An expose of bad businesses and their unethical practices

In past columns in this series, we have looked at how blame should be assessed for the current sub-prime loan and foreclosure crisis. The consumer should not be held guilty for the predatory actions of the lenders. The lenders, fueled by a greed for profits, are primarily to blame for the problems we are now experiencing. The government officials and functionaries who ignored their responsibility to provide oversight for the mortgage lending business come in a close second in the blame department.

In my opinion, the mortgage lenders and mortgage holders should be prohibited from extracting further payments from the homeowners. The large financial corporations should take the fall. Homeowners should be allowed to try to qualify for a fixed rate mortgage at the current property value through a non-predatory lender. If they qualify, they get to keep the home and the predatory lender takes the fall. If they do not qualify, the homes should be auctioned off by the government, with the proceeds going into the General Fund.

The officials and functionaries of the government that were supposed to have provided oversight should land in a heap on the streets of Washington after having been summarily dismissed. While this crisis was brewing, they had only the interests of the mortgage lenders at heart, totally ignoring the needs of the consumer. Each and every one of them should be punished by the loss of the jobs they failed to perform.

The mortgage lenders ethics failed the public when they did not properly analyze the credit-worthiness of borrowers in their rush to make more loans and more money. The government officials and functionaries responsible for oversight allowed the mortgage bankers to continue making those loans for years. Both are guilty of long lapses in ethics, and thus of doing Bad Business.