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How were we supposed to know?
I keep seeing posts on the blagosphere, and hearing in the news, about people who are absolutely infuriated at the mere idea of using any bailout money to help people with failing mortgages directly. Give it to the wealthy corporations who leveraged those bad mortgages into oblivion and wrecked the economy? Sure, no problem. But give money to people who might otherwise lose their homes? Gasp, no! We can't have that! Those people were stupid and didn't do their homework! We can't be going around rewarding stupidity and failure! They should have KNOWN that this would happen!
Really?
Well, let's have a look at this clip from the Daily Show, which once again proves that the best news reporting in America is coming from comedians, of all places:
So, really...who was stupid? Who was a loser? Who failed?
Really?
Well, let's have a look at this clip from the Daily Show, which once again proves that the best news reporting in America is coming from comedians, of all places:
So, really...who was stupid? Who was a loser? Who failed?
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There were also a great number of folks who thought they were agreeing to one type of loan, had agreed to one type of loan, and got the old bait and switch at the table. Having gone through a few refinancings, I can tell you that reading through that paperwork really DOES need a law degree, or a personal attorney on retainer to come with you to closing to make sure that what you're signing is what you'd intended to actually contract. And those mortgage folks should, like the deadbeats, die in a fire.
Then you have the next set of victims -- folks that paid on time, still pay on time, but did an adjustable mortgage that's coming up on adjustment time, and suddenly can't refinance, because hey, all these foreclosures and lousy economy has tanked your home's value and you are now either underwater on your mortgage -- you owe more than the house is worth -- or, like me, you own less than 20% equity and to refinance now would require you to pay extra cash at the table in order to refinance into a standard loan.
So, yeah, while I'd like some of those in the first group to die in a fire, I'm still willing to bail em out. Y'know why? Because it will help MY home's value to increase. Empty houses means squatters, which means an increase in crime, which means further depreciation in the neighborhood. Thanks, but no. Give them a way out of the hole they dug themselves into, but hey, maybe require them to go to some finance class to figure out how not to do it again.
But those shady mortgage brokers? They can still die in a fire.
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Uhm, the Congress that passed legislation requiring banks to loosen up on their mortgage qualifications, the bankers who convinced people that, say, 40% of your gross income is a reasonably affordable mortgage (I had brokers tell me that 15 years ago when we were shopping for our first home and making oh, 1/3 to 1/2 what we're making now), the people who never learned or never just plain bothered to *budget* their income and figure out for *themselves* how much mortgage they really *could* afford rather than taking the word of the broker, and again, the Congress that decided the best way to fix the debt mess was to write a $10e12 mortgage against our grandchildrens' economic future in a bad-money-after-good bandaid to try to hide the melanoma on the body economic for another election cycle.
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The real blame falls on the banks that leveraged bad loans 35 to 1.
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Whatever, I think I saw it anyways.
I normally like Jim Cramer. If this is what I think it is though? He messed up, and it's fair game. He should just let this one go. He's looking petty here.
It makes me glad that Canada has a much more stable banking system. Everything is backed with equity and such.
It's ridiculous that people are so filled with hate at the people who have lost their houses. I'd laugh at how selfish and short sighted these people were if they were not so influential as that they are treated more seriously than they frankly deserve.
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BRILLIANT!