The blogmaster read Wild Coot’s (Harry Russell) weekly column with interest and came away with a couple takeaways which maybe more poignant than the former banker touched on.
We live in a capitalist driven society which is ‘defined’ by churning economic activity with the aim to make profit for the capitalists. We can theorize to rival the Adam Smiths and John Keynes’, however, the reality is that the domestic and global market is undergirded with capitalist intent.
What does this have to do with Russell’s article?
It is obvious to this lowly blogmaster the banks offered to defer mortgage payments because increase delinquency in the portfolio would have translated to a reclassification of non performing loans and therefore negatively impact the profit and loss account. Russell’s “advice was to try one’s best not to accept this offer as catching up on mortgages is always difficult even when there is an improvement in circumstances“. Although good advice in theory there is the reality – too many Barbadians have opted for sizeable mortgages because they ‘qualify’ and not because of exercising the best judgement based on present and future states. For example, you work in a fickle industry like tourism, why commit to a 25 years mortgage for maximum value because you qualify? We criticize government for mortgaging our children’s future and at the household level we take the same decisions. Then again, the sum of decisions taken at the household level defines the society we live in. Is this where our education system both formal and informal is failing?
The government is by no way excused from supervising a governance framework to protect citizens from corporates, this is its job. The flipside however is where does personal responsibility for start and finish for making smart financial decisions.
The purpose of this brief preamble to Wild Coot’s article is to provoke thought by those making life altering financial decisions anchored in simplistic thought instead of commonsense [Oxford definition: good sense and sound judgment in practical matters].
With hard ears you feel
A FEW MONTHS AGO I warned Barbadians that they might have been buying a pig in a poke. When there was a drop in tourism, people in the industry were unable to pay their mortgages on houses or cars for three months, even longer.
Banks offered people the chance of deferring mortgage payments for three months. My advice was to try one’s best not to accept this offer as catching up on mortgages is always difficult even when there is an improvement in circumstances.
The question above all is, “did you carefully read your mortgage before you signed it.”
Take heed
Perhaps banks saw an opportunity to impose commission for these deferments. Maybe banks were not looking far enough down the line.
Remember banks had just experienced substantial losses from Government bonds and feared another hit on mortgage payments.
If the mortgage that you signed gives the bank the authority to sell or transfer the mortgage, then you need to take heed. Get your copy out and look.
Now that many mortgages are still in arrears and banks are unable to earn on them, banks want to get rid of the mortgages. If banks get rid of these mortgages, then any losses incurred would be charged against future profits. Thus banks would be tempted to clear their books of these loans.
They may have been able to put the properties up for sale. Such action gives the bank a bad image in the eyes of the public. In any case the bank has to justify that the eventual price at which it has disposed of the property was the best price available.
When you sign a mortgage, you may give the bank the power to sell the property or the mortgage. The sale of the mortgage does not change the monthly premium due under the mortgage. There are other people in the business of buying mortgages and would be interested in what the bank wants to do. Such businesses also have a duty to account to the mortgagor a reasonable price if selling of the property has happened. However, these companies do not carry the same image vis-à-vis the public as the banks.
As I have already stated in another article, if your house is worth $400 000 and you have a mortgage of $200 000 (not a bad case), if the mortgage can be sold, a mortgage buyer can be offered the property (mortgage) for $150 000 (the bank is claiming a tax loss of $50 000) that is probably worth $400 000.
Change rate of interest
The new holder of the mortgage has taken over a mortgage of $200 000 for which he has paid $150 000 on a property worth $400 000 but not the same case that hamstrings the bank.
This is the same problem that faced shareholders in 2008 in America.
There are mortgage buyers all over the world. They can be local or foreign. What is also important is that more often than not the mortgage that you sign gives the holder of the mortgage the ability to change the rate of interest unless there is a limitation period in the mortgage. This is more trouble for the mortgagor as then there is no competitive aspect to the mortgage rate.
The bank providing a mortgage will perhaps only be prepared to sell your mortgage if it is going out of business or if you are badly in arrears.
The important point is that if you have signed a mortgage, you are obligated to the mortgagee so long as your mortgage gives the right to the bank to sell the mortgage. The new mortgagee is not out of pocket as the original bank (first mortgagee).
There are many reasons that an entity holding a mortgage has to be concerned about especially where the mortgage covers buildings. The question of ensuring that insurance is paid up to date will arise. The decision to pay the insurance premium if there is an arrear is paramount. The new mortgagee has less at risk and may not be prepared to foot the premium.
