StrangerThan
Posts: 1515
Joined: 4/25/2008 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DarkSteven quote:
ORIGINAL: servantforuse If you believe that GWB is responsible for the housing collapse, just what did he do to cause it. ? The dems controlled congress. So you are saying that regulation of the housing industry is the answer? The obvious answer is that the housing industry collapse was caused by the deflation of the housing industry bubble. The collapse was inevitable - the question is, what caused the bubble itself? My take is that greed and lack of ethics caused it. 1. ARMs were given to people who qualified at the initial intro rates, say 3%. Then they were packaged up as investments with a return at the final rates, say 15%. Obviously, they would be refinanced well prior to the rates rising that far, or else the house and loan would be abandoned. But that's NOT how they were presented. 2. Selling home loans became so profitable that people who were uncreditworthy were sold to. 3. The credit ratings of the CDOs were inflated. Or made up. 4. Dems, GOP, whatever. The fact is that the obscene profits in the housing industry were so massive that the industry could easily afford to buy off the lawmakers. Hell, the collapse was two years ago and there still have been no real prosecutions. With demonstrable fraud. Both sides of the political aisle are responsible for the housing collapse. Nor is it something that started with either Obama or Bush. Both ended up being plastered by it. The housing bubble started well before either of them. Analysts and pundits have been beating this horse for a long time, thought admittedly with weak voices early on. Hell, my brother told me 10 years ago that we were headed for a housing implosion. I like, many people, thought such talk was poppycock. The roots go back further into the land of free-flowing credit and a vast sea of it that legislators allowed banks to siphon nearly dry. It is also one of the reasons this recession is hanging on with clenched teeth. That ocean no longer exists.
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--'Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform' - Mark Twain
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