Sorry - really long and rambly - not the paper I meant to be writing...sidhehawkeMarch 21 2009, 06:44:05 UTC
Is it necessary to be so rude to someone for expressing their opinion?
There are a great many honest to God experts in this world on economics and policies. No two of them agree on what to do. All anyone can do is try their best and pray that they get the right combination. Since it is a global crisis, the fix might not even come from anything that we do here. We will most likely never know what "really" worked because no one has the patience to let one thing actually take effect before giving up and trying the next thing. (And as a CPA it drives me insane how little this crisis of numbers has to do with actual underlying numbers - most of this has to do with "feelings" and "emotions".)
I like President Obama's statements about taking responsibility for yourself and your neighbors. I agree with him that now is a good time to focus on education and health reforms. The lack of both lose the jobs that keep the people in the houses. I like that he has a vision. I am grateful that it is President Obama and not Senator McCain that is leading the country right now.
There is so much effort to lay blame and so little to take it upon ourselves in this crisis. Nothing like this ever comes out of the blue. It is a long series of circumstances and decisions and loopholes and cover-ups and greed. These are the same reasons why so many people got taken in by these Ponzi schemes. Greed encouraged people to turn a blind eye to things that they should have been at least honestly skeptical about. Who wanted to admit that they did not understand what was going on? If they did not understand, they wanted to believe that the "experts" they hired did understand. The numbers all looked good but in the end the modeling was wrong and very few people understood the risks involved in the underlying models. Maybe we should blame math majors and computer programmers.
In the early 90s red flags were raised about the risks. They were shot down and careers were ended by bringing it up. It took almost two decades for those people to be proved right.
Blame the the baby boom generation. They brought up the first generation that felt they were entitled to the American dream of a house, car and kids. Prior to that, the house and car were signs of being well-to-do and pipe dreams for most people.
Only a small percentage of people and homes involved in this were really and truly in homes that they could not afford from the beginning. Another relatively small percentage were in homes with loans that they just simply did not pay attention to when they signed the contracts. So few people actually read contracts that they sign much less question them or review them with a lawyer or accountant who has their best interests in mind.
Many more people were reasonably safe loans; in "safe" jobs that turned out not to be. I believed myself to be in a safe industry where, even if I was let go tomorrow I could have another job at equal or better pay within a week. With the economy going as it is I am not so confident and safe anymore. My house is certainly not affordable on no job or minimum wage or even four minimum wage jobs so was I foolish?
When it started being acceptable and simple to finance 100% of your home would be a good place to look for "blame". The need to save for years, put 20%+ down and to pay it off within 15 years or less was a bigger safeguard than we knew. Maybe we should blame whoever started extending mortgages to 30 years.
Did you account for you or your spouse getting hurt / injured / otherwise unable to bring in income AND costing money as well when you determined that you bought a house you could afford? Did you plan on the cost of living going up well in excess of your income?
I find annoying all of these articles about people who were making a ton of money and are now losing their homes, eating at soup kitchens, living with the parents, etc. So many had no charity in their hearts for those who were less fortunate than they - and now they are there and still believe that their story is different than those they looked down on.
There are a great many honest to God experts in this world on economics and policies. No two of them agree on what to do. All anyone can do is try their best and pray that they get the right combination. Since it is a global crisis, the fix might not even come from anything that we do here. We will most likely never know what "really" worked because no one has the patience to let one thing actually take effect before giving up and trying the next thing. (And as a CPA it drives me insane how little this crisis of numbers has to do with actual underlying numbers - most of this has to do with "feelings" and "emotions".)
I like President Obama's statements about taking responsibility for yourself and your neighbors. I agree with him that now is a good time to focus on education and health reforms. The lack of both lose the jobs that keep the people in the houses. I like that he has a vision. I am grateful that it is President Obama and not Senator McCain that is leading the country right now.
There is so much effort to lay blame and so little to take it upon ourselves in this crisis. Nothing like this ever comes out of the blue. It is a long series of circumstances and decisions and loopholes and cover-ups and greed. These are the same reasons why so many people got taken in by these Ponzi schemes. Greed encouraged people to turn a blind eye to things that they should have been at least honestly skeptical about. Who wanted to admit that they did not understand what was going on? If they did not understand, they wanted to believe that the "experts" they hired did understand. The numbers all looked good but in the end the modeling was wrong and very few people understood the risks involved in the underlying models. Maybe we should blame math majors and computer programmers.
In the early 90s red flags were raised about the risks. They were shot down and careers were ended by bringing it up. It took almost two decades for those people to be proved right.
Blame the the baby boom generation. They brought up the first generation that felt they were entitled to the American dream of a house, car and kids. Prior to that, the house and car were signs of being well-to-do and pipe dreams for most people.
Only a small percentage of people and homes involved in this were really and truly in homes that they could not afford from the beginning. Another relatively small percentage were in homes with loans that they just simply did not pay attention to when they signed the contracts. So few people actually read contracts that they sign much less question them or review them with a lawyer or accountant who has their best interests in mind.
Many more people were reasonably safe loans; in "safe" jobs that turned out not to be. I believed myself to be in a safe industry where, even if I was let go tomorrow I could have another job at equal or better pay within a week. With the economy going as it is I am not so confident and safe anymore. My house is certainly not affordable on no job or minimum wage or even four minimum wage jobs so was I foolish?
When it started being acceptable and simple to finance 100% of your home would be a good place to look for "blame". The need to save for years, put 20%+ down and to pay it off within 15 years or less was a bigger safeguard than we knew. Maybe we should blame whoever started extending mortgages to 30 years.
Did you account for you or your spouse getting hurt / injured / otherwise unable to bring in income AND costing money as well when you determined that you bought a house you could afford? Did you plan on the cost of living going up well in excess of your income?
I find annoying all of these articles about people who were making a ton of money and are now losing their homes, eating at soup kitchens, living with the parents, etc. So many had no charity in their hearts for those who were less fortunate than they - and now they are there and still believe that their story is different than those they looked down on.
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