I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Chimpeach!
sticks and stones
People who don't pay their mortgages should be sent to liberal mountain.
Mortgages! For free! No money down, no interest payments until April 2007!
You go, Hillary!
We do need to do something. From what I've read, it could spin this country into recession if we don't.
That makes perfect sense to me.
I really don't understand why lenders would want to hold pat on mortgages that are about to go under.
They almost ALWAYS lose money on REO property.
Always.
Did Hillary vote for the recently passed bankruptcy reform? Is she a wolf in sheep's clothing? She answers to the same $$$$.
Bush Boom - feel it.
I've waited to buy because I didn't WANT to get one of these stupid loans.
I'm interested in taking out a mortgage to buy a night of passion with Candy Crowley. Is that the subprime market? Or do I need to check out some other market?
.
We do need to do something. From what I've read, it could spin this country into recession if we don't.
mer
Prevent Halliburton from moving to Dubai and then nationalize it or sue it into oblivion to divest it of its ill gotten gains.
I have to say that I hope the coming crisis brings prices down in my area.
All I see if building of condos going up EVERYWHERE.
I am praying for a glut.
My guess is, even under the current political leadership, the government would end up buying significant numbers of rotten subprime CMOs, then going easier on the borrowers.
Accomplishes two things:
1. Less newly-homeless people in a surly mood.
2. More dollars in the system, shrinking in some sense the nominal national debt.
Inflationary? Sure. But don't tell me that's a surprise.
There was money in the shuffle. The lender stacks the deals, bundles them and sells off the package within the rate-stable tine-frame, then the bad guy gets to sic ya.
Original lender has clean hands and a tidy profit.
I'm interested in taking out a mortgage to buy a night of passion with Candy Crowley. Is that the subprime market? Or do I need to check out some other market?
Silly corpse.
She'll pay YOU to fuck HER. No mortgage necessary.
Mortgages! For free! No money down, no interest payments until April 2007!
watertiger
Oh, go put on your jammies.
Ummmm... Hill The Federal Housing Administration does not MAKE loans it INSURES them.
.
There was money in the shuffle. The lender stacks the deals, bundles them and sells off the package within the rate-stable tine-frame, then the bad guy gets to sic ya.
Original lender has clean hands and a tidy profit.
Depends on who holds the servicing.
Believe me, it will be a nightmare for everyone involved.
Yeah, I ummm, kind of resent this.
I've waited because I didn't have a real down payment, and thought the prices were wildly inflated (sure I could have bought anyway, with the way things have been wrt credit, but I thought it was stupid).
I don't want people to lose their homes, but I really don't want overpriced houses subsidized either, I'd like to see the prices fall back to their sane rates, rather than gov't. artificially propping them up.
Nice bank ya got here - shame if something were to 'appen to it.
Where's the first comment attacking Hillary for pandering to the capitalist bosses?
Hmmm?
gwb:drf
Wage stagnation+ inflated housing prices+ junk mortgages = Half the country living in cardboard townhouses soon.
Betcha this is a bigger problem in red states.
And this is, of course, good news for repukelicans.
Oh, go put on your jammies.
I did!!!
Oh, go put on your jammies.
I did!!!
Hillary reads Eschaton? who knew?
Look, you want to help home owners and the economy or put pallets of $100 bills on 747s and fly them to Iraq?
OT, but presented for your perusal, a hopefully amusing editorial cartoon.
And mortgage securitization on it's face isn't evil or the main problem.
When the underlying product is sound, securitization puts liquidity into the market.
The problem is all these lenders lending money to people who can't afford it. Which has artificially fueled the housing market, blah, blah, blah.
Rinse and repeat.
Did Hillary vote for the recently passed bankruptcy reform?
No.
She didn't vote at all.
That's when her husband had his heart attack.
Oh, go put on your jammies.
I did!!!
watertiger
MEEEEOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwrrrr...
Finster!
"Oh, go put on your jammies."
I did!!!
Now take them off... slowly...
Hillary is no liberal. She talks about mortgages and shit. Why isn't she going after the banks? I'll never trust her again.
gwb:drf
Hey.
Wingnut in a donut shop this morning, going on and on about Waxman interrupting Toensing to say 'that's not the question I asked,' he clearly thinks Waxman did it because she had it all over him with her 'I wrote the law' thing.
I wanted to snap back at him, but was unsure, but what time restrictions the committee had for questioning.
