[Travis McGee]

"American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage."~~Alan Greenspan, February 22, 2004

"We're not about to go into a situation where (real estate) prices will go down. There is no evidence home prices are going to collapse."~~Alan Greenspan, May 21, 2006

“The damage from the subprime market has been largely contained. Fortunately, the financial system and the economy are strong enough to weather this storm.”~~Richard Fisher, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President, Apr 4, 2007

"All that said, given the fundamental factors in place that should support the demand for housing, we believe the effect of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited, and we do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system."~~Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, May 17, 2007

[TigerLikesRooster]

Banks ran wild, having fun, then tripped themselves and fell down badly. Now they are crying and running back to their mommy, the government, they ran away from.

[nicmarlo]

creating a Federal Homeowner Preservation Corporation that would buy up billions of dollars in troubled mortgages at a deep discount, forgive debt above the current market value of the homes and use federal loan guarantees to refinance the borrowers at lower rates.

Um. Exactly where will it get the BILLIONS OF DOLLARS needed to do this, from a government that is already TRILLIONS of dollars in debt, especially since banks are already beyond their reserve requirements (and if they sell assets necessary to do this, then won't the assets have to be "marked to market" which, therefore, means they are in comparison to "marked to myth", worthless)?

[bjs1779]

“We’re not about to go into a situation where (real estate) prices will go down. There is no evidence home prices are going to collapse.”~~Alan Greenspan, May 21, 2006

Alan Greenspan - PING!

[CodeToad]

I know as a capitalist I think people should pay their debts and take the licking their actions give them, to including the licking banks should take for making these financially risky loans and using those risky investment vehicles, but if we don’t do something now about this then we may be facing a depression that makes the 1930’s look tame.