You don't think the mortgage business is regulated? It's highly regulated. And consumers have no responsibility in this matter? Let's call Hillary and Obama and Bush and McCain and go after Big Mortgage! The worst thing to do is freeze ARM interest rates. But it sounds good on TV to Romney, McCain....hell all the candidates and Bush himself. Bush is a self-loathing Democrat himself. There are consequences to regulation and it's never good. The best thing to do is deregulate and let the market work itself out. This subprime deal is like 2-3% of all mortgages and is not wrecking this economy. Knee-jerk reactions and discussions of freezing rates and postponing foreclosures is wrecking this economy. Wait 6 months and let lenders foreclose and it will be over. Postpone foreclosures and freeze interest rates and the subprime mess goes on indefinitely.
I didn't allude to oil prices so you must have my whole post confused with someone else. But now that you mention it, the high price of oil is directly relative to high demand. The high price of gas is directly related to past and current environmental policies which have not allowed the expansion, construction of new refineries and severely limited the ability to drill for oil in our own country. I didn't come up with 2 or 3% of mortgages are in default. Experts like the one I posted a link to did so don't blame me. I do fault subprime mortgage companies for writing mortgages to people who they absolutely knew had no way to pay that mortgage back. But they didn't sign for these people......the consumers signed for those loans because current and past administrations have drummed up the belief that "every person in America has a RIGHT to a home"......no matter even if they can't pay for it. And the same government who started the problem adds fuel to the fire by bailing the same people out. Let the market correct itself by foreclosing on these people and moving on.
Im out of this fight, I thought we were going to have a discussion on good economic fixes and policy, but you just want to blast at this from a republican/conservative point of view instead of discussing the facts. The middle class is at stake here and you are just spewing right wing fallacies.
We had this discussion in another thread awhile back. It is regulated, but the disclosures are written by attorneys and the "process" is long and complicated for consumers. It's pretty sad when many consumers now need to hire a mortgage expert to help them buy a house. Somehow, we need to streamline the process and make it easier to understand. Not more disclosures written by attorneys, but clearer ones that a normal person (not stupid, can't help them) can read. It also needs to be provided to the consumer prior to closing so they aren't pressured into signing legal documents without fully reading them during closing. We can improve the process. But that's about the limit our government needs to be involved.
OK good. By the way, just by saying "economic fix," I know what you believe already and that's a democrat\liberal view. Nothing should be done for the subprime mess. And to say that the middle class is at stake is ridiculous....you watch too much MSNBC.
I have no problem with fairness in lending and understand that lenders hold a certain responsibility in this. They wanted to get rich quick on the housing bubble and they did and then sold those risky loans. And we certainly agree that government's role should be limited to disclosure rules for lenders and that's basically it.
Smart post, very smart. At some point this credit bubble we have built for ourselves the past 30 years is going to bust and that will be a big bomb. The subprime mess is a product of a bad credit society. It seems the country is in recession every election year. Hmmmm......
funny you say that, cause all of this has happen on the republican admin clock. Especially when you had GW in a speech touting that more Americans own homes today just a few years ago.
So tell us how the government is suppose to prevent consumers from getting into these loans? Inquiry minds want to know. And this is not the first time we've had subprime issues. It happened in the late 90s, as well.
I did not even mention consumers. I just pointed out that commercial enterprise does not always work better without government "interference" and sometimes it fouls up badly. As always, I advocate a a proper balance between government regulations and free commerce. Best of both worlds.