Am I correct in thinking that the Nazis wouldn't agree to the hearings unless everything was truncated (thus giving Toensing the chance to filibuster and run out the clock)?
And if so, why did they have that power? Some sort of minority power to obstruct (that I thought you only found in the Senate)?
I need to be able to smack this guy down. Otherwise I can't go get a donut tomorrow morning 
.
She didn't vote at all. That's when her husband had his heart attack.
That's Slick Willy for you!
"Look, you want to help home owners and the economy or put pallets of $100 bills on 747s and fly them to Iraq?"
being THE GREATESTEST COUNTRY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD(TM) we should be able to do both. however, we shouldn't be helping homeowners as much as bailing out lenders..that's the GOP/DLC way.
Wingnut in a donut shop...
Wasn't that a Maria Muldaur album?
People who don't pay their mortgages should be sent to liberal mountain.
The Kenosha Kid |
They say don't go
on Liberal Mountain
if you're lookin'
for a wife
'cause them liberals
got purdy youg daughters
They're mighty handy
with snark and a knife....
Subprime is not causing "massive issues" on Wall Street, with the exception of a few actual subprime lenders (New Century, Accredited, Novastar, etc.). Those guys are having massive issues, but the rest of the market has held in pretty well since that awful Tuesday in late February. Its ridiculous, straight line climb since last summer has come to an end, but it had to sometime.
Not saying it's not a problem, just that it hasn't yet taken the stock market down all that far.
I wanted to snap back at him, but was unsure, but what time restrictions the committee had for questioning.
THe correct answer is that Toensing was trying to filisbuster that Plame didn't meet the definition of "covert" under the narrow language of the law.
I think she's wrong and so does the director of the CIA.
Also, doesn't matter if the outing falls under the narrow definitions of the statute.
It was still wrong and damaging to reveal her identity at ANY time.
Wingnut in a donut shop...
Wasn't that a Maria Muldaur album?
I thought it was the Smiths.
Oh wait. That was Girlfriend in a Coma.
Sorry.
.
Damn! Ntodd stole my "N"!
No possible way, sorry. Instant bailouts on highly favorable terms are only for well connected influential politicians we know, and we do not give anything to the people we live off of, unless we can make some serious additional cash into the bargain. What are you, a communist?
=*=
Credit Suisse analyst is one of the few calling this straight.
As for the others, too much of a three-or-four-way prisoner's dilemma.
Well, if you can sell just about any mortgage you write on the secondary market, seems to me you have less incentive to make it work long-term, both for you and your mortgagor.
Just another fiscal mess for the Democrats to clean up...
TM Dave, it's a good cartoon, but I don't understand what the guy with the typewriter has to do with the guy on the radio. Is he typing up a transcript? Am I overthinking this?
Wingnut in a donut shop...
Wasn't that a Maria Muldaur album?
dave™© | Homepage | 03.17.07 - 3:26 pm | #
No, no, it's Morrissey.
Wingnut with a doughnut, I know, I know he's serious
Wingnut in a donut shop this morning, going on and on about Waxman interrupting Toensing to say 'that's not the question I asked,' he clearly thinks Waxman did it because she had it all over him with her 'I wrote the law' thing.
Just tell someone like that he's full of shit. He's making it up as he goes along, anyway.
MEEEEOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwrrrr...
I think we need to explain.
Auntie GWPDA sent me the coolest pair of pajamas.
They're tiger-striped. And they look FAAAAAAAAAAAAABULOUS!
I'm no economist, but my guess is most people in danger of foreclosure don't have alot of money in stocks.
It'll prolly hit the market somewhere down the pike.
Of course, I may have no idea what I'm talking about.
Just remind your wingnut donut scarfer that if Plame was EVER covert, and she was, then revealing her identity at ANY time fucked up her career and put everyone that ever worked for her, at any time, at risk.
I swear I didn't read yours first, Mr. Chief Justice.
what?
Victoria Toensing, partisan hack and ignrornat bitch, testifies in fronto fo Wasy's commitee?
Not saying it's not a problem, just that it hasn't yet taken the stock market down all that far.
There's rumblings about Merrill Lynch and other investment houses being more involved in the subprime market than people thought. That could be a real problem.
.
Auntie GWPDA sent me the coolest pair of pajamas.
They're tiger-striped. And they look FAAAAAAAAAAAAABULOUS!
Oh, nice!!
Damn! Ntodd stole my "N"!
