Originally posted by loam
THAT is my point.
[edit on 9-9-2009 by loam]
And my point is that you would be right....IF the government hadn't given away those two HUGE bank bailouts...with specific INSTRUCTIONS that they
are to take that money and start modifying loans!!
Paulson and Bush and Obama and Geitner got those bailouts to pass Congress, by telling them that it would STABILIZE the housing crisis. It has not.
Not one bit.
TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS WASTED. And the housing crisis is continuing to get worse.
When the next ARMS start to reset this winter and next spring, more of my neighbors who bought their homes with ARMs will walk away from their houses.
My house value will plummet even farther.
Here is an anaology:
Let's say that a hurricane hit New Orleans. The area is devastated...the place is called a disaster area, and the government infuses 500 billion
dollars into New Orleans, with instructions to get the money to the people who need it.
Should we blame the people in New Orleans who bought houses there? Well, maybe they were stupid to buy houses in a hurricane zone, but then again, the
government allowed the sale of those homes. So, who is stupid....the home owners or the government? Both, I suppose.
What if the people who got the 500 billion dollars did not distribute that money to the people for whom it was intended? We would call it criminal
embezzelment.
The same thing is happening to homes in California, Arizona, Florida, and um, I can't remember the 4th state. But instead of getting hit by a
hurricane, we got hit by a housing crisis. Granted, our homes are still standing, but empty/foreclosed houses around us are getting stripped and
destroyed by house looters and vandals.
So, who is to blame? Me? Ok, I'll take some of the blame for buying a house for 160,000 that had sold for 120,000 two years earlier. But I thought I
was getting priced out of the housing market and I thought if I ever wanted a house, I would need to act fast and buy one while I could still afford
to. Never did I dream that the house prices would...or even COULD.... fall to even lower than $120,000....down to 80k.
Why? Because it had never happened before in America. Because there were supposed to be regulations to prevent that kind of stuff from happening!!
The banks, should they be blamed? Yes, they should take part of the blame for selling so many bad loans. The goverment? Yes, they should take a lot
of the blame for forcing the banks to sell loans to high risk people.
But, regardless of who is to blame for building in a hurricane zone, if the people who got the disaster money in New Orleans had kept the disaster
money for themselves, and didn't distribute it to the people for whom it was intended...we would call it criminal.
There would be an investigation and a national outcry.
Same with the housing crisis. Regardless of who is to blame...TRILLIONS of dollars were given to the banks for them to start modifying loans. And it
has not ben doon. Why aren't the banks being investigated? Why isn't Congress yelling at them to start modifying loans like they're supposed to be
doing?
The truth is, our 4 states ARE disaster areas. Financial disaster areas. And if the banks don't start doing something with that money they've been
given, the disaster area in our four states is going to affect the rest of the states. Those of you who are not living in our 4 states will eventually
be hit, too....it's only a matter of time.
That is MY point.
[edit on 9-9-2009 by nikiano]