Via The New York Times an essential article on the ways Big Finance screws serving troops — and the rest of us:
Charles Beard, a sergeant in the Army National Guard, says he was on duty in the Iraqi city of Tikrit when men came to his California home to repossess the family car. Unless his wife handed over the keys, she would go to jail, they said.
The men took the car, even though federal law requires lenders to obtain court orders before seizing the vehicles of active duty service members.
Sergeant Beard had no redress in court: His lawsuit against the auto lender was thrown out because of a clause in his contract that forced any dispute into mandatory arbitration, a private system for resolving complaints where the courtroom rules of evidence do not apply. In the cloistered legal universe of mandatory arbitration, the companies sometimes pick the arbiters, and the results, which cannot be appealed, are almost never made public….
The kicker in that already insufferable situation:
Over the years, Congress has given service members a number of protections — some dating to the Civil War — from repossessions and foreclosures.
Efforts to maintain that special status for service members has run into resistance from the financial industry, including many of the same banks that promote the work they do for veterans. While using mandatory arbitration, some companies repeatedly violate the federal protections, leaving troops and their families vulnerable to predatory lending, the military lawyers and government officials say….
…The Government Accountability Office, for example, found in 2012 that financial institutions had failed to abide by the law more than 15,000 times.
Efforts in Congress to block financial companies’ efforts to weaken any vestige of legal protection met the subterranean death favored by the scumsuckers for whom light is poison:
Last year, a bipartisan bill that would have allowed service members to opt out of arbitration and file a lawsuit met with opposition from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street’s major trade group, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, or Sifma.
“While we remain very supportive of the troops, we see no empirical or other evidence that service members are being harmed by or require relief from arbitration clauses,” Kevin Carroll, a managing director and associate general counsel at Sifma, said in a statement.
Here’s what they mean by “support.”
In lobbying against the bill, several financial industry groups and a large phone company visited with the staff of Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who sponsored the legislation along with Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat.
The trade groups told Mr. Graham’s office that they were already working to make their arbitration procedure more accommodating to service members, according to a person briefed on those discussions who would speak only on the condition of anonymity.
“The message was, ‘Let us fix this internally,’ ” the person said. “Don’t upset the apple cart with a new law.”
Whether or not that line was believed, the result was as desired:
The bill never made it out of committee last year, though Mr. Graham plans to reintroduce it this year.
Committees: where money talks so effectively — and almost silently.
This at once an infuriating abuse of people doing what their political leaders have tasked them to do, at risk to themselves and costs to their families — and a sign of how bad the system is rigged against all of us. Realize this: serving troops at least have some legal protection that, however abused can still be invoked. Everyone else: suck it up, face mandatory arbitration, and say “Thank you, sir, may I have another” everytime we have to bend over and take one for the greater good of modern American financial capitalism.
Also: kudos to Senators Graham and Reed for making an attempt. But let’s be clear: Republicans — the party that claims the flag and the troops as their personal property — control both houses of Congress and have unfettered control of the agenda there. So this is a test: if they can’t fix this — now — then it’s incumbent on those of us on the other side to hang their betrayal of the troops around every member.
Image: Pietro Muttoni called della Vecchia, A fortune-teller reading the palm of a soldier, before 1678. I can’t help but thinking the fortune teller is telling the soldier that he sees the future, and the his client is f**ked.
raven
I went to see the gypsy
to have my fortune read
she said “man, your baby’s gonna leave you”
her bags are packed up under the bed
that’s right
have mercy. . . .
otherwise know as “Jodi”.
debbie
Yeah, as in less paperwork. Why doesn’t the SCRA protect them in this situation?
boatboy_srq
Dollars to doughnuts all those volk who plaster “Support The Troops” all over their entire existences never pause for a moment to ponder the FSM-awful scr3wing servicepeople face every day.
schrodinger's cat
Marg Bar? Is it only me who doesn’t get the title of this post.
Something bad that the banksters are responsible for?
Betty
And the TPP is expected to make it all worse for everyone- more arbitration and corporate control.
gvg
I have never heard of anything good coming from arbitration for anyone, service men or not. Its “private” law and I don’t see why it is legal. Why get infuriated just for service men? Lets just get rid of arbitration. Companies can have complaints departments to try and avoid lawsuits….but nobody has to just take it.