NTodd took all the Ns off the computer keyboard in Vermot and ew York.
I wanted to snap back at him, but was unsure, but what time restrictions the committee had for questioning.
Tell the wingnut in the donut shop that Toenails drinks Chardonnay, drives a Volvo, buys her dresses at the same shop as Nancy Pelosi, and that her husband smokes Cuban cigars.
When the underlying product is sound, securitization puts liquidity into the market.
The problem is all these lenders lending money to people who can't afford it. Which has artificially fueled the housing market, blah, blah, blah.
**
well, there is your juxto.
The problem is that the industry opened up a new target, bullseye on the poor credit risks, by relaxing regulations.
Short-term gains defines the GOPer-styled, shitty application of capitalism.
I thought the black silk edging and buttons were particularly soigne'.
Arthur liked the buttons a -lot-.
Kenosha:
I overthink so.
I'm going to set my house on fire.
So where is Bush this weekend? God forbid he spends a weekend working.
I don't understand what the guy with the typewriter has to do with the guy on the radio. Is he typing up a transcript?
No, he's an accountant with an adding machine. One of the parts I still have to work on! The tape will show the difference between the cost of Starr's investigation ($64 million) and Fitzgerald's ($2.5 million, appx._.
My motto is: all feedback's good.
Just tell someone like that he's full of shit. He's making it up as he goes along, anyway.
dave™© | Homepage
like most wingers
they play talking points like Gene Krupa, except he was talented
Victoria Toensing, partisan hack and ignrornat bitch, testifies in fronto fo Wasy's commitee?
Not only that, but behaved as if she were on a Fox TV panel.
I swear I didn't read yours first, Mr. Chief Justice.
Beer me Marge.
.
"That could be a real problem."
.
--William H. Rehnquist
What do you know? You're dead.
:winky face:
Well, that's a nice change in Sen. Clinton's rhetoric, and I hope it continues and that it's backed up with some action in the Senate.
Yes, folks made foolish decisions, but many of those decisions were made on the basis of some truly egregious lies by the sub-prime mortgage sellers.
I admit to a bias. I'm willing to cut naive individuals far more slack than I am financial con artists.
They're tiger-striped. And they look FAAAAAAAAAAAAABULOUS!
Take a picture.
Just remind your wingnut donut scarfer that if Plame was EVER covert, and she was, then revealing her identity at ANY time fucked up her career and put everyone that ever worked for her, at any time, at risk.
fourlegsgood, kittenslave | Homepage | 03.17.07 - 3:29 pm | #
Yes, of course...my parting shot (directed at this OTHER asshole, who grinned and said something about 'the left will say anything') was 'yeah, and rightwingers will countenance anything. Like treason, when it's their side doing it.'
Still, I think that other thing is a developing meme.
So where is Bush this weekend? God forbid he spends a weekend working.
Pounding green beers at Hooters.
.
Bush is drunk as a skunk and his handlers are trying to keep him away from the telephone. Dialing while drunk is not good, especially when a President does it.
gwb:drf
Well, if you can sell just about any mortgage you write on the secondary market, seems to me you have less incentive to make it work long-term, both for you and your mortgagor.
The truth is that if you're writing good product, you should be able to get a better price when you sell the loan.
OT, but Leprechaun is on SciFI channel.
And I must go to get food for Maddie.
Not only that, but behaved as if she were on a Fox TV panel.
watertiger
why wouldn't she, it's not like the revelaing of state secrets for partisna reasons is wrong
I'm pretty sure Hillary intended to vote no on the bankruptcy bill--I wrote to both her and Schumer asking them to oppose it and I remember getting a response from Hillary that she opposed it.
Of course, I could have a hazy memory!
So where is Bush this weekend?
Clearing brush in Crawford. It's that time of year again.
.
New Century Financial would make loans, then repackage (or more likely have someone else repackage) the loans into securitized obligations which could be sold like semi-exotic bonds.
So, NCF makes the loans, resells them, and buys Ferraris with the profit generated thereby. They're not on the hook for loan delinquincies at this point, even their name may be on the payment envelopes mailed in (or not) each month by borrowers.
Wall Street question is, who owns those home-loan bonds? Hedge funds, underestimating the probability of interest rate increases or other repayment problems? Or the big banks/wire houses themselves? If "global financial services firm x" has large-scale exposure to mortgages which aren't about to be repaid, this becomes a Wall Street problem pretty quickly.
