Mon Dec 24, 2012, 08:59 PM

RB TexLa (16,198 posts)

If no one signed the mortgage contracts there would have not been an action to sue over

Are the counties going to go after the customers who took out the mortgages? They could seek punitive damages from them as well. The customers would sue HSBC over the predatory lending as the victims. The counties would be the victims of both the bank and the customers. HSBC will settle, paying money over time to governments is much better than being too big to fail. Look at the tobacco settlement, haven't heard anyone going after them now that they make payments to state governments.

Ga. counties sue HSBC claiming loss of tax base

Atlanta-area counties sue HSBC, say predatory lending damaged tax base, cost extra expenses

ATLANTA (AP) -- Three Atlanta-area counties have filed a lawsuit claiming that British bank HSBC cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in extra expenses and damage to their tax bases by aggressively signing minorities to housing loans that were likely to fail.

The Georgia counties' failure or success with the relatively novel strategy could help determine whether other local governments try to hold big banks accountable for losses in tax revenue based on what they claim are discriminatory or predatory lending practices. Similar lawsuits resulted in settlements this year worth millions of dollars for communities in Maryland and Tennessee.

Fulton, DeKalb and Cobb counties say in their lawsuit, which was filed in October, that the housing foreclosure crisis was the "foreseeable and inevitable result" of big banks, such as HSBC and its American subsidiaries, aggressively pushing irresponsible loans or loans that were destined to fail. The counties say that crisis has caused them tremendous damage.

"It's not only the personal damage that was done to people in our communities," said DeKalb County Commissioner Jeff Rader. "That has a ripple effect on our tax digest and the demand for public services in these areas."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ga-counties-sue-hsbc-claiming-143330171.html

13 replies, 767 views

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13 replies	Author	Time	Post
If no one signed the mortgage contracts there would have not been an action to sue over (Original post)	RB TexLa	Dec 2012	OP
Get your tired old right wing talking points right here! End of year sale!	Warren Stupidity	Dec 2012	#1
If no one engaged the contracts how could they have effected the tax base?	RB TexLa	Dec 2012	#2
Do you think your argument here is somehow novel?	Warren Stupidity	Dec 2012	#8
If no one had signed the mortgage 'contracts,'	elleng	Dec 2012	#3
Correct. And a non executed contract couldn't have caused what the counties are suing over.	RB TexLa	Dec 2012	#4
Something like that, but if 'bank' tried to enforce such non-contracts,	elleng	Dec 2012	#9
Popcorn...get your popcorn!	nadinbrzezinski	Dec 2012	#5
One party to each of those signings is a professional in the mortgage field	Fumesucker	Dec 2012	#6
I Think You Missed This Part	ProfessorGAC	Dec 2012	#7
Ah just in time for Christmas!	Rex	Dec 2012	#10
Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, Scrooge!	GoneOffShore	Dec 2012	#12
I have managed to make my teapartying MIL slightly uncomfortable	me b zola	Dec 2012	#11
Do you understand how market bubbles work?	dkf	Dec 2012	#13

Response to RB TexLa (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 09:27 PM

Warren Stupidity (31,935 posts)

1. Get your tired old right wing talking points right here! End of year sale!

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Response to Warren Stupidity (Reply #1)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 09:28 PM

RB TexLa (16,198 posts)

2. If no one engaged the contracts how could they have effected the tax base?

There isn't a way they could.

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Response to RB TexLa (Reply #2)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 09:40 PM

Warren Stupidity (31,935 posts)

8. Do you think your argument here is somehow novel?

This canard mansplaining the massive deliberate fraud and deception that preceded the housing crash that led up to the Great Recession has been in circulation from the usual rightwing idiots for at least three years now. Get some new material, this shit is old and boring.

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Response to RB TexLa (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 09:29 PM

elleng (40,545 posts)

3. If no one had signed the mortgage 'contracts,'

they wouldn't be contracts.

