Monday, March 31, 2008

Regarding the Mortgage Meltdown

Seems to me that this administration watched leisurely as the barn door came open and the horses began to stampede out. Some in the administration even encouraged the horses to escape.

Now that all the horses have left the barn the administration is simply looking at the barn door and pretending they don’t know how it came open in the first place.

Most Americans could see what would happen with all those magical mortgage offers we saw advertised on our TV, in our mail and on our voice mail. You could see it coming a mile away, yet the government just sat back and watched as crimes were committed. Yes, I think some of those magical mortgage promises were lies and crimes. Sure, there were the speculators and there were even some ignorant people who were preyed upon, but a lot of the families facing foreclosure today were just plain duped.

However the mess became as large as it is today, the horses are out of the barn and until the government tries to find them and corral them, I believe fixing the barn door can wait.

15 Comments:

Blogger Matthew Hubbard said...

Absolutely right, PoP. It was part of their Ownership Society idea. Their logic, such as it is, went something like this, I think.

Neighborhoods with more homeowners are better neighborhoods, so anything that creates more homeowners makes neighborhoods better.

Did they care if people would be saddled with enormous, unsupportable debt? I don't know if they thought it through that far. I'm sure that they got plenty of campaign contributions that convinced them to look the other way when they could have done some regulating.

Some of the Republican's stated goals sound perfectly acceptable. But when you see No Child Left Behind and The Ownership Society, it's like the old legends of dealing with the devil. Any deal struck with these people is going to be a disaster for the suckers foolish enough to sign on the dotted line.

March 31, 2008 4:11 AM  
Blogger Distributorcap said...

matty has it

this ownership society "premise" is so rife with fraud and abuse and it preys upon so many unsuspecting people\

anything bush does to alleviate this problem will make it worse -- we might just have to let the horses run free for a few months

aaargh

March 31, 2008 4:51 AM  
Blogger FreakyNick said...

The thing that surprises me, is how many people say that this is a surpise.

Yet for three years I've been hearing economists YELL the warning about the housing "bubble", and the variable rate mortgages rates increasing and causing many forclosures.

Yet now we are rescuing these banks and mortgage holders like this was an unforeseen disaster. They were warned and ignored the warning, although they shouldn't starve or become homeless, they do need to pay for their mistakes.

If I buy a risky stock and lose thousands, I have no one to turn to bail me out.

March 31, 2008 5:19 AM  
Blogger JM said...

This administration has excelled at releasing the forces of chaos, then sitting back and acting like nothing is wrong. They have lowered the bar of expectations to the point where I expect nothing other than empty words, which actually is preferable to some of their incompetent actions.

March 31, 2008 5:57 AM  
Blogger Mike said...

Honestly, I saw this coming a long time ago. I have always said that if a house is not worth the sticks, nails, and glue it took to build it, you probably shouldn't mortgage your soul for $300,000 to pay for it.

The thing that worries me the most is that this current joke of an administration is making efforts to "fix" the problem. I wish to God they'd just leave it alone. I think we've all seen how good they are at "fixing" things.

Fixing things = making them worse.

March 31, 2008 6:12 AM  
Blogger Forty Paws said...

I agree with Mike. The last thing this administration needs to do is try and fix this mess. And they definitely don't need to gain more power over the regulation of the economy or get into the housing buyout business. Are they going to buy up these $300k+ houses and turn them into HUD homes? Lovely.

March 31, 2008 6:27 AM  
Blogger robin andrea said...

You should read Krugman today in the NYTimes. This administration's solution to the mortgage and financial meltdown is merely to paint the open barn door. See, now isn't it pretty? Oh yeah, it's also going to throw billions of our tax dollars away. It's always very, very adept at doing that.

March 31, 2008 7:31 AM  
Blogger SB Gypsy said...

It's even worse than that - he wants to group all the doors on one wall, but leave them all open.

March 31, 2008 7:47 AM  
Blogger Targa said...

The interesting thing about this mortgage mess is that the apologists are now saying that this is an excellent market opportunity. Now is the time to buy.
Yep... a conservative acquaintance called me up and said, "Hey, Targa, now's a good time to move back to California and pick up a good deal."

I'm not kidding.

March 31, 2008 8:46 AM  
Blogger dguzman said...

What Targa said just kills me, but it doesn't surprise me. It seems like there are always people ready to say "oh but now's the time to buy!" -- but like those who got rich by working with the nazis, these opportunists are merely taking advantage of other people's misery.

Anyone who claims they're surprised by this--when the lenders weren't even bothering to verify income, for pete's sake--is either lying or stupid.

March 31, 2008 10:06 AM  
Blogger Fran said...

Yes - what everyone else said. Especially Robin Andrea and the Krugman column about the tromp l'oiel of the barn door.

I feel ill.

March 31, 2008 2:51 PM  
Blogger Dean Wormer said...

I'm trying to figure out how we don't have an economy that's not some sort of weird aristo-socialist hybrid. I had always thought risk was part of capitalism but it seems risk is never applied to the wealthy and the corporations. They get bailouts.

Only the non-rich get risk.

March 31, 2008 4:30 PM  
Blogger two crows said...

fwiw, on the day the fed was bailing out Bears-Sterns, I heard on NPR that Bush was holding a little tete-a-tete in the rose garden with the on-the-leash press. according to the account, Bush was hamming it up for the cameras and, at one point, even broke into a little soft-shoe.

does anyone want to try to convince me that this situation didn't go EXACTLY as his handlers wanted it to go?
I'm not certain HOW it helps their bottom lines but his reaction suggests to me that it does.

April 02, 2008 6:43 PM  
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