Not only that, but behaved as if she were on a Fox TV panel.
She was an obnoxious twit.
SWheets...again.
Well if she's serious good for her - I agree. Let's see if she follows through.
being THE GREATESTEST COUNTRY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD(TM) we should be able to do both. however, we shouldn't be helping homeowners as much as bailing out lenders..that's the GOP/DLC way.
jdw
*
heh, yeah now that it is a fullblown lender problem, the GOP-DLC hears it.
Take a picture.
I gotta get a pair of tiger ears.
Back later batses.
Incidentally, when I was on Wall Street, this was my business.
So where is Bush this weekend?
drinkin
What do you know? You're dead.
:winky face:
Oh mer. I never figured you for bigotry directed at the undead.
Shame on you.
.
Of course, I could have a hazy memory!
Cooki
Hazy Memory Syndrome, sweeping the nation, just as I predicted.
I'm telling you, HMS in the next edition of the DSM is a done deal.
THe correct answer is that Toensing was trying to filisbuster that Plame didn't meet the definition of "covert" under the narrow language of the law...
fourlegsgood, kittenslave | Homepage | 03.17.07 - 3:27 pm | # /i>
But, specifically, the 'filibuster' thing holds no water if there's no limit to the questioning, and I'm trying to find out if anyone knows about any time parameters on which the Republicans insisted.
I was luck and able to refinance at a low rate about two years ago. The thing that is killing is Cook county property taxes. Cook county has a freeze on the tax rate but my home is assessed higher and higher every year. It's a scamalamdingdong.
I hope that everyone with one of those adjustable rate mortages are able to get into a lower fixed rate one.
I gotta get a pair of tiger ears.
I'd be stunned if Molly doesn't have a pair in a closet somewhere.
One of Bush's staffers is googling "hangover remedies."
"We have the coffee and the ibuprophen, but where the hell do we get a bag of sliders? What are sliders?"
gwb: hic drf cup
Take a picture.
I gotta get a pair of tiger ears.
watertiger
Did I send you the tail?
.
But, specifically, the 'filibuster' thing holds no water if there's no limit to the questioning, and I'm trying to find out if anyone knows about any time parameters on which the Republicans insisted.
I think the time restrictions were decided according the standard rules of committee hearings, so nothing particularly determined by the republicans on the committee.
I don't think any congressional committee operates without time allocations to individual committee members. If I'm wrong, someone else will correct me.
But, specifically, the 'filibuster' thing holds no water if there's no limit to the questioning, and I'm trying to find out if anyone knows about any time parameters on which the Republicans insisted.
fourmorewars
Aside from the limit on their opening remarks, I think it was entirely at the Member's discretion how long the witness was allowed, given that that time was subtracted from the Member's time. They often cut the witness short if the answer was longer than they wanted, saying they were reclaiming their time.
So somebody buys an overpriced house with a 100% mortgage and can't make the payments - how much of a lower rate is really going to help. If the house goes down in price, the sucker (I mean home buyer) is still stuck with a loan for more than the house is worth.
How did Hillary vote on that Bankruptcy bill?
Thanks, monica & jt, which I'll repeat upstairs.
thanks atrios for the follow-up...
mentioned in comments above is the possibility of the gubmint buying CMOs (essentially mortgages packaged into securities for investment purposes), sounds a bit like the Resolution Trust Corp of S&L fame. Yes, inflationary, but so is spending a trillion dollars on a war that we're not going to make back in any way shape or form.
The only reason subprime loans are a problem is that the lenders involved have had some issues (New Century Financial is the prime example). Subprime mortgages have been a cyclical issue that rears its head from time to time (remember The Money Store?), and it usually has something to do with bad actors like New Century. I'm just not convinced that the Congress can do anything to mitigate the problem (and its coincident risk of exacerbating it).
They're tiger-striped. And they look FAAAAAAAAAAAAABULOUS!
watertiger | Homepage | 03.17.07 - 3:29 pm
ROAR!
.
But this is exactly what sub prime was all about - it's not different than the flavor of the month on Wall Street. OK then, everyone in - whoops you loose as we scoop the money off the table. You know kind of like derivatives, if you didn't fully understand the nature of the beast - even some of the big guys placed bets they couldn't cover when things went south.
The house boom was caused by greed and flipping. I disagree with bailouts for people who's greed, and desire to become rich quick, destroyed affordable housing for working folks who had a clue. I live amongst working people in California who 'own' 3-4 houses and laughed about their easy money on the way up. I could care less if they go bankrupt now .
