Wells Fargo gets away with fraud against veterans
Yeah, I know, everyone is focused on Chase banks and the total bullshit cheating of veterans, but it seems that Wells Fargo got away with the same shit, according to this link, sent to us by Just A Grunt. Wells Fargo hid their attorney fees in title research fees (according to the journalists in this piece, VA requires the lender to pay attorney fees);
I-Team: VA Loans Lawsuit Settled: MyFoxATLANTA.com
I don’t why everyone is so happy for veterans. The settlement is $10 million for 60,000 veterans – that’s $166 each. Do they think we’re so fucking destitute that their promise of $175 will have us dancing in the streets? In the video, a Wells Fargo rep says “…it’s the right thing to do”. No, the right thing to do was to not screw veterans on their refinance fees. Also in the video, they claim that attorney fees which veterans paid were as much as $1100 – but veterans should just be mollified with their $175 check.
Oh, by the way, in the settlement, Wells Fargo admits no wrong doing.
Category: Veterans Issues
Hey, unfettered, unregulated free market capitalism. You guys love it, don’t you?
Absolutely. It’s the unfettered, unregulated criminal activities that we take exception to.
If there’s no oversight, how do you know when someone cheats?
There is a difference between a free market capitalist system and anarchy.
I would imagine I’ll get screamed at for what I’m about to say, but what the heck…it’s a slow morning.
We generally argue these points from the ideal; that is, the perfect situation. In theory, unfettered capitalism should be perfect: the honest man works hard and makes all the money he wants, and buys all the toys he wants. Everyone wins because everyone profits.
The reality is that men are not perfect and capitalism is not perfect. So I wander off into your area now: oversight. Somebody has to watch that the capitalists don’t get greedy. And onward and upward we go into regulation and oversight and legalities. This is the price we pay for our economic system, isn’t it?
What other “natural” process works strictly for the benefit of man? Gravity? Natural selection? Plate tectonics? The thiking that unregulated market forces magically work for the benefit of man is a fairy tale, a fiction, a story promoted by the robber barons (read: Wells Fargo) for their own benefit.
Joe, stop being an ass. You’re awful quick to pull the trigger on perceived crimes committed by your political opposites, but when one of your own (Wells Fargo) gets caught financially raping military families, you are beside yourself with glee.
What Wells Fargo does borders, and in some cases goes beyond the borders of crime. How this episode is free market capitalism is that WF was called to the carpet for its transgressions. As for myself and my family, we will no longer have any association with Wells Fargo. That’s capitalism for you.
I work in one of the most regulated fields there is (medical). Take it from me that regulation for regulations’ sake solves absolutely nothing. After a certain point, regulation becomes strangulation.
Now ask me how to fix that? If I knew how to fix it, I’d be in Washington DC involved in the legislative process, not working in an office!
I don’t see anyone claiming that there is a natural process that works strictly for the benefit of man. To do so would be asinine. There is a framework of laws, based on morals, that codify what is legal and illegal in a business setting, for example fraud. I don’t think that you would find a free market capitalist that supports the repeal of these laws, and, hence, a real “unfettered, unregulated free market capitalism.” But, when a government dictates wages, who can compete for contracts, health insurance requirements, environmental standards, and the price of products, we have veered far away from a free market economy.
Dave O,
You say, “….WF was called to the carpet for its transgressions”. Yeah, the transgressions that we know of. That’s the tip of the iceberg. There aren’t enough prosecutors in the world to dig up all the illegalities that corporations have indulged in.
PintoNag,
Yes, regulations are a double-edged sword, not good or bad in and of themselves. “After a certain point, regulation becomes strangulation”. Yes, after a certain point. Your in the medical field – regulation is like blood pressure – too much or too little is a bad thing. Our job is to find an equitable balance, and incorporate checks and balances in any regulatory system, something sorely lacking when corporate honchos become regulators of their own industries, as was the universal practice with W’s administration.
I LIKED your blood-pressure analogy, Joe! 🙂
My only exception to what you said has to do with the very last part: “…as was the universal practice with W’s administration.” I would imagine, to a greater or lesser extent, it’s found in every administration. But on the rest of it, I agree with you.