Subprime Suspects

The responsibility of poorer borrowers is NOT equal to the responsbility of reckless lenders. Why? Because lenders have access to far more information than unsophisticated and perhaps unqualified borrowers. (How are unqualified borrowers necessarily to know that they're unqualified. If a lender tells someone that he or she qualifies for a certain level of borrowing, often that someone will assume that the lending institituion knows its own business.) Futhermore, it's not "greedy" for a person to want a home in which to live.

It may be a consumer's responsibility not to borrow more than he or she can pay back on the micro level, but on the macro level, these risky practices were driven by lenders, not by poorer borrowers.

OBAMA

VP SEARCH COMMITTEE BUNDLER FOR GOLDMAN SACHS

JIM JOHNSON FRANKLIN RAINES

FANNIE MAE LEHMAN BROTHERS

LEHMAN BROTHERS FANNIE MAE

GOLDMAN SACHS

Greed and selfishness from the top to the bottom, rich, middle, and poor. Democrats and Republicans alike. Lenders, borrowers, and brokers. Investment bankers, property appraisers, and real estate agents. Give it to me, you owe me, it's mine not yours, I'll do anything to get 'it' so get out of my way, or I'll sue you, I'll cheat you, I'll lie... GREED and Selfishness.

That is how we get to this point. Look in the mirror people. There's the problem, staring back at you and at me.

No, of course this doesn't apply to everyone, but it does apply to very many. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this position.

To point the finger at one party or policy in this instance is insane. In addition, not to hold consumers accountable for their part in this is equally insane. The responsibility of the consumer -regardless if they are poor, middle class, or one of the lucky rich is equal. It is the consumers responsibility to make sure they understand how their loan works to to know what they can afford. It is also the consumers responsibility to understand that just because you have available credit does not mean that you have to use it all. I agree that there is alot of blame that can be pointed to the lenders and the feds, but lets remember that each one of us has a personal responsibility to look out for number one-no one eles but you will do that.

DC34 - "What is it going to be, a socialist economy or a free market." Unfortunately it looks like it is going to be a socialist economy. We've been heading there for some time now.

Wait until the credit card bills come in that people over-borrowed on and can't pay. I know I've gotten about 5 offers a day alone. Pretty soon I'm gonna cash 'em all in and go on a spending spree like the other Americans have-it's okay though 'cuz Obama will save me- I'll be poor. Where are the credit card company's located? Delaware? Home of Joe Biden I'll bet he's not responsible for those stupid reckless offers though, is he? Oh that's right he's only a Senator from Delaware providing a "Safe Haven".

I certainly find all the Republican comments on this article entertaining. Are there any actual BANKERS on this list? Let me ask them a question: Were any of them making tons of subprime loans? Tell me who was, because I know for a fact they would have failed every bank examiners audit in the last decade. What all these anti-Dem, anti-Obama posters are ignoring is that it was the UNREGULATED mortgage brokers and Investment banks that screwed this up. Fanni and Fredide? YES< they should be abolished and yes they made mistakes and YES political contributions caused undue risk to be taken. But if that was the only problem we had, we would not be in meltdown status. Nope, it takes totally Wild West unregulated lending to get this far in the hole!

What sub prime problem?

Look at WAMU's loss writedowns before they sold to JPM.

Out of 176 Million in bad loans: 60 million were home equity lines, 50 million were standards loans to prime custormers, 50 million were alt a loans to prime customers, and ONLY 16 MILLION WERE TO SUB PRIME customers. What SUB PRIME PROBLEM. That's a GREED problem in good ole' CANF. California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. CANF ever have enough can you?

Palin rally draws 60,000 in Florida
http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/2008/09/21/palin-draws-crowd-of-60000-in-the-villages/

Obama leaves North Dakota
http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/2008/09/21/obama-staff-leaves-north-dakota/

"They made subprime loans for the same reason they made other loans: They could get paid for making the loans, for turning them into securities, and for trading them???frequently using borrowed capital." This market would have never been created if it were not for the CRA and Fanny an Freddie. All of the other porblems that are states as causes in this aretile are actually negative by-products of the liberal governments attempmt to get involved in the free market.

Obama yells at questioner in town hall meeting in Florida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty6krf18huA

I thought this article was refreshing. I am currently an economics graduate student, and the thing that we have discussed in class is what ever happened to free markets. Though I do agree that to some degree, individuals taking on more credit than they can handle is a small part of the current crisis, Government intervention and corporate greed has probably played a bigger role. Even Alan Greenspan (who shares part of the blame), in his last report to the senate before leaving his post, warned Congress that government intervention (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) would have a major negative impact on the markets. In addition, before the real estate collapse, you had 4 out of 10 houses being sold on the market that were second homes and many individual taking their money out of stocks and putting it into real estate (despite the old age wisdom of diversifying your investments), it does not take a Ph.D to realize that a real estate bubble is going to be created. Besides adding another trillion dollars of debt to our national deficit, the bailout has essentially gave our federal government more power over the markets. What is it going to be, a socialist economy or a free market.

I recall reading an article in Fortune that was able to present this situation in fairly understandable format and the summary I took away was that the banks and financial firms just got too greedy. In the past, the banks would present these 'questionable' offerings to the people, pass them on to the financial firms to re-package and sell to make their piece of the profit. Where they went wrong, is they started to believe their own hype and started purchasing/consuming their own products expecting to make more profit. Well, now the chickens have come home to roost and we are paying the price.