John Crudele

John Crudele

Business

Dear John: I won’t budge on bit-‘cons’

Readers: Over the past two weeks, I explained why bitcoins are a confidence game — a con. There’s no real value in this digital “money,” unless people think there is value. In other words, there needs to be confidence in the value or the value disappears.

It’s like every other con ever perpetrated. That’s my opinion.

What’s curious is that I’ve been inundated with people trying to convince me that I’m wrong. And I think that’s very funny.

Why is it so important to these people that, I too, believe? Are they worried that little old me might cause others to realize the extent of this latest confidence game? I’m flattered that they think I have such clout.

But in trying so hard to convince me they are actually proving my point. Bitcoins — which are backed by nothing but digital hype — can’t exist if too many people join my point of view.

Bitcoins are nothing more than digital dung unless everyone believes. And, like it or not, I don’t. This is the latest scam to separate people from their hard-earned money. If you don’t like that opinion, you can get a column of your own and share your views.


Readers: I ran this letter in February:

Dear John: I read your article in the New York Post from the son of an elderly woman who was trying to get a loan modification from Wells Fargo. It sounds like my story. Back in October 2011, I hired a firm called The State Law Group and paid them $2,500 to represent me.

Apparently they did nothing except go out of business, leaving me high and dry. The last six months, I have been dealing directly with Wells Fargo and sending and re-sending the same documents every couple of weeks. I do not know what they do with the documents. They always seem to get lost.

The State Law Group told me not to pay my mortgage until the modification went through because it would look better for my case. Now I am behind in my payments for over a year and fear losing my home. I am not a well woman, am wheelchair-bound, my husband had a stroke and is not working and all this back and forth is making us sick.

We are not in a position to hire a lawyer because we are on a fixed income. I hope all this time and energy is not for nothing and their answer is not foreclosure because I have nowhere to go. I have a ramp, so I can get in and out of my house, and United Way provided for my home to be made handicap accessible. Could you please help me? M.L.

I sent this to a lawyer I know who also helped the previous readers and I got this note from M.L. this week:

Hi John!

As you know I had been trying endlessly to get a loan modification. I kept sending papers, they would lose them and I had to resend them.

This went on for almost a year without any resolution. Then the law firm I was working with went bankrupt. I wrote to you that my husband was unemployed and you sent me to the Law Office of Donald Neidhart located at 3579 Bayview St., Seaford, NY 11783.

Within a few months I got my modification with satisfactory terms from Wells Fargo. And they got my Home Equity Loan wiped out.

I thank you and Mr. Neidhart’s office for helping me get this modification because I got nowhere on my own, went to a company that took money (that I had to borrow for them to start) and went belly up.

And thanks to Migdalia Leahy, the person in Mr. Neidhart’s office who worked diligently for me to resolve this matter. Thanks again. M.L.

Dear M.L. Thank you for keeping me up to date on this. I’m glad things worked out and I hope your luck changes for the better from now on.

I’d like to also thank Wells Fargo. If the bank wasn’t willing to cooperate, then there was nothing that I or Neidhart’s office — which, I should mention, did this for free — could have done. Sometimes, paperwork just gets lost at the bank, and it really isn’t intentional.

Dear John: It’s crazy that General Motors doesn’t care about other drivers.

I’m often on Route 83 (Pennsylvania-to-DC route), where the 65 mph signs are followed by the ones warning of deer.

I would find it scary to encounter a deer even at 30 mph.
And they want me to avoid one at 65. And now, in addition to stray deer, I have to worry about stray Camaros whose ignitions have suddenly turned off?

GM should immediately demand all Camaros come in for a big “C” to be painted on the trunk and hood, in neon paint, so other drivers can be warned. S.L.

Dear S.L. This year GM is concentrating on caring about the people who drive its cars. It won’t start caring about the people who drive other cars until 2015.

Is the “C” you want painted on the Camaro going to stand for “cool?” Because the car really is. And I’m tired of people — mostly tourists — asking if they can take a picture of my car (without asking me to be in it).

I called GM the other day to inquire when it was going to fix the fact that my ignition can be turned off while I’m driving just by turning the key to the off position. The company said it would give me a new key — the old one is too big.

Let me say right now that I’ll testify against GM in the first trial of a Camaro owner who gets hurt because of the company’s ignorance. I’ll even wear a suit.