ariesl

The Real Cause of Foreclosures: No Skin in the Game

Speaking of having "no skin in the game", isn't that true of most lenders from 2004-2006? After dispursing money to almost anybody willing to sign up for a mortgage, they sold it to Fanni, Freedy, Mers, or Wall Street money barrons who packaged the mortgages up into MBS packages, CDO's, etc. Thus, neither they nor the original lenders had any "skin in the game"! They didn't care if the mortgages ever got paid. By the way all of those bastards are still holding the dollars they made from those deals.Shouldn't they be held liable for the damage they did? They nearly crashed the entire world's financial system. It was probably the biggest fraud ever committed. Worse, the crime has gone unpunished. Worse yet, Bush, Paulson, and Bernanke gave the crooks even more of the citizen's money.

Of course now that prices are low, you can bet those individuals who made obscene profits selling and reselling all those bad loans and CDO's are in there (like vultures) picking up the bargains.

We are all witnesses to the most massive transfer (read robbery) of wealth from the Middle Classes the the very rich that has ever occured. Moreover, it doesn't end soon or even in our lifetimes. Sadly, our grandchildren will still be paying on the government debt incurred to pay for TARP.

Here in South Florida, most of the forclosured homes going for 60% or more off of 2006 prices are being bought with CASH! No Government programs needed.

Economic Decapitation via Cap and Trade

Excuse me Whidbey, but didn't the GOP also have an obligation to "do little or no harm" to the economy, the environment, and and the millions of people who are now finacially ruined because of the policicies of 2000 - 2006?

It is common knowlege that the economic of crisis of 2008 really began with the unleashing of Wall Street banker's unlimited greed and dishonesty; all made possible by "untangling regulations" that had previosly held them in check.

Economic Decapitation via Cap and Trade

I wish S A would stick to publishing info about investing instead of blathering political rhetoric.

What good will it do if people make more money now or in the next few years, if their children's and grandchildren's lives are a disaster because of our generation's greed, ignorance, and short- sightedness!

The Shallowest Generation

This was certainly an intriguing article! The many informative charts were superb. The pupose of an essay is to keep a focus and make a point . Great job.
However, the reality is, as many responders have pointed out, rarely all black or all white (except, it appears, if you're a Republican). To me the charts and explanations show that many of the problems blamed on the Boomers actually started under Reagan and BushI who of course were not Boomers. The icing on the cake was really heaped on though by the administration of George the second(a Boomer). We've experienced what happens when an almost religious effort at DEREGULATION gives greedy people a green light to abuse the system, and consequently, the economy and the citizens.
I like many responders also worked hard, lived frugally, saved and invested. Most of the great points have already been made by other commenters. Some have commented about the FED it's chairman. However, I don't think the point was made that the real pupose of the FED is to create inflation which is a hidden tax on all of us. It penalizes those who would save and rewards those who borrow and pay back with cheaper devalued dollars later. The other purpose of the FED is to feed the Boom and Bust Cycle. Remember the low interest rates of the late 90's and the easy money policy that led the so called "dot com" boom and bust? Why bust?... because the FED very suddenly cut off the money supply and raised rates faster than the econmy could adjust. Result?
An entire generation of stock market, IRA, and 401-k investors had their life savings decimated. How dare they try to move from the Middle Class into the ranks of the wealthy. The same goes for all the uppity entrepeneurs of that period. Next, after a few years, many people were lured by FED's excessively low rates of 2003-2006 to get into the real estate boom and bust. AGAIN, The FED popped the bubbled it inflated. This time many home buyers who did nothing more wrong than to buy a house at the wrong time or be taken in by Mortgage Brokers and Bankers who used bogus appraisals to justify the inflated housing prices of the time.
Now those who have paid their bills their whole lives and were proud of excellent credit scores, find themselves owing 100 to 200 thousand dollars more than there house is currently worth, even with a 20% down payment! Today many wealthy investors are coming to South Florida to scoop up foreclosed houses at 60% to 70% off the inflated 2006 prices, If the FED's goal is to set up massive tranfers of wealth away from the Middle Classes (not just Baby Boomers), then it is succeding superbly. Of course, they always seem to be tardy at stopping the downturns, so the cycles are amplified to the down side squeezing any stalwart or responsible types determined to hang on.
BTW, the dead beats who took out the subprime loans were as often as not lured into houses they could not afford by the same unscrupulous lenders I mentioned before. Once they were foreclosed on, the Banks began dumping their houses on the market, thus driving prices down. That made more homeowners give up on their loans, get foreclosed on, and so on like a monstrous real estate snowball rolling down a very long and painful slope. The next wave of foreclosures will be the resonsible folks rolled over by the snowball. How does one justify paying back hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the house is worth to the banks that were involved in the creation of the problem? It will be impossible for someone at the front of the baby boomer pack to recover from such a financial disaster. Of course, once again a massive transfer of wealth away from the MIddle Classes, insuring that they never are allowed to amass true wealth. As the charts in the article showed, the wealthiest portion of the population keeps getting richer! It's part of the plan!

If you would like to learn more about the FED and it's creation and practice, copy and paste this link into your browser,
seekingalpha.com/artic...
OR a longer and even more eye opening article at this link
philologos.org/bpr/fil...