You’ve got stuck in a moment and now you can’t get out of it.
These lyrics to a song by Irish rock band U2 might best describe the mood at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s big annual conference this week in Boston.
There were dour panels on subprime loans gone bad. Plunging profits spawned predictions of massive layoffs in the industry.
But for the bankers and loan brokers in attendance, the glum mood was broken somewhat by U2 singer Bono, the featured speaker at the association’s gathering at the Hynes Convention Center. Bono is on the lecture circuit, using his rock superstar status to advocate for aid for the poor and disease-wracked of Africa.
“You’re sitting there thinking you’re having a bad day, and he’s talking about millions of people in Africa — the poverty,” said Maureen Ostrom, one of thousands who caught Bono’s speech at 8:30 a.m.
“It was just so inspirational,” she said, as co-worker Sal Mazzocca, seated next to her, sang a few bars of the U2 hit “Running to Stand Still.”
The thousands who crowded into the auditorium sat in rapt attention as Bono told a story of an Ethiopian father who once begged the singer to take his son home to Ireland with him so the boy would not die of starvation or AIDS.
With panels such as Subprime Market Portfolio Solutions for the Practitioners on the agenda yesterday, Bono’s appearance created the buzz among attendees. So much so that those who didn’t hear him regretted it right away.
“We were bummed we missed it,” said Mary Pirello, who heard a rumor that Bono — said to be just 5 feet 6 inches tall — wore platform shoes on the podium. His outsized image was projected on two giant video screens flanking the stage in the hall.
With thousands of subprime loans falling into foreclosure across the country, the mortgage industry is struggling because investors are refusing to put more capital into a troubled sector. And with thousands of borrowers losing their homes to foreclosure, some in the industry are engaged in some serious soul-searching.
But for an hour or so yesterday, Bono, the bankers said, transported them out of their day-to-day worries. Though he has urged wealthy nations to forgive the debts of poor countries in Africa, forgiveness of domestic mortgages was not on Bono’s agenda yesterday.
He instead charmed the bankers and lenders with stories about his “bad boy” days as a rocker. He also appealed to the audience’s collective conscience when he urged them to do humanitarian work or give to charities, even during tough times.
“It’s star power,” said Brian Thomas, a Wells Fargo amp; Co. employee attending the conference from Minneapolis.
And all this talk about Bono’s “really important” humanitarian work is great, said Ken Kummerer, who works for Southwest Securities in Chicago. But most who were there “love him because he’s Bono,” he said.
Said Valerie Harden, who works for JPMorgan Chase in Florida, “The reason people liked him was we’re so wrapped up in ourselves — what’s the interest rate and are we going to hit our quotas. He found the really important thing in life is to help people.”
Security around Bono’s visit was tight. Perhaps Bono didn’t want U2’s guitarist, the Edge, to learn that he was speaking — as he joked to the crowd — to a convention hall filled with bankers in black and blue suits. Bono also prohibited photographers, though a few attendees snapped pictures with their cellphones.
And Bono’s speech was strictly off the record, according to Mortgage Bankers Association staff, who were instructed not to talk to the press about it. Bono, who told the audience he flew in to Boston on a private jet, was whisked away after his talk.
Brandon Fox noticed “the mood has been a little lighter” since Bono’s appearance.
“Maybe,” said Fox, who works for eMortgage Logic in Fort Worth, “Bono did it.”
news by Kimberly Blanton via Boston Globe