MattF
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m guessing it’s borrowed from the Iranian hard-liners:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_to_America
ThresherK
Let us bow our heads in a moment of silence for the phrase “Nothing’s too good for our boys*.”
Okay, right wingers, you can take off those goddamn yellow ribbon magnets and flag stickers now.
(* Yes, the gendering is obsolete for many years, but I’m using the idea from the origination date.)
MattF
There’s also a shady-but-thriving market in collection of unpaid debts. I’d guess the people making money from buying bad debt for pennies on the dollar are a part of this, and are making their preferences known to the powers-that-be. Although probably indirectly.
C.V. Danes
The ridiculous thing here is that the companies already have leverage over people serving in the armed forces simply by the fact that they can contact the member’s command, which is taken quite seriously. Usually all it takes is a phone call to the command to motivate a service member to pay his/her bill.
I really hate to be stereotypical, because there are some good people at the banks, but finance really does seem to attract the worst of humanity.
Cervantes
Fair enough.
But speaking of betraying the troops:
It’s a shame “the work they do for veterans” does not include sending their mighty lobbyists to Congress to make sure no one serves abroad in illegal invasions and occupations.
Tom Levenson
@schrodinger’s cat: Showing my age — I remember all the Marg Bar America chants during the Carter years.
boatboy_srq
@gvg: Arbitration is to finance what tort reform is to healthcare. It’s a Conservatist construct designed to scr3w people in such a way that the business won’t be held liable for doing sh!tty things. Corporate Accountability, baby!
schrodinger's cat
@Tom Levenson: I learned something new! BTW how is the Terrific Tikka? Keeping you in line, I hope.
schrodinger's cat
@MattF: Thanks, now it makes sense.
Elizabelle
astute comment by “mancuroc” of Rochester, NY, in the NYTimes article reader comments:
from “george eliot” of Annapolis, MD:
from “Tom” of NYC:
Elizabelle
From NYTimes commenter “Yoandel” of Boston, MA (that you, Tom?):
Am curious about the “both parties” part there. Blue dogs? Congresscritters from NY and Delaware and other financial hubs?
schrodinger's cat
OT: Is Bibi toast? or is Apartheid Israel going to be the official policy?
schrodinger's cat
@Elizabelle: Republicans are much worse but I think Obama admin was too easy on the banksters.
gvg
By the by, just found a NYTimes article that goes into new to me detail about the rise of evangelical prosperity gospel in American political life. the author being reviewed says it started in the 30’s by wealthy men who didn’t like the finger pointing after the great depression who discovered clergy were more listened too than any other potential spokesmen…They held contests with prizes for the clergy that could tell them the most agreeable sermons. I hadn’t known Billy Graham went back that far but he is listed as one of the earliest big following clergy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/a-christian-nation-since-when.html?action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&module=MostEmailed&version=Full®ion=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article
Mike in NC
The expression “Thank you for your service” has become more meaningless than telling somebody to “Have a nice day”.
Citizen_X
Can we start calling arbitration “corporate Sharia law”?
Elizabelle
@schrodinger’s cat: I agree.
My hypotheses, though, are:
(1) too much else on his plate at outset of his administration, and
(2) Obama administration may have realized how retrograde the Supreme Court is — for now — and hesitated to send some big cases up, with defendants with all the money they need to hire the very best lawyers — and have the Supreme Court inoculate or even enshrine some absolutely predatory practices. I don’t trust the cons on the Supreme Court one bit, especially Roberts, a corporation’s best friend.
I give the administration a pass, somewhat.
How close to the statute of limitations? Does obtaining new evidence of fraud reset the statute?
Elizabelle
@gvg: Woo boy. Had never heard of Fifield. From your link,
NYTimes: A Christian Nation? Since When?
Kay
I know service members (allegedly!) have special legal protections designed for what is often an impossible situation for them, however, I think this is just more evidence that it is just really, really difficult to operate within a system that seems to be designed to screw ordinary people. It’s just SO pervasive that you feel like you can’t get your arms around it- to use a war term, it’s like fighting on many different “fronts”.
