Genius…or criminal…what do you think?

Genius…or criminal…what do you think?

Ok so I was at the hot springs in Desert Hot Spring (yeah I am crazy b/c it is usually like 115 degrees there but this was in the morning so it was like 90) and this lady starts talking to me.  She went on whine about how the bank “took her house” and that she had to declare bankruptcy (this is within 20 seconds of meeting me, btw).  She continued to try to make me feel bad for her by telling me about how all of her credit cards canceled her.  “I used to have every credit card,” she bragged.  So, basically she is not the brightest crayon in the box and unquestionably not a talented money manager to say the least, I know. 

She went on to boast about her son…and tell me that he is such a ‘genius’.  Why, you may ask?  Well she told me her son knew he was ‘under water’ with his house a few years back.  So, he willfully decided to ‘take out as much as he could’ on his house (maybe he had a line of credit and the bank didn’t rescind the line in time so he maxed it?) and then proceeded to pay cash for a new house (that was ‘way bigger and better’) and just ‘let the other one go.’  She told me, ‘he is the smartest guy in the world.’  In CA you can ‘walk away’ from a loan without repercussions, I’ve been told.

So, ok, admittedly many people did get ‘over their heads’ a few years back when the banks tried hard to convince everyone to ‘Tap into your home equity’ and that ‘Your house is your cash cow” and that is about as far as I will ever go agreeing with Michael Moore.  Not all of us fell for this, but Countrywide and many other banks did try hard to convince us.    That situation is different. 

What her son deliberately did was inexcusable IMHO!  The whole time she was telling me this story I really thought the act was criminal, not genius (though I didn’t tell her this b/c she was bigger than me and probably could’ve kicked my behind).  I know it isn’t ‘technically’ against the law but it is still criminal in my eyes.

What do you think?