He may be relying on the net value of the land in case of a fire.
This means that a mortgagor must be more alert when in the hands of a new mortgagee. Repairs to the property also have to be considered as the new mortgagee has less at stake, having expended less in acquiring the mortgage.
The question of whether or not the mortgage seller gets a fair price for the property will depend on the condition of the property, the location and the market.
Harry Russell is a banker. Email quijote70@gmail.com (Source: Nation)
Source: Nation
Source: Nation
Source: Nation
The following link should give some context what greatly influences the design of SIDs economies.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-94-trillion-world-economy-in-one-chart/
BU Is The..
B.O.M.B.
Back On My Bullshit
“What Government is agreeing to is that they must properly account to the IMF in relation to the budgetary processes but they don’t have to account to Barbadians, which is ridiculous,” he said”.
they never believed themselves accountable to the people in over HALF CENTURY, ya believe they really want to start now, when they are still in SHOW OFF MODE…until VOTE BEGGING season comes around again and they have to face THE PEOPLE to beg votes…that’s the only use they have for the majority population.
and try as they might, they could not hide the IMF reality forever….it’s now sitting on and will SQUEEZE every lie out of them…
All the simplistic hype about “ home grown economic policy” has now been exposed for the farce it was. All the talk about the “ brilliance” of “ quickly securing “ loans is now in the waste paper basket. We are firmly being told what to do ; where to do it and when to do it by the IMF.
And as for consultants ; there a two . basic justifications for having them around: Relevance and results . Are they still relevant and are we getting any results?
Final question: can we in all good conscience still justify such a big cabinet.
Peace
@ David BU
What are Barbadians hard ears about? Are they having a problem with their mortgages? I did not see any reports that indicated that there was massive sales of mortgaged houses. What percentage of the Mortgage Market are these?
2. What fiscal management legislation is expected to do that the old one did not do? Nobody elected the AG nor the IMF to manage the Economic affairs of Barbados. Any fiscal metric is a rule of thumb,without any sound theoretical base. It would be disingenuous of any GOB to write this into legislation.The real economic world does not work so. And yes. It is driven by a “Capitalist Model”. I think we need to know how it it functions in 2o21. It is not the model expounded by Karl Marx nor the one rescued by Maynard Keynes. It resembles State Capitalism. Where governments have been rescuing the Economic System for over four decades.
Please study the real Economy,its structure and its purpose. Governments need to have the freedom to lead the transitions.
@Vincent
The link to the following report should answer your some of your concerns. It addresses rising non performing loans.
@ David BU at 8 :39 AM
Thanks for the upload.
How reliable are these statistics? Were they compiled consistently and in the same manner? What information are they intended to convey? Do you notice the economic structure of USA and China? What are we really comparing and contrasting? The GDP needs further interrogation. Even one’s primitive instinct should indicate that we are comparing apples and oranges. They are not the same specie.
@Vincent
You should refer your questions to our regulatory agencies which cite the report as an authoritative source.
@ David BU at 10:37 AM
Thanks again for the upload. It supports my contention that we are doing the best we can under the prevailing conditions. There is very little that I would argue against in the report. We have to manage in the real world. Nobody has a crystal ball. We all have judgement alone.
@VC
The Wild Coot usually has a good dose of sarcasm within his pen. He didn’t say there was a sell-off in mortgages. Rather he stated how mortgage holders can ‘make money’ by trading non-performing instruments to realize a loss, deductible against positive income. And the mortgage owner has no say in the matter. The similarity to Series J Bonds? Didn’t the GoB take A/P on its books, show them as paid by transferring them to a Bond, due several years away? And the recipient of the A/P has no say. I took it as one of his tongue-in-cheek specials, on how with a stroke of a pen, you can manipulate your income statement and balance sheet.
VINCENT, CRITICAL, JOHN KNOX, LYAL THEO AND ARTAX
I HOPE THAT YOU GUYS ARE ENJOYING THE SEASON AND THAT IN 2022 THAT YOU WILL BE PROLIFIC IN YOUR PEACE AND PROSPERITY
““What Government is agreeing to is that they must properly account to the IMF in relation to the budgetary processes but they don’t have to account to Barbadians, which is ridiculous,” he said.{LoO Atherley)
May I advise the good Bishop he should examine the NIS, if he wishes to find successive administrators (16 years now), who have failed to account to Barbadians. And this is about money Barbadians HAVE ACTUALLY contributed. It is THEIR MONEY. Not a budget. Nor a statement of borrowed funds.
