"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
You might as well close your eyes, repeat three times MORTGAGE CRISIS BE GONE! and then POOF!, Problem solved.
House worth is very, very, very highly inflated because of the property taxes.
People are forking over more than half of their wages and salaries for a house, taxes, and insurance. So, of course there is a housing crisis. What did the powers that be expect?
If the average house in MA is around $400,000 and the average * family * salary is $76,000... do the math... these people cannot afford their houses. Then add in taxes and insurance... poof...
Dad and Mom may both work ... so double that salary $152,000 ...BUT they have 3 kids... ALL require day care at $1,400 a month EACH... As they grow, they need private schools because the public schools in MA ...SUCK... or they're teaching things like (Buffy has two mommies... unacceptable !!! ).
And, none of that counts food, clothing, shoes, cable TV - Internet connection - landline, cell phones, credit card payments, car payments, etc.
Probably true already.
I (and so many others of course) just wrote out our huge IRS and state tax checks, paying much more into the governmental money stew in addition to all the tax we already plowed in all year!
All to pay for the greed and incompetence of so many thousands up and down the residential mortgage chain.
Might’s well have just written my check directly:
—To pay the mortgages of these dumbass bastards who took out loans they knew they couldn’t afford because they’d always be able to refi and take out more cash. Cause everyone knows RE never decreases in value;
—to slimy mortgage brokers who knew the borrower couldn’t afford the loans so they just fudged every line they needed to in order to qualify every living breathing, human that had even a feint pulse within the previous year;
—to the incompetent bankers who knew the brokers had no responsibility or ability to know the difference between a good loan and a guaranteed train wreck, and STILL funded the loans;
—to fannie mae/freddie mac (led in recent years by Clinton appointees and riffraff that put these institutions on this disastrous path to begin with) who accepted those so-called “loans”;
—to the idiot Harvard MBA’s who packaged the garbage and made them “default-proof” by attaching derivative contracts so complicated and deep that no one could ever figure them out—much less be “hedged” by them!
(BTW—I’ve always said if you hire a Harvard MBA-type because you think that adding that designation to the end of their name makes a difference... HAH! better be ready to add a bunch more ZEROS to your bottom-line LOSSES too. No group of people on the planet can lose money faster and for a greater amount than these wunderkind uber-genius Harvard-MBA-type bastards! LOL!)
—to the greedy incompetents on Wall Street who sold the so-called securitized debt;
—to the greedbag dopes around the USA and the world who invested in the securities.
One way or another, directly or indirectly, this is where my IRS and state tax checks are going (and yours too.)
Years from now, the most significant legacy of this crisis of greed and stupidity will be the fact that all the major financial giants will be principally run by foreign entities—from the Middle East (Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, etc), Communist China, North Korea, etc. It is just astonishing and sad to see.
But I’m not pissed. No.
;>)
“Just make housing free and forgive all current mortgages.”
Why stop at housing? Let’s make everything free.
Although, sometimes “free” can be very expensive.