See the global crash hit home

blah blah blah I hate liberals blah blah blah I hate Obama blah blah blah I fear everything blah blah blah It's always someone else's fault blah blah blah God only loves America blah blah blah We must cut more taxes blah blah blah Climate change is liberal propaganda blah blah blah blah blah blah

John Q wrote:

blah blah blah I hate liberals blah blah blah I hate Obama blah blah blah I fear everything blah blah blah It's always someone else's fault blah blah blah God only loves America blah blah blah We must cut more taxes blah blah blah Climate change is liberal propaganda blah blah blah blah blah blah

Thank you for proving many points about liberals. Specifically the fact they have no substance at all and dont really understand the issues at hand and more or less repeat what they hear via hearsay.

People here are providing lots of FACTS and substance on the issues and the reasons for our currant situation and all you have to say is 'blah blah blah.'

I'm guessing you really want to blame this on Bush or some republican for that matter but you cant because you dont know what the hell you're talking about.

Just so you know - Yes, this is 98% the fault of liberals and their entitlement ideology. When you force lenders to give out no questions asked loans you tend to get people who take advantage of them and end up not being able to pay them back.

Yeah, its that simple.

Earnest in Evanston wrote:

It's more complicated than John states.
First, thanks to the loosening of federally backed low-income loans people who normally could not afford home suddenly saw themselves getting EZ loans.
As I recall, that was done about 3-4 years ago by Democrat Chris "let's give CEO's bailout bonuses" Dodd and Barney Frank under a Democrat controlled Congress.
Anyone remember what happened to nice Chicago neighborhoods in the 1960s?
President Johnson and the Democrats enacted legislation that made it way too easy for poor, low to no income people buy homes.
These people on welfare bought homes but had no money to maintain them, and all the while they brought with them their culture of crime.
So, John, tell that to your journalism students. Feel good policies that everyone should own a home apparently didn't work in the 1960s or this decade.

Your time frame is a little off. The EZ mortgages were first made available in 99 under Bill Clinton, witht he goal of making housing more affordable to all. Unfortunately, no one actually looked to see if 'all' could afford to repay the loan.

It continued under Bush 43 -- and republicans can be rightly shamed that he did nothing to remedy the situation for years. and then was blocked by Barney Frnak and Chris Dodd whne he did try to do something. Too late anyway, as the market collapsed.

But the original law changes that made it possible were under Clinton.

The biggest folks to blame? Barney Frank and Chris Dodd... both should go to jail for, at the least, criminal negligence. Frank possibly even for corruption -- since he was sleeping with a Fannie Mae VP while he was supposed to be regulating Fannie Mae.

Alz wrote:

<quoted text>
Liberals like "journalists" cannot make the comparisons that you made. To the Modern Liberal, all behaviors are equal so the only way to explain any differences is that the people who aren't doing as well are victims and the reason is racism or greed.
It is impossible for them to say that other factors come into play. Find time and watch that video I mentioned:
youtube.com/watch...
It explains why theya re incapable of making rational judgments.

As usual, clueless.

So, what "ethnic" reasons are there for a suburb like Park Ridge to have about 180 active foreclosers?

good call, Palmer House!

I thought the credit default swaps, and derivative markets had a bit to do with this mess. These mortgages, like the guy who got 8 mortgages from the now defunct Ameriquest, were bundled into bonds, with Triple A ratings, and sold to investors. After being sliced, and diced, these bonds were leveraged by about 30 plus times, from what I can figure out, by the big Wall Street investment banks. The leveraged money was then invested (like it was worth 30 times its "actual" worth)by these banks. But it was working, cause AIG was happy to insure these bonds were going to work, for a small fee. So last year, when we had to throw 700B immediately to the big banks, then bail out AIG, there was no time to ask questions. And, of course, we had to give them more later. I'm no expert on this situation, but I think these are things that need to be mentioned, in a story on the housing/economic meltdown. Then again, I had to put 20% down on my house and jump through hoops to get the mortgage. Might just be easier to blame, "those people" for taking loans they didn't pay off.

