ElisaS

Obama's First Move on the Economy

Hi Still renting

You did read the sorry excuse for an economic policy put forward by Mcain didn't you? Talk about uninformed!!

The US voters made the better choice, maybe you should go to the UK or better yet come up with some constructive solutions to the mess that is the US economy.

'Too Much House' Buyers To Be Rewarded?

Umm can I just ask, are you people insane?

While I disagree with the structure of the bail out, most people that are in a mess are not there because they wanted something for nothing.

From what I can see they are there because they have lost their jobs, now last time I looked most people do not want to loose their jobs. Or they made a bad decision regarding the purchase of a home and the loan they used.

I deal with people every day looking to get into a home of their own and who want to stop paying rent, usually with the aim of putting in the same hard work that everyone else does to pay off that debt and own the roof over their heads.

We rarely see anyone that can afford to save 20% on their first home and yet somhow I have a default rate of less than 1% among my clients.

My points are;
The amount of deposit saved is irrelevant particularly if they would be paying a similar amount in rent each month as compared to mortgage repayments.

The reasons for the defaults are varied and most people would not choose to get a bad credit rating in the hopes that the government will bail them out.

The government is trying to keep everyone's lives from getting worse so instead of endlessly critisizing everything they are trying to do, come up with a better solution if you don't like what is on offer. (Though I do think they should structure things differently with a better end result)

Stop judging people you don't know just because there is little to no banking regulation in the US and some people made use of that to gain a dream.

Signs of an Economic Bottoming Process

Taxes are about balance, they pay for infrastructure and help create a stronger social structure which builds into a stronger economic structure. This in turn brings higher incomes. If you are earning more why would you worry about a small portion of that increased wealth going towards growth?

Obama's Economic Policy and Reagonomics

I tend to agree with Mark, for the most part Obama actually seems to want to try to change things in the US for the better.

Unfortuntely there are probably far too many self interested parties with a firm foothold in place already for him to make the hard choices needed to pull the once great nation of the US out of the hole it has so happily dug for itself over the last 20 years or so.

Perhaps people need to get our there and open their eyes and see that we all need to take responsibility for our own mess and work together to clean it up. Stop trying to blame Marxists or Communists for our problems.

The current system has to change, it is not going to happen overnight and it won't be finished with one person but shouldn't we try to start?

Subprime Root Cause Analysis

There seems to be alot of finger pointing going on.
My hope is that the US market will take this oppourtunity to take a good look at itself and take the appropriate measures to clean up it's act.
No market operates in a vaccum and it is time that there was a realisation by the industry that they are responsible for their own actions.

Are Subprime Losses Being Exaggerated?

The sub-prime issue is a big problem and those that pooh-pooh it are obviously not having to deal with the reprocussions. There is indeed a large portion of this problem caused by the paniced knee jerk reaction that lending bodies have had.
However this still means that countries that have better structures and protections set up to avoid mis-use of this lending area are still feeling the pain. There are lenders that have been closing their doors because the wholesale backers do not have the funds to sell to them. I am sure you can imagine the onflow, loss of jobs, incomes, inability to pay debts, so on and so forth.

Peter Schiff on the Housing Market and the Rescue Plan

I am a mortgage broker in Australia currently being hit by the shock waves caused by the subprime market in the US. This may sound like a very basic question but aren't there any safeguards in place to monitor lending practices?

Here we have an independent body and set of guidelines that helps to protect both borrowers and lenders, there are still occassions where people get themselves into loans they cannot afford but generally it is because they have a change in circumstances or the interest rates have increased.