New Orleans There are some people who spend their lives convincing folks that up is actually down.  Mortgage brokers are the escape artists of the subprime lending business and after Wall Street should be at the top of the list of responsible and predatory parties in the entire meltdown.  Amazingly and seemingly without a blush, they are now whining that the new three (3) day delay to allow borrowers to carefully examine the interest rates that they are being asked to pay before closing loans is out of line and is going to “slow” the process.

Here’s a big mound of poppycock piled on top of balderdash.  The nerve!

An article the New York Association of Mortgage Brokers managed to spin into the Times last week was a classic example of criminal types without remorse.  The number of times, now depressingly well documented, that mortgage brokers scammed unsuspecting borrowers with flannel mouthed tales about their supposedly fixed interest rate only for them later to learn a couple of years down the line that their rates were adjustable and ballooning, is now inestimable.

The number of times that borrowers found that brokers had puffed up their income in “stated income” loans to justify mortgages that were preposterously unaffordable has also exceeded calculation.

The real shame is not the extra three days, because many of the scam artists, that the broker associations and lenders do little to curtail and police, will simply talk their way around the obvious in these situations for borrowers desperate with desire for credit.  The real shame is that there still is not some mandatory borrower counseling available to assist in assuring that fairness exists, the law has been upheld, and the interests for the borrower come first, rather than last on this list.

If we are going to call the law “Truth in Lending,” then it’s time to back the title up with action.