Bye Bye Banks and Wall Street

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Betty

I'm really not very sympathetic about people going into forclosure - they knew or should have known what they were getting into. I too would have loved to buy a house - but could see that wouldn't be able to afford it. Why should they get a house for being stupid.

I think there was some predatory lending but most people were just stupid and keeping up with their neighbors.

You don't buy a house you can barely afford at one interest rate only to have that rate be adjustable when there is no way you could afford it at the higher rate.

I started looking at buying a condo a few years ago - I was offered a mortgage amount based upon credit score alone and they said I could use stated income vs. actual income. Payments would have been "interest only" and I would have barely been able to afford it then. If I had actually gone through with it I would have been SoL now.

Read the fine print people.

The market is supposed to hit bottom around December of next year. Don't give up hope on buying Betty. You'll need 20% down or money for PMI and stellar credit to get a mortgage but housing isn't done dropping.

[bewitched]

I think now is the perfect time to revive that plan to let people take the money they contribute to social security and invest it in the stock market and mutual funds.





In other news:

Originally Posted by Bloomberg News

"I nationalize strategic companies and get criticized, but when Bush does it, it's OK,'' Chavez said on weekly television program Sept. 21. "Bush is turning socialist. How are you, comrade Bush?''

Swell, even Chavez is mocking us now.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Personally, I don't think the federal government should be spending a dime on this.

We're here because the decision was made to deregulate and allow the free market to rein. Agree or disagree with that decision, that's where we are. But guess what, failure is a risk in the free market. These idiots gambled with it and lost and now they're begging to be rescued.

Now, I could have told them, back when they were being deregulated, that this was a possibility. And that's why I am in favor of regulation. Failure should not be an option when you're talking about the underpinnings of our entire economy. But failure IS an option in the free market and the people who chose the free market and chose to gamble deserve to bear the consequences.

It sickens me to see talk of how to limit the amount of money the people who made the horrible decisions walk away with when we should be talking about how much they're going to lose.

The fed should do little to nothing. The bare minimum to prevent things from spiraling out of control. Make the gamblers cut their loses, ensure that the people who made smart investments aren't dragged down in a rip tide. It's going to hurt. Homes will lose value, people will lose jobs. But unless the people who have been taking risks with money that's not their own without threat of real consequence (an 8 digit severance package is not a consequence) get hurt, we will find ourselves back here once again in short order.

[Alex]

I still support allowing individuals to invest their social security contributions (within defined parameters for age targeting).

[Betty]

"It sickens me to see talk of how to limit the amount of money the people who made the horrible decisions walk away with when we should be talking about how much they're going to lose."

THIS!

[Ghoulish Delight]

What the hell?!

Deal said near on bailout.



God I hate Congress. HATE. There seems to be the belief that asking aggressive questions is good enough opposition to things. Sit in front of the TV cameras, talk tough, and then go ahead and vote for whatever it is you were just railing against anyway.

There is no way that the bailout plan was fixed in a day with a few little compromises. It was lightyears away from something that isn't just throwing good money after bad. I know there was no way they were going to follow my advice (jerks didn't even ask) and just leave the dummies who lost their money to their fate, but I had hoped they'd stand by the outrage they showed publicly and not let themselves get bullied into some rush job by the President.

But here we go. Several hundred billion dollars being handed to people who've already gambled and lost, followed by countless foreclosed homes that the government's just going to hang onto to avoid depressing housing prices. Executives will have the chance to get multimillion dollar compensation packages and the financial industry will have learned the valuable lesson that they can play these ridiculous paper games, inflate bad investments, and the government will come charging in and clean up their mess.

I guess the only hope is that the analysts are right and that the restrictions on executive compensation will make most banks hesitant to take advantage of the dela and it just fizzles anyway.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

God I hate Congress. HATE.

I think I'll watch Mars Attacks! tonight just to see that scene where the Martians destroy Congress and Silvia Sydney cackles in glee.

[bewitched]

Geez, having not read (in detail) the conservative Republicans' proposal...I think I might actually agree with them.









Will someone please hold my hand? I'm scared.

[innerSpaceman]

The deal announced early today Falls Apart This Evening.


Good.


Unfortunately, it won't completely fall apart. For once, I applaud conservatives in Congress, those who are balking at government interference in private business.


I'm sorry for all the people who were suckered into mortgages they could not afford to pay, and for people who invested with institutions that liked to gamble dangerously with their money. Sorry, but why should I pay to bail the likes of you out? I didn't buy a house I couldn't afford. I didn't have my money invested with charletans. Dems da breaks.


As for the cascading chain reaction of doom ... well, if that's what's to come, then why try putting our fingers in the breaking dam? I hope the so-called deal goes nowhere and we let the chips fall where they may.


It's easy for me to say, because I'm not a gambling man. This is why.


If there were no way of losing, I would have played along all this time.

[Betty]

Wasn't Bush just saying a few weeks ago that the economy was bascially sound? How can he go from that to OMG the sky is falling !11!!11!!!!