If you're looking to place blame for the economic crisis, read the following NYT article written in 1999 which predicts the economic collapse we're seeing today almost a decade before it happened. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html In 2003, efforts were made to correct the problems (see below). http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/b...ed-to-oversee-freddie-mac-and-fannie-mae.html A majority of Democrats and many Republicans voted against the new mortgage lending regulations and oversight. If you want to blame someone, there's plenty to go around dating all the way back to the mid-1990s.
Those borrowers, though irresponsible, were merely pawns. Securitization and CDSs became a money printing operation. Irresponsible buyers were the unwitting fuel. And if it wasn't housing, Wall Street would have found something else to inflate. That's what it does. And when it fails, it gets bailed out. Why? Because it makes the rules - whatever the game.
To change the topic slightly....the CMBS market is at highs for the year. It's obvious the risk of commercial RE defaults were VASTLY over estimated. God Bless America
Even the end of the world is gamed by the insiders. I trust them as far as I could throw them and a 10,000 lb bag of cow dung.
Everyone knows there's blame aplenty to go around. You still need dickweeds like those in that ad to play along. Without willing victims, there is no crime. And they should bankrupt Century 21 for running ads like that If they were encouraging rape or murder, they would have been prosecuted. For encouraging financial suicide? Nothing? Sheeeeeeeeet.
I know a lot of these agents were so busy selling homes and collecting their share of the loot, that many of them were driving 50K cars and sipping red wines every night and complaining about too much work. Does anyone here believe that these real estate agents do real work, I mean they open the lock of the house and show it around, and how come that cost 1000s of $s in commissions, that was earned 1$ at a time.