Who Caused The Housing Crash?

Everyone is blaming the Bush administration, yes the administration was a poor one but this video says they were not completely responsible for the housing crash.

Just to let everyone know here I am not for either party, but I thought this video was very interesting.

Maybe it was actually the Democrats that caused this crisis or at least used their power to block legislation to curb lending back in early 2000.

Thought provoking clip. The powers that be want us to pick a side or second guess ourselves.

By design for sure.






[edit on 15-1-2009 by Realtruth]

I guess first you have to believe that there was a housing crash and that it was an accident. I think that the people that say "Follow the money" is dead on on this one." Just think about who benefited from this grand scheme and who is collecting. Look at who is suffering and who is paying. Then look at who is being blamed. Most of us did not have a dime in that nickel yet we are the ones that are suffering and paying. Ask your friends and neighbors how much their mortgage notes went up during the fake mortgage bubble business. People who did nothing wrong nor participated in the grand scheme for fleecing America are losing their homes every day because they can’t pay their mortgages. Not because they bought more home than they could afford but because some government official and some insurance banker told them that their seventy thousand dollars house was now worth three hundred thousand and they taxed them at that rate and forced them to increase their insurance premium to reflect the cost of replacement of the home at the elevated value. They scorn Bernie Madoff for supposedly scamming his friends. What kind of contempt do you show a government that allows its innocent citizens to be raped, pillaged and disenfranchised while they collect their payoff?

The so called crash was a direct result of the Banks (obviously acting as the financial executive for the NWO agenda). There is no mystery here as they are the ones who define how much money you are allowed to borrow, how much your house will rise and as you've seen, how much it will fall as they (just like here in the UK) play with interest rates, inflation (how much they devalue your cash) and loan to countries, large and small corporations and large and small businesses. Come on are you people on here so stupid that even now you need to think about it? Ah, you are that stupid, you really do believe all that crap that you see on Bloomberg

[edit on 15-1-2009 by mlmijyd]

I love it when they try to pin it on one side or the other. It's always "Divide and Conquer"

The powers that be want us to pick a side. Sorry everyone I just had to post the video because they are really laying on the propaganda thick.

Let's see maybe I'll pick a side. LOL! not.

It's all of them/both of them.

They blame the other side and ignore/hide their own mistakes. They are all corrupt pieces of garbage corrupt to the bone....except for one or two. Why people keep falling for the same rhetoric and lies...i'll never understand.

Maybe someday they'll see through all the BS and see the cheating corrupt cowards and liars for what they are.

No agendas in this thread. No sir. Our government has shed any and all forms or accountability and has failed miserably at executing the oversight it they so adamently expect and demand.

Here's a very good article, albeit a bit long (hey, this isn't a black-and-white-Sesame-Street situation you know). Take a read...

link

Quite simply, the liberal Democratic leadership, starting with Clinton, and continuing until today applied AFFIRMATIVE ACTION to the housing industry.

People who had no business buying a home, and people who in no way could afford what they were buying, were given loans they could never repay.

Sadly, and contrary to the Democrats belief, you don't have a RIGHT to own a home.

You have an opportunity, but no RIGHT.

reply to post by David9176

Why people keep falling for the same rhetoric and lies...i'll never understand.

Because as long as they believe they don't have to do anything. Because as long as they believe they can continue to feel safe. Because as long as they believe they can blame others and they will be blameless. Because if they stopped believing many would stop living.

Because as long as they believe they don't have to do anything. Because as long as they believe they can continue to feel safe. Because as long as they believe they can blame others and they will be blameless.

For as much as I'd hate to admit...sadly this is true.

It should be the new American motto.

"Don't know, don't care, can i have some money?"

I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before, but I'll say it again.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Dems are responsible for failing to reign in the GSEs, forcing via legislation lenders to lend to people who had no business owning a home, and not vetoing Gramm-Leach-Bailey.

I blame the Republicans for Gramm-leach-bailey, failling to regulate anything, spending like a Democrat these last 8 years, and stopping State AGs from protecting consumers from predatory lending.

Both Democrats and Republicans recieve huge sums from the interests involved. Many on both sides also supported trade agreements that lost jobs and depressed wages here at home allowing housing prices to grow beyond affordable levels. The only reason housing heated up so much is because of easily available credit not because wages were rising. Available credit goes away housing prices go down.

I'm not going to say we as citizens are blameless either. We put so many of these crooks back in office after they voted for trillions in bailouts, we as a collective probably deserve what's coming. Consumers also bought into the BS that property prices never go down and only go up and easy credit will always be available. We as a whole did not live frugaly and spent money we didn't have.

Whenever I hear a Dem or Repub hack talking about this mess, if they don't mention any of their own faults in this and only the other guys I just laugh and turn the station.

