I wrote a rant back in October voicing my outrage, and requesting that our elected officials move to temporarily prop up some of these ailing parts of the market as inaction can often be even more devastating than doing little or nothing. After this, I’ve had 2 long months to cool down and reassess the problems of the world, work towards a solution, and dent my beer stash.
At the time of my original article, I blamed four main parts of the problem:
The borrowers. Some thought that ARMs were the way to go, because they would be able to either earn more money, flip the house, or refinance at a later date. Some thought they would refinance, and wrap their debt into their house – a great idea if they then stopped incurring more debt. Some did not hire real estate attorneys, feeling that they now were real estate experts after speaking to a realtor and mortgage professional. Still others just decided to overpay for a property that they would never, under normal circumstances, be able to afford. The banks. They allowed mortgage brokers to sell their loans without forcing these brokers to be licensed, or often prove the validity of the loan documents they were tendering. They are full of highly-educated people that instead of smelling the rotten goods they were picking up, were thinking that the old ways of banks needed to be rethought, and that this was a new economy. They then sought to package these loans into Mortgage Backed Securities, and sell them off to buyers for up-front money. The government. We can look to all levels for this mess. The quasi-governmental bodies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which told banks they would buy this bogus paper. The politicians who wanted to force banks to lend to people who would never be able to afford the loans. The politicians who believed that reduced regulations would free up the market, so we couldn’t have massive collapses due to the “magic” of the free market economy. The politicians currently who took so long to act, or refused to act because of political reasons. The public. Yes, we are all also to blame. This includes those of us who pay all of our bills on time and have solid credit. We could have been more diligent in advising others in their idiocy. We are the ones who allowed these clowns in Washington to steer the already listing ship, right into the rocks. We are the ones who have allowed these career politicians play dirty pool with a subject of world-wide and historic importance. We turn a blind eye to Washington, and continue to allow this to happen.
Originally, I came up some simple and logical points to fix some of the situation, or at least grease some of the wheels. But that was then, and this elf’s got his little tights in a bunch as we watch some banks ask for more money, some banks take the money and then buy other banks, and our big three automakers come to DC with no plan, just their begging plans.
So here’s my NEW plan:
Give ME the bailout! Instead of getting whipped up in the buying frenzy of the last few years, I settled for a house and mortgage I could easily afford with a fixed rate below 5.5%. I reduced credit card debt to nearly zero (aside from my occasional late business expense reimbursement), and saved money, while building my retirement plan. I wasn’t like a lot of people I knew with half the income that thought they were geniuses who bought houses nearly twice the size of mine made of cheap materials that looked just like all the other ones on the block, and then “did a refi” and wrapped the car loans (giant gas-guzzlers) into the mortgage, and then went out and booked expensive vacations, and saved little. I didn’t make these dumb decisions… so why are people and politicians clamoring to help these people out? Give ME the bailout!
I didn’t blindly allow surrogates to represent my business interests. I didn’t decide to reduce my standards so that I could take my ongoing business, package it up into a security, and then sell it for the “quick cash” to accelerate the process by which you take in more questionable loans, backed up by credit “swaps” (bogus insurance). Again, I probably don’t have half of the high-paid advisors or degrees that these bozos have, yet I didn’t make a mistake NEARLY this bad… but hey, we’re bailing their spa-going butts out. Give ME the bailout!
I wasn’t part of the movement to push lending institutions with a stable standard of lending to those who present a low risk, into relaxing these standards so that we could live a dream and allow all sorts of historically un-qualified buyers to own a home. I also wasn’t part of the movement that saw fit to keep the standards on allowing mortgage brokers and loan originators more lax than that of life insurance salesmen. Though I’m not a “public servant”, I seem to have done far less damage than these two sides of the idiot pile. Give ME the bailout!
Finally, I’ve never been a blind voter. I don’t vote for the only person on the ballot, or the incumbent because the name sounds more familiar than the others that I see there. I don’t vote by party. No, I’m a person who looks up voting records, sends letters/emails to congresspeople either berating them for their decisions with the reasons why, or pleads with them to do the right thing. I argue issues, and not party punchlines… yet somehow this bailout will somehow be costing ME more money. Give ME the bailout!
Give ME the bailout! I’m going to need it. After paying my federal taxes (yeah, they give me the highest bracket), and state, and all of the other stuff they whack me for, then I pay into my retirement, savings, debt reduction, investments, bills, and charity, they’ll then ask me for more under the guise of “fiscal responsibility”. And I’M not the one getting bailed out? I’d say they’ll need to send me to therapy, but I’m one of those idiots who has health insurance, and I’m sure not all of it would be covered, so I’d have to pay for that too.
OK, I’m going to go punch the Travelocity gnome out now.
Filed under: Bailout, Economy, Politics, Stupidity Tagged: | Bailout, Conservative, Democrat, Economy, Independent, liberal, Libertarian, moderate, Mortgage Crisis, Politics, republican
I never knew the American Dream was “Make bad decisions, and someone will carry your @$$”. I aparently went the the wrong school. I thought Americans were rewarded for hard work, inventiveness, responsibility, and entrepreneurship. As I’ve said before, I’m buying stock in Vaseline, because we responsible folk are going to need a lot of it for a long time.
I’m another fool who bought a house I could afford. I actually did the unthinkable, put 20% down and didn’t roll anything extra in to my mortgage loan. Now there is talk of rates going as low as 4.5% but only for new home purchases. WTF! I’d like to spend less money on my mortgage every month also but I guess until I start defaulting on my payments there is nothing I can do.
Terrant,
Your final comment, “Kinda makes me woner if I was a fool for being responsible.” I know exactly how you feel, and what’s sad is that there are millions of Americans feeling the same way. We have a government that is rewarding failure and in doing so implicitly punishing our success. It isn’t popular to say, “let the irresponsible sink and suffer the consequences of their decisions” because that’s mean, no matter how appropriate or true it may be. What’s worse is that you certainly won’t hear any politicians say something like that, and they’re the ones that really ought to be thinking that way.
Just grab hold of something.
I feel the same way. I’ve worked my tail off to be as debt free as possible to the point that I’ve had to put off home improvements that I want to make. Now that things go south, those who acted irresponsibly are bailed out while those who were responsible are left with the bill. To me, it’s like a slap in the face.
Kinda makes me wonder if I was a fool for being responsible.