PAGE: Blaming the poor

Mr Paige can spin it any way he wants, but the practice of loaning money to unqualifed individuals is financially unwise. Forcing banks and mortgage companies to do so may be politically correct, but is directly responsible for the current financial meltdown. He can call it racism, but the fact is, there are those among us who can not afford to buy a home and will forever be renters. We need to get back to the 20% down rule and sound credit, with the ability to pay the mortgage as the criteria for home ownership. While it may leave some unable to buy, it would prevent the mess we are now in. Taxpayers shouldn't have to bail out the lenders who made the loans, nor the borrowers who entered into an agreement they knew they couldn't afford.

The "poor" haven't been merely accepting mortgage risks in order to get their families into decent housing. Many set their eyes on homes they couldn't afford and then were charmed into taking on crushing debt by by unscrupulous lenders. About 18 months ago, when I -- a single woman -- was looking to buy my first house, several prospective lenders tried to talk me into monthly payments that would have amounted to half my take-home pay. That was just the mortgage -- not including insurance, property taxes, etc. I said "Heck, no!" to that. I knew I couldn't make those payments and have anything left to live on. I now have a modest mobile home. It's not my dream house, certainly, but it is not going to bankrupt me, and you will not see the taxpayers bailing me out.

Does anyone remember those photographs of the ugly concrete "boxes" that passed for housing in the Soviet Union. If we continue to follow the liberal policies that Mr. Paige is touting, that's what we will all live in. Except for those in the "Party", of course.

It was political pressure on Freddie and Fannie that moved them to buy bad mortgages and from there the rest is history. The agencies have already admitted this. What more does Page need. Page obviously isn't the brightest bunny in the garden. Why does the Times put this drivel in here. It's no different than putting in a column from Pamela Anderson. As for Sharon, if you knew you couldn't make the payments what stopped other people from knowing the same thing? You go into a mortgage with your eyes open no one makes you sign the paper and when social engineering politicians push to buy your mortgage because you didn't know what you should have. We get a crisis. The social engineering politicians carry a large chunk of the blame, as do financial agency CEOs, as do the people that made those purchases, rich or poor. You see Page, if your cognitive skills were better you would have picked this up from the news. Don't worry though if you keep working at this pretty soon you will be just like all the other kids.

The ORIGINS of this banking catastrophe are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with their AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BANKING METHODS !!!!!!!!!! That is where we need to start the clean up, but the Congress is not warm to cleaning up their mess. Congress must investigate the two b-stard, mutated cesspools they created -Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac !!! Where is our Congress on investigating the collapse of the housing industry?? Where are the Senate and the House on commencing investigations of this collapse where the taxpayers are left with TRILLIONS of debt and housing fixers have made millions????? Where is the Congress on investigating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? How about investigating the connections among Fannie, Freddie, Barnie Frank, and Cris Dodd

I'm confused, what is a "sub-prime" load again? Didn't this begin with "sub-prime" issues? Try again Clarence. The left has been wrong on EVERY single issue for so many years its absurd - and yet every four years the left seems to get a clean slate and pretend their platform is "progressive" and the platform of change. When does the insanity stop? Socialism is the problem - more socialism isn't going to fix it...

The socialist, "politically correct" engineering that went on with the mortgage lending in the last few years is the reason for the housing crisis and the economic mess we now face. In my own neighborhood we had people move into homes and live there with no furniture or window coverings. The grass grew 3 to 4 feet tall because the "owners" did not own a lawn mower, and of course they did not have the money to pay the homeowners association dues. Most of these houses are now empty and the value of my house has depreciated because of it. Now, the very people in Washington who caused this problem are trying to claim that they are going to rescue us with more big government interference. Most of us played by the rules…did not buy houses we couldn’t afford…paid our bills on time and now WE have to pay for the mess. I AM FURIOUS!!! Are there no consequences for irresponsible behavior anymore?? According to those in Washington (and Mr. Page), when people do things that are stupid …wrong….illegal…it’s not their fault. They are victims and the government has to do something to ease their suffering. Well I am SICK of it!! If people do irresponsible things, they should fail…they should suffer so that they learn!! Why should any of us do the right or difficult thing if you win no matter what you do. I want my mortgage reduced, I guess I should stop paying my bills.

