The U.S. Mortgage Clusterfuck

[B_New End]

Thanks for sharing. People need to understand that corporations default on loans all the time. The canard about 'deadbeats' is offensive, since the rich are most likely to view this as nothing but business.

it the same thing as wanting life in prison for crack dealers, but parole for rich coke heads.

Or locking up burglars for 10 years, but letting wall street crooks do 40 hours community service, after pilfering millions of times the value.

White collar crime pays. Especially if you can fine the corporation, but not the actual people responsible. Even then the fines are many times less than the amount pilfered. It is madly unjust.

 

[Rammajamma771]

The chance for my solution is past since the so-called meltdown has dissipated but here is what I think would have resolved the crisis. While the taxpayers held the mortgage on the of the "too-big-to-fail" banks, brokerage and insurance companies, part of the requirements for a bailout should have been that they re-negotiate every mortgage at a favorable fixed rate. All late penalties, fees and closing cost should have been absorbed by the mortgage companies. If the companies did not agree, they should not have received a bailout. Front-loaded mortgages where the interest is paid first should have been invalidated and the interest and principal would be equally with each payment. That takes away the incentive for real estate speculation and allows the borrower to build up equity with each payment. Think about why this simple solution wasn't addressed by the Bush or the Obama administrations and the Congress. Follow the money trail.

 

[Drifterwood]

I wish people in the West would stop calling it a world financial crisis. Where I'm sat, things are just fine and dandy and the only issue is whether we should let you have some of our growth so you don't completely fail, or start chucking your bombs around.

 

[B_New End]

I wish people in the West would stop calling it a world financial crisis. Where I'm sat, things are just fine and dandy and the only issue is whether we should let you have some of our growth so you don't completely fail, or start chucking your bombs around.

America is goign to chuck its bombs around anyways. The people of America ranked mid to low tier in industrialized nations in all academic practices, except "confidence", which we rank first.

We are like the American Idol contestant that sucks shit, but argues with Simon Cowell and tells him we are gonna be a star.

We will not blame ourselves for our own downfall.. we will more than likely blame China or them damn mooslims.

 

[wallyj84]

America is goign to chuck its bombs around anyways. The people of America ranked mid to low tier in industrialized nations in all academic practices, except "confidence", which we rank first.

We are like the American Idol contestant that sucks shit, but argues with Simon Cowell and tells him we are gonna be a star.

We will not blame ourselves for our own downfall.. we will more than likely blame China or them damn mooslims.

This. I think this kind of thinking more than anything else will be the cause of America's downfall.

Too many Americans believe that the US is perfect and paint anyone who complains about problems with the US as being anti-American. This kind of thinking is horrible because it prevents us from having an honest national discussion on the state of the nation.

I honestly think that the US is set for a colossal fall and no one, Democrat or Republican, is prepared for it.

 

[D_CountVonBhigBohner]

pay your effin bills. The bigger problem isn't the banks, it's all of the people who refuse to hold THEMSELVES accountable for the big loans, mortages, and credit card bills they signed up for.

 

[unabear09]

pay your effin bills. The bigger problem isn't the banks, it's all of the people who refuse to hold THEMSELVES accountable for the big loans, mortages, and credit card bills they signed up for.

thats such a huge cop out. Do you not remember the Bush era spend spend spend? That was how his administration 'attempted' to help keep Americuh going. Don't totally blame the consumer for the financial mess when the government, banks, credit card companies are essentually whoring themselves out with low interest rates, no down payments, etc. Americans were duped for the most part into thing that it is/was their patriotic duty to get in debt and spend spend spend

 

[D_CountVonBhigBohner]

lol ok it's a cop-out to pay your bills? If I'm a guy making $50K a year, I have no business signing up for an all interest $3000 a month mortgage. It's not a cop-out it's common sense. Just because someone will give you the loan doesn't mean you can afford it. I don't have bills up the ass like many of my friends. I guess I'm doing something wrong.

