Well, yeah, and I don’t really feel sorry for them, but it’s the implications from that that affect us all, and me too. Due to that, apartment rent is up, and it’s still going up. Hopefully, people will want to move to states that are more less populated and the costs of living is lower.
This is a rich, lush planet. As Americans, we should know that better than anyone else. There is no rational reason why any person in this nation or any other, cannot own a home. There is plenty enough wealth in this world that there should never be a question whether anyone can afford to have, even more bizzare, keep a home.
Each of us is taken in by the irrational illusion of scarcity. No mater how many times we manage to break free of the illusion, one mistep and we are drawn back into the vortex.
What powers this vortex is the drain at the bottom. We do not see this drain, but if we listen carefully we can hear the sucking sound of hard working, productive peoples real wealth and assets being sucked into the coffers of the metarich.
I don’t know what to do yet, but i do know what i see.
OoohYahhh
I can tell you socialism is not the right way though. It doesn’t work. There is plenty for people to own, but owning something you worked for gives more value than something that is handed to you.
Stock exchange is plumetting bad it is below 10000 average. Many countries are now begining to stop investing money in the american economy.
Although there is a great deal of wealth in the United States, we do still live in a capitalistic market (for now at least), and as such, there is an uneven distribution of that wealth across the population. One of the characteristics of a free market capitalistic economy is the existence of economic classes…if you want to live in a world that is devoid of such, look to a communist nation.
As these economic classes exist, there are going to be people who have the real wealth to own a home, and there will be those in the economy who won’t. This is an ugly truth that we’re willing to accept in the spirit of capitalism: when the wealth of an economic system is divided unevenly, the wealthiness of one individual comes at the expense of another, even though the connection may not be that direct in reality.
The provblems we’re seeing in the credit and housing markets today are the result of an overabundance and a deregularization of credit in order to bridge the gap between economic classes in the United States. Basic economics state that prices are ultimately a function of the willingness and the ability of consumers to buy. The credit and lending practices here in the United States may have created an artificial ability of consumers to buy homes, but it did not create the real wealth necessary to realistically keep their homes. These credit and lending practices may have temporarily bridged the gap between social classes by creating the ILLUSION of wealth, but not in any sustainable way.
All of the problems we’re seeing in the market today, and all the problems we’ll see in the near future will be a result of a massive market correction that erases the artificial wealth in the economy that is founded on bad debt. Its going to be a long painful process, and people of all economic classes are going to suffer. This bailout plan (which I’m starting to see the merits of) had better work.
While I do agree that the dollar is weak(just compare the prices in the smartmones store), it’s still strong enough to buy and prosper in other countries, when exchanged..South America, Thailand to name a couple.
The credit crunch can be look upon as a bad thing..especially when you need to start a biz or buy a house, but credit isnt the end game. It helps, just like money does in most situations, but ppl, or Americans I should say, rely on that 3 digit #(FICO) waaaay too much. There are so many ways to clean your credit and get a high score, get a house or car, and STILL default. We as americans are so brainwashed w/ having the latest and greatest(superiority complex maybe?) that we consume more than we save. So when the time comes to pay up, we cant because we’re overextended. Then after time has passed, you have this stinch of shit called a “Recession” sittin on your doorstep in a paperbag(Ari of Entourage style).
Like it was said earlier, the banks and Government aren’t to blame TOTALLY..we have to take responsibility for ourselves. Because the government isnt ALWAYS gonna be there to bail us out(Katrina anyone?). What should be used as a help, has ended up being our hurt, now we’re running around w/ are heads up our asses, and the rest of the world is following. If we panic(wall street, gov’t) OF COURSE the rest of the world is gonna do the same. We are STILL the most powerful nation on earth, so what do you expect?
As much as I love this country, I hate some of the ideals we have and we as Americans, need to step up, before anyone else is expected to.
The problem with saying that we need to take responsibility for the financial crisis is that those of us that spend/borrow responsibly and saw the housing market as a bubble waiting to burst are not and should not be responsible or accountable to the greed driven financial institutions or consumers that acted irresponsibly. And, those that are responsible for the mess we’re in are the ones that are most likely to be pointing blame everywhere but at themselves.
And, as to the banks and financial institutions having this much fucking control over our economy, isn’t that what the Federal Reserve was created to protect against? Oh wait that’s right, I forgot, it was created by the bankers to deceive the masses, steal the wealth and enslave the public.
I didnt say for the crisis as a whole, just for our part. We cant set rates, or charge fees or taxes, etc..
Yeah these fat cats are responsible for a LARGE chunk of it, and need their asses ran over by the limos they ride around in, haha.