The problem is the gov involvement in the first place. Fannie and Freddie shouldn't have existed. Here is why, they distorted the actual risk markets by offering a loans to most people. The difference in rates from AAA borrowers and the subprime borrowers was basically .75 in interest. This extremely unfair level caused every "Real Company" to have to lower the standards to and rate to compete with these giants. This forced everyone to accept less than adequate terms for loans. This lead to the rise in home prices which lead to less perceived risk which lead to more bad loans with no risk. It was the one up each other to gain market share / more loans by lowering risk to compete against the government.

We do not need more regulation, we need less distortion. Consider this, what terms would you accept if you loaned your savings of 200k to purchase a home? You would probably want a strong down payment, good credit, good work history etc. But instead the Gov't packages a garbage loan together and sell it to your 401k. Why, lower your standards because its govt run versus your own money loaned. It's still all your money. I hope this makes sense why we need the govt out of the loan business.

Hey, I'll lay the blame, alright. Try the people. Scared of the man with the Big Gun(s) (armies). There you go.

They pick up and throw the first stone at the little mistake maker, but run and hide their arses when they find someone who can stone them back and win (government bully).

It's their mindless blindness that allowed it to be like it is. Dumb people ruled by smart savages, controlled by emotionless smarter brutes.

Kinda like the cows, but they don't know it yet. They will, they'll go, "moo-moo, someone's trying to remove us from our planet. Moo-mooo."

A british poster stated that the usa citizens (with all their guns) would submit to detainment camps before resisting; while the brits would go down fighting (with few guns). I'm american, and don't have any guns. But I can think, and I will wait for my opportunity to show them what I think. With equal mercilessness (eye for an eye).

The cattle, however, will continue to huddle in their fearfulness. So, no, it's not the extorter's who are to blame (we know evil lurks in the heart of men and women), it's the one's who knew what they saw was wrong, and stood by, doing nothing, but could have. Get ready. When the time comes, If you have nothing else, throw their bibles back at them (yes, you might lose your page...).

I spoke to a well-to-do doctor about the housing mess, and he also blamed the people. Mind, he could afford his mortgage.

[edit on 16-1-2009 by SS,Naga]

The Democrats caused this problem. Jimmy Carter created the Community Reinvestment Act which mandated that banks loan within a broad array of economic tiers within the communities in which they did business. That percentage was initially pegged at roughly 40% of loans. While undesirable, the banks were able to find folks that were not terrible risks at that threshold. Janet Reno, AG in the Clinton admin raised that number to over 50% of loans or the banks would get "red-lined" which essentially took them out of the loan business. The banks could not find that number of adequate borrowers and tried with no success to have the number reduced. To stay in the lending business, which after all is the business they are in, they had to package good loans with bad and securitize them. That worked OK as long as the middle of credit quality loans were getting paid. Once those loans began to fail, the packaged loan instruments failed and that is the housing crisis in a nutshell. You can't blame the dudes on Wall Street for attempting to make money under the system. As public companies they have a fiduciary responsibiliy to do so. Blame the government for social engineering.

An interesting thing for folks to do is research the Wall Street PAC money. It has always been heavily tilted to Democrats, not Republicans. The reason is that the wizards who create these new and complex instruments love regulations because they create the chasms into which these instruments can be inserted to exploit. First in that game makes a TON of money. Republicans are far more free market and that approach simply does not create the scenario to make windfalls the same way a heavily regulated capital market does. Follow the money and you will see that it goes primarily to those who hate the "unregulated market". It is not too tough to figure out. Barney Frank and the like are not the sharpest tools in the shed and the gents on the street can rip the bark out of his/their rules and regs, however well intentioned they might be.

Just because someone is making a ton of cash does not make them a bad person. It is what they are supposed to do. In a true free capital market, a winner will beat the market a hair better than 50%. An investor who beats it 55% is a superstar. It is far easier to figure out how to create instruments that the feds can't understand and take in a total windfall in a short period than slugging it out over a career through prudent and sound investment plays.

The bottom-line is that the capital markets are way too complex to regulate effectively and any attempt to do so will ultimately fail. The areas where the government could play a meaningful and effective role, such as mandated transparency and oversight over the methodologies used by rating companys, they have failed to do.

reply to post by SS,Naga

The cattle, however, will continue to huddle in their fearfulness. So, no, it's not the extorter's who are to blame (we know evil lurks in the heart of men and women), it's the one's who knew what they saw was wrong, and stood by, doing nothing, but could have. Get ready. When the time comes, If you have nothing else, throw their bibles back at them (yes, you might lose your page...).

I am not going to disagree with you but the deed is done. We should not be wasting our time and energy on placing blame. Even if it could be pinned down to just one person it will not change where we are today. How do we recover from this? How do we fight TPTB and win?

I too am angry and to be honest I feel quite ineffectual. If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. I get that but what is the solution?

As a President of the US if something bad happens on you're watch, ultimately you are responsible. It's called being an accountable adult. The fact that this crash happened at the end of Bush's 8 years in office put's even more of the blame on his Administration and economic philosophy. The people saying Bush has no blame in this need to grow up.