Today, I had a security clearance story tossed my way from a office co-worker….which came back to remind me of how the security folks manipulate people….to get an agenda done which has nothing to do with their temporary target at the time.
Years ago, I worked in a shop within Civil Engineering. We had a young airman who was married…his wife had two kids from a former relationship….and they lived in the old base housing (slightly higher than slum-level but free housing).
His two kids….four and seven….went out on the street one afternoon while dad, mom, and some family friends were watching NFL football. The kids found some beer bottle half-filled and were messing around with it. You have to remember….housing was midway between the barracks and the club on base.
Some SP’s drove by….noted this….escorting the kids back to the house. They told my associate and that was the end of the episode. Nothing else. The cops figured that they simply did the right thing, and dad didn’t really care because no one did anything wrong.
Monday came….and that afternoon….our boss got a call from the base law enforcement folks wanted to chat with this associate….at the SP station.
Our associate went over, and two guys in civilian clothing laid out some report with four lines….with the kid’s names and the situation. They asked around twenty questions and then wanted him to write a statement. The guy sat there….cooperated….thinking there wasn’t much wrong.
What the associate didn’t know was that the two were after a GS-7 guy in our shop for allegedly bringing pot onto the base. They had no proof and needed someone to cooperate and point the finger. To be honest....this GS-7 guy might have been doing but most of the shop had no idea about this.
At this point….they didn’t have the ‘finger’ yet, but they were working on it.
So the two turned the report over to some county welfare individual and then sent her onto this guy and his wife….suggesting various scenarios of no family control over the two kids. She visited the home….then called them downtown.
After a week of this…the two plain clothing cops from the base bumped into the guy one day and asked how things were going, and he dumped his story and issues with the lady from the social department. Naturally, they said they might be able to help and said they would need some help in return.
The next day….our associate laid out this mess. We sat there….’barracks lawyers’….and then gave him his advice. It was called non-cooperation with the city welfare department. When the lady tried to show back up at the house the next day….he called the SP’s and asked who authorized her on base. The two plain-clothing cops were the signees. He then did as we suggested….asking the real cops where her escort was. The real cops kindly told her to leave the base.
So the next day, the base social affairs folks got involved (likely encouraged by the investigative duo)…because they had permission to be on base and to pester any military guy. Our advice then went to their level. He asked them to present any and all data on the episode and they pulled out his statement…which he asked how a copy could come into their hands. By late afternoon, the SP commander was now asking for the copy of the statement to be brought back to the SP station. This could not be released without a investigative officer requesting such.
By this point, several people were calling in anonymous reports to the social affairs office over two plain-clothing cops who were noted parked around base housing and people felt they were engaged in ‘teenage-girl watching’. The two guys who created the episode were now being asked what they were doing. Adding to this mess were people now taking pictures of the investigative duo in their car.
A couple of days later….the whole mess just stopped. Nothing else was said. Life just went back to normal. I am forever reminded of standing back and viewing the entire picture and grasping the full impact of events. People who claim they are acting in the interest of national interests…..could be bogus in nature.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Bad Finance Thinking
Based on comments made today, the best guess is that the administration will start a new loan deal….for any guy who was dopey enough to sign up for a loan that he was not capable of ever repaying.
The new deal suggested? It calls on loan servicers to lower struggling borrowers' interest rates so that total payments are no more than 31% of their gross income.
I sat there for a while thinking about this….number-wise. So a guy had a 30-year loan on a $350k house….and was paying $1600 a month because he didn’t pay a decent down payment. He was paying almost 40 percent of his gross income to make things work. So now, the loan will continue on….for 35 to 37 years, while Joe the owner sits there in amazement that he is still paying when he’s 70 years old (he’s 40 today).
If you think this is an issue….wait till he is deep into 2010, and now employed as the Wendy’s manager because of company downsizing late last year….and 31% of the $2,000 monthly take-home pay is only $620. That’s a long way from the $1600 that he was originally paying to make the 30-year loan when he was making $4000 a month in 2007 (meaning he was tossing 40 percent of his pay, which is way beyond the ‘smart’ rules that most analysts would suggest).
How stupid is this?
Adding to the entire story is the fact that the bank put out funding to some guy to buy a house and counted on the interest to pay itself back for the loan. We’ve now lengthened the entire episode to the point that the bank isn’t making the money to cover the projected money scheme they had originally devised. Do you think that the bank is simply digging itself into a deeper pit?
It’s an amusing story. People were ready and signing up for $400k houses….watching the house go up every year by $15k. They thought this was normal and just smiled. Banks smiled because they kept asking for more loan money. Senators were happy because banks were funneling them money each year to have new rules and tax credits devised. When the fair finally closed, everyone got off the rides and found no rides home. So they are walking….and it’s a long way home.
The new deal suggested? It calls on loan servicers to lower struggling borrowers' interest rates so that total payments are no more than 31% of their gross income.
I sat there for a while thinking about this….number-wise. So a guy had a 30-year loan on a $350k house….and was paying $1600 a month because he didn’t pay a decent down payment. He was paying almost 40 percent of his gross income to make things work. So now, the loan will continue on….for 35 to 37 years, while Joe the owner sits there in amazement that he is still paying when he’s 70 years old (he’s 40 today).
If you think this is an issue….wait till he is deep into 2010, and now employed as the Wendy’s manager because of company downsizing late last year….and 31% of the $2,000 monthly take-home pay is only $620. That’s a long way from the $1600 that he was originally paying to make the 30-year loan when he was making $4000 a month in 2007 (meaning he was tossing 40 percent of his pay, which is way beyond the ‘smart’ rules that most analysts would suggest).
How stupid is this?
Adding to the entire story is the fact that the bank put out funding to some guy to buy a house and counted on the interest to pay itself back for the loan. We’ve now lengthened the entire episode to the point that the bank isn’t making the money to cover the projected money scheme they had originally devised. Do you think that the bank is simply digging itself into a deeper pit?
It’s an amusing story. People were ready and signing up for $400k houses….watching the house go up every year by $15k. They thought this was normal and just smiled. Banks smiled because they kept asking for more loan money. Senators were happy because banks were funneling them money each year to have new rules and tax credits devised. When the fair finally closed, everyone got off the rides and found no rides home. So they are walking….and it’s a long way home.
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