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I agree, but the gimmick loans were really geared towards middle upper middle class folk that wanted Mcmansions. That's where the big bucks were, especially after securitization of those pools. Those loans paid the best returns for Wall Street. And those are the ones causing the most damage...

I was in the mortgage biz. Those poor people CRA loans were full doc, though forgiving with credit. The loan amounts were small because poor people live in poor neighborhooids. So for the poor people bashers, where is the bashing of white middle class upper class wanabees that took out ALTA...

Do that many people still think that this is really a mortgage crisis? The mortgage issue is but a small component. A mere symptom.

Great quote and nice name "Scata" - Misthos (Sklavos)

Altruism rarely makes its way into policy. The little guy is only helped inasmuch as his failure ultimately affects the the broader market, and thus, the larger investors. Watch the government money flow - where has 90%+ of it gone so far? This new proposal basically tells the investors -...

No credit crisis? No Insolvency Crisis? Hmmmm. How do you explain this. And by the way, all that lent dough has not caused inflation. Why? The current credit crisis (or more like insolvency crisis) pales in comparison to the 1930s. Even if this were adjusted for inflation...

Never underestimate the "mattress" option. As this financial fiasco progresses and people see pension funds suffer as well as the current crop of defunct institutions- they will want to be able to smell, touch and see their money. They will not trust institutions, especially not the Federal...

I was in the mortgage biz. Believe me, affirmative action lending had little to do with it. The riskiest loans were used by ALL races and ALL income groups and had nothing to do with the Community Reinvestment Act, or getting more minorities into homes. The other problem was that FNMA...

There are three reasons we pay debts: 1) There is a legal obligation to pay. But as others here have written, there aren't exactly sharp teeth attached to those laws. The Dickensian debtor prisons and such don't exist. So why do people keep paying? 2) To keep there FICO scores high...

This is getting tiring. Once again, you misinterpret or maybe I wasn't clear. I am not assuming I owned the house before the fire - or that I lived in it in this scenario. I just state that as an investor or economist (viewing this the way the OP was written) - I would rather own/invest...

Reread my scenario before calling the example stupid. Do you understand what "free and clear" means? It means you HAVE NO MORTGAGE! So you would rather lend 300K (or own that debt) on a house that is worth 200K than own a lot that is worth 50K - free and clear? You prefer being 100K...

Do you work for Citi or AIG?

A burnt down house, owned free and clear is better than these mortgages. Why? If you own a house that was burned down - you remove the debris and you still have a piece of land that may be worth, say, 50K. If you lend someone 300K for a house that is now worth 200K, what do you have...

Apparently you have not read my subsequent posts. I admitted to painting banking with a broad brush - but I also understand our times and that people would "get" who I was referring to. I was responding in particular to the people the OP was referring to. Those that work for defunct...

Yes, Ayn Rand writes about a banker as well, but the focus of Ayn Rand's hero worship are the producers of wealth. When she wrote Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead, the U.S. was the worlds largest manufacturing nation. I would say that the great Industrialists of the turn of the century...

My grandfather was a farmer on a mediterranean island in the early part of the 1900s. No Electricity or running water. But guess what? He would enter into contracts with some of the local merchants in what amounted to futures contracts. He was hedging his livestock! Speculation and...

I've said this before. Enough of the Ayn Rand comparisons to Wall Street. She championed THE CREATORS OF WEALTH - THE PRODUCERS OF THINGS. People that made things like railroads, buildings, steel, hell, even hamburgers. What does wall street do? It creates nothing but paper wealth...

I guess because deregulation was going so well? And don't think it matters which party has the White House when it comes to finance. Both parties bow to the same oligarchs - the Banksters. I've read Ayn Ran. She championed the creators of wealth, the industrialists - not the...

You misunderstand the difference between resource wars and world wars. To determine who calls the shots, you first have a world war. Markets are shattered, industries nationalized, commodities confiscated, then a victor or victors with the least damage arise and become(s) the hegemon. With...

True... the market stampedes of the past will be gone for awhile. I think we are witnessing the last of the stampedes - both in and out of markets. Great trading environment right now, but in another 5 years or so, it will be slow steady growth (hopefully).