. Real Estate Agents and Lenders bare no responsibility in pointing out how BAD these properties and contracts are from these Foreclosure Departments of Banks. With Realtors and Lenders both struggling to put food on their tables, it is likely that many of them will look the other way in order to Close the next deal. All the while a new homebuyer purchases a home that is a Lemon, but we have no Lemon Law for Homeowners. So when faced with the dilema of spending thousands of dollars on fixing major problems on these foreclosure "Deals" many Americans will choose to walk from their New Lemon home than stay, posing another wave of foreclosures. If you're not aware of what I am talking about, find a new first time homebuyer who has recently purchased a Bank REO or foreclosure, and review the Banks contract, addendum and disclosures. Just like the mortgage meltdown the banks selling these homes are strong arming and manipulating buyers to compete against other first time buyers to get a higher offering price and to see which buyer will take the home with the least amount of repairs... Simply put, who can they take the biggest advantage of while making the largest profit, while eliminating almost all of their risk and liability during the transaction. I worn all home buyers to BEWARE of buying FORECLOSURE Properties.... there are many bad real estate and mortgage people still out there and they won't point out your risks or how much they look to earn by putting you into a money pit. READ, Re-READ and don't be afraid to get a second opinion from another realestate professional or attorney. The new REO contract addendums being used by REO departments in California, are very one sided and pose huge risk to homebuyers. The point is that the Banks created the programs and products that enticed Americans to buy like never before which allowed builders to continue to inflate their prices as the demand soared out of control. Once again the very same banks are at it again as they try to create a demand for Foreclosures, while they continue their "Backroom" tacticts. Requiring buyers to get PreApproved through their banks and eliminating the honest and ethical mortgage brokers still out there. Requiring buyers to shorten their inspection periods while also charging buyers $50 per day and asking them to forfeit their earnest money deposits. These are strong arm tactics that creates fear and anxiety in the homebuyer, which causes them to make irrational decisions that our Economy and Nation cannot afford.

Borrowers can share blame, but I can't believe any borrower would take a loan thinking it would ruin them for life.

When I was looking for a home in October of 2006, I called Countrywide to get a pre-qualified amount. They called me the next day and asked what price range I was looking in. I told him $1,000,000 or less. Well, there are not many homes in this area that are less than $1 million. He said that I qualified for $1.5 million. So, I figured if I qualified for it, I must be able to afford it. After tax right offs etc, I figured I could do it. I mean, if Countrywide says I can do it, I must be able to do it.

Well, I was wrong. In 2 years, I had spent everything I had to keep the payments current. I called my lender (Countrywide, no surprise) and asked for help in December 2008. They sent me through the channels and I never was able to talk to anyone. I, again, tried in January and did get a person on the phone. I told him I have spent through all my savings and most of my retirement just to keep up with my mortgage. He asked what hardship I had incurred that had brought me to this. I told him Nothing. I make the same amount of money I did when I qualified for the loan, nothing has changed. He kept asking what happened to my income and I repeatedly told him nothing. He then said that I did not make enough money for them to even help me out.

I went through my application files and found massive discrepancies on what I said in my application vs. what they had on it. My base salary at the time was $5,000 per month with an avg. of $3,000 in commission. When I found those lines on my application, they were $12,000 per month base salary PLUS $17,000 commission. Countrywide stated I made $29,000 per month income vs. what I actually made of $8,000. They also added a Cadillac Escalade, a ski boat, a wave runner, $450,000 of liquid assets (I sure wish I actually had that right now) and other items to get the loan to go through. Not only did they loan me the money for the house, but they twice advised me to take more money out of the equity in my condo, which I declined to do both times.

Yes, I signed these pages during escrow, but I had around 100 signatures to do and they race you through it, quickly summarizing each page and NEVER did I see those changes on my application.

So, not only have I lost my entire life savings and pretty much all of my retirement, but I am going to lose this house.

