Greed happens

In defending the lack of oversight and regulation of Wall Street promoted by President George Bush, Sen. John McCain and the Republican Party, my father stated: “You can’t regulate greed.” Greed happens.

Greed may indeed be a part of our human nature. It is forbidden in the Ten Commandments (coveting what other people have) and made the list of seven deadly sins. However, our willingness to kill each other is also condemned as part of our “fallen” human nature. I hope the government won’t give up trying to regulate murder just because someone is bound to find a way to do it anyway.

Rebecca Brock
Kansas City, Kan.

Comments

[solomon]

Engineer,

I don't understand why people live above their means either, but it is a fact. Just look at the people driving cars with $500-$700 payments for their vehicles. Who needs a jet ski or a 4 wheeler? I realize this is America and we are free to do what we want but people usually have as much in car payments as they do in house payments.

I've never lived above my ability. At this point in my life I can afford anything I want but will never be a slave to debt, but many people are. Look at the people in your community. Look at the amount of debt in their driveway and tell me they all think rationaly. Mortgages take into consideration that you dti (debt to income) is 40% on a conforming loan, on some non-corming(sub prime) you were allowed 45%. Very few people are less than that when you combine consumer debt, automobile debt and mortgage payment. It is a figure that is calculated from their gross, not their net after taxes and health insurance. By the time they pay utilities, food, insurances on their vehicles, student loans,etc.. etc..... you get the idea I'm sure.

[Engineer]

solomon
I don't understand the sort of mind set you describe. If I had had some of it rather than my "depression" learned caution I could have well ended up a billionaire. Of course I could also have ended up broke. But Fanny and Freddie have to be important in this. They hold or guarantee $5.4 Trillion of mortgages or about half of the $12 Trillion or so of home loans outstanding. As to the start of ARMs, it seems to me they started during the rapidly rising interest rates during the Carter Administration when lenders were afraid to make a fixed rate loan.

[solomon]

"credit card debt".....

[solomon]

Good evening Engineer,

I've dealth with many homeowners on their loans, and this idea that loans were made to people who could not afford them is not entirely accurate. I can't begin to tell you how many people thought it was sensible to buy a house, a 4x4 for the husband and a SUV for the wife, that on top of credit card bills. The entire idea of ARM rates was to consolidate debt, then refi after they got their financial affairs in order. But that did not happen in many cases. Payoff $10,000 worth of credit card did and many people would take it as a green light to go spend another $10,000 on a boat or a recreational 4 wheeler or a jet ski.

Lower income people were not the ones doing that.

[Engineer]

Casady
The point is that Fannie and Freddie were the ones who pushed the idea of loans to people who could not qualify for them. And Democrats in Congress opposed any regulation of them. It appears to me that this set the stage but I do not understand how informed financial people got taken in by bundles of bad loans. Particularly when the borrowers in most cases never intended to carry the loans for any period of time. It does seem to me that Fanny and Freddy are a large part of the crisis as the total of the loans they have out is quite large.

[solomon]

One more thing on our friend BuddyBigotty,

He has so much contempt for blacks that he doesn't realize that by assigning responsibilty to them for a national and worldwide crisis like this he IS playing the race card.(the most stupid term currently in use in America)

[solomon]

Good afternoon Casady,

BigottyT gets his opinions from people who want to put the blame on specific individuals, not on the entire structure.

What sane person can blame black people for the mortgage crisis? Just another attempt to smear the Democratic candidate.

I'm not voting for Obama, I don't agree with his politics. I am not voting for McCain, because like most of his current supporters I've never liked him either. There is plenty of room to be against a candidate without resorting to this BS BigottyT spouts.

[Casady]

OK Roughy. You have been spouting off about how the CRA is responsible for the current crisis with mortgage backed securities for some time now. Time to put up or shut up. Please provide statistics regarding the percentage of loans by total dollar amount that are in default that were generated as a result of the 1995 ammendments to the CRA. My guess is you not post such statisitcs because once you find them, you will find that the dollar amount is rather insignificant. Do you ever actually know what you are talking about?

[jack]

Unregulated mortgage bankers were not required to provide martgages to anyone. They were/are "unregulated". Then there were the "swaps" that were actually sold as insurance. Again, unregulated because they didn't use the word "insurance".

All of that has nothing to do with the problem. The problem was those worthless poor people of color who wanted to buy a house.

Could be true. Just like the moon could be made of green cheese.

[solomon]

...and yet you said nothing to dispute what I wrote....

Basic math BigottyT, basic math. Anyone who thinks all the white folks who lost their homes are victims of ACORN, Raines and diversity is plain old stupid. Anyone who puts this crisis at the feet of the group who benefitted less than others numerically is a plain old stupid.

The numbers just don't support it.

[Rogue]

Race card don't you lecture me on the mortgage crisis, I watched in develop with that stupid Community Reinvestment Act that Carter gave us. Groups like ACORN forced lenders to make loans to unqualified borrowers time and time again. Banks could not merge, expand, or do anything until ACORN signed off on their lending procedures. Hell, they were being legally blackmailed.

Jim Johnson (in charge of selecting Obama's Veep) and Frank Rains bought all this crap at Fannie and sold it on a secondary market. The whole damn thing was a house of cards. Rains cooked the books at Fannie. Ken Lay went to jail for this crap, Rains walked because Rep. Waters, Frank, and Clay gave him cover.

Now when the whold damn thing about bankrupts this country we can't even be angry about it?!

Tell you what Race Card, pucker up and kiss my butt.

[solomon]

Rogue,

I'm going to ask you to get off the barrel you sit on, put down the knife you use to whittle and do a bit of basic math. There are many more of us in this country than there are blacks. More of us took advantage of the loosening up of regulations than blacks did. While it is true that homeownership % went up among blacks, it also did among whites. All over this country there are record foreclosures, a large % of those being in communities with little or no "diversity"(you know...them). Also, although we know that Raines was shady, he was not alone at Fannie Mae, he is not shady because of his color, as you suggest.

Sounds like you need to broaden the scope of where you get your information, as it has rotted your ability to be objective.

BTW, the Founding Fathers were community organizers in a sense.

[Rogue]

No I never play the race card Race Card, that is your stock in trade.

[solomon]

Good morning Rogue,

Aren't you guilty of playing the race card again here?

[Rogue]

Becky, it was not Wall Street that caused the mortgage crisis it was Franklin Rains, the Community Reinvestment Atct, and "diversity" in lending promoted by Osama Yomama's former employer, ACORN>

[T. Hanson]

Hey Rebecca, I hope you are flexible, because that was one hell of a stretch.