{"id":35911,"date":"2016-09-23T08:37:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T12:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=35911"},"modified":"2016-09-23T08:37:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T12:37:26","slug":"nowhere-to-hide-how-wells-fargo-took-my-house-and-how-wfc-became-a-cockroach-stock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=35911","title":{"rendered":"Nowhere to hide? How Wells Fargo took my house and how WFC became a cockroach stock"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the October 15, 2011 cover of the Economist:<\/p>\n

\"20111015_DE_US.indd\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In that issue, The Economist wrote:<\/p>\n

Investing during a crisis<\/strong>
\nNowhere to hide<\/strong><\/p>\n

Investors have had a dreadful time in the recent past. The immediate future looks pretty rotten, too<\/p>\n

PITY the world’s savers. Economists and other busybodies chide them for not spending more, thereby stimulating the economy. Meanwhile their pension schemes are steadily being made less generous, a process that will require them to save more, not less, if they want to enjoy a comfortable retirement. Britons now retiring on private pensions will receive an income 30% less than those who left work three years ago (see Buttonwood). When savers try to find a home for their money, they face daily headlines about bank bailouts, sovereign-debt crises and the possibility of another recession.<\/p>\n

Given the scale of the risks, investors are not being offered much in the way of reward. In much of the developed world, yields on cash are 1.5% or below. The most liquid government bond markets (those of America, Britain, Germany and Japan) offer yields of 2.5% or less. In both cases, such meagre returns are part of a deliberate policy: governments and central banks want companies that might create jobs to start borrowing again. Even American equities, despite a dismal record over the past decade, offer a dividend yield of just 2.1%, a level that historically has been associated with low returns for several years to come (see article). That is a legacy of the stratospheric valuations attained by Wall Street at the height of the dotcom bubble.<\/p>\n

The danger for savers is not simply of disappointing returns, but of devastating blows to their wealth. …<\/p>\n

Had the investors ignored the Economist’s doom and gloom warnings and simply stuck their money in a S&P 500 index fund, they’d have done just fine:<\/p>\n

This is the S&P500 in the five years since the Economist’s Nowhere to Hide.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"spoverfiveyears\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s a lesson here somewhere… It’s probably\u00a0Have Faith.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warren Buffet would agree. Look what happened to Berkshire Hathaway in those five years.<\/p>\n

\"brka\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Berkshire Hathaway stock more than doubled.<\/p>\n

Neat.<\/p>\n

The cockroach stock that is Wells Fargo.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After yesterday’s column on Wells Fargo (click here<\/strong><\/a>) a\u00a0reader \u00a0emailed me:<\/p>\n

Hi Harry,<\/p>\n

I worked for Wells Fargo in the 90’s in the mortgage division.\u00a0 You think the Wells Fargo banking side of the house is a mess, wait till you see the mortgage division.\u00a0 I cannot even tell you the number of homes and parcels of land they “accidentally” stole and sold to make a profit.\u00a0 File the right paperwork in any state and you can sell the land or home.\u00a0 Getting it corrected takes lots of lawyer dollars.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I know of one lady who lived in Europe part of the year and in her US home the other half.\u00a0 Her US home had been paid off for years.\u00a0 None the less she was not in the States and Wells evicted her from her own home.\u00a0 Wells hired a “GotJunk” crew and disposed of everything in the home!\u00a0 Pictures, family heirlooms, artwork, keepsakes, clothing.\u00a0 All gone and none of it retrievable.\u00a0 She came home months later and found another family had bought her house and moved in.\u00a0 She called the county sheriff and was told it was no longer her home.\u00a0 Long story short a year later she was finally paid by Wells with hush money and of course bound by the agreement to include silence.\u00a0 She lost everything.\u00a0 This is not an isolated case.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My advice is to always have a home sitter or someone who can watch your property when you are gone.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I emailed back and asked for more, His answer:<\/div>\n
\u00a0As to the forms needed to foreclose on a property, I do not know exactly.\u00a0 But you can Google “Wells Fargo stole or took my home or land.” You’ll find all kinds of horror stories.<\/div>\n
\n

Most employees of Wells don’t bank with them, enough said.<\/p>\n

I did Google “Wells Fargo took my house” and found many horror stories, including this one:<\/p>\n

Remember when Jim Cramer interviewed CEO Stumpf (back in September 2015 before all this blew up)? One person posted::<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve done business with Wells Fargo in the past 10 years or so \u2013 especially if you\u2019ve had a mortgage or other loan \u201cserviced\u201d by WF \u2013 you know what a huge line of BS John Stumpf is feeding CNBC\u2019s infotainment \u201cinvestment analyst\u201d Jim Cramer in this clip.<\/p>\n