@NO
Rather you to call out the red bishop on the huff and puff (rhetoric). Ask him what is the status of all the investigations started by the PAC. We want to see results!
In a westmsystem of government the PAC is one of if not the most important working committee of parliament. In our case it is an opportunity for participants to have free food at taxpayers expense.
Ah free food. Long the way to attract Barbadians to anything. Free drinks will turn it into a crowd.
@ David Bo at 11: 27 AM
You are correct .It is at the PAC meetings where the Fiscal management should be discussed andinterrogated. No need for any other body to evaluate the fiscal management of taxpayers money. This body has been very lackadaisical in their oversight of the peoples business.
@Vincent
PAC is mired in a manufactured administrative affair.
@Vincent
You should read a book titled The New Economics by Keen. It is not very complimentary of your discipline and the critique comes from leading economists.
“This body has been very lackadaisical in their oversight of the peoples business.”
And that is as close to wind as he blows.
@ David BU at 3: 21 PM
Thanks very much for your suggestion. In all fields of science we constantly have to revise our understanding of our professions ‘subject matter. Knowledge is dynamic especially in the Social Sciences. The variables are intelligent and do change /mutate much faster than a virus. We are not in the business to earn compliments. When we receive them we hnow that we have to get moving.
@Vincent
Agreed and this is what the book is about, the unwillingness of the profession to learn from the global financial collapse of 2007.
@ David BU at 4 :39 PM. Very good. I have always kept uptodate on my professionand attend seminars on developing phenomena. you should have gatered that from my evolutionary approach to the subject/
Please forgive the typographical errors.
@ GP at 11: 18 AM.
Thank you very much for your kind wishes. I hope you are enjoying the Festal Season . I wish you and your family a Healthy and Happy 2022. Likewise to all my fellow bloggers. It has been a very educative year for me on BU.
Oh dear, the cat got pups!
To all: Our Supreme Leader has just made a magnificent speech. Some soundbites were clearly from my repertoire, “harmony and prosperity” from the Chinese CP’s speech book.
Snap elections = instant victory for leader and party. Of course, the unvaccinated are not allowed to vote. They could infect other citizens at the polling station.
One leader, one nation, one people. Mia Mottley command, we follow you! Even if you order us to storm the senate on your behalf.
Dat one leader, one party talk gine mek some people nervous.
Wunna betta drop um
David,
we URGENTLY need a new blog to celebrate this brilliant manoeuvre by our Supreme Leader and victory in January in advance…
The DLP will again face a AAA disaster and finally bleed to death financially. Perhaps the syndicate will even have to go underground or into the jungle. Temporarily, the DLP grandees can also clean my water tank or my shoes.
Dats right.
Announce and then scramble to make it work.
@ Raw Bake December 27, 2021 6:57 PM
Obviously our Supreme Leader listens very carefully to her royal court jester!
wuhloss….so alyuh got a snap election..next month is 2022 right..lawd…
camera…action….🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Let’s see how far that pre 1966 SLAVERY CONSTITUTION that they thought was such a brilliant idea to FOIST on the people in secret takes them…..
Enjoying the beach
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/12/27/bajans-flock-to-beaches-for-boxing-day-holiday/
Hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
@ Enuff December 27, 2021 7:41 PM
Congratulate our Supreme Leader on this move. Obviously, women leaders can keep secrets better than opposition chatterers.
I look forward to the annihilation of the dishonourable senator.
I guess Senator Franklyn will be no more. We shall have a new Opposition. Atherley gone!
And all de talk duh talking, the BLP will return as the best of the worst!
She has now given herself three weeks to remind us of how bad it was under the DLP.
She already started in that speech.
Put up or shut up is the message! Do you want me or do you want the poppets over there?
But who are the poppets again?
Fear of the unknown will take care of their asses!
