Steve LErner's plan to make banksters feel some pain

[eridani]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/

As the financial crisis deepens, unions are beginning to realize the economic power they have through organizing how their members spend their money. With over $6 trillion of workers’ money in retirement plans, pension funds, profit-sharing and stock plans and union reserve funds, workers have the ability to reshape the economy and political priorities of the economic elite.

Lerner's plan calls for something much less common in organized labor— threatening a strategic default on mortgages in order to force banks to negotiate better interest rates on predatory loans. Banks and big corporations do this all the time. They threaten to just walk away from a mortgage and stop paying it all together unless the banks change their rates. Morgan Stanley simply walked away from five office buildings they owned in San Francisco in 2009.

However, workers realizing that they can do this collectively could change the practices of banks—and create a new power dynamic in this country. If the banks don't refinance their loans, they are likely to go out of business, Lerner argues. This is why Corporate America is so scared of what Lerner is proposing and why Glenn Beck has dedicated two whole episodes to portray Lerner as an economic terrorist.

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[Arctic Dave]

2. Wow. That is some creative thinking.

Thanks for the info. Keep us up to date if you can. :)

[socialist_n_TN]

3. One of my first posts on this board was about.........

a "mortgage strike" about a year ago. Got to be TIGHTLY organized, but I believe it would be effective even if just a small percentage of mortgagees participated.