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The Dukes of Moral Hazard
The Wall Street Journal ^ | February 18, 2009 | Editorial

Posted on 02/19/2009 3:24:39 AM PST by Scanian

President Obama yesterday announced his plan to prevent home foreclosures, saying he wanted to be "very clear about what this plan will not do: It will not rescue the unscrupulous or irresponsible by throwing good taxpayer money after bad loans . . . And it will not reward folks who bought homes they knew from the beginning they would never be able to afford."

We really do wish he were right. In fact, the details released yesterday suggest the President's plan will do all of the above. The plan will help some struggling homeowners. But by investing in failure, the Administration will also prolong the housing downturn and make financing a home purchase more difficult for future borrowers. Meanwhile, the plan isn't likely to slow the continuing decline in housing prices.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bailout; economy; mortages; obama
"Re-default rates are 55% after six months."
1 posted on 02/19/2009 3:24:39 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian

Says one thing and does the opposite. So typical of this guy. Why listen to a lier?


2 posted on 02/19/2009 3:32:38 AM PST by Need4Truth
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To: Scanian
(lier should be liar)

What investors, businesses and working Americans want to hear is a President with ideas to spur economic recovery. What they've been getting are plans for a long national Chapter 11 workout

and pork crap and grow government crap...

3 posted on 02/19/2009 3:39:55 AM PST by Need4Truth
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To: Scanian

“Investing in failure”. About sums up the administration’s motto.


4 posted on 02/19/2009 3:44:21 AM PST by 6SJ7 (Atlas Shrugged Mode: ON)
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To: 6SJ7

Punish success and subsidize losers. The Democrat recipe for unending political control.


5 posted on 02/19/2009 3:47:27 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian

This is what I don’t understand about the housing issue. Since when was anybody guaranteed a return on their home investment.

We’ve bought and sold houses over the years...but we bought with 20 percent down, bought at a price that would not put our mortgage at more than 25 percent of our income, and basically took a gamble that we would make money in the long run. But like any gamble sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t. It’s only in the last few years that the prices have skyrocketed, and everybody thought their home investment was some sort of “money tree” that would automatically produce dollars.

These folks who put nothing down, don’t deserve equity (the principal right down has me fuming.) They can look at their mortgage payments as the “rent” they would have been paying elsewhere...it costs to live, no matter if you own, or rent. I have a couple friends, who were long established middle aged business people, and when they lost their jobs, they sold their homes and moved into rented condos. They did the financially responsible thing (and they didn’t walk away with equity because the prices in their area had fallen significantly.)

It’s just a bad idea for the government to start tinkering with rates and principal for a certain percentage of the homeowners. Who knows what the outcome will be, plus it breeds discontent in the majority of other homeowners and renters who are financing the “fix” through taxpayer dollars..


6 posted on 02/19/2009 3:49:29 AM PST by dawn53
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To: Scanian
And it will not reward folks who bought homes they knew from the beginning they would never be able to afford."

Who ever bought a house they knew from the beginning they would never be able to afford?

El hombre agradable en la compañía de hipoteca me dijo que la casa doblaría en valor el próximo año y podría venderlo y ser rico.

(The nice man at the mortgage company told me the house would double in value next year and I could sell it and be rich.)


7 posted on 02/19/2009 3:50:27 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: dawn53
Well bend over because if you have been "following the law and playing by the rules" you are about to be serially buggered by Zero and every one of his minions. Invest in KY, Vaseline, and Tuck's because Americans that have been playing by the rules are going to get hurt bad in the next few years.

Μολὼν λάβε

8 posted on 02/19/2009 3:57:49 AM PST by wastoute (translation of tag "Come and get them (bastards)")
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To: DuncanWaring

I’m a mortgage broker (i.e., I’m starving to death!)who, coincidentally, has a large hispanic clientelle. Many of my customers bought houses on a shoestring thinking that they could “flip” them for a substantial profit after just a few months. I never made a pitch like the “hipotequero agradable”—it wasn’t necessary. Plenty of buyers had that notion to start off. There is room for blame all around in the mortgage mess: unscrupulous lenders and brokers, yes. But also pressure tactics from government and certain greedy, unrealistic buyers as well.


9 posted on 02/19/2009 3:58:25 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian

I’ve noticed quite a bit of talk over the last few months/years about “predatory lenders”, but never any about “predatory borrowers”, of which there seem to be many.


10 posted on 02/19/2009 4:03:01 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: DuncanWaring

There certainly were. While real estate prices were skyrocketing, some of them would come into my office practically frothing at the mouth. “Get it while the gettin’s good” seemed to be the typical attitude.


11 posted on 02/19/2009 4:05:49 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian

Obama is planning a Socialist progressive pricing scheme. It will be implemented in stages. This is the first step. He will set prices for goods and services according to income. The 100 dollar good will only cost a poor person 10 dollars and a rich one 200 dollars. Fair...ain’t it.


12 posted on 02/19/2009 4:09:28 AM PST by screaminsunshine (f)
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