The same reason that Larry “tappy-toe” Craig is still serving in the senate.

no it wasn’t. the numbers are not made up.

as far as homeless and employment. unemployment from the last 4 months numbers is increasing. The more homes get forclosured, the more home prices fall the more people lose their jobs. Employment is decreasing, not increasing.

The problem at the moment is not being homeless or unemployed, It is having enough money to continue fueling this consumer led economy. As the money in equity of a home dries up, as people’s credit score are destoryed, there will be less money left over to buy stuff. Add in $4.00/gal for gas ,higher unemployment etc and things can go from bad to worse very quickly.

while I admire your positive attitude, in this case it is misplaced. the country faces an economic problem not seen in 70 years. If not for FDIc the INDYMAC takeover on friday would have caused a massive run on all banks. Much like the run in the 1920′s that pushed us into a depression.

we are seeing the same problems that lead to the depression occurring today. So far due to the actions of the FEd and government we have been able to wether the worse of it. if not for the Bear Streans bailout the stock market would have already crashed. Credit would not be available. The bank failures of indymac and the problems of major banks like citi, washington mutal would hgave caused massive runs on the banks if not for FDIc. Fear would be running rampent and the economy would be in shambles.

The problems are not fixed and the FED and government are running out of painless bullets. the fear is lucking out there. If the leaders decide to “let the market fix it” the fear will blossom into a white hot fire and the economy will dissolve

This is not a “small problem” this problem deals with every bank, every broker house, it touches the very fabric of our economic wealth, credit. The housing market is the underpinning of the entire wealth of the US. The stored wealth in our homes impacts every thing to some degree.

when added together, housing, credit issues, high fuel and food costs, stagnet wages, and global growth. these problems become monsters. The longer we wait to deal with them the bigger the price we will pay.

I see your point and would agree with you if history did not refute it.

Massive forclosures, massive wealth destruction is not a net good thing in a capitalistic society. It causes politco shifts toward socialism. It can and has caused revolutions and rebellions. sure some people were able to increase their wealth during the great depression but many lost everything and called on the federal government to insure it did not happen again. FDIC, social security etc socialistic programs were born that have cost the taxpayers trillions upon trillions of dollars in the last 70 years.

free markets do not operate in a political free vacuum.

The entire foreclosure market due to fraudulent loan practices is a tiny fraction of the housing market. If other lazy people want to go to foreclosure because they’re to damn lazy to help themselves then so be it. House prices go down. Yes it suck big time in the short term but it gives people a great opportunity to buy their first home or even allow people to buy investment properties. By the way, before I get the of course I want foreclosures so I can buy my companies foreclosures comment, employees at my company are prohibited from purchasing our REO (real estate owned) properties. Doing so gets you fired, no exceptions.

Just like with the stock market while everyone is pissing themselves and selling….I’m buying.

and they are going to change how? by losing their home? /no they will just vote in socialists that can further their ways.

again their problems will become ours. the nation as a whole will pay for the excess and bad finalcial descions. they will pay with more governmental control and regulations, they will pa in higher taxes, and lower home vaules and lower assets like 401ks and Ira they will pay in lower interest rates fro savers as banks try to make money to stay afloat, they will pay in higher fuel and food costs as the dollar slides.

Yes these people were irresponsible and the people making the loans were just has irresponsible. there is a concept of fiducial responsibility. Just because you can make 20% interest off of someone’s lack of education does not mean that that is the right or moral thing to do.

It use to be that bad loan practices were called loansharking. the banks and mortage companies have every right to make a reseanable profit but the home buyer alsways as an equal right not to get taken for a ride.

then you have to ask why did they need to relie on lines of credit. was it greed? envy? lack of financial education or the a need?

regardless the bailout being talked about last year was about $100-200billion. The bailout being talked about toady is closer to $500 billion and the bailout that may be needed for Fannie and Freddie is $5 TRILLIOn.

the longer we postpone the bill the greater the final cost is going to be.

Will we need another global war and millions of dead to pull us out of this economic downturn like we did in 1940? Will socialism’s pull like in the 1930′s cause a massive redistrubution of wealth? Will the government sieze gold again like in the great depression and make it illegal to own gold, own oil futures, corn futres by the individual?

The longer we wait and the bigger the economic problems the more socialism gets a foot in the door and the higher the final price is.

the belief that this country’s population will not turn to socialism during tough economic times is not supported by history. In fact the opposite is true. Economic downturn esp major busts have a major impact on the growth of socialism.

It is in every capitalists interest to support small government intervention now instead of having to watch the government tak over the entire economy in the future.

since housing is a national industry. Their problems will and has become everyone’s problems.

unseen on July 12, 2008 at 3:23 PM

Their problems become everyone’s problems….doubt it. The problem is they, like a majority of Americans, relied on their home value to keep going up to “bail” themselves out any financial problems by refinancing. Now that home value have dropped in most areas the cash out refinances are harder to get due to having less equity. Financial Responsibility is each individual persons responsibility, not everyone else’s. If someone loses their home due to bad financial decisions then that creates an opportunity for someone else to purchase the home.

The problem I see on a daily basis is most of these people don’t want to help themselves. They haven’t cut back on their expenses or gotten a PT job. If someone has truly go out and cut expenses such as cable, cell plan, internet, dining out, car pymt etc & have a PT job than I have no problem with a helping hand. Don’t confuse a helping hand with a piggy back ride however.

You’re absolutely correct Viking. Most people are simply looking for a free ride so they claim ignorance, racism, coercion or whatever gets their mortgage paid off by someone else. What the hell is next? Credit card debt? Guaranteed double-digit 401K returns? The bailout only makes things worse in the long run and circumvents the very principles of free-market economics. What should really get people pissed off is why our economy overall is in this state. The numbers don’t lie regardless of the lack of a “textbook recession” and the ones pulling the strings have done so using fear and patriotism as their smokescreen. Schumer is about as responsible for this “run” as Bush is for bringing peace to the Middle East.

VikingGoneWild on July 12, 2008 at 2:47 PM

since housing is a national industry. Their problems will and has become everyone’s problems.

Chuck Schumer, bank killer

New York senator Chuckie Cheese is without doubt…a top DemOrat blithering idiot. The people of New York have to be just as stupid, to elect this fool into government.

we could have saved alot of this from happening last year by helping homeowners in over their heads, by requiring banks to rewrite loans that were written by fraud and closed with fine print. But no.

We had to “suck it up”

unseen on July 11, 2008 at 11:57 PM

Give me a break. There were not that many loans written that way contrary to what every consumer says. I work for a massively large mortgage company and we are still kicking arse because of our conservative underwriting practices. So while other companies are ramping down we are cleaning up.

I talk to people everyday who tell me they’ll just walk away from the house unless we waive large chucks of their balance due to declines in the marketplace. Until these people get zapped in their wallets this will be commonplace for awhile.

I think it was Neil Cavuto who said something along the lines of “People can give you the in and outs of their TV or digital camera but they don’t anything about their mortgage.” People I talk to everyday hardly want to give me 5 minutes to do their application let alone find out the facts of the mortgage. Sorry I just don’t have a lot of sympathy for people like this.

The right is orchestrating a campaign to blame Democrats for the economic collapse. In cases like this it is often a matter of being the first out there with a story. For example, Progressives and Democrats could have been explaining……