Again, Countrywide tells me I don't make enough money for them to even help me when I make exactly the same amount as I did when I qualified for $1,525,000.

Yes, I take blame for not reading through each page thoroughly before signing it, but Countrywide should bear blame as well for doctoring up my application to make it go through. My punishment is that I am out of money I spent my entire life earning, what is their punishment?

I still plead that the borrowers started the problem. You know what your income is and how much you can pay per month on a loan. If you borrow, everyone should know to read the contract and if it isn't possible for you to understand, have an attorney or someone read it and explain it to you. Not to depend on the person enabling you to make the load

You have hit the root cause of the problem and it was never brought up by Chris. Democrat's in congress forced lower loan standards! When people were throwing up red flags in 2003 and 2005 the Democrat's stood up and said everything was ok.

The mortgage companies saw a large new pool of borrowers that were not as savy or intelligent as the people they were used to dealing with. This group was less likely to read the contract or ask the right questions. They came up with product that would confuse them and told them everything was going to be ok. They helped the borrowers cheat the system and borrow more then they could afford.

Right on Mark. Congress forced this whole mess on the banking industry, when they were thrown raw meat, they gobbled it up. All in the name of affordable housing for the poor. Obama's ACORN was in the forefront forcing this on resistant banks.

I am as liberal as they get...and I found this program to be extremely biased and rediculous. I found that not showing the disclosures was beyond an oversight by Chris Hanson and his producers...it was intentional and disgraceful reporting.

Listening to the the grey-haired women say that she didn't know she signed an adjustable rate mortgage was foolish and silly...give the Amerian people more credit...she's sueing someone and should lose because she knew what she was doing, and if the homes kept increasing by 20% per year she wouldn't be complaining...these people gambled and lost! We live in a capitalist society...we have for several hundered years...this is the system we agreed upon and fight for, for better or for worse, so deal with it when you lose.

The woman from Harvard showed her distain for profit making also...I wanted to ask her if she made her own earrings, dress and auto?!!! Does she earn a profit with her career? Does she do all volunteer work?

What a joke! Just arrest the Wall Street criminals and Chris Hanson while they're at it!

I'm a conservative, but I'm a realist also, so I have to ask this question question or pose this question to anyone reading this: Why do we guard Fort Knox? We do so because we KNOW there are people (let's refer to them as "criminals") that will walk in and take the gold if we don't have the fences, alarms, vaults, armed guards etc...

This is obvious, correct? Common sense? Wealth has to be guarded or it will be stolen.

So why don't we guard Wall Street investments with the same vigor? Wealth is wealth...a dollar worth of gold is the same as a dollar in stock or bonds etc...a dollar is a dollar! Why do we keep listening to these criminals saying "no regulations....no oversight!" ...it's beyond rediculous. Lincoln Saving & Loan, Enron, Tyco and now this...these Wall Street criminals keep stealing our hard earned money without reprocussion...it's got to end. They must be watched, and the watchers must be watched and if they commit such crimes were fraud goes into the billions than the crime should be treason and they should be skinned alive, and I'm a pacifist. We ALLOW this to continue...we are suckers!

I'm a liberal and COMPLETELY agree! Good post!

I think it is racist for anyone to blame this mess on the fact that banks were now required to lend to minorities. "Minorities" don't even make up the majority of the homeowners in the country!! In any case, just because Congress mandated that banks be simply FAIR, did not mean that banks were supposed to find a way to capitalize on this new "FAIR" lending practice. Banks were still required to lend to QUALIFIED borrowers, no matter what race or class, THEY WERE NOT BACKED INTO A CORNER, and NOT lending to make quotas...If you wholeheartedly believe this, you are as ignorant as most Americans...GET REAL!!!!!

"not only did Congress relax the rules for mortgage qualification, but they also put a sort of quota on banks and mortgage companies to make loans to minorities."