Hillary's and Atrios' comments also don't really address the issue; the boom was not caused by single home owners. And those single -house 'owners' that are trouble now shouldn't have had a house in the first place.
A house is not a necessary to live happy or productive life. It is a choice.
Overall, this smacks of gross political pandering - and I suspect it will be met by a strong backlash.
And propping up a speculative system is only going to guarantee a harder crash sometime in the near future.
Sub-prime lenders would rather repossess homes and let these rot into decrepit crack-houses than renegotiate loans to allow families to stay in them.
Third-worldization of large swathes of the U.S. is the goal. We are merely timekeepers in this game.
my point :
“If the government, or its proxy, now steps in and purchases those mortgages, or otherwise systematically bails out borrowers, it will create a hazard for the future. The next generation of mortgage lenders won’t take the high risk of subprime home loans seriously, because they’ll expect that, in the event of another crisis, the government will step in and bail them out again.”
“So they’ll be even more eager to approve the risky subprime mortgages that are getting so many borrowers into trouble in the first place.”
http://www.city-journal.org/html...07-03-
16ng.html
We're about to find out why "Noone can do what Countrywide can."
Wingnut in a Donut Shop -- yeah, M. Muldaur did that album. Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks previously did "Sweetheart" (the song from which the title is drawn) on Last Train to Hicksville, a very fine album indeed. There may be an earlier recording of Sweetheart but between the Hot Licks and Maria's versions I don't think it's worth the effort of trying to find it. I think Dan is still floating around the ionosphere somewhere -- hello up there!
No fix is going to work because the probelm is too big. Creating some new type of subisdized loans will only distort the problem more and create new ones.
It's far to late for pols on this one because they let Wall Street and all their associated hangeroners, including and especially Greenspan create the unrestrained credit bubble of which RE was just one part.
Any bailout will end up being a bailout of the mortgage purveyors and will only tangetaly help out some buyers.
This problem has to parts. The borrowers who suffer their own persona tragedies. It must be said many of them were acting on greed. Those individual problems while tragic pale in comparison to the systematic one our financial system faces. It is still little appreciated how serious this thing is going to be.
In 1980 each dollar of credit resulted in 1 dollar in GDP. Today it takes $7 or credit to create $1 of GDP. The explosion of credit has created what is essentially a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme must have an ever expanding number of participants to pay off the previous ones. This mortgage freeze up calls that ability into question.
This is the big one. ALL our politicians failed us.
GMAC has huge exposure to sub-prime loans, and so do a lot of institutional investors, hedge funds, etc. Hill thinks she's found one of her golden moments: help those with big contribution bucks to keep the sub-primers paying on their notes--at the expense of everyone else. Good going, Hillary.
Wage stagnation+ inflated housing prices+ junk mortgages = Half the country living in cardboard townhouses soon.
Betcha this is a bigger problem in red states.
And this is, of course, good news for repukelicans.
Flint, still employed | 03.17.07 - 3:23 pm |
NO. This is going to be a much bigger problem in the blue states. Real estate has not had nearly the same bubble in the red states. As if your blue state anuses weren't sore enough from being dicked by the red state... Although Wall St is technically in a blue state.
I agree that whatever they do will be too little too late. At this point they should focus on providing housing to the many families that end up homeless. My only condition is - NO BAILOUTS FOR THE BANKS.
We need to stop idiots like Greenspan talking up the virtues of new mortgage products.
nice she voted for the bankruptcy bill. she cares so much about the middle class and poor people she just had to vote yes. screw her.
I rent in a neighborhood in Long Beach loaded with one-bedroom teardowns that are now going for $600,000 minimum. I've waited until I was in good enough financial shape to take on a loan. Why should I now be required to subsidize the stupid loans that others in my position should have had enough sense to avoid? Why should I now have to keep prices insanely inflated? Let it crash, baby!!!
Sub-prime lenders would rather repossess homes and let these rot into decrepit crack-houses than renegotiate loans to allow families to stay in them.
Third-worldization of large swathes of the U.S. is the goal. We are merely timekeepers in this game.
shrimplate
*
I don't disagree but I ask why.
My lord, it does seem as though the answer is merely greed.
Raw exploitation a GOAL? Whose Goal and why...
