I like the concept, but I’m not sure it accomplishes much. I know the Wall Street scum are responsible for destroying the world economy and the lives of millions of Americans. But there were also hundreds of thousands of slimy deadbeats in this country who lied and cheated to buy houses they couldn’t afford, drove luxury cars they had no right to be driving and ran up their credit cards living the good life. They deserve to be broke and destitute. I don’t know how Occupy can distinguish between those down on their luck and the deadbeats.
Occupy Wall Street campaigners buy-up debt to abolish it
A group of campaigners linked to the Occupy Wall Street movement is buying-up distressed loans for pennies in the pound and cancelling them to “liberate debtors at random”.
1:24PM GMT 09 Nov 2012
The Rolling Jubilee project is seeking donations to help it buy-up distressed debts, including student loans and outstanding medical bills, and then wipe the slate clean by writing them off.
Individuals or companies can buy distressed debt from lenders at knock-down prices if it the borrower is in default or behind with payments and are then free to do with it as they see fit, including cancelling it free of charge.
As a test run the group spent $500 on distressed debt, buying $14,000 worth of outstanding loans and pardoning the debtors. They are now looking to expand their experiment nationwide and are asking people to donate money to the cause.
David Rees, one of the organisers behind the project, writes on his blog: “This is a simple, powerful way to help folks in need – to free them from heavy debt loads so they can focus on being productive, happy and healthy.
“Now, after many consultations with attorneys, the IRS, and our moles in the debt-brokerage world, we are ready to take the Rolling Jubilee program live and nationwide, buying debt in communities that have been struggling during the recession.”
“We bailed-out the banks and in return they turned their backs on us. We don’t owe them anything, we owe each other everything. It’s time for a bail-out of the people, by the people.”
Eddie says:
So, where’s the money comng from? Will American school children do Walk-a-Thons?
I personally don’t favor debt forgiveness. I think bail-outs are essentially debt forgiveness…just not for borrowers, but for the lenders. If, as they say, all debt must eventually be paid back by someone…let it be those who signed on the line…and if not them, then those who foolishly lent money they should not have.
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12th November 2012 at 7:53 am
Hollow man says:
The bail outs are debt forgiveness. The united states is a screwed up progressive, neocon mess.
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12th November 2012 at 8:01 am
Mr. Happy says:
The whole idea makes my skin crawl. Fucking stupid beyond belief. Look you ass holes, if you’re gonna do it at least do this: raise the money, buy the mortgage and then create a contract that if and when the mortage holder sells up, you get a return on your capital invested…like 50% if there is a profit plus capital invested. Put a time limit on the deal..like 5 years. In the meantime ass hole in the house pays you a return on your capital of like 5%. Otherwise ass hole in the house is getting a freebie and that’s not acceptable. But I bet the government has dozens of reasons to void that idea. God it’s hopeless.
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12th November 2012 at 8:42 am
DEBT JUBILEE « The Burning Platform | Occupy Wall Street Info says:
[...] the rest here: DEBT JUBILEE « The Burning Platform if (typeof(addthis_share) == "undefined"){ addthis_share = [];} var addthis_config = [...]
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12th November 2012 at 9:55 am
Kill Bill says:
But there were also hundreds of thousands of slimy deadbeats in this country who lied and cheated to buy houses they couldn’t afford -admin
And for each deadbeat there was a mortgage broker [Angelo Mozilo] to help them cheat on the mortgage application.
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12th November 2012 at 10:16 am
Kill Bill says:
The Rolling Jubilee project is seeking donations to help it buy-up distressed debts, including student loans and outstanding medical bills, and then wipe the slate clean by writing them off.
Im sure we will have someone post that this is socialism. Really? Seems more like charity. So what if people want to cancel someones debt. That is their choice.
~~~
How is a freebie unacceptable Mr Happy? It is better to give than recieve, yes?
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12th November 2012 at 10:22 am
Celtic Tiger says:
Very little of the debt and unfunded liabilities will ever be paid off with cash.
But every penny will be paid through some form of suffering.
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12th November 2012 at 11:06 am
Mr. Happy says:
Kill Bill:
Of course people have a right to give and others to accept a freebie. But is it right?? How did you react when Corzine was exonerated? I don’t see the difference. If a mortgagee bought the house under false pretences and is now failing, how is that different from Corzine except in degree?
