Capital One Down for the Count; to Cut 1,900 Jobs
August 21st, 2007Via: Newsday:
Turmoil in the financial markets claimed another company with workers in the metropolitan area Monday as Capital One Financial Corp. closed down GreenPoint Mortgage, a mortgage banker with operations in 31 states.
Capital One, which acquired GreenPoint when it bought Melville-based North Fork Bancorp last year, said about 1,900 employees nationwide will lose their jobs, including the 120 who work in GreenPoint’s Melville and Manhattan locations, its only offices in New York State.
In an announcement made after stock markets closed, McLean, Va.-based Capital One said that although GreenPoint Mortgage will immediately stop making new residential mortgage loans, it will continue to meet its contractual obligations for loans with locked rates that are already in the pipeline. The company will continue to service existing mortgages at a location in Columbus, Ga.
Richard Fairbank, Capital One’s chief executive, said in a memo to employees that the decision to close GreenPoint Mortgage was “very difficult” and was caused by “unprecedented disruption” in the markets where mortgage loans are sold to investors after they are made.
Remember those 1900 jobs were done be people with families to support. Some of these people no doubt are in their 50’s and will have a tough time finding another job. It is probably a good bet that some of the people who lost their jobs had mortgages out too and will probably end up joining the ranks of those defaulting on their mortgages. This mortgage debacle is like a row of dominos going down.
James Kuntsler’s evaluation of the Fed’s action to open the discount window to bail out these crackers:
“I have to guess that the losses and imbalances in the funds are now too grave to correct. The Federal Reserve has got to chose whether to let these outfits sink, or whether to sink the US dollar trying to bail them out.”
Sapphire, I myself am a victim of an economy that’s been sinking fast since about 2001. And I’m in my 50s. I’ve been fortunate enough to be sort of marginally employed, working from home, for the past few years. The money isn’t great, but at least I’m somewhat insulated from gas costs (which are still killing me), and food costs (because I’ve been “growing my own” as much as possible).
I read some statistics today that said the US wage-earner has steadily lost income over the past five years–for the first time since WWII. That would be me.
I really think the whole economy is slowly tanking. And I think it will tank, big time, in the next two years.
Hi Sharon, I agree the economy will probably tank in the next two years. I find it hard to believe when these financial types keep saying everything is rosy with the economy when our well paying manufacturing jobs are being outsourced to China. What is left are mostly shit paying customer service type jobs that can’t be outsourced such as burger flipper or cashier.
Well, if you were in your 50s, you’d find that no one is too eager to hire you, even as a cashier–since the over-50 crowd tends to get disoriented on the job, wander off, etc. I myself make more sense when I’m talking in my sleep than when wide awake–which is seldom.
Another drawback to hiring older workers is, we hail from an era when employees were treated a lot better and, being lost in a time-warp, we often bring the work-ethic of yesteryear into the modern workplace. We take coffee breaks, lunch breaks, and smoke breaks. (People fought and died for those coffee breaks; we’re taking ours.) We chat around the water cooler. We leave at 5:00 p.m. If a company vehicle totals our car in the parking lot, we file an insurance claim. (Nowadays, it’s my impression that the company kind of expects you to take the loss.) We keep thinking we have rights.