I think the focus on service members is politically potent, for all the obvious reasons- we’re supposedly “thankful” for their service, there’s so much rank hypocrisy- but really this a huge problem across the board and it gets worse all the time.
I would not have predicted they would be shameless and venal enough to go after workers comp, for example, because it’s such a rock-bottom protection for workers, but they are.
It can feel overwhelming, like plugging holes in a giant ship that’s taking on water all over the place. I don’t know where or how they’re going to get robbed next and they don’t either because we assume these legal protections we all had are still in place and really, they aren’t. They won’t find out workers comp is gutted until they get hurt at work and need it. Obviously, then it’s too late.
Elizabelle
On the esteemed Billy Graham, and on Ike:
The author, Kevin Kruse, is a history prof at Princeton, and author of “One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America.”
Elizabelle
@Kay: What’s awful is the vast number of Americans who are not paying attention and refuse to believe this is going on, when informed.
They think stuff like this only happens to other people.
schrodinger's cat
deleted
schrodinger's cat
@Elizabelle: I am not a legal eagle, much less a Supreme court expert so I can’t really comment on your speculation #2. As for
#1, they should have made it a priority.
Most of the mega banks have only been fined, I don’t the fines are going to be a major deterrent for them to stop taking risks that could potentially sink the global economy. Big shots needed to go to jail, so far its only been small fry who have landed in prison, Raj Rathnam comes to mind. The Ken Lays of this disaster have gotten away without paying any price, your Vikram Pandits and Jaime Dimons, for example.
schrodinger's cat
@Kay: No cure for this till people vote in large numbers and not for the Republicans.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I’m a little easier on them than that. They’re flooded with info, half of which is unreliable or flat-out lies.
One of the lame replacements for “regulation” has (become) calls for “transparency” or “information” but I’m not clear on how much watchdog and investigatory work ordinary people can be expected to perform, in addition to working, family, etc.
I just think it goes to this lie that this is a “level playing field” when you put really sophisticated (and professional) actors up against people who are really just trying to hang on. It’s akin to the big lie of arbitration, right? “It’s fair! You’ll do fine up against this giant team of professionals on the other side!”
I thought about it after the financial crash, and I’m a lawyer. I thought “okay, am I supposed to be monitoring the fucking ratings agencies in my spare time?” There has to be SOME room to do all the things they have to do, some outside watchdog who specializes in each of these really complex areas so people can do all the other shit they have to do.
schrodinger's cat
@Kay: Even now the SEC and other regulatory agencies are seriously understaffed.
boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: Well, at least now we know where anything Gummint and “Soshulism” were conflated. Apparently “Soshulism” translates to “any law or regulation that prevents me from doing what I damned well please.”
burnspbesq
@gvg:
I’ll be on board with that as soon as you tell me where the average working-class or middle-class person in a dispute with an auto-finance or cell-phone company, or a doctor or dentist, is going to get the money to engage in litigation against a deep-pocketed repeat player.
Removing one card from a stacked deck doesn’t necessarily un-rig the game. The fundamental power imbalance is still there.
Shit, I’d settle for being able to pay extra to get a waiver of mandatory arbitration, as though it were like an extended warrany. I’d also like a unicorn that shits sugar-free vegan oatmeal raisin cookies.
Villago Delenda Est
@gvg: Mankind will never be free until the last billionaire is strangled with the entrails of the last televangelist.
burnspbesq
@Kay:
ICYMI.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/01/21/sp-sec-fine-suspension/22098219/
I’m sure someone will be along momentarily to sing the familiar refrain “it’s not enough” and “why was nobody indicted,” but you can only prosecute people for conduct that was illegal when they did it, and civil enforcement actions are (at least in theory) as much about deterring future misconduct as about extracting every possible dollar of penalties.
Maybe I’m just being naive, but i think being thrown out of a very profitable business for a year is enough to deter S&P. We’ll know soon enough.
And i freely admit to being biased where Mary Jo White and Andrew Ceresney are concerned; i know them personally and have worked with them. Until i have a reason not to, I’m going to trust their judgment.
Petorado
Truer weasel words have never been spoken. Whenever “while” is used as a qualifier in a political discussion, it’s a tip-off that an incongruity between lip service and real intent will soon occur.
