[speaker001:] well what's your thoughts on it
[speaker002:] okay I I think what happened with savings and loans is uh is what everyone says is they they made a lot of uh of not well secured loans on real estate and when uh the bottom fell out of the real estate market the bottom fell out of their loans
[speaker001:] um that's it that's that's the primary that and the loosening of the restrictions letting them ease up on their cash reserves and uh like you say all these bad real estate loans and energy loans
[speaker002:] right yeah
[speaker001:] um you know I I it's hard to say what caused it I mean you know if if the regulations hadn't been uh hadn't been relaxed maybe it wouldn't have happened but I somehow think it still would have you go in you start making massive investments in those two areas and you're you're just playing the market you know they were just gambling with their their savers' money
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] then of course then of course there was the fraud but you're going to have that anywhere so
[speaker002:] yeah I think right yeah that seemed to play a pretty big role I think because I don't know I get the feeling that the regulations probably needed to be a little a little more stringent
[speaker001:] yeah well so are they are they handling it right gee who knows
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] I don't don't even know if they know
[speaker002:] yeah it certainly has has uh the magnitude of the crisis it seems I don't know it it seems much greater than I would have thought it really just seems out of proportion talking they're talking four or five hundred billion dollars
[speaker001:] yeah yeah I that that's the part of it I couldn't understand I mean
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I I wonder if there's not a little bit of overzealousness there uh you know they say well this one went under because of bad energy loans bad real estate loans and then they go around classifying everybody as bad when in fact there are some very good
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] loans out there I mean not all real estate loans are bad you know the greatest majority of them are people who own their homes so you know those aren't exactly what you'd call bad I
[speaker002:] right no I think that a a typically bad loan is is that the ones that just took place massively in Houston when they put up these huge office buildings and spent
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah that exactly
[speaker002:] very large amounts of money and then could simply simply could not rent them out they couldn't even rent them out for expenses it was cheaper to keep them empty
[speaker001:] yeah yeah yeah the
[speaker002:] than to rent them at twenty percent occupancy
[speaker001:] yeah and and that's nothing more than speculation I mean they they
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] yeah it it seems that there should have been something in the regulations saying they couldn't do that I know banks can't do it
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh back when I used to play the commodities market I I tried to go to the bank to get a loan to buy gold and silver futures and they wouldn't let me
[speaker002:] well I mean just for me to mortgage my to to get a mortgage on my house I mean they invest investigated me personally to the point where I was insulted and I was putting forty thousand dollars down on a hundred and sixty thousand dollar house
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] I mean I would have thought gosh we're happy to do it just sign here you know but
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] I mean they had forty thousand dollars in equity and I mean they just wanted to see three years of income tax returns and all that bullshit which really sort of disturbed me
[speaker001:] and the and and then it yeah yeah and then and then some some rich yo-yo walks in there who's buddies with the bank president saying look I want to borrow
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] seven hundred thousand dollars so I can invest in this oil well they say oh sure no problem you're a good customer
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] yeah I I uh I run I run a little business on the side out of my home and I tried to uh get set up with my bank to accept MasterCard and Visa
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] you would think I was asking for an appointment with the president you know and basically what it came down to is they weren't going to let me have it
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] um they frown on home business they uh they they insist that you have a storefront
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] and that's just ludicrous I mean I mean the way things are going people are more and more working out of their homes I know a lot of people who do lawyers doctors uh architects consultants
[speaker002:] yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] they they work in their home there's no reason for them to have an office they they have very little customer contact and when they do they go to the customer
[speaker002:] right right
[speaker001:] so I mean you know what's the story on them you know are you going to let them have it well of course they're going to get it you know all you've got to do is have a nice big bank account balance and they'll give it to you
[speaker002:] yeah I uh I also run a little business out of my home on the side what's the nature of yours
[speaker001:] uh mail order primarily
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] me and my uh me and my roomie who's also my partner um well we lump everything under this business I mean we do just about everything he's into the computer end of things he does consulting and graphics design and
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] oh systems design I mean you name it he does that and then I handle the mail order and whatever else we do we do cat breeding I mean yeah it's all lumped under the business
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah cat breeding huh uh
[speaker001:] um yeah make a few bucks here and there on that
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but um we're we're there's several ways of getting set up to take MasterCard and Visa uh there's several banks out there the smaller banks who are trying to break into the market and they will take the risk on a home business um
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] there's I made I made a few contacts through CompuServe um talking about you know hey we're brokers for these banks you know it you don't pay us anything the bank pays us and
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] of course what you're dealing with is some somewhat higher costs like a two hundred and fifty dollar nonrefundable application fee
[speaker002:] right uh wow
[speaker001:] so if the bank turns you down well that's it you're out two hundred and fifty bucks
[speaker002:] that's not too great
[speaker001:] no I I'm I'm I'm leery of it I know that's the way it works um but and as long as you can meet their requirements there there's very little chance they'll turn you down and they do have some requirements like you have to be registered with the State and you have to have
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] a business address and you have to have a business phone line and then you have to have a separate line for their equipment that kind of stuff uh but if meet all those chances are they'll approve you so we're looking at that
[speaker002:] yeah yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] so we're looking at that it's just it's just hard to give somebody two hundred and fifty bucks on a chance you know
[speaker002:] yeah I would I would find that uh a little bit disarming
[speaker001:] yeah what what business do you do
[speaker002:] it's a computer business
[speaker001:] yeah yeah my uh my roomie is down in Charlotte right now he's got an internship down at IBM
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so business has sort of come to a standstill
[speaker002:] I see where does does he go to school here
[speaker001:] yeah he's at uh he's at NC State
[speaker002:] I see okay what's what's his name I might know him
[speaker001:] uh Floro Chrisostimo
[speaker002:] uh-huh okay I guess I don't
[speaker001:] do you by are you by any chance out at the campus
[speaker002:] uh no huh-uh
[speaker001:] oh okay because the last guy I talked to was out on the campus
[speaker002:] I see ha
[speaker001:] it was how did how did you get involved in this
[speaker002:] um I've got a a friend who's in the business who just gave me this application
[speaker001:] yeah he he picked this thing up from school and brought it home and I said yeah sure I'll do it why not
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] and he signed up for it and then of course he moved off to Charlotte so now I'm stuck making his calls too
[speaker002:] I see
[speaker001:] gosh I don't know what I got roped into
[speaker002:] ha so uh oh well whatever it's five bucks a shot what the heck
[speaker001:] yeah yeah what the heck I'm surely not going to count this as business income
[speaker002:] yeah um really well speaking of that I think we've probably given them their money's worth
[speaker001:] oh yeah no doubt about it I I usually go until the the recording comes on
[speaker002:] oh I see I've never gone that long that's
[speaker001:] have you yeah that it it'll cut you in about ten minutes
[speaker002:] oh I see
[speaker001:] uh they used to it used to say you have exceeded the ten minute recording limit but now they just say uh we're sorry our recording capacity is limited today you know a nicer way of saying you talked too long
[speaker002:] yeah yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] but anyway if you need to get going we'll we'll terminate okay well good talking to you maybe we'll maybe we'll chat again
[speaker002:] all right bye-bye
[speaker001:] all right later on man bye bye