One can feel sorry for some poor sod who bought thinking he/she could afford the commitment and then for whatever reason is now failing. But isn’t that their problem and couldn’t the money be used for a better purpose if we’re looking at this as though it is some kind of charity?
It sort of turns it into a lottery…gee if I purposely fail on my mortgage maybe these dildos will come along and bail me out for free…see what I mean? This kind of ‘writing off’ wouldn’t have been dreamed of as recently as a decade ago and for damn sure never before then. I’d like to see us get back to that mentality…you sign the dotted line, you’re committed. Sorry, but that was first year law contracts at Georgetown and Mr. Gagan who wrote the text book. I’m sure he rolling in his grave. So we’re not talking socialism/capitalism here, we’re talking law.
My skin still crawls.
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12th November 2012 at 11:19 am
JJ3 says:
This sounds to me like a free market solution to a problem. We cannot post all day about individual liberties and then criticize them for coming up with a solution that they think will help. It’s their decision to create this fund, and they are free to do so.
You all make good points about how it may be stupid and they may be “bailing out” people who don’t deseve it but at it’s heart this is the free market working it’s magic. Maybe you don’t agree with it and I may be wrong, but this is how I see it.
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12th November 2012 at 4:38 pm
fool on the hill says:
Years ago I had a friend who paid off his son and daughter in law’s maxed out credit cards as a wedding present.
In less than a year they were maxed out again.
Insanity is hereditary……………….You catch it from your kids!
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12th November 2012 at 7:15 pm
printmemoney says:
These people would be better off having their debt becoming statutorily uncollectable than officially forgiven now they will owe uncle their effective tax rate on whatever was forgiven
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12th November 2012 at 7:28 pm
Bob says:
Definitely an idea whose time is coming with a vengeance! Bankruptcy, default, repudiation abd jubilee are all in the future for today’s mountains of upayable debt. A lot of the fighting to come will be rooted in the conflicts that arise in the process.
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12th November 2012 at 12:07 am
Novista says:
I guess there are a lot of people here who’ve never followed “Who’s Your Lender”/
Deadbeats and speculators is soooo 2006. If you bothered to go beyond your ‘confirmation bias’ you might ask yourself, why too many mortgages are riddled with fraud, why people who are still paying their mortgages cannot find who actually owns the mortgage? If anyone.
Did you ever wonder how Neil Barofsky came up with the $23 trillion dollar figure? It is entirely possible many mortgages were settled in the Big Bailout simply because the documentation was so flawed that No One … repeat NO ONE knows who owns anything. And there will be chickend coming home to roost at some time in the future when some naive moetgagee has been paying their mortgage to ‘someone’ and someone else turns up with the note and says, It’s mine. You owe me.
The fraud is so deep most people cannot comprehend it.
For all you on the high moral ground with moral hazard in your back pocket, if you find a given mortgage was sold FORTY times, who has standing to foreclose for whatever reason? Why should anyone surrender a home when the claimant does NOT have standing, in court? This is happened more and more as judges realize how deep the corruption is.
When it comes to a mortgagee vs. a fraud, how do you decide for one against another?
For that matter, if you are buying a home, are you absolutely certain your title is not clouded?
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12th November 2012 at 7:16 am
John A says:
Novista,
Excellent post. Layers of corruption? You bet. Who owns what? Nobody knows.
I’m not terribly bright but I decided the best way to buy a home in Florida was paying cash for it. So that’s what I did. That way, I work directly with Tallahassee get my deed of ownership. I closed on my condo around the February 15, 2012 and I have lived here ever since. So far so good. Property tax invoice came in the mail, etc, etc. But one never knows does one?
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12th November 2012 at 8:08 am
Novista says:
John A
There was a bloke in Florida year or so ago, paid cash for a short sale — and he was foreclosed a month later. Never heard how that fuckup was resolved.
I’m more and more certain the MERS crowd was playing a game the vampire squids had no idea of.
“”A recent Ambac filing says they reviewed 5,000 loan files valued at around $2 billion and 85% of the loans had deficiencies problems that Bear should have known were there and thus never put the loan in the security in the first place.”
Now, we’re seeing time after time that trusts transfer a mortgage in 2012 allegedly, except the trust went extinct in 2006 … and robosigning is alive and well.
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12th November 2012 at 8:17 pm
Hollow man says:
Just roll the dice, luck favors the owners. Who really owns the money supply?
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12th November 2012 at 7:49 am