Pedro, Jermaine, Biffy or Skip .. If they don't deserve to be there because they have not paid their dues it's all the same. The world owes us nothing.
Yes, the guy who mows my lawn sometimes lives in the same sub division as mine, I always thought that was funny and sad for me, now I know how they do it.
The situation is just as grim here in the UK. In the boom times people were taking out huge mortgages (up to 5x salary) for their houses giving littleregard to what would happen if the market turned. Now it has, these people are now screaming how it's everybody else's fault: the banks, estate agents, the govmnt. Yeah whatever, I have no sympathy for these morons.
I'm against every bail out except this one. They (Fannie and Freddie) were set up with the implicit guarantee of the govt. If they were to fail, it would result in a loss of confidence in the U.S.'s credit worthiness as a whole, thus sending the dollar plummeting, and increasing interest rates on all our debt. It's possible there would be no long term, as a speculative attack could wipe us out, just as it did to Asian Tigers during the financial crisis. Yeah, we're a lot bigger than the Tigers, but Fanne and Freddie were supposedly too big to fail, too. You don't want more than a decade of deflation. I want my folks to be able to retire in the next 15 years. That's not even short term thinking.
The problem is this: Whenever you act recklessly without consequences you have learned NOTHING. This will only make the problem reappear later or manifest itself in another form twice as bad. Seriously think about that
This is dead on accurate. Don't hate the guy that took a 500K loan when he could barely afford a 60K loan. All joe six pack knew was somebody was handing him a dream, he took it. Hate the lenders and underwriters that acted recklessly and f'd everything up. You think the head of Bear Stearns lost any money? He walks away with millions. Hate the gummit for backstopping/bailing out stupid ass institutions who had no clue what they were doing. Don't worry though, once we bring back the uptick rule everything will be better. (see: sarcasm)
5X salary??? Thats it?!?!? In california they were taking out 12-15X near the top, with interest only ARMS!!!!!!!! I wish it were only 5x here.
As a good friend of mine recently said to me, "At least if you live in France there is good cheap wine..."
Yeah, I feel like a real dolt for putting down 20% and getting a 30-year fixed that I can afford. This is George Bush's fault. I remember a few years ago how he was pushing home ownership. He must have known what was going on with the lenders. I have zero simpathy for those living beyond their means, zero. Now they are going to be bailed out? Its outrageous.