Posted on 08/31/2009 2:09:59 PM PDT by Bob017
Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us by Alyssa Katz, a liberal journalist who writes for Mother Jones, is the best book yet on how the sacred cause of “diversity” merged with pedal-to-the-metal capitalism to bring us the Great Mortgage Meltdown.
The book hasn’t garnered the attention it deserves—probably because it makes clear the bipartisan responsibility of both her opponents on the Right and her friends on the Left.
Our Lot focuses equally on the misdeeds of both capitalists and leftists. But I won’t give the boiler room boys as much attention in this review because they’re a more familiar tale, while Katz’s reporting on the role of her side is compelling “testimony against interest.”
Katz is remarkably frank about how government programs and political pressure to boost minority homeownership helped blow up the economy. She’s particularly good at explicating how leftist housing activists, such as ACORN and Gale Cincotta, the godmother of the Community Reinvestment Act, worked with Democratic politicians such as Bill Clinton, HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, and Jim Johnson, CEO of Fannie Mae, to lay the groundwork for the Bubble and Bust.
Katz doesn’t devote quite as much depth to the Bush Administration’s culpability (which, to my mind, is even greater). Perhaps she lacked Republican contacts to give her the kind of inside story she got on her own party’s mistakes.
Still, Our Lot makes clear that on housing policy, the Clinton-Bush years form a single continuum with one overarching plan: boost the minority homeownership rate by lowering credit standards. I call it the Era of Multi-Culti Capitalism.
And there’s little reason to think that its lessons have been learned yet.
(Excerpt) Read more at isteve.blogspot.com ...
“Everyone knows Credit Scores are rascist!! Why, it cannot be a culture of mindset of a particular minority, it cannot be a lack of personal responsibility, it has to be rascist, it just has to be.” said the Liberal cheerleaders
So, we had the Liberals demand that minorities have lowered levels of personal responsibility in order to qualify to buy homes. And guess what? People who are irresponsible with their money, are still irresponsible with their money when they own their own home.
OMG the book author writes for Mother Jones!
FR Ostriches better run and hide. Don’t even read this review your head might explode.
Great article. Very interesting with awesome links. I do not agree, however, that it is the poor folks that caused the problem. It’s the rich folks who made big bucks off these mortgages, and the richer folks who walked away from the deals. I see this as a “let’s blame Wall Street less” diversion and go pick on the poor folks nobody likes in the first place.
parsy, who says there is a congressional report somewhere which gives the other side.
How this blew up is the notion perpuated by the Government and Wall Street that your house is a great investment.
It is not. It is a place to rest your head at night, eat and to raise a family.
If you live in it for 20 years it should not be expected to appreciate. One should be happy that it can be ultimately claimed as your own after the mortgage is paid off, not to be chasing gains after a few years of ownership.
If we looked at our houses that way, there would not be speculation, there would not be all of this desire to “move up” to grander housing, and certianly the taxing authorities would not be able to raise assessments and take more of our money to give to those who would control your lives.
Here’s the link to the Congressional Report. A little long, but it starts getting more interesting about page 9.
http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/7-7-09-housing-crisis-report.pdf
parsy, who has read this twice now
LOL!
parsy, who says you’re right, of course.
Absolutely right.
Form an economic standpoint, a house is a liability, not an asset. I will cost you more over your lifetime (mortgage, maintenance, insurance, property tax) than you will gain by it’s sale at the end of your life.
Unless there is a bubble economy and you can cash out for a quick profit. Then your house is a poker chip, and you can opt to take your chances betting with it.
The problem was/is most people don’t know the difference ... especially those who came of age in the bubble years.
I don’t think we’re going back to a bubble economy for some time. So back to house = liability.
And it looks like those irresponsible people will get bailed out one more time...
True. A lot of our problems are caused by speculators. They don’t buy a stock because they think it is a good company and want to won part of it. They buy it because they think the price is going up and they will make a few bucks selling it. Or they sell it, thinking the price is going to go down, and they can re-buy it cheaper. Or pocket the profit. In short, the markets have become a casino where the house (Wall Street) gets a cut off the bets. And, what really chaps my *ss, is then the gamblers want lower taxes (capital gains) on this supposed “service” they are providing.
parsy, the disgusted
sometimes it is best to say “no” and take care of your budget. people were not forced to do what they did.
I clicked your link and got a blank page.
Try again. It just worked for me.
parsy, the dumbfounded
Try again. It just worked for me.
parsy, the dumbfounded
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