Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Lenders Can Now Disable Your Car When You're Driving on the Freeway

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Lenders Can Now Disable Your Car When You're Driving on the Freeway

Click here to access article by Cliff Weathers from AlterNet.

Financial analysts say about a quarter of all automotive loans are subprime, and expect that number to climb as consumer debt continues to rise. These loans can be highly lucrative for lenders, with interest rates that can be well over 20%. Many of these subprime auto payments often come in late, bringing in late fees as well. Nearly 4% of all subprime auto loans are more than 60 days late, up by 3% from 2013.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports that investment rating companies are bestowing top grades for bonds based on subprime auto loans...

In case you missed the latest capitalist scam, our masters in the One Percent are now making big profits by investing in packaged auto loans. Surely you remember how the packaged house mortgages (capitalists call them "securities") ended. Well, capitalists made big bucks while this latter scam lasted, and they are still benefiting by buying back the foreclosed homes at bargain-basement prices and renting them out to people who lost their homes. Read this article to find out how the "investors" are making sure their bets on these new packaged auto loan securities are safe. And, they think that this new techno-fix should work with house sales.