My only condition is - NO BAILOUTS FOR THE BANKS.
fuck no
Two words about a bailout for anybody: Fuck and you.
I didn't buy more house than I could afford; these borrorwers did. No bail-out. Let market price of houses fall back into line with Americans' earnings. Then people earning $50k/annum won't have to borrow $500k from American Century to pay for a three-bedroom cape in some dingy suburb.
NO BAILOUT. PERIOD.
While it certainly sucks that a lot of folks might lose homes to foreclosures, most of the so-called solutions on mortgages miss the boat.
Are some of these mortgages complex and sleazy, yes. Certainly people should understand the risks before signing on the bottom line. But let's be real. People figured it wasn't going to be a problem because of the bubble. By the time they needed to refi, they could move and cash out.
The real mortgage reforms needed are on the underwriting side, where all semblance of responsibility went out the window. Lack of documentation, fraudulent appraisals and all the rest of the attrocities are ignored. The paying of bonuses to generate loans without standards for quality (always a sure fire way to promote fraud) should be illegal.
Then there is the whole investment side. You want something incomprehensible, try wading through derivatives, Collateralized Debt Obligations, and Credit swaps. How many pension plans will go in the crappper because of these?
My thoughts on foreclosure alternatives: obligate the current mortgagee to rent the home for a decade at a rate that is affordable per documented income. Force the lenders to reprice the mortgage at that amount and amortize it with the payments. Hopefully in a decade it can be sold.
As to the rest of the economy that was living off the Real Estate bubble, get ready for hard times.
Even if you cut them a deal, the amount they could pay on their mortgages would be too low to cover the losses of the mortgage brokers, who have already taken the money and run with it, anyway.
"Essentially you need to make it possible for people to refinance, both by getting rid of prepayment penalties and strongly "encouraging" lenders who gave out a bunch of mortages they shouldn't have to renegotiate the terms in order to make repayment more realistic."
The problem is, many subprime lenders care less about eventual repayment of the loan than about squeezing as much cash in the short term as possible from the loans they hold. Most of these loans are sold to investors (read: speculators) as soon as they are closed, who hope to make money by servicing the loans and collecting the myriad penalties and fees associated with being chronically past due. A good percentage of the loans are made in bad faith on the part of both the lender and the borrower, with both parties aware that the borrower is likely to default on the loan. However, since the originator knows that a secondary market exists for these loans, they are willing to make them and sell them almost immediately. Thus the firms making the bad loans aren't in most cases going to be the ones stuck with renegotiating the terms. You'll punish the investors (who deserve it for their part in the whole scam) and probably dry up the market for these loans (also a good thing), but the players most at fault will still skate. And because so many if those originators are massive banks and investment firms such as Chase, BoA, Wells Fargo, and Bear Stearns, it's unlikely that the federal goverment will take any action that seriously punishes them, for fear of the downstream effect on the economy - and investment portfoilios.
Too bad Hillary can't get "out in front" of the Iraq occupation and wants to keep it going.
I disagree. this only keeps the overpriced housing market overpriced. The market needs to crash, so people can afford to buy houses.
I didn't buy, living in LA, because I couldn't afford it. Until all these people who bought more than they can afford (and the mortgage companies who foolishly lent the money) have to face the consequences of their actions, the market will not correct itself.
Greenspan said the problems of the subprime mortgage market had more to do with home prices than easy credit. “If we could wave a wand and housing prices go up 10 percent, the subprime mortgage problem would disappear,”
Price can only rise if more borrowers are found. In 05 and 06 they found them at the bottom of the barrel with liar loans with teaser rates and various other abomonations and now those people can't pay.
If Al had a magic wand then the bubbles would go on forever. The average home price would be a ten million dollars and everyone would be rich. This is possible by the way. Just invent the mortgage which requires no payments at all.
One hates for people to suffer, doesn't one?
I'm with exhuming mccarthy. Fuck these assholes who bullshitted their way into houses they couldn't afford. The market needs to drop about 60% in the worst 'bubble' areas to bring prices back in line with real values. And it can't happen soon enough to suit me.
Effing right! This monsterous housing bubble was caused by easy money Al and open credit for anyone who asked. "No job, no credit. No problem" Buy a house you can't afford.
The housing affordability index is about half where it traditionally was. A median house should cost about 4x median income. At least it's been that way for the last 60 years. Now it's about 8x median income.
Helping more people buy and keep homes they really can't afford will just prolong the crash.
Bubbles burst, that's economics 101.