This is right wing spin and is absolutely not true. The loans made under the Community Reinvestment Act (which was enacted because banks were not lending to qualified minorities due to redlining practices) have a LOWER default rate than loans made to white middle class borrowers, even before the debacle. The banks were never forced to make loans to unqualified borrowers. It was done out of greed on the part of the banks: they could sell as many mortgage loans to Wall Street as they could get. They got rich on the fees until the roof caved in. Same with the Wall Street investment banks: they could sell as many mortgage backed securities as they could put together. Blaming this greed motivated debacle on loans to minorities is really low. Not that the borrowers are blameless--they are not--but they came in all colors and most of these loans were not CRA loans.

Why isn't Dateline mentioning Fannie & Freddie and the Democratic congress responsibility in this financial debaucle.

You are very right!!!

How many loans did you take out

how many loans did you take out?

A dream vanished...I've seen this crisis affect people I know. Good, honest, hard working people. People who rather than lose their jobs completely, take large pay cuts just to keep food on the table. It's no mystery really. We've sent our jobs oversees. We've sold our souls for a small piece of the American Dream, all while people with no morals were doing what they could to amass a small fortune. While the people in power who were supposed to be watching over us, turned a blind eye, or took a piece for themselves. Yes, people who have lied on thier applications are to blame. However, I can assure you that when I went to sign my loan, I was quite certain the underwriter would ask for a DNA sample. Still, I saw the injustice and greed happening all around me. I was a loan notary, and I saw what brokers would do to individuals, and even admit to me. I knew there was a problem when brokers wouldn't even disclose terms to people before sending me out to borrowers homes. Soon, I began asking if the broker had disclosed the loan information to the borrower. Once again, no one to watch over the greedy, criminals doing anything and everything they could to make millions. What I want to know is, when are the American people going to get smart and stop aquiring credit? My Father used an old phrase that we need to go back to: If you can't pay cash for it, you don't need it. It seems to me, that American's don't NEED a lot of things...we just WANT them. Wake up and get back to basics. All of this keeping up with the Jones' has left us in the poor house.

I, too, saw these huge and expensive houses being build for years and asking how many people have jobs that can afford these houses. We raised 5 kids in a 880 square foot house THAT WE COULD AFFORD and had no problem doing it. Except with 1 bathroom and 5 teenagers, haha. But still made it through. Paid our bills on time all through the years. But, we were raised old school and purchased nothing that we couldn't afford.

http://efinancedirectory.com/articles/This_is_Why_I_Rent%3A_Median_Incomes_Do_Not_Support_Median_Home_Prices.html

How can there not be any rise in the median wage but the median price on a home tripled?

Chris hit on the appraisal part quickly, I wrote a poorly put together article but it tells a little more if interested. During and after the last bailout just 20 years ago any appraiser that refused to hit the "right" numbers were put out of business.

For a while during the program I thought I was back in 1989, it sounded identical to what happen then, amazing how this could happen again... How could the entire economic welfare of the country be put to such a ridiculous strain again so soon after an almost identical $500B bailout just 20 years ago?

How could our government allow for this to happen... to ruin so many

Who are these people, what sort of person allows this to happen to their constituents?

Wow! She doesn't take responsibility! I guess my family is the very few whom heard of the "too good to be true" theory. In the midst of all of this we purchased our first home in 2000 for a whopping 110,000 2 bed 1 bath dreadful fixer upper. But we held fast with our loan officer and real estate agent--should we both lose our jobs and have to settle for fast food we want to be sure we can keep a roof over our 4 childrens head! We barely fixed up the only bathroom we had our 4 children shared one bedroom with head to head bunk beds while all around us our friends and neighbors milked every dime in this fiasco because someone said they could. Whew--even when we refied to get caught up on bills we still stayed within our means. Opting to not rehab our entire house, go out and buy fancy cars and thinga majigs!.

