Posted on 08/27/2007 4:06:37 AM PDT by Notary Sojac
I know people are going to hate me for saying this, but I'm not sorry that foreclosures nearly doubled last month and are increasing every day.
I'm not sorry that real-estate prices are creeping down by the glut of desperate "for sale" signs all over Southern California.
I'm not sorry that all those developers building lofts downtown and in Hollywood and North Hollywood with no parking might have to eat their investment when they find they can't get half a mil for the 400-square-foot corner of a former sweatshop.
I'm not sorry that people who kept taking the "free" home-equity money from the banks beyond all reason are now finding out how not free that money was.
I'm certainly not sorry that the huckster mortgage companies and banks that thought it was a good idea to make subprime loans to people with bad credit ratings are now taking a bath. I only wish it involved some sort of public humiliation involving glue, sand and glittery body paint.
I'm not even sorry that people will lose their homes and be forced to give up the Hummer they bought with a home-equity loan, and move into a one-bedroom apartment in Panorama City or, worse, in with the in-laws in Porter Ranch because suddenly their adjustable home rates adjusted higher than they can pay and they can't unload their McMansions for $1.3 million, as was the plan, despite the newly installed horizon pool and cork flooring.
I tell people I am sorry, but I'm really not. I am, in fact, gleeful.
And I'm not the only one.
Most everyone who is not employed by a mortgage company or is not a real-estate agent or is not trying to sell a house or can't pay the mortgage anymore feels the same. We are secretly dancing little happy jigs because it seems that the insanity is about to, finally, end and the snake-oil hucksters will fold up their tents, take their sleazy subprime offers and slink out of town.
Then maybe life can slowly come back to normal, and regular people with regular incomes can buy regular houses again without agreeing to loans so abusive they ought to be handed out of the back of gangster bars. We don't even care that it means our own property values will drop, if it means we might avoid another block of luxury lofts.
It's a relief, too, because we all knew this was coming, just like you know the Poppin' Fresh dough carton is going to make that loud noise when you pull the tab, and you can't really relax until it comes. Even people like me with math anxiety could work out that at some point the hot real-estate market, built in part on risky loan deals, was someday going to reach critical mass and start to crumble.
Well, here we are, and it's beautiful. And that's why I must implore all the well-meaning politicians proposing bailout measures (You know who you are, Richard Alarcon and Hillary Clinton) to just go away and work on curing cancer, or something that will actually help humanity, not enable it to continue on its financially irresponsible path.
Homeowner bailouts, as warm and loving as they seem, are, in fact, bailouts for mortgage companies, and they don't deserve it. But bailouts play well on the news, and everyone from L.A.'s Alarcon to state legislators to U.S. senators are proposing deals to help people continue to pay their mortgages.
Sure, some poor grandmas and inner-city families will get to keep their homes, at least until the next rate shift on their interest-only loans, but at what price? Is it helping people to keep them tied to abusive mortgages that only help the abusers profit? (C'mon, Hillary, it's the other guys who are supposed to be helping big business exploit consumers.)
To Clinton's credit, she's also proposing penalties on mortgage companies, though it's hard to see the sense of punishing with one hand and rewarding with the other. Better to support restructuring of the loan industry and government-sponsored mass refinancing for at-risk homeowners.
It's hard for Democrats not to rush to the aid of the victimized homeowners. It's a good instinct, but sometimes it's in everyone's interest to step aside and let faulty systems fall apart. This is one of those times when we ought to let it burn. I'll bring the marshmallows.
It’s a fools game if you don’t know what you’re doing. I am smart enough to know that I don’t know enough about the stock market so I stay away from it. Many people aren’t as cautious as I in that respect and make foolish choices that wind up costing them big time.
That’s all I’m saying. If it works for you, more power to you. I just know my limitations.
I, too, prefer .40 caliber over .45. You can get more rounds in the same size magazine, and the stopping power is nearly identical.
You mean to say You're, not Your and fomenting, not formenting. Your argument is therefore discharged as invalid under the United States Federal Appeal Law, USC 362 U.S. 217, 241.
Now if you want to start a fistfight about it, punk, I'M THERE!
Only if you let the butter burn! The key is not to heat the stove past about 300 and put the butter in a little olive oil, BEFORE adding the chicken breasts!
It is unlikely that any of us will graduate from the hamster class, with luck the cage we are turning round and round will be filled with friends and fun.
Sour grapes.
Post #12 well said.
Yours is the first post I’ve seen that talks about tight and loose money. The media blathers on about interest rates but they are lower than they were before W took office. It’s the money supply, as well as the interest rates, that matters.
He is exhibiting sour grapes or envy. Libs are socialists and hate homeowners, small business people, two-parent families with kids, etc. who represent middle America with a commitment to this country. His article is dripping with contempt for folks like us FReepers.
The unspoken factor here is that congress has spent money like there’s no tomorrow and inflation is threatening. That’s why real estate, metals (many mines are opening up again after years of being shut down) and petroleum prices are rising. The Fed doesn’t want to acknowledge the effects of overspending, so it tinkers with interest rates and money supply to defray it. But they’ll have to deal with it someday. I’m afraid that will not be a happy day.
Does this mean new, quality pickup trucks will be selling for $3,000 instead of $40,000?
Let me guess, you're the only one that has this plan?
Let me tell you, there are a whole lot of people out there with the same plan, waiting watching for what they think will be the leveling out of prices.
When sidelined investors, and millions of others just like you start to jump, guess what happens? Prices go right back up. LOL!
Meanwhile, you pay rent on someone else's investment.
Oh, and then when the Goldman Sachs (GS), Bear Sterns (BSC), BAC, CFL, LEND, TMA, bosses read the riot act to the the Fed Reserve governors, use your delinquent house payments to buy into the depressed financial stock anticipating the "government of the people, by the people" bailout of these billionaires.
yep.
Talk about foreshadowing
I just stumbled on this article from last August.
Looks like that day showed up last week and we are all paying for it.
Scenerio #2 Kinda sucks doesn’t it?
I think we are in good shape.
Can you define good. ;^))
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