Mark Winston Griffith

A Subprime Christmas Carol Comes to Wall Street

Nothing warms your heart during the holiday season like a good ole fashioned Christmas carol! The folks at the National Training and Information Center, in light of the billions in bonuses getting handed out by Wall Street investment firms, wrote jingles that capture the sentiment of many homeowners facing foreclosure. Given the role Wall Street played in fueling the subprime loan and foreclosure crises, organizations like NTIC, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and NEDAP have been pressing Wall Street investment firms to donate their holiday bonuses to a loan fund for homeowners facing foreclosure.

You can sing along to one of these holiday songs on YouTube

And here are a couple more that will warm your heart:

Goldman, the two-faced i-bank
(sung to the tune of Rudolph, the red nose reindeer)

You know Merrill and Morgan and Lehman and Citi
J.P. and Wamu and Bofa and Barclay's
But do you recall?
The most famous i-bank of all?

Goldman the two-faced i-bank
Gave out very shoddy loans
And if you ever saw them
You'd wonder how its profits rose

All of the other i-banks
Lost billions on the subprime game
How did that crooked Goldman
Come away with all the fame?

Because it knew how bad it was
And it stoked the flames
At the same time that it made bad loans
It bet that folks would lose their homes

Right now it's bonus season
And we're shouting "don't you see!
Goldman the two-faced i-bank
Pay now or pay in history!"

Frosty the Goldman

Frosty the Goldman
Was a very crafty soul
With a gilded pipe and a lot of dough
And a heart made out of coal

Frosty the Goldman
Was too smart to lose they say
He made awful loans
But he sure did know
How to swindle us for pay

There must have been some magic
In that goldman pipe he smoked
For when he held it to his lips
He made bank and we went broke

Frosty the Goldman
Was as rich as rich can be
But still he'd say
"Make the poor folks pay!
And bring their homes right back to me"

Frosty the Goldman
Knew there had to be a way
To boost his funds
At the end of the run
On the backs of the subprime prey

He plundered and pillaged
Like a felon on the lam
Running here and there all around De Beers
Saying catch me if you can

He led us down the road to debt
And before the market dropped
He even bet we'd lose our homes
And now we holler STOP!

(thief!)

Frosty the Goldman
It is soon your bonus day
Stop telling us lies
We can rhyme "securitize"
And you sure as hell can pay

thumpety thump thump
thumpety thump thump
Look at Goldman go

thumpety thump thump
thumpety thump thump
Give up your dirty dough

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Mark Winston Griffith: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 8:34 AM, Dec 14, 2007 in Financial Justice
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