Just cannot believe the junk that has flown out of the Charlotte Chamber and associated apologists today on the NACA million-dollar jobs subsidy. NACA chief Bruce Marks is no friend of legitimate bankers or the free-market financial sector. Why is Charlotte hitching itself to this shakedown artist?
If Charlotte is that desperate for borderline financial sector jobs — even more so than buying off GMAC to land a few jobs here suggested — then things are much, much worse in the local economy than even a confirmed nay-sayer like me thinks.
We’ve got real estate prices still tanking, Crescent Resources in bankruptcy, and now Bruce Marks as an official partner of the local power structure. Amazing. Check out what the WSJ had to say just last month about NACA and Marks:
“I’m tired of borrowers being screwed!” Mr. Marks yelled into the phone. “You’re incompetent!” Before hanging up, he threatened to call bank CEO Kenneth Lewis at home to complain about the loan executive. … In the 1990s, Mr. Marks leaked details of a banker’s divorce to the press and organized a protest at the school of another banker’s child. He says he would use such tactics again. “We have to terrorize these bankers,” Mr. Marks says.
Though some bankers privately deplore his tactics, Mr. Marks is a growing influence in the lending industry and the effort to curb foreclosures. NACA has signed agreements with the four largest U.S. mortgage lenders — Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. — in which they agree to work with his counselors on a regular basis to try to arrange lower payments for struggling borrowers. NACA has made powerful political friends, such as House majority whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, and it receives federal money to counsel homeowners. … Instead of relying on credit scores, he thinks lenders should look into the reasons for any late payments in prospective borrowers’ past and prepare renters for the responsibilities of home ownership. Then, if people are given a loan they can afford, they shouldn’t be required to make a down payment, he argues.
Critics doubt some of these changes would be helpful. Having to use a single interest rate for all would make banks less likely to lend to people with blemished credit records, says Richard Riese, an executive at the American Bankers Association.
A single rate also could lead to higher rates for everyone, adds John Courson, chief executive of another trade group, the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Mr. Courson declined to comment on Mr. Marks. “You’re not going to drag me in there,” he said.
For now, NACA’s main focus is fighting foreclosure, and the 53-year-old Mr. Marks pursues it relentlessly. NACA holds mass “Save the Dream” gatherings, flying in hundreds of counselors to work with borrowers who hope to restructure their mortgages.
At one in Columbia, S.C., in March, a line of homeowners stretched around an arena waiting to meet counselors in canary-yellow T-shirts reading “Financial Predators Beware.” Mr. Marks, dressed in black and wearing a NACA cap, circled the arena with a bullhorn. “We’re gonna get it done!” he bellowed.
Simply put, Marks and NACA want to straight-up socialize mortgage lending in America. More than is already the case.
And we’ve invited him to Charlotte to do that and handed him a big fat check in the bargain. Try to imagine some fat, rich Roman city of ancient times hitting a rough patch and deciding the best thing to do would be to invite the barbarians in to help run the city’s affairs. The powerful Romans probably figure they can buy off the barbarians better that way, keep them close while assuring the general populace all is well.
This is precisely what the Powers That Be have done for Charlotte. Except that our once fat, rich city will just become an economic basket-case rather than all of us waking up with our throats slit. Ah, progress.