But here now, we've kept up with our mortgage, my ex husband was laid off in Sept and his entire unemployment check goes to the mortgage. What relief will we get? None! It's very discouraging when we stayed frugal, paid no attention to the "Jones'" and continued to live within our means. Now I am seven months pregnant and the future looks very bleak. What will our options be? Do We get a bail out or bonus for doing the right thing and not falling behind in our mortgage HUH?!

It's a very sad situation but what can we do? We can't take advantage of the great lower interest rates as my income is too low and my ex is attending school as he needs to change his career after 20+ years. I'm clueless and trying to keep the faith. HELP!

I agree Sandra, those people become part of the blame nation when things blow up in their face due to stupidity. Even if someone did tell them they could afford a $5k a month payment when they were only making 4k, its time to look in the mirror. The women who said they only take minimal responsibility deserve what they get, especially the pathetic one with 6 mortgages.

I absolutely agree with Bill-575198. PLEASE do not go easy on those pompous airbags in Congress, and the White House, who enabled this mess during the 1990's, and now are up in arms about the outcome. Shame on them. I hope to see many more hours devoted to the role government played - and name names! You go Chris - you proved you have the chops on "To catch a pervert". Let's get going on "To catch a crook in Congress!"

Of course they didn't spend much time talking about the government role in alowing this to happen. Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Bill Clinton is where most of the blame belongs. Jimmy Carter's well meaning Community Revinvestment Act (CRA) was designed to stop red-lining regions where no one got loans for houses. Then Slick Wille came along and insisted on results, the mortgate industry didn't have to just try and make loans, they had to make loans or else. No loans, no mergers, no favors from the feds and lots of bad press from the low life ACORN nuts.

Big government plus Big companies equals Big trouble for the country. Fat Frank and NeverKnewAnything Dodd are still getting big coporate donations w/o taxation and living the high life while everyone but the bankers are getting royally screwed. Welcome to the anti-capitalist America. Home of the Messiah of the largest Hypocrite on the planet. Obamma can take advantage of the financial crisis to shove his socilist agenda down our throat but no one else can take advantage of the situation?

They should be answering for their part in this, I wonder how many off shore accounts they have

Tiffany, I've been in this business since 1984 in several areas, and now also am a title Closer. I would often come home after closing nine transactions a day and say to my husband that after at least five of them I wanted to say to the buyers, "See you at your foreclosure closing". It is absolutely pathetic. I did catch one 1003 that was grossly exagerated and pointed it out to the buyer at closing, who was shocked. Henceforth, we didn't close it, especially when the buyer saw that the house payment was three times more than he was told it would be. I can't tell you how many times I went over ARM terms at closing trying to get the buyer to understand that when his interest adjusted with the LIBOR that his payments could double. They just nodded and said they understood, when really I knew they just wanted to get into a house. I was really sickened.

27 years as an escrow officer in CA and I retired in 2003 when it really got ugly. I couldn't sit infront of one more buyer or borrower and pretend NOT to see the yield spread premium on the HUD. But just like everyone else, we were making money hand over fist! We are all responsible for where we are today.

If you want someone to blame. Blame the people that took advantage of these people that knew what there monthly income was and crunched the numbers so that they can get rich off of them, and knowing that they would not be able to pay back the loan. Weren't you listening, If you buy a toaster knowing it was broke, it would explode in their face. So if you want someone to blame, blame the people who had them sign the loan. The people that knew that this would blow up in peoples faces should all get arrested for fraud.

WtF Why didn't you stop it right then and there and call the police. You played right along into the game. And guess what you were suppose to be playing good cop not bad cop. You suck as well and too are responsibile. Think about the last line of defense.

You could have done the right thing and kick his sorry ass out of the building. I am willing to bet he did not even have any money down.

You know i think everyone is to blame..............These people are not looking at the whole pie they brought houses that they could not afford. I live in west palm beach and saw this happened over and over i wondered how in the hell are they going to pay for theses houses........But now that are not taking the blame they knew that they could not pay and now we are all paying for the lies of these people .

