I'm watching todays Bernanke speech. He's talking taxpayer bailouts (essentially) for overextended homebuyers. His audience is made up of people from universities at a conference - - - and he's getting asked questions that since a large part of the current economic problems are due to the falling of housing prices, why doesn't the government do something to insure that they stay high. - - Yeah, that'll do it - - - just make a law against falling housing prices ! (And while theyre at, why don't they outlaw Death. Who needs that ? Besides, a normal lifetime won't be enough time to pay off all these obligations we'll all be on the hook for.) These are university people and they are absolutely clueless when it comes to economics. These are the voters. We are screwed. - - -
Another "impromptu" Townhall meeting. All news is propaganda. Mostly exaggeration, half truths and lies of omission.
So...if the government were to implement economic incentives to increase the demand for housing, thereby increasing the property values, that would be ignorant?
Depending on what "incentives" you're refereeing to, probably. I say that because it was the governments incentives and needless interventions that are largely to blame for us being where we are now. The toilet.
Correct. Gummint/Fed supported the housing bubble until that at the margin homes could only be afforded by gimmick financing. Now that such financing is removed, house prices are still too high to be affordable vs. income. Yet, the Gummint is trying to prevent housing from coming down to affordable levels. Even if/when they succeed in liquifying the credit markets, incomes are STILL going to be too low to afford artificially high home prices for the marginal buyer. The Gummint/Fed screwed up by promoting the housing bubble (not an accident.. they did it on purpose... for all the usual greedy reasons). Now they are screwing up again by not allowing that past bad judgement to deflate. How will we EVER survive these bastards..
Greenspan unwittingly made housing skyrocketed and now Bernanke support it, refusing to admit that it was a mistake. What a joke! Waiting to see how Obama's administration will do with the Fed chairman.
that's right, we should make most all gains not subject to capital gains. oh wait, we did that. well, how about we push mortgages to people just so they will buy a house and, therefore, support housing prices, banks, and the american dream? oh wait, we did that too. how about we push money out through govt sponsored entities with implicit federal guarantees so that they can borrow at a lower cost and allow more people to enjoy the american dream while at the same time supporting higher housing prices? wow, we tried that too. finally, how about we take interest rates to artificially low levels so that prices for houses go up and everyone can buy more house and borrow more of that *real* equity? holy cow, that was tried too. all of this worked so well 3 yrs ago (obviously so far in the past that people forget the outcome; oh wait, we are living it now), so let's do it again; that's not ignorant at all is it?
i just think we have to have an ownership society, no matter what or from whom we have to confiscate to get there
Depending upon how deep your NWO conspiracies run, you could make an argument that all of this mess and bailout was intentionally orchestrated ...