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117 Comments
- purpmint008, on 01/02/2008, -8/+63Let them suffer for their stupidity.
Live below your means or pay the price. - Gundabad, on 01/02/2008, -3/+37Get the hell out of my housing market. I should be cutting a fantastic deal on a house right now by levering other people's stupidity with their mortgage decisions, but instead they are getting a freaking reward for their irresponsibility. It's like taking care of people who get overly drunk. Let them sleep in a pool of vomit and they will learn.
- ryanward, on 01/02/2008, -8/+41I couldn't disagree more. There is no need for anyone to step in and help irresposible people who lied about their income to qualify for loans they otherwise couldn't get. It's time we let people face the consequences of their actions. The market is not bad everywhere and looking at real estate from a national level is useless. Real estate is local. Period.
- zalaz, on 01/02/2008, -6/+35F*ck them. They created this bubble. The Federal Reserve (a private, for profit bank) printed money out of thin air and gave it away. The price of your home isn't worth more because of the market, people. It is because your money is worth virtually NOTHING, so it costs more to buy anything. Stupid banks and even DUMBER people. Caveat Emptor. Watch "Freedom To Fascism" on Google Video and get a goddamn clue.
- acudoc, on 01/02/2008, -4/+26Why should people with no homes be taxed to help people with homes make their mortgage payments? Is that the purpose of government, to intervene in the economy to rectify the consequences of previous interventions that have allowed a privileged group of financiers and bankers to create money with the stroke of a pen and nothing else. Wake up, America. The problem goes directly to the manner in which a few control the medium of exchange, the lifeblood of a division of labor economy.
- iamcool, on 01/02/2008, -4/+23Bull. Let the people be lose their homes. They screwed me out of my dreams of owning a home because I would not buy what I could not afford. Now my tax dollars are supposed to bail them out!?
- krnldmp, on 01/02/2008, -1/+19You mean prices will return to near actual value.
- bcmorrison3, on 01/02/2008, -0/+15Housing prices will fall by 50% in California - Marketwatch
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/greenberg/2007/12/str ... - JigoroKano, on 01/02/2008, -1/+16You didn't exactly have to lie about your income. I was qualified for more house than I could afford, only I didn't buy one... despite what some real estate agents tried to push on me.
- lukas88, on 01/02/2008, -4/+19People can't afford homes. It is the second greatest threat to the american people. They NEED houses in order to protect them from the first greatest threat to america: bears.
- dotlizard, on 01/02/2008, -3/+17if i believed that this was going to help those who were legitimately bait-and-switched by unscrupulous lenders, i'd be all for it. if.
since i'm not that naive, this makes me just sick, because what i do believe is that it is welfare for the stupid and greedy, to protect them from the consequences of their own actions.
we have got to stop interfering with natural selection of all kinds. seriously. - gnick, on 01/02/2008, -8/+21Wow... That is certainly the first time that I've heard Ron Paul called a "liberal nutjob" or seen anybody suggest that he would increase government interference in the free market. Wild.
- hawkeye17, on 01/02/2008, -1/+13Notice that a man was quoted saying they will not bail out people who made took out bad loans, but he didn't mention not bailing out the companies that gave out the loans knowing they were bad? The criminal's in the loan industry that started this mess are going to be the ones who will be bailed out.
- Wargalas, on 01/02/2008, -0/+12Exactly. I plan on making a killing with the falling prices. :)
- Dumbledorito, on 01/02/2008, -4/+16The crisis itself was perpetuated by lax regulation in concert with stupidity. Those offering the loans (which was like offering raw meat to rabid dogs) would turn around and sell those loans to third parites, accepting none of the risk; there was no incentive (like having to deal with default) to make sure the borrower could repay the loan.
Greenspan and his ilk have a lot to answer for. They didn't even just SAY "hey, this might not be a good idea," let alone enforce standard lending practices. - zarex, on 01/02/2008, -4/+15Further inflation, here we come! Time to buy more gold.
- ThomasPaine23, on 01/02/2008, -1/+12I love this : "We'll do what we think is appropriate to foster economic growth," Gillespie said.
Translation: "If you were cautious, kept a good job and credit and bought a house, we are going to screw you. Not only did we screw you by creating the bubble and inflating the price you had to pay for a house, but now we are going to screw you by using your hard earned tax dollars to bail out those that didn't" - sensibledriver, on 01/02/2008, -4/+15NO.
