quote from the article:
“All you needed was a pulse to buy a house. Some loans were written with no money down, no proof of buyer’s incomes. They did not even check what people were saying. Most of those folks were jobless,” he said in an interview.
Wait. I thought the banks were greedy? Here it sounds more like the people were just stupid. So why do we just blame the corporations? Why doesn’t anyone say, “These people did something stupid”?
Stupid customers notwithstanding, what else can you call a company that would write mortgages with no money down, with no proof of income, and without even confirming employment except 'greedy'? Or maybe 'idiotic'?
Sounds like a great deal. You buy a house for no down, live in it, don’t pay and get to walk away.
Let’s do a thought experiment...
Now if you were a person, paying 50% of your income in rent and somebody came to you and said “I can get you the money to buy a house.” Would you take it? At worst you might lose the house and be back paying rent again if it goes wrong, but if you get a little luck a job promotion, an inheritance or something it’s a worthwhile risk. It’s smart move by somebody who has nothing.
If you were in the business of loaning money out to people - would you seriously loan money to people who couldn’t prove they would pay it back?
Of course not, you’d be out of business in no time.
So who in the hell would give these people hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a house? Somebody who doesn’t carry the risk.