Morgan Stanley (MS) is walking away from five office buildings it bought two years ago at the height of the market for $6.5 billion (that’s “B”… not “M”), which have since lost as much as 50% in value. The reason, says a corporate spokeswoman, “This isn’t a default or foreclosure situation… we are going to give (the lender) the properties to get out of the loan obligation.”So let me get this straight….Even as Banks were getting rewarded with billions in bailouts for pumping up the industry I work in to feed my family… so that they could profit on both the way up and especially on the way down by using trades that paid off with leverage when everything collapsed… I myself have gone on record, actually branding consumers and homeowners as “punks,” for strategically defaulting on loans that they realistically still have the means to continue paying.And all the while the banks have been spewing out rhetoric about how morally reprehensible it is to damage the fabric of our society by turning our backs on these contracts tthat underpin our agreements. So here we are, at the beginning of the most extreme financial crisis since the Great Depression. And, with the direct impact of bailouts that came straight from taxpayers, Morgan Stanley, which was saved from collapse due to its own irresponsibility, ended up clocking banner results this year… and the average compensation and benefits they paid each employee for just the first three quarters of 2009… was roughly $175,000… per employee. Now they “give (these) properties away to get out of the loan obligation”??And they have the blatant audacity to say in the same breath that “this isn’t a default or foreclosure situation”?Don’t take my word for it. Read the objective story from Bloomberg. For some subjective commentary, I recommend: Huffington Post and Calculated Risk.In the part I like best, Calculated Risk writes:

One of the greatest fears for lenders (and investors in mortgage backed securities) is that it will become socially acceptable for upside down middle class Americans to walk away from their homes…. I wonder if hearing about “rich” banks that are paying “large” bonuses walking away from commercial buildings also weakens the social pressure?

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