This election has caught BU political department with their trousers around their ankles and it will take a minute to cobble up a thread
Oprah / Rapsody
Eric
I’m a master (Master)
Y’all should give me honorary masters (Masters)
Rapper work the green just like the Masters (The Masters)
The new slave talkin’ like he got a master (Woop, woop)
Screamin’, “Free Thought” (Free thought)
All the greatest legends behind bars,
They really talk (They really talk)
Everything I say is everything I really walk
Got it for the free though if it
Wasn’t what I really bought (I really bought)
Yeah (Yeah), pigeon pose (Pigeon pose)
Only way we ever, ever comin’ toe to toe (Toe to toe)
My Ivory Coast copper blood got me drippin’ gold (Drippin’ gold)
Yeah, I got the juice, woo, see I’m drippin’ Dole (Drippin’ Dole)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circu’, uh)
Give the homeless homies money, so they eat well (Yeah)
Went and copped an Audi, gotta go and get it detailed
Drive don’t depreciate the value of the resale (Yeah, yeah)
Still talkin’ that shit in this mother like we Ezell
Hold up, mothership flow, bring the funk back (Funk back)
This for my young heads, my real ones and ol’ blacks (My ol’ blacks)
This for my nasty niggas askin’ where the hoes at? (Where the hoes?)
This gon’ be the break, we stop and make ’em do the soul clap
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circu’, uh)
Hey
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circu’, uh)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circu’, uh)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circu’, uh)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circu’, uh)
It ain’t uncommon to borrow a dollar
Invite me over to eat with yo’ mama
I like the checks with the commas on commas
I want the checks with the commas on commas
It ain’t uncommon to borrow a dollar
Invite me over to eat with yo’ mama
I like the checks with the commas on commas
I want the checks with the commas on commas
I need them dollars, run me my half or I put a hole in yo’ wallet
Cold case, on my waist you don’t want these problems
Bank called say they runnin’ out of commas
That’s on my momma
I’m steady mobbin’
Posted up til’ I reach my profit margin
Cash money
And I ain’t runnin’ into thousands
Hustle up, don’t you hear my stomach growling
Bitch I’m ’bout it, I’m hungry
So I need them ten of greens spillin’ off my plate
Cash on delivery, bitch I raise the stakes
You will hate, what I fuckin’ make
Just to pop out and I don’t even show my face, oh yeah
To count it all, gon’ take ’bout a minute
Don’t claim the gang ho’, if you know you not with it
Marijuana sinnin’
Windows tinted, keep it low
Cuz you know these niggas can’t wait to print it, oh yeah
It ain’t uncommon to borrow a dollar
Invite me over to eat with yo’ mama
I like the checks with the commas on commas
I want the checks with the commas on commas
It ain’t uncommon to borrow a dollar
Invite me over to eat with yo’ mama
I like the checks with the commas on commas
I want the checks with the commas on commas
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circu’, uh)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circulate)
Dollars, dollars, dollars, circulate (Circu’-circu’, uh)
They said we wouldn’t have shit
Wouldn’t last if it was up to white Jesus
Niggas started to believe us
Started birthin’ and bleeding it
Oh, the lies y’all sold us
Oh, this poor love of ours
This gospel we sing
This little shine of mine
I’m gonna let it eat me up
I’m gonna let it kill me
Gonna’ let it fuck me up, til’ I’m leaning
Til’ I’m pheenin’
Till I’m feeling better wow
I kinda feel better now
Cuz I got it now
For me, for him, for her
For my Grandmama who had to pick cotton
And my Grand-daddy who got lashed at then laughed at
Who you turned your back on
Who you took your turn on for [?]
I’m sorry, I’m kinda violent now
Fuckin’ tired now
Don’t mean to disturb your peace
Just needed a little piece of what you got when I helped you out from [?]
Y’all got me hot now
I’m not asking for a permission
Came back to see what’s good now
Niggas buying dreams by the pound
Only real niggas sellin’, only real niggas feel your fear
It’s nice I frighten you
It’s nice I’ve inspired you
To look, to think, to act like me
Little ‘ol me
Little ‘ol me, came back to say
We made it
Banks are funny, nt ha, ha funny.
Last year my bank offered me a deferment. I told them that I did NOT want a deferment, since my income had not declined in the pandemic, in fact it may have increases slightly because I had nothing to do but garden, eat; and sell the surplus. I had hell persuading the bank to take the money due to them and which they were supposed to automatically deduct from my income. After many tries I was eventually able to persuade them to take their money. I wonder now if they planned to stick me with additional interest charges on a deferment which I did NOT ask for, which I did NOT need, and which I did NOT want.
Banks are funny.
@Simple Simon
Can you explain how your bank tried to stick you with additional charges because of the deferment?
Mia is three or four steps ahead of her rivals.
Parties were urged to get moving but they were waiting and preparing for a 2023 date. It looks as they waited too long and prepared too slowly.
Say what u you like, the woman is a boss.
Slow as molasses going up a hill.
For those not familiar, this is Pricesmart.
https://barbadosunderground.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/pricesmart.png