That is the price of stupidity: failure. - inactive, on 01/02/2008, -2/+12This is what people were doing. Buy a house for $250,000, it goes up to $350,000, so they would borrow $100,000 based on the new value of their house, which the bank was certainly willing to do. Then, they went and pissed away that 100k on cars, jewelry, etc. Next year, house is worth $450,000, do the same thing. Rinse and repeat.
- brianbb98, on 01/02/2008, -8/+17How ***** stupid are you? Please cite one source that would show why Ron Paul would do something anywhere near this.
- WorkingDead, on 01/02/2008, -1/+10Actually, they don't look so stupid to me. From a certain perspective it looks as if they are living above their means by electing politicians that will take your money and give it to them. IMHO.
- toddhenkel, on 01/03/2008, -0/+8Your "paid for" house's appreciated value was overinflated. You should have sold at the high point if you were looking at it as an investment. If you are looking to stay in the house for decades, then what does the up and down trends of a few years matter to you? Oh yes, the taxes. Be assured they will go down. Slowly that is true. Your government representatives are just as reluctant to let go of the home's "value" as you since those inflated taxes keep them in power. Cut the tax revenue and they too have to trim the budget or run up more debt...
- subat0mic, on 01/02/2008, -1/+9 i couldn't buy, while everyone around me somehow were. (basically they were buying when they shouldn't have, and now are paying for it - justly).
now let the market take a DIVE, so I can finally buy something.
for *****'s sake, we don't want the market to stay UP do we? it's artificial!!! all those people who made money, it's because they're freakin lucky. time to sell and get OUT, before it all goes down down down ... - wheresjim, on 01/02/2008, -2/+10That's great! Let's socialize risk while privatizing profit! No wonder we have the biggest national debt ever!
- rhabd0mancer, on 01/02/2008, -2/+10The bankers and Wall Street dollar jockeys are getting exactly what they deserve. Let them twist in the wind!
- iamcool, on 01/02/2008, -6/+13Let the people lose their homes. They screwed me out of home ownership through false inflation and now my tax dollars supposed to bail them out!?! Let them lose their homes, it might teach them a lesson.
- catalysis, on 01/02/2008, -4/+11And the baby boomers continue to sell out the country and their own children for personal gain...
- ChaosMotor, on 01/02/2008, -2/+9Neocons love to privatize the profits and socialize the losses. Look to Bush, Cheney, Greenspan and rest of the CFR for this fiasco, Paul and Kucinich had nothing to do with it.
- inactive, on 01/02/2008, -3/+10This is just a populist move. Economic responsibility and the free market are dead in the United States.
- theXsolution, on 01/02/2008, -2/+9Why should people with no homes be taxed to help people with homes make their mortgage payments? Is that the purpose of government, to intervene in the economy to rectify the consequences of previous interventions that have allowed a privileged group of financiers and bankers to create money with the stroke of a pen and nothing else. Wake up, America. The problem goes directly to the manner in which a few control the medium of exchange, the lifeblood of a division of labor economy.
- williamdyer, on 01/02/2008, -4/+10Fine, as long as the bankers also fork over all their assets for ruining the economy.
- Brasky, on 01/02/2008, -1/+7I'll admit I really don't know ***** about real estate or loans, but who the ***** thinks an adjustable rate is a good idea? Who looks at that and says "WOW thats really low right now...I mean, they can bump it up 8 percent in a year, but its cheap right now!"
Why do people agree to this *****? - VeganG, on 01/03/2008, -0/+6I don't see "The Right to Own a House" anywhere in the Bill of Rights. If the real estate market is ***** up right now, so be it.
- inactive, on 01/02/2008, -1/+7Yay! I bought my house cash, without a loan, with money I saved and struggled to keep for years. Wheres my present for being a smart citizen? I mean if these people are getting free money... i should be getting something... right?
- Jared80KA, on 01/02/2008, -0/+6Take a look at Crisp & Cole realty company (or what's left of it), Bakersfield's leading cause of foreclosures. In CA, of course.
Then (arrogant 20-something prick) - http://www.bakersfield.com/768/story/56414.html
And now (hah) - http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/318447.html - logophage, on 01/02/2008, -3/+8It's easy to lay the blame on the borrowers; it's easy to lay the blame on the lenders. The fact is both parties share in this blame. When it comes to financial decisions of this magnitude, borrowers for the most part of completely ignorant of the risks. Moreover, most home purchases are "first time" purchases, meaning that the borrowers have no real comprehension of how the market *should* behave; they only have their single point of reference which is how the lending market is/was working at the time they borrowed. We clearly know now that this market was broken. Ignorance really isn't an excuse, of course, but it is understandable.
