How were we supposed to know?

[flewellyn]

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:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

So, really...who was stupid? Who was a loser? Who failed?

Comments

[dorei.livejournal.com]

It was a combination, really. There definitely were some deadbeats out there who should never have been given a mortgage, who were irresponsible, and frankly, deserved to lose their home, and as my daughter likes to say, "I hope they die in a fire."

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.