 

[unabear09]

lol ok it's a cop-out to pay your bills? If I'm a guy making $50K a year, I have no business signing up for an all interest $3000 a month mortgage. It's not a cop-out it's common sense. Just because someone will give you the loan doesn't mean you can afford it. I don't have bills up the ass like many of my friends. I guess I'm doing something wrong.

did you read (and comprehend) anything I wrote? Of course its not a cop out to pay your bills. Its a cop out to blame consumers (who lets face it, are stupid) for the financial crisis when the gov't, banks, CC companies, are shoving 'free money' down our throats? We became a country of unaccountable spending years ago, and its due in large part to the way we've been (mis)informed about debt/credit.


Edit:

oh and that was silly of you to assume comsumers in this country have common sense. Common sense= bad. Blind faith+stupidity+propaganda via gov't, banks, etc.+greed= the cause of our current economical crisis

 

[bananaclubcock]

lol ok it's a cop-out to pay your bills? If I'm a guy making $50K a year, I have no business signing up for an all interest $3000 a month mortgage. It's not a cop-out it's common sense. Just because someone will give you the loan doesn't mean you can afford it. I don't have bills up the ass like many of my friends. I guess I'm doing something wrong.

I am not for anyone shirking obligations, all parties involved in the lending, except perhaps the final investors, have really taken the cake in failing to live up to their obligations. Since you are so worked up about responsibility, why don't you address the original point of the thread which is why these parties failed to comply with long-established legal principles? Did it ever occur to you that these people might have been running a very, very evil scam?

 

[D_CountVonBhigBohner]

hey man. We're not gonna solve this issue on LPSG. I read your response. There are people trying to sell me shit I don't need and can't afford everyday. I STILL get five pieces of mail a day offering me loans, mortages, credit cards etc. I tear em up and toss em in the trash. MY point is, people without any self control will suffer. They will continue to suffer if they sign their name on contracts that they don't understand.

 

[wallyj84]

hey man. We're not gonna solve this issue on LPSG. I read your response. There are people trying to sell me shit I don't need and can't afford everyday. I STILL get five pieces of mail a day offering me loans, mortages, credit cards etc. I tear em up and toss em in the trash. MY point is, people without any self control will suffer. They will continue to suffer if they sign their name on contracts that they don't understand.

Who's more to blame, someone who borrows money that he knows he can't pay back, or the person who lends that individual the money all the while also knowing that the borrower can't pay it back?

 

[D_CountVonBhigBohner]

That's easy, a person who borrows money he knows he can't pay back.

 

[FuzzyKen]

There are numerous lies that have gone on and on in this. Many of the individuals losing homes are not people who bought on mortgages they couldn't afford. Many of the people losing homes right now are losing homes that were purchased twenty or more years ago.

I am 58 year old. Many of the people I know who have lost homes in the past few years are in their 60's and 70's. These people lost their homes when other monthly bills escalated to the point that a house payment easily made in 2001 was not payable at all because an electric bill had gone from $60 to $300 per month. They were not payable because heating for that same home had gone from $45 per month to $200 for natural gas during the winter. They were lost because their automobile fuel bill in those same years had gone up in some areas as much as 500%. These rising fuel costs caused increases in food and other commodity prices that were not luxuries but necessities. This caused people in order to simply survive to start living on credit cards. The first time that the card payments were missed the banks then popped the interest rates to 31%. If I cardholder is starving to death and cannot easily repay a $150 per month credit card payment paying one of $275 is really going to be of great help to them.

I have ZERO sympathy with any of the financial institutions period. The financial institutions blamed greedy mortgage brokers for loans that they themselves approved. The banks never looked at the whole picture as to why a person who had not been delinquent on loans and had been good reliable customers for over 20 years in some cases started to have problems.

There have been lots of investigations and none of them have in fact revealed the real truth. The banks were a problem but the energy industry which has fingers in nearly everything during the time America was burning made corporate profits which exceeded all expectations by mega levels.