Lenders, of course, went insane. They chose to lend money not based on the borrowers' earnings (or personal assets) but instead lent money based on the property value itself. In the corporate world, this is known as a "leveraged buyout". While such transactions make work in isolation, an entire market based on this model is untenable. You simply cannot expect a healthy market to form when the asset being purchased is itself the collateral for the purchase.
I fear these "market fixes" being proposed by the government and the Fed will make the problems worse instead of better. If the goal is to reduce the rate of foreclosure, then allow people to file for bankruptcy. Don't throw more money at the problem when money was itself the problem in the first place. - tuxtoo, on 01/03/2008, -1/+6So who is going to help me out? I bought a house 5 years ago with a loan I could easily afford. I took on a new job that required me to move. This job benefited myself and my family and was the right move to make. Technology jobs are very rare where I was living before and I risked finding myself unemployed. Seven months later still my house is for sale. I have had to drop the price below what I paid for it 5 years ago. Not to mention I sunk 20 grand into improvements during that time. For the past 7 months I have been paying rent at my new place and a house payment for a house that sits empty. So now I should pay higher taxes so the people who where not smart and got ARM's on houses they couldn't afford can keep their house? Seems fair....
- krnldmp, on 01/02/2008, -0/+5Creating and riding these bubbles should be made some of the most illegal ***** in the land, and you do that by simply offering NO support for anyone participating. That's right. I said fry the financiers. Floating these sunzas only guarantees it's going to happen again.
- toddhenkel, on 01/03/2008, -0/+5So maybe we should take tax money to prop up the people who took foolish loans. Let's raise your taxes first since you prefer to keep your inflated home value over a sane marketplace that lost it's sanity for several years.
BTW - I did sell my house a few months ago. I never got the artificial bump most did in this country but I sure did take a hit with the collapse. Even with that, I don't favor bailing out the stupid that didn't understand the mortgage papers they were signing. Quit looking to the government to be your parents that bail you out everytime you bounce a check. - BlackJackJester, on 01/02/2008, -2/+7Federal handouts are exactly what are costing this government billions. Cut spending, and gtfo of my free market.
- trutek, on 01/02/2008, -0/+4....and how many billions do they deserve?
- GettinReal, on 01/03/2008, -0/+4I keep my .357 loaded and my gold buried in the backyard. I suggest you do both.
- trutek, on 01/02/2008, -0/+4right on.
you people want your cake and eat it too. even with prices for housing returning to a fair and equitable price it's still one of the best investments you'll make. and don't think for a second one but the banks will see a penny of this money. - PacketScan, on 01/02/2008, -3/+7More help? The banks need to clean up the mess they made by not following regulatory rules.
I say all the billions that were given as bonuses need to go back to the banks so they can CLEAN up the mess they made.
Instead the American people and the world are being help hostage by these banks and the illegal tactics they used to lend money when they shouldn't have been lending
SHAME _ SHAME _ SHAME on you. - mleh, on 01/02/2008, -1/+5... but since that $100k/yr is in the form of a LOAN, they had to eventually pay it back. And since they were dumb enough to get an ARM and not budget their money (how can one budget knowing the rate will fluctuate?) or refi into a fixed-rate, now you and I are helping to pay for their Yukons and Navigators and plasma TVs.
And that's what I still don't understand: how can one continue to borrow money against their home? I mean, surely there has to be a stopping point where either the bank or the borrower says "woah, $300,000 worth of debt IN ADDITION TO THE HOME, this may be a problem". - ChaosMotor, on 01/02/2008, -2/+6Whose bleeding? The homeowners or the banks? Because it's only the banks that will get help, ***** the homeowner, it's the neocon MO.
- toddhenkel, on 01/03/2008, -0/+4Yes - that appears to be the American way today. Sadly.
- pintomp3, on 01/02/2008, -0/+4who just happen to dictate the direction of the federal reserve.
- nonsequitor, on 01/02/2008, -0/+4How is it that you and another digger wrote the same comment verbatim?
If you're just going to copy and paste stuff that other people wrote is that really a discussion? -
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