On the other hand, the bank or your congressperson isnt gonna show up to your door, put a gun to your head and MAKE you pay back anything.. thats up to you. They may raise the interest rate on your cards, and or your house…But its still up to you to do the research on finding another credit card(if its THAT important), or knowing the diff between a fixed or adjustable morgtage BEFORE you buy. True they have ALOT of control over most things, but they can only do so much w/ it. Its still up to us on how much “control” we actually give them..Its OUR money that we have to pay the taxes on(albeit high taxes). and if you care about the money that much, SAVE just in case stupid shit like this happens. Not saying you in general Mark, just mean us as a people. We just dont save like we used to thats all there is to it.
If you’re not in a job that pays, get 2. If you cant, you start your own side thing to where you can. If you live in a place where theres NO chance of making it(Houston excluded, for now anyways) then you gotta make a choice. Theres ALWAYS a way to make it during times like these, you just gotta have the will to survive.
Im not rep. or dem., I just decide whats best for my blood in the longrun. I came from the dirt, and unless I was in school, no one taught me about money; And even when they did, it was vauge cause they didnt have a clue either. So trust me I know allll about being broke on your last dime, but I also know about changing it too. Every year we get to make as much money as we want, doing what we want or can, as long as its legal. All we have to do is pay taxes on it, and the rest we can do what we want.
Cozamel, here I come!!
OK, OK!
I SteveO, take full responsibility for the financial crisis. It’s all my fault.
Now where is Barney Frank and his $90 million he pulled out of Fanny May when they were going bankrupt. Now, that’s a true leader of people and has the countries best interest at heart.
Hey MR. BUFFET!! Can I borrow a $1.08?!?!?!? I just wanna get some apple pies from McDonalds, thx
Right, everyone blame it on SteveO, it’s his fault for sending me all those products for the price of 2 tanks of gas ( $175 over here btw)
I’m one of the (lucky) ones who, when getting divorced, allowed the ex to buy me out, whacked my £32,000($55,000) in bonds and left it there for five years while she struggled with her mortgage, credit cards and new car that she really couldn’t afford until her house got repossessed and she ran off home to mummy in spain. Should have kept her legs together, shouldn’t she!! I’m now sitting in a rented house with £40,000 in the bank, no debts and watching the house prices in the UK follow the US downwards (15% down on last year and falling by £3000 per month)
In all seriousness, it’s not just US, the whole global market is screwed, We’ve bailed out two of our banks, as have the Germans, Iceland are about to go bankrupt as a nation, the rest of Europe are in just as bad a state. If you can ride the rough, the smooth will follow, lets hope we all learn by our mistakes.
I did hear a story that the Mexicans were cutting the fences and heading south, any truth?
Sorry, the price of apple pies will be going up to $108,99. You can thank the pions at the White House, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve that pushed for the pilferage of America, I mean the Financial Rescue Act, for helping you stay in shape. 
The credit crunch and the recession that its causing has less to do with consumer credit (although I’ll agree that many americans are overextending themselves) and more to do with the lack of financing available to corporations to expand, or even maintain their operations. Too often we associate debt or credit in a negative fashion, but the truth is, the ability of companies/corporations to obtain financial leverage (debt) is an important component to our economic growth, so long as the appropriate measures are in place to adaquately manage the risk associated with loans. Corporations use debt to build equity. This is one of the most fundamental components of finance.
The mortgage meltdown wiped out the amount of financial leverage normally available to corporations, thereby having a negative impact on economic growth here in the US, and now, globally. This is what’s causing the recession, NOT excessive consumer debt.
The banks and the government are responsible for the mortgage meltdown, and thats a fact. We live in a society where its acceptable to hold a medical professional accountable when improper recommendations or procedures are provided…why? because we put a great deal of trust in medical professions, and because the scope of their knowledge is usually beyond what non-medical professionals understand. Mortgage lenders and all financial professionals should be held to the same level of accountability, because homebuyers are trusting them as professionals to make sound recommendations for them.
We can’t/shouldn’t hold these homeowners responsible for what they didn’t know, because it was the responsibility of the mortgage lenders and the banks to fully and adequately disclose how these ARM’s work, and the associated risks.
-The lenders failed to adaquately disclose the risks associated with adjustable rate mortgages.
-The banks failed to appropriately underwrite and manage the risk associate with these loans, instead relying on securitizing these loans to transfer the associated risks.
-The government failed to appropriately regulate the banks and their lending practices to prevent this from happening amid aggressive rate cuts.
You can use what happened to my Ex as an example. She re-financed her house and insisted that the loan be a fixed rate loan. She read through the paperwork and made sure that it was fixed rate and signed the paperwork. The next day the loan people called and said that they found that they could give her a better interest rate. They then came by her work place with a stack of paperwork for her to sign. Later, when she had a chance to look at the paperwork, she discovered that they had put her in an adjustable rate (potential greater profit) loan. This wasn’t supposed to be a fly-by-night bank, Washington Mutual, but what they did verged on fraud.
Unfortunately, her 92 year old mother became ill and she lucked out in that she had to sell her place (at the top of the market) and move to take care of her mother. Otherwise she would be hurting today.