That’s my little Bank of America

Over at iWatch News, Michael Hudson gives us the story of Eileen Foster, an employee of the now defunct Countrywide Financial Corp,, infamous poster child for the moral meltdown of the U.S. mortgage industry, which did so much to pitch us into the valley of economic despair through which we now wander. Foster was appalled by what she saw at Countrywide, and labored to bring to her bosses all that she thought was wrong. Sometimes, it seems, there can be too much truth, or more than the bosses want to hear. In 2008, Bank of America, which had taken over what still remained of Countrywide, fired Foster for “unprofessional conduct.”

Foster took her case to the Department of Labor, and was vindicated: According to Hudson, “Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor ruled that Bank of America had illegally fired her as payback for exposing fraud and retaliation against whistleblowers. It ordered the bank to reinstate her and pay her some $930,000. Bank of America denies Foster’s allegations and stands behind its decision to fire her.”

That definitely sounds like the Bank of America I know. Some years ago, the company that owned my mortgage sold it to Bank of America. In the early 2000s, I was hearing that low interest rates made it worthwhile to refinance, and that a smart thing to do was to refinance with your current mortgage holder, since that would save a variety of processing fees. It sounded good to me, so I contacted BofA, who promptly assured me that refinancing wouldn’t save me any money. I didn’t quite believe them, so I went to another company and refinanced with them, and did save some money.

My new company promptly sold my mortgage back to BofA. Rates kept going down, so I contacted another company about refinancing again. They started the paperwork, and out of the blue I got a call from BofA, who suddenly were very friendly to me, asking me if maybe I didn’t want to refinance. Well, I said yes, and I saved some more money. Nice guys!

Capitalism works, most of the time, and you should always trust everybody. Always trust everybody, but, as Cervantes says, always cut the cards. Especially if you’re playing with BofA.