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Sunday, May 6, 2012

My mortgage company, my Ally, in more ways than one

Let me get this straight: As an American taxpayer, I own a stake in Ally Financial, formerly GMAC, which also happens to be the company to which I make monthly mortgage payments.

If I miss my mortgage payment (and I never have), I get harassed on the phone and my credit rating goes in the toilet.

If Ally Financial's mortgage unit, ResCap, misses a $20 million payment like it did in mid-April, it is in "asset protection mode" and "depositors and creditors seem relatively unfazed," according to today's New York Times.

The story concludes, "Given the ties between ResCap and its parent company, Ally will almost certainly have to write a check to escape this mess. The only question is how big that check will have to be."

Begging the Times reporter's pardon, but I have another question: As an Ally customer (through no choice of my own; my mortgage was bundled and sold to Ally) and a putative shareholder in the company, how am I going to get the shaft? Because if there's one thing I know it's that foul smelly stuff (and you know what I'm talking about) always flows downhill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/business/troubled-mortgage-unit-threatens-ally-financial.html?hp