Obama's weekly YouTube address
Here is Obama's latest YouTube address where he introduces his new appointee for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Sean Donovan.
Obama starts off by noting that we are at a near-30-year high for new unemployment claims (oh and by the way, all the idiots on forums I've seen recently who say that ANYONE who files for unemployment is stupid, lazy, and has no honor can completely and totally bite me). He also notes that credit's tight and people can't get loans (and AmEx will cut you off unless you show them your tax returns).
"This all started," he continues, "when Americans took out mortgages they couldn't afford." I am actually SORT OF in this boat. I don't have an ARM, but I do have a fixed-rate balloon payment mortgage which some might say was stupid, but was the best deal available at the time, especially since I had no down payment to make (and would never have been able to save one up, EVER, on tech support salary). Five years ago I made that deal, sure that with my new master's degree I'd be able to get a better job soon and we'd be able to buy a "real house"--that is, one that doesn't share any walls with any others and has more than two bedrooms.
Obviously, that hasn't happened, and the balloon is now due, so I have to re-up it for another five years at a slightly higher rate, since I cannot afford the closing costs to refinance, and anyway that would raise my payments even more. Hopefully we can figure something out within TEN years of moving here! :) Anyway, that's my mortgage story. I bought pre-bubble and there's still been difficulty. So I can definitely see how others got in trouble.
Obama says that "We need to approach the old challenge of affordable housing with new energy, new ideas, and a new efficient style of leadership.... Sean will bring to this important post fresh thinking unencumbered by old ideology and outdated ideas. He understands that we need to move past the stale ideas that say 'Low-income Americans shouldn't even try to own a home,' or that our mortgage crisis is due solely to a few greedy lenders."
I like also that they are pointing out that helping ensure housing for everyone is not just about building slums and helping the poorest people. When I was in high school I lived in what my town called "affordable housing." Our mortgage/rent was not subsidized, but in this town, anything under half a million dollars qualified as "affordable housing," and so over that last summer all four of us lived in a two-bedroom apartment, overlooking a dumpster, that sold for well over $200,000.
I remember a particular time in my senior year Sociology class when we were discussing the proposal that was in front of the town at the time to build more "affordable housing." The girl behind me raised her hand, snapped her gum, and said, "Yeah, um, my dad says we shouldn't build any more of that housing because those people don't contribute to the tax base."
Anyway, there's just a tiny smattering of the history behind my serious resentment of money. ;)
And here's the speech:
They have him on a tight focus this week, maybe because people were criticizing the backgrounds so much, and questioning everything from the plants to the photos. I don't mind the tight framing, but I have a problem with the chair. I know that is a normal height for a desk chair for "important people," but that is the wrong height for Obama because of his ears. Seriously. The bottoms of his ears visually "touch" the top of the chair and make his ears look even longer. They either need to have a chair a couple inches higher (probably bad because that would make him look short), or a couple inches lower (my preference), or even put him in front of a darker background, to avoid this.
Obama starts off by noting that we are at a near-30-year high for new unemployment claims (oh and by the way, all the idiots on forums I've seen recently who say that ANYONE who files for unemployment is stupid, lazy, and has no honor can completely and totally bite me). He also notes that credit's tight and people can't get loans (and AmEx will cut you off unless you show them your tax returns).
"This all started," he continues, "when Americans took out mortgages they couldn't afford." I am actually SORT OF in this boat. I don't have an ARM, but I do have a fixed-rate balloon payment mortgage which some might say was stupid, but was the best deal available at the time, especially since I had no down payment to make (and would never have been able to save one up, EVER, on tech support salary). Five years ago I made that deal, sure that with my new master's degree I'd be able to get a better job soon and we'd be able to buy a "real house"--that is, one that doesn't share any walls with any others and has more than two bedrooms.
Obviously, that hasn't happened, and the balloon is now due, so I have to re-up it for another five years at a slightly higher rate, since I cannot afford the closing costs to refinance, and anyway that would raise my payments even more. Hopefully we can figure something out within TEN years of moving here! :) Anyway, that's my mortgage story. I bought pre-bubble and there's still been difficulty. So I can definitely see how others got in trouble.
Obama says that "We need to approach the old challenge of affordable housing with new energy, new ideas, and a new efficient style of leadership.... Sean will bring to this important post fresh thinking unencumbered by old ideology and outdated ideas. He understands that we need to move past the stale ideas that say 'Low-income Americans shouldn't even try to own a home,' or that our mortgage crisis is due solely to a few greedy lenders."
I like also that they are pointing out that helping ensure housing for everyone is not just about building slums and helping the poorest people. When I was in high school I lived in what my town called "affordable housing." Our mortgage/rent was not subsidized, but in this town, anything under half a million dollars qualified as "affordable housing," and so over that last summer all four of us lived in a two-bedroom apartment, overlooking a dumpster, that sold for well over $200,000.
I remember a particular time in my senior year Sociology class when we were discussing the proposal that was in front of the town at the time to build more "affordable housing." The girl behind me raised her hand, snapped her gum, and said, "Yeah, um, my dad says we shouldn't build any more of that housing because those people don't contribute to the tax base."
Anyway, there's just a tiny smattering of the history behind my serious resentment of money. ;)
And here's the speech:
Click to viewThey have him on a tight focus this week, maybe because people were criticizing the backgrounds so much, and questioning everything from the plants to the photos. I don't mind the tight framing, but I have a problem with the chair. I know that is a normal height for a desk chair for "important people," but that is the wrong height for Obama because of his ears. Seriously. The bottoms of his ears visually "touch" the top of the chair and make his ears look even longer. They either need to have a chair a couple inches higher (probably bad because that would make him look short), or a couple inches lower (my preference), or even put him in front of a darker background, to avoid this.