I've been responsible. I've been saving. I haven't taken an irresponsible loan.
Let the bubble burst so I can buy a house.
Don't save anyone.
I can't see lenders losing money on the deal. Someone is going to pay, either the American taxpayers or subprime mortgage holders.
I can see lenders agreeing to stretch out the repayment period to 60 or 80 years (which would avoid foreclosures and lower mortgage payments).
These mortgages constituted systemic fraud and a major departure from traditional mortgage practices, made possible only because the mortgages were quickly sold after the initial profits. Those who now hold the mortgages should lose money on them. They were either playing hot potato and didn't get out in time, or were counting on a tax payer bailout when the scheme collapsed.
This put people into houses who simply don't have the income to pay for them, and drove up housing costs for everyone else (= bubble).
The alternative to massive foreclosures, and economic dislocation, is massive renegotiation by the current mortgage holders. As long as they are hoping for a bailout this will not happen.
There are thousands of organizations across this nation dedicated to helping people buy and keep homes. They are not-for-profits whose missions are to increase the availability and access to affordable and sustainable housing. They have skills and methods that no longer exist in private sector banks. Why? Because private sector banks have focused for decades on volume -- that is, on making loans based on credit scores and then reselling those loans to the financial markets.
Non-profit housing groups, in contrast, not only provide the counseling and education requried but also make loans the old fashioned way: on a family by family basis that depends on the whole picture, not just credit scores.
Senator Clinton -- and others -- who seriously wish to turn our housing markets back into effective markets instead of casinos ought to focus hard on making sure that the non-profit sector has the capital, government policy support and other means to grow dramatically.
Thanks, folks. Please see the rest of my thoughts on the subject at http://wind-n-sea.blogspot.com/2...-my-
bubble.html
GMAC has huge exposure to sub-prime loans, and so do a lot of institutional investors, hedge funds, etc. Hill thinks she's found one of her golden moments: help those with big contribution bucks to keep the sub-primers paying on their notes--at the expense of everyone else. Good going, Hillary.
Guy from Joisey
Fucking "A" Bubba!!!!
What GM's new business model of giving a no doc, variable rate, 125% of appraised value 2nd mortgage from DITECH to every idiot who walked in the door and asked about buying a "Pussy Wagon" is not working out!!!!
Who would have THUNKIT!!! Surely not that Havard MBAs and McKinsey & Co where little Chelsia got her first real job.
Hillary and the DLC are a much of fucking idiots. Face it folks. The DLC and Rethuglicans are both responsible for the Housing Bubble.
The DLCers especially loved the housing bubble because all the jobs it created in the Housing and Mortgage industry helped cover up for the massive hemorrhage of jobs due to Nafta, WTO , GATT and massive increase s in Labor Arbitrage visas like the H1-B and L1 which all passed under the Clinton Admin.
You want affordable housing???
Bring back the traditional urban bungalows, duplexes and 3-4 flats of aprox 2000-2500 sq with 3 bedrooms of the pre WWII era. And why you are at it. Bring back neighborhood schools and public transportation.
A huge problem is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the entire Mortgage industry makes it almost impossible to build housing that young couples can afford. Instead they want housing that can be easily be quantified and resold in huge blocks of mortgage backed securities.
The current system permits only God awful massive condominium complexes that are too small for a family with 1-2 children. Or worse cartoonish sprawling subdivisions of single family homes built way out in the suburbs that waste energy and require a 2+ car ownership. These homes are simply beyond the means of an increasing percentage of families and require a massive property tax base to support.
Also it almost makes it impossible to redevelop many urban cores. Indianaplis/Marion county even inside of I-465 is full of small older homes on big lots that could be redeveloped into large affordable duplexes and 3-4 flats. But it is almost impossible to do this in the current real estate environment. Instead the relatively small Indy Metro area population sprawls over a 6 county region.
The New Economics 101:
Privatize the Profits, Socialize the Risk.
The Savings and Loan debacle under the senile Reagan was charged to the American people costing billions. Since congress created the problem, we're going to pay again for these ill conceived loans--housing and credit cards.. We are in deficit spending with a galactic national debt, social security and medicare problems, layoffs, outsourcing, declining wages, trade imbalances, auto industry tanking, high energy prices, Katrina unresolved, heavy borrowing from foreign countries, endless war costing hundred of billions, enormous credit card debt and the Bush with a year and a half to continue his mischief.
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