HARMONY

Part 4 "The world went upside down"

Author's note:  Part of the this family's journey, which reflects what literally millions of families were experiencing in 2008, is the financial crisis.  I'm not good with money, Wall Street, the economy or even numbers--so I keep everything very simple.  

But, it's important to see the impact of this had on very good, very hard working people. Families.  Like mine.  And yours.   Don't worry so much about the financial terms.  Worry about the people.

So, in this part, you'll see how Steve (the dad) had to lay off a lot of employees.  They worked hard and didn't do anything wrong.  But, he couldn't pay them. 

This scene was repeated hundreds of thousands of times across our nation. 

Remember, Steve owns an Brokerage Firm.  His firm might loan the Smith family $500,000 to buy a house.  The Smith family signs the loan papers that says they promise to make a payment every month, plus interest, for 30 years.  

But, Steve's firm can't wait 30 years for the loan to be paid back because his firm needs the money to loan to the Miller family.  So, Steve sells the Smith's loan to a big bank, like Bank of America or Wells Fargo.  Now, Steve has made some money and can do this all again. The Big Bank will make money because now the Smith family will be paying the Bank.  

It was the perfect system.  Until it wasn't. 

***** 

In his signature motion, Steve pulled off his glasses, smoothed his designer tie and turned to gaze out the corner office window. Jet planes cut through the early summer smog to land in perfect succession at the Orange County John Wayne Airport.

Chad walked in with the sounds of ringing phones, beeping faxes and the endless click-click of keyboards from cubicles outside Steve's office. He closed the door and perched himself on the edge of Steve's desk. "Two tickets," he said. "You, me, a couple of cold beers from my dad's fridge, just like the—"

"Don't say that in here," Steve replied. "And I told you, I'm not going."

"I got two words for you dude 'Wicked Snicker," Chad said. He set the tickets down with eggshell precision. "My guy got us pit seats."

Biting on the corner of his glasses, Steve pointed to the flat screen perpetually tuned to MSMBC. The sound muted, they both looked at the talking heads. "Do you have any idea what actually happened today?" Steve asked.

Chad's lanky figure walked to the remote on the mini-square conference table. His home-ironed blue shirt, not quite tucked into his beige pants, struggled to extend to his wrist as he held out the remote toward the TV. Channels flipped. "Another bank had way too many bad loans," he said, finally landing on ESPN. "And went down."

"I just got off the phone with accounting." Steve slid the concert tickets to the side . "They agree with legal. There's just no other options at this point."

Running his hands through his mousy-brown hair in need of a cut, Chad set the remote down on Steve's desk and resumed his place on the edge. "Bean counters and paper pushers. They don't know how we rock it here." He looked to the screen. "Kobe better not have his head up his ass tonight."

With a click, ESPN went black. Steve put the remote in his drawer. "Indymac is the fourth largest bank failure in US history." He lowered his voice and pointed at the blank screen. "This is on top of JP Morgan taking Bear Stearns and all reports say Countrywide's on the ropes."

Chad bobbed and weaved, throwing air punches. "We'll come back in the final round, like we always do."

Steve pushed a few loose papers into a folder and locked them in a cabinet. He pulled the handle twice to confirm the drawer was secure. "Who's left to buy our sub prime loans? Who?"