Kay
@burnspbesq:
I have to tell you, I found that NY Times series on corrupt state AG’s incredibly dispiriting. I know you’re talking about federal prosecutors here but boy, I don’t know what happens next when prosecutors are corrupted in some profound, systemic way.
This private sector thing we’re all involved in only works with some state engine running in the background- I really can’t police my 401k and mortgage and insurance policies and the rest AND do my own job. I won’t have time. No one else will either.
I’m to the point where I’m internally hedging when I see someone’s insurance policy. “I hope they’re solvent!” Talk about “uncertainty”. They should stop worrying about “uncertainty” with big market actors and worry about some collapse of faith among ordinary people.
Bubblegum Tate
If USAA is one of the companies doing this, I’m going to be so disappointed.
Bubblegum Tate
@Mike in NC:
I’ve seen a lot of military folks say that they really don’t like it when people tell them, “Thank you for your service,” when they’re out and about. Part of it is that they find the statement incredibly insincere, and part of it is the feeling of, “You don’t even have any fucking idea what I actually did, so why are you thanking me for doing it?”
burnspbesq
@Kay:
It’s overly simplistic to blame it on the structural issue (i.e., state AGs are elected officials who have to get re-elected to keep their jobs), but for the moment, that’s all I have.
kc
@Elizabelle:
Joe Biden would be Exhibit A. The Senator from MBNA.
burnspbesq
@Kay:
I probably worry less about that than I do about a number of other things. I’m not aware of any facts that would suggest that Best’s has engaged in any shenanigans of the type that the securities ratings folks have engaged in. And while some of the state insurance regulators can be faulted for some rate-setting and consumer-protection failings, my impression is that once you get your head around some of the industry-specific accounting conventions, NAIC-compliant financials are pretty reliable.
Our bizarre politics in California have made commitment to consumer protection a differentiator for candidates for Insurance Commissioner (an elected office), so we’ve had a succession of pretty good ones.
Tommy
@Bubblegum Tate: I think and/or know that is true. It is like putting a flag sticker or a yellow ribbon on your car. I am a military brat. Dad hates seeing shit like that. He would say you don’t know.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
. Usually when people violate the law more than 15,000 times in a single year the authorities make arrests and start charging people. I think it’s high time that started to happen in these cases. It seems like the one thing that can be done despite our dysfunctional Congress.
burnspbesq
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Here’s a link to the full text of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act.
http://www.justice.gov/crt/spec_topics/military/scratext.pdf
Let us know when you find the title that imposes criminal penalties for violations of the Act. Or a cross-reference to Title 18.
Not every bad act is a crime.
RaflW
Support the Troops! Put a yellow magnet-ribbon on your car!
But quietly let Banksters and everyone else screw those troops over financially. Your modern* GOP, everybody. And they’re incredibly eager to put a few 1,000 more bodies through the meat grinder, this time in Iran.
Fucking immoral bastards. Really deep evil going on.
*Pre-modern GOP, too. But you knew that.
waysel
@Kay: THIS!
JaneE
It sounds like these predators are deliberately trying to undermine the morale of our troops in a combat zone. It is time to start calling this what it is – giving aid to our enemies in time of war (undeclared, of course).
Kay
@schrodinger’s cat:
I don’t blame lower level people who are regulators. A couple of years ago I was involved in filing campaign finance statements with the Sec of State. That’s where they go for state races. I realized I hadn’t attached docs that were supposed to go with them, so I sent them on and called to tell them of the error. The person I spoke to just laughed “hah, hah, hah” at my telling him “they’re on their way!” because he said he wouldn’t have time to get to them for about 6 months.
I always corresponded with the same person. It might be literally one person down there, for all I know :)
Mike G
Repukes love the troops only so long as they are obedient, uncomplaining pawns of their war-boner vicarious fantasies.
The minute they object to a military action, require ongoing medical care or threaten the profits of Good Murkan Biznismen, they become disdained leeches and troublemakers.
Jado
And if they fail the test? What would you think would be the consequences? Not what SHOULD be the consequences – what WILL be the consequences?
I bet “nothing” IOKIYAR
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@burnspbesq: Not every bad act is a crime but I naively thought “violating the law” was a crime.