Government intervention is the root of all evil.

[Anonymous]

Rant:

I just got off the phone with Bank of America, beneficiary of Government intervention because they're "too big to fail." This phone call was nearly 3 hours long. We were transferred from person to person, between the US and India or god-knows-where, because we are trying to find someone to help us refinance our mortgages. Even though they haven't ever sold our loans, and we are current on our loans, they can do nothing for us because they follow Freddie and Fannie guidelines. This means WE HAVE TO GO INTO DEFAULT on our loan before they will pay attention to us. That is asinine.

Why is this in the "Political" forum rather than "Off Topic"? This situation occurred because of government intervention, and now will only repeat itself because of the financial reg reform bill. Case in point: We had this same exact conversation with a small community bank which in a 30 minute phone call was able to assess the situation and offer a solution. The loan officer we spoke with was empowered to make a decision, and was not beholden to "guidelines" that create perverse incentives to default (EXACTLY the behavior that brought down the economy) because they had never taken government bailout funding. As a community bank responsible only to itself, it had only ever made loans on terms that it knew it could support. Unlike Bank of America, and other big banks, which especially now, can just rely on the kindness of Congress and the American taxpayer to keep them afloat. I am incensed.

Thanks for reading. Have a nice day.