The former Wall Street hedge fund manager has to be particularly blind and deaf if he believes that Wells Fargo hasn\u2019t taken part in the same list of ethically-reprehensible activities designed to defraud customers and make money for the bank:\u00a0robosigning<\/a>,forging<\/a>\u00a0foreclosure documents,\u00a0predatory mortgage lending<\/a>\u00a0in minority communities, manipulating debit card transaction to\u00a0generate overdrafts,\u00a0<\/a>and forcing mortgage borrowers into\u00a0price-gouging home insurance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The company even gets complaints for its handling of\u00a0student loans<\/a>\u00a0and paid to settle a lawsuit regarding its\u00a0debt-collection processes<\/a>\u00a0by harassing consumers, who are generally protected by specific debt-collection law. How Cramer can appear to be such a cheerleader for Stumpf & Co. in light of all this is beyond me, but he certainly seems to take everything the CEO says as absolute truth.<\/p>\n

For that piece, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I found a web site called ConsumerAffairs.com. It has the stories of the\u00a0Top 1,073 Complaints and Reviews about Wells Fargo Mortgage<\/a>. <\/strong>Fascinating reading.<\/p>\n

As I kept Googling, I found this comment from\u00a0Kiki of Alexandria, VA<\/span>\u00a0on\u00a0Sept. 13, 2016.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the worst bank. They charge you for everything. They don’t deserve a star. I will just close my account with them. I regret opening this account and I will not advise anyone to use this bank. Don’t even try banking with them. I just pray Wells Fargo closes down because of their fraudulent activities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

One of CNBC’s talking heads claimed “all that was bad was known” and hence the stock was now a buy. My personal view is there’s more Wells Fargo naughtiness to emerge. And I wouldn’t touch WFC with a ten foot pole — either to short it or buy it. It’s far too volatile. Here’s its last five days:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"wellsfargo\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Does everyone know what a cockroach stock is?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Think your kitchen. One night you’ll walk in and Egbert will be having a nice meal. You’ll swat him with a rolled up copy of the New York Times.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Three days later, his brother Robert will appear. You’ll get him. A week later…. You get the idea. The cockroaches just keep on coming.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Ditto for a company that releases unusual bad news — like faking credit cards to earn fees. The most common cockroach problem is “accounting issues,” which delay the release of financial reports which are due.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
With Wells Fargo, a week later after the fakeing of credit cards, , the story emerges that Wells Fargo steals property it doesn’t own, hence earning more fees.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In their own time, WorldCom and Enron were cockroach stocks.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Will Wells Fargo follow them into bankruptcy?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Let’s keep watching for the next WFC cockroach.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
To help you identify them, here’s a Cockroach Identification Chart, which actually comes from Australia, home to some of the largest cockroaches in the world.<\/div>\n
\"cockroach-identification-guide\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Greatest gadget since sliced bread<\/strong><\/span>
\n \"ankercharger\"<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It will charge five things simultaneously — two iPhones, two iPads, and an Apple watch.<\/p>\n

Only $23.99 at (where else?) Amazon — click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

More stuff to read on Donald and Hillary<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

+ Donald Trump Doesn’t Believe in the Constitution
\nBeyond the Second Amendment, Trump shows outright disdain for the nation’s fundamental organizing document<\/p>\n

Click here.\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+\u00a0Hillary Clinton’s email misdemeanor might actually hand Donald Trump the presidency<\/p>\n

Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ Party Loyalty Can\u2019t Make Me Vote for Clinton
\nA lifelong Democrat, I\u2019m backing Trump because he can shake up our politics and revive the economy.<\/p>\n

Click here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why we miss Rodney Dangerfield — Part 2<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

+ My wife likes to talk to me during sex; last night she called me from a hotel.<\/p>\n

+ It’s been a rough day. I got up this morning and put a shirt on and a button fell off. I picked up my briefcase, and the handle came off. I’m afraid to go to the bathroom.<\/p>\n

+ I was such an ugly baby that my mother never breast fed me. She told me that she only liked me as a friend.<\/p>\n

+ I was so ugly my father carried around a picture of the kid that came with his wallet.<\/p>\n

+ One year they wanted to make me a poster boy — for birth control.<\/p>\n

+ When I was born, the doctor came into the waiting room and said to my father, “I’m sorry. We did everything we could, but he pulled through anyway.”<\/p>\n

+ I’m so ugly my mother had morning sickness AFTER I was born.<\/p>\n

+ Once when I was lost, I saw a policeman, and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him, “Do you think we’ll ever find them?<\/p>\n

“He said, “I don’t know kid. There’s so many places they can hide.”<\/p>\n

+ I went to see my doctor. “Doctor, every morning when I get up and I look in the mirror I feel like throwing up. What’s wrong with me?<\/p>\n

“He said: “Nothing, your eyesight is perfect.”<\/p>\n

\"HarryNewton\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Harry Newton, who wishes everyone a great weekend. It’s been a great week.<\/p>\n

P.S. I started my career as an investigative financial journalist for the Australian Financial Review. My writings there helped put six crooks behind bars. My gut says it’s time to put CEO Stumpf and\u00a0Carrie Tolstedt, head of Wells Fargo Community Banking, \u00a0behind bars for this latest scandal. At the very least, they should give back their bonuses. She collected $125 million. He got just under $200 million from Wells Fargo in bonuses and salary. It’s an amazing story. There will be more cockroaches from Wells Fargo in coming weeks. Trust me on this one.<\/p>\n