As always, if the whole thing was going bust, all you have to do is to look at where all the money WAS going to find the real culprit.

The rest is just a smokescreen to divert attention from the really bad guys.

 

[Drifterwood]

I don't think it serves anyone's interest for these banks to now go bust; but I do think it's about time that some high ranking bankers went down.

 

[FuzzyKen]

The main idea to me is complete and full audits in the banking system and to examine how the "greed" and unfair risk taking came "in the door". That is what made the mess. At the same time people who caused this should not be able to walk out any door with "parting gifts" in the millions. They need to walk out the door with "jewelry" supplied by Federal Marshals and into a very compact suite with no television one bed and a metal toilet for the rest of their lives.

However the audits need to comprise a great deal more than banking in order to have fairness. The energy industry needs to be looked at for price gouging and taking unfair advantage of the world population.

The actual truth is that none of this will ever happen because these people are protected by the politicians that have been bought and paid for.

 

[eurotop40]

FuzzyKen: you are very right. We have had cost explosions here in Switzerland for instance with regard to health insurance (PRIVATE - with some state regulation - here, NOT socialized): the fee has gone up by some 1000%. Telephony expenses due to the nowadays necessary cellphones have tripled. So has heating, electricty etc... You do the maths...

There are numerous lies that have gone on and on in this. Many of the individuals losing homes are not people who bought on mortgages they couldn't afford. Many of the people losing homes right now are losing homes that were purchased twenty or more years ago.

I am 58 year old. Many of the people I know who have lost homes in the past few years are in their 60's and 70's. These people lost their homes when other monthly bills escalated to the point that a house payment easily made in 2001 was not payable at all because an electric bill had gone from $60 to $300 per month. They were not payable because heating for that same home had gone from $45 per month to $200 for natural gas during the winter. They were lost because their automobile fuel bill in those same years had gone up in some areas as much as 500%. These rising fuel costs caused increases in food and other commodity prices that were not luxuries but necessities. This caused people in order to simply survive to start living on credit cards. The first time that the card payments were missed the banks then popped the interest rates to 31%. If I cardholder is starving to death and cannot easily repay a $150 per month credit card payment paying one of $275 is really going to be of great help to them.

I have ZERO sympathy with any of the financial institutions period. The financial institutions blamed greedy mortgage brokers for loans that they themselves approved. The banks never looked at the whole picture as to why a person who had not been delinquent on loans and had been good reliable customers for over 20 years in some cases started to have problems.

There have been lots of investigations and none of them have in fact revealed the real truth. The banks were a problem but the energy industry which has fingers in nearly everything during the time America was burning made corporate profits which exceeded all expectations by mega levels.

As always, if the whole thing was going bust, all you have to do is to look at where all the money WAS going to find the real culprit.

The rest is just a smokescreen to divert attention from the really bad guys.

 

[wallyj84]

That's easy, a person who borrows money he knows he can't pay back.

Really? So if you know that someone can't pay you back and you lend them money anyway, you would honestly say that the person who borrowed the money is more foolish?

If that's the case then we have a totally different way of looking at things.

 

[bananaclubcock]

Who's more to blame, someone who borrows money that he knows he can't pay back, or the person who lends that individual the money all the while also knowing that the borrower can't pay it back?

I agree we won't solve it at LPSG (HA!), but...
Evidence is piling up that the real lack of control happened on the part of everyone between the homeowners and the investors in mortgage bonds. These firms did these transactions day in and day out and so are much less likely to have made an honest mistake than the vilified homeowners. As long as people cling to the idea that these thousands or millions of homeowners were at fault, the true culprits will get away with a massive fraud that has harmed almost everyone in the US and much of the world.

 

[bananaclubcock]

That's easy, a person who borrows money he knows he can't pay back.

Not under the laws that used to govern this country...hopefully they still do.