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Response to elleng (Reply #3)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 09:31 PM

RB TexLa (16,198 posts)

4. Correct. And a non executed contract couldn't have caused what the counties are suing over.

Last edited Mon Dec 24, 2012, 09:32 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

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Response to RB TexLa (Reply #4)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 09:55 PM

elleng (40,545 posts)

9. Something like that, but if 'bank' tried to enforce such non-contracts,

Last edited Mon Dec 24, 2012, 10:05 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

and if victims/customers didn't know, didn't have counsel to fight goliath, counties might have some sort of cause of action on behalf of their citizens. Haven't studied the matter sufficiently to come up with more than this.

edit: Counties not at all likely to 'sue' the customers/victims as those are their citizens, in whose interest counties are, to some extent, taking the instant action.

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Response to RB TexLa (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 09:32 PM

nadinbrzezinski (120,372 posts)

5. Popcorn...get your popcorn!

Salty, buttery with caramel, get your popcorn...

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Response to RB TexLa (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 09:38 PM

Fumesucker (31,595 posts)

6. One party to each of those signings is a professional in the mortgage field

A professional is expected to be more aware than a layman as to rules, regulations and pitfalls of their particular profession.

If professionals were acting in unscrupulous manner the layman buyer is also a victim.

Blame the victim of a confidence game, how amazingly fair of you.

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Response to RB TexLa (Original post)

Mon Dec 24, 2012, 09:38 PM

ProfessorGAC (23,894 posts)

7. I Think You Missed This Part

"It's not only the personal damage that was done to people in our communities," said DeKalb County Commissioner Jeff Rader. "That has a ripple effect on our tax digest and the demand for public services in these areas."

Even the commissioner is including the borrowers as victims. Ever hear of an unconscionable contract? That fundamental legal concept is a critical basis for this suit.

The person being drawn into an unconscionable contract is never held at fault.

I know you're trying to make a point, but it doesn't have much density.

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Response to RB TexLa (Original post)

Tue Dec 25, 2012, 03:37 AM

Rex (34,650 posts)

10. Ah just in time for Christmas!

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel.
Mr. Grinch.

You're a bad banana
With a greasy black peel.

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul.
Mr. Grinch.

I wouldn't touch you, with a
thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch.
You have termites in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile.
Mr. Grinch.

Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crockodile.

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr. Grinch.

The three words that best describe you, are as follows, and I quote:

You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splotched
With moldy purple spots,
Mr. Grinch.

Your soul is an apalling dump heap overflowing
with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable
rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch.
With a nauseaus super-naus.
You're a crooked jerky jockey
And you drive a crooked hoss.
Mr. Grinch.

You're a three decker saurkraut and toadstool sandwich
With arsenic sauce!

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Response to Rex (Reply #10)

Thu Dec 27, 2012, 09:37 AM

GoneOffShore (11,125 posts)

12. Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, Scrooge!

a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.

"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."

"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.

"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"

"They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not."

"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge.

"Both very busy, sir."

"Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to hear it."

"Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, "a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?"

"Nothing!" Scrooge replied.

"You wish to be anonymous?"

"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."

"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides -- excuse me -- I don't know that."

"But you might know it," observed the gentleman.

"It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!"

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Response to RB TexLa (Original post)

Tue Dec 25, 2012, 04:05 AM

me b zola (17,387 posts)

11. I have managed to make my teapartying MIL slightly uncomfortable

by pointing out that the guy down the street didn't make the real estate market tank, and every other systemic problem that she and her rw buddies try to blame on this group of people or the other. Its always the little guy, the guy with absolutely no power whom she rants and raves on and on about as the cause to all of our problems.

By pointing out to her that she is always blaming a powerless person for all the problems in the world, she at least catches herself before she does it now and attempts to qualify how she's not doing it, but you know conservatives, thats all they've got.

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Response to me b zola (Reply #11)

Thu Dec 27, 2012, 10:27 AM

dkf (32,621 posts)

13. Do you understand how market bubbles work?

Little guys do have the power or at least share the responsibility if they are part of that bubble. How can you help bid up prices irrationally and expect to be untouched? Crazy.

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