Thursday, September 3, 2015

"Enough's Enough" Nails Bankster

Main character Jason MacMillan, leader of  the massive middle class "Enough's Enough" movement goes head to head with Washington Savings & Loan CEO Clifton Danvers in Danvers' office. The subject -- fraudulent loans to homeowners that helped spark the mortgage meltdown...

From the novel "Trickle Down - How the 99% Fought Back & Won"
Pg. 91 available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1Lln0Dp

Three days later Macmillan was in Sacramento at the headquarters of Washington Savings & Loan sprawled out on a leather couch. He bounced an orange Nerf ball off the ceiling while CEO Clifton Danvers watched like a bored cat.
"It really bounces true Cliffy. Even the curves. Wanna give it a try?"
"Alright, enough! What do you want?"
Jason bolted upright. "Answers -- honest ones. But they're not just for me."
Danvers puckered his lips and dropped his head. "For who then, Ann Landers? You want me to explain to her why you have a vendetta against CEO's?"
Macmillan got up, put his hands in his pockets and paced back and forth. "You're going to explain to some influential people in Washington how your company made a fortune stuffing our mailboxes with garbage like this." He tossed a flier on the desk that screamed “$90,000 Mortgage for Under $499/Month!” Danvers didn't flinch. "Teaser rates to draw them in knowing damn well most of them couldn't pay it back." Danvers sat motionless as Macmillan walked over to an original painting -- "The Battle of Trenton" -- and stood underneath with his hands clasped behind his back. "Quite a struggle they had, those crazy revolutionaries. In rags with crude weapons fighting off those snobby well-fed British who thought they owned everyone. Can you imagine that Danvers? Those uppity bastards thought the rest of us peons put on this earth just to serve them?"
"British General James Grant was a relative of mine," Danvers said. "He sure blew that one."
Macmillan raised his eyebrows. "I'm not surprised. It must run in the family."
Danvers tossed the flier aside. "Look, I had some people under me who didn't know what they were doing. I can't be everywhere. It never should have happened, but don't you worry. We'll fix it and move on."
Macmillan snapped his fingers, "Just like that, huh. You're the new David Copperfield. The whole mess disappears. You steer people into home loans you knew damn well would fail then you sweep it under the rug. You knew what your top people did because you were paying them millions in bonuses to do it!"
"They were paid retention bonuses."
"Oh right. Retention bonuses. You retained them because they did such a great job screwing everybody."
Macmillan walked over to another wall and took a close look at a Wild West painting. "So let me get this straight. You paid them millions in retention bonuses even though you knew they didn't know what they were doing. Man, that's pretty lousy management if you ask me."
Danvers pressed a button under his desk while giving MacMillan a sarcastic smile.
"Well I'm not asking you. You know son, I think what we have here is a failure to communicate. You want to blame someone? Blame Greenspan. He thought we could regulate ourselves. Blame Clinton for repealing Glass-Steagall. Blame Reagan and Bush for letting us do whatever the hell we wanted in the name of business. Fuzzy math? You're damn right! What the hell did you think we were gonna do?" He shook his head and laughed. "You kids don't get it. We're just too big to fail, too big to jail!"
"That's the problem Danvers. You thieves are allowed to get too big. You knew taxpayers would have to bail you out to avoid a complete economic meltdown so you made dangerous bets on The Street. If you win you get huge bonuses. If you lose, hey, so what, Joe Schmoe picks up the tab."
"It's called capitalism. Market freedom."
"Freedom's one thing. Freedom to steal is another."
"C'mon, put away the violin – I've heard this tune before."
"First you strip the wealth from their homes with predatory loans, and hen you use those loans to blow up the economy. And then comes the cherry on top -- you use the recession as an excuse to steal their homes through foreclosure."
Danvers smiled like a jack-o-lantern. "And you made a fortune selling those bogus CDO's in Asia. If I go down I'm taking you with me."
Two muscular security guards walked in and stood at the door waiting for the nod to throw Macmillan out.
Danvers, red faced wiped the sweat off of his forehead. Macmillan walked over to him and defiantly planted both fists on his desk. Just behind Macmillan was an old oil painting of a Native American Chief in full headdress. It seemed like he was looking down at both men. Jason got right into Danvers' face and smirked. "Tell me big man -- do you like large feathered hats?"


***

No comments:

Post a Comment