Nick wrote:

<quoted text>
Actually that was Bill Clinton with his "American Dream" crap.
You got it all right though.
On a related side note - The only reason why the economy was so great under Clinton was because people were spending borrowed money.
Over the past few years all this borrowed money that couldnt be paid back is coming back to haunt us.
That creep Clinton wanted to look like a savior and he knew the second the crap hit the fan he would be out of office for at least a few years.

Just substitute GWB for Clinton, and I agree. Course Nick won't mention that Clinton ran a budget surplus, while GWB doubled the federal debt.

Nick wrote:

<quoted text>
So the government should buy peoples homes for them?
That is nothing more then a Bill Clinton ideological bailout. Clinton told project born folks who never had a job in their life to go buy a home and he made it easy with his no questions asked mortgages and loans.
Now these people cant pay and you want the government to bail them out for being stupid and greedy?

No, this is not what I suggest.

Instead of giving money to banks, the government should lend (not give) money to troubled homeowners. Upon foreclosure, the government would be paid before everybody else. If the mortgage would be refinanced on better terms, the government would get its money back.

This simple mechanism, without any other government regulations or supervision, would stipulate banks to clear their mess by saving as many troubled mortgages as possible.

John K wrote:

<quoted text>Just substitute GWB for Clinton, and I agree. Course Nick won't mention that Clinton ran a budget surplus, while GWB doubled the federal debt.

Sorry, the program originated with Clinton. You might not like it, but it is a fact.

Of course, GWB didn't help either. For 7 years he did nothing about the situation, and then when he tried to do something (late, but maybe still would have helped) he was blocked primarily by Dodd and Frank.

And worst of all (beyond the collapse that didn't have to happen, beyond all the blame, beyond everything), no one has learned. Just in the past two weeks Franks has proposed doing the same thing in regards to condo mortgages! Basically plans to artificially lower the interest rates to make those who wouldn't normally qualify for the loan eligible to get one! Franks is a moron -- can't/won't learn from his mistakes, because he doesn't think he made any!

Get ready for round two of the financial collapse in a few years if Franks gets his way!

Nick wrote:

<quoted text>
Actually that was Bill Clinton with his "American Dream" crap.
You got it all right though.
On a related side note - The only reason why the economy was so great under Clinton was because people were spending borrowed money.
Over the past few years all this borrowed money that couldnt be paid back is coming back to haunt us.
That creep Clinton wanted to look like a savior and he knew the second the crap hit the fan he would be out of office for at least a few years.

With a Republic Congress, don't forget. You don't like the policy, blame all those involved. Not just the ones you ideologically resent.

THF wrote:

Those are valid points but lets try to be balanced. The banking industry has a lot to do with this and it was all about padding the bottom line. When the Government bails out the bank, hardly any executives lose their jobs and nobody is charged with a single crime, we have a problem much larger then just people taking out loans they couldn't afford. A whole industry was born where they packaged these loans as a investment. Until that industry is abolished, expect more fraud in the future - just packaged in a new way.

This comment is so wrong I don't even know where to start. First, most Banks didn't have anything to do with this crisis. Take a look at who owns the majority of the foreclosures and you will find they originated out of mortgage brokers (who are essentially unregulated while a commercial bank typically has two examiners)who sold these mortgages to investment bank, which are not a Bank in the traditional sense, or Bank's in name only like Countrywide or IndyMac which have sense been sold or closed.

Second, no Bank that has participated in the Capital Purchase Program has failed. In fact, if you read the news, you would have noted that $67 billion of the so-called bailout has been paid back with interest. I haven't read the same being done by GM or Chrysler who were bailed out and then handed over to the Unions as payback for helping the Anointed One get elected.

I hope this professor bothers to teach his students about journalistic integrity and the importance of impartiality even though he clearly doesn't value it.

As for this poster's comments, take time to understand the facts before you just spew left wing comments and call that balanced.

Co-operative housing is the answer, but no one wants them in Chicago. They work in cities in Michigan and INdiana.