Mortgages

Mortgages

fiction
edward w pritchard

Judge Rivers of the circuit court near Pittsburgh must be just about the most unpopular person with the New York bankers since- since-well since no-one. They hate him and and will never forgive him.

The water table in America from Massachusetts, south to Florida and west to Missouri had risen enough that practically every basement of every home was under water. The Judge, Judge Rivers had ruled that because of 100% financing, adjustable rate loans, and various imprudent lending practices, the mortgages held by the banks did not give them a guarantee against the mortgagors assets beyond the house. Since the insurance companies wisely excluded flood in most circumstances, luckily for the insurance industry, a rising water table was on of those circumstances, there was no insurance for flood on 85% of the homes in a substantial part of America. Because of the homes being underwater, and their value destroyed, the banks stood to lose a fortune.

Thinking and organizing quickly the banks decided to put away their anger at Judge Rivers for the time being and look to Washington for a helping hand. A three part strategy would be followed, piousness, looking out the window at meetings with congress when blame was being proportioned, and then finger pointing and outrage that the government and consumers had allowed such a thing to happen. Later, only later would profiting from the disaster be considered for one must play one's cards craftily if one is to profit when dealing with government.