Giving reasonable loans to working people regardless of race is certainly not the reason for this collapse

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NO! NO! NO! Please! Nobody is saying THAT! If only that were the way it played out! A person's skin color should have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with whether they are or aren't able to , as working people, able to qualify for reasonable loans! THIS IS NOT WHAT IS BEING SAID. And this mis-understanding is the VERY reason the root of this problem is not discussed. People like Wendy will bypass reason and opeerate on feelings and emotion. Wendy! The standards were lowered, quotas installed and motivators put in place by passage of LAW in Congress, early in Clinton's 1st term.

People didn't fail because they were minority! All types of low-income failed because they should have never had the mortgages they had in the first place. There were many years of a socially based, politically correct movement in addition to legal requirements on bankers, that led to this long before the mortgage mills started up. As long as certain factions in Congress and in communities got their way they were happy.

But who was going to get stuck with loans that were going to fail? Hot potatoes! As long as they were forced to try to minimize damages an hopefully spread it thin enough, then there had to be a way to make $ off all of it! That is what financial people do. Those bastard got completely out of control. Yes. But the cause of all this is still being ignored Wendy, and your denial is just one brick in a big wall of denial. How can it be addressed without the non-thinking operating only on political correctness and purely emotion-based issues? How do we open the eyes of the Wendys of the world?

How do we enlighten those who are obsessed with wanting to see racist intent where there is none? How to enlighten them so they do not see helplessness where it does not exist; that what could possibly be more accurately called "racist" are the manipulations that pre-suppose minorities to be less able and need to have a lower bar, lesser triumphs, and lesser challenges to meet in life? It is THAT very attitude that is at the root and the Congressional/societal demand for this very thought and action that got this ball rolling. You, Wendy, are well intentioned but wrong. And sadly, those wrong headed notions, put into laws and deeds, are dangerous.

Accountability is a major problem in this country. It's always somebody else's fault. It is inconceivable to me that someone can sign papers for a loan they know they cannot pay back. If I'm at a store and I want to buy a pair of shoes for $100 I have to ask myself if I can really afford them. I can't imagine people not using that same logic when making the biggest, most expensive purchase of their lives.

I am no financial wizard. Numbers and percentages immideately make my brain cloud. But common sense would tell me that if I only bring in $1500 a month, that there is no way I can make a $2000 mortgage payment and buy groceries too. This isn't difficult to understand. You can't play the "I didn't understand" card here. Financial jargon aside, if you have any intelligence whatsoever, you HAVE to know on some level, what you can afford and what you cannot.

Yes, mortgage companies were greedy and issued loans to people they shouldn't have, but they are not entirely to blame. Ultimately, these people took on loans they knew they could not afford - even in a good economy they would have had no chance. They are not victims. The rest of us, who are responsible and make good choices are the victims because now our tax money has to pay for your irresponsible choices. I don't care if you're hardworking, you took on way more than you could handle and that's your fault.

greed couln't start without the greedy borrower.

You, those like you, and retirement fund owners who've lost half, are maybe the only true real victims.

This was the worst amd most edited and report I ever witnessed ...Im on fire...Chris H Your no journalist or reporter....This was so typically bias and liberal reporting...No a word on why the banks did the loans...It was because of the guidlines pushed for by Dodd,Frank,Shumer...Acorn which equals Obama.....Frank Raines walks with his millions...Obama got his donation of 126000. from Raines he was number two amd in senate for few years...John Kerry is on the top of the list....THey pleaded that there was no problem after numerous attempts by Rep. from 2001 2004 2005 ...Chris Hansen your a rehearsed puppet/commentator.....Have the guts to REPORT NEWS......Follow up with the truth to redeem yourself....I wont hold my breath

Thanks for the info on how the fraud cases work. I didn't know that there had to be proof that all parties had to have knowledge. Almost all of us old people learned to live within our means when we started out there wasn't all this credit available. Thanks for the lesson learned long ago. It does make me resentful having to pay for the people who didn't live on their budget.