The laws that Congress passes can be hard to understand and you really can't believe what politicians say in a campaign. It looks like a President Obama will continue the FDR approach of using the US Treasury to solve the world's problems. Financial aid from Roosevelt's government programs quelled the threat of major political uprisings like those that had occured in most of Europe. Mussolini and Hitler's solutions for their economies was to invade other countries. The American economy did not take off until we entered WWII. In just less than four years we lost 400,000 lives. The treasury is much worse off than when FDR was elected. My generation has been repaid for our WWII sacrifices with so many politically savy programs that I can't remember them all. Social Security and Medicare have been even greater benefits for us than the GI Bill. But the liberal government went "one bridge too far" when it decided to provide sub prime loans for people who could not afford homes. This was not an evil idea but it now threaten the entire world economy. Decisions like that emerge from the core beliefs of the people who make them. And the people who they associate with tells us something about what they believe. If he is elected I will honor President Obama no matter how great my concerns are about his well concealed background.

Clarence, your ignorance is appalling. And you are changing the subject -- I haven't heard or read ANY editorials or commentaries pinning the rap on the "poor." The fact remains that the CRA morphed in the '90's into truly bad policy and promoted horrendous unintended consequences.

Yes! To claim that those sub-prime borrowers are the principal villains in this is to overlook culpability on the part of predatory lenders who buried userous rate resets in heavy legalese, and who simply assumed that a foreclosure on an increasingly valuable property would offset any momentary cashflow slowdown. Alas, the housing bubble bursts, nobody qualifies to refinance at an affordable rate, and the house of levers all came down. A lent to B lent to C lent to A and so on. The senior tranche levels will withdraw virtually all the capital out of any attempted bailout. Investment capital isn't going to free up with that methodology. Look in the mirror, buttercup, you built a house of cards. All that interlocking BIV value has gone away, all those derivatives are pointing the wrong way on Mr. Ponzi's pyramid. Only real savings from the individuals and firms with positive cashflow will save the cash liquidity problem, because the Fed can't inject enough dollars without eroding confidence in the greenback (this is my prediction...feel free to disagree). It'll take time to climb out of this whole and to deemphasize the fast-'n'-loose finance and housing sectors of the economy.

"predatory lenders who buried userous rate resets in heavy legalese" Give me a break - for years ALL we have heard about is this - no one can claim "ignorance" of the fact that their rate was going to go up eventually - if they are indeed claiming it, than its even more blame to the leftists and "community leaders" who pushed home ownership on such incredibly ignorant people - if they didn't have the wherewithal to understand, with all the publicity about "intro" rates and adjustables - they certainly shouldn't have been shouldered with a mortgage in the first place - but please, don't come here with the "they were so ignirant they didn't know the rate would change" - this is pure revisionist BS.

If these idiots can't or won't read the terms of their loans that's not my problem,don't make it mine by all these bailouts!I'm starting to dislike my country.Most of what I knew to be good has been distroyed by politicians AND ALL YOU MORONS THAT HAVEN"T FIGURED OUT YOU KEEP VOTING THESE A--HOLES BACK INTO OFFICE!It's you the voters that's at fault!NO ONE ELSE!You vote based on emotions,gender,race,or party!Not who tells the way things really are, or what's best for our nation.YOU PEOPLE DESERVE THIS MESS!Go on believing these politicans and continue showing what fools you really are!Go on being tolerant of things that aren't really good for this nation!Go on accepting our politicans and officials ignoring the laws(ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION)of our country!Yep! YOU people when our country is GONE who are you going to blame then? And it will happen if you don't wise up!

Clarence for a supposedly educated man you are woefully ignorant in economics, when you lend money to people that can't pay it back, and you know they can't pay it back you are creating a mess like this one. The only reason you can have for writing this article, other then political prejiduce, is that you are trying to cover for the Democrats that wrote the laws that pressured the banks into loaning the money to bad risks. It isn't the poor that are too blame, it is the people who pushed the banks into makind the bad loans. But you can't admit this becasuse you back, and coverup for the politicans that created this mess. Politicians messing with the economy always end up creating a disaster that the poor people of the nation have to suffer through. As one of the poor I wish you would realize this and stop pushing the policies that are hurting us.

Clarence, are you out of your mind? I am sick of hearing how all these poor people got duped. It is BS and you know it. Anyone who has ever bought a house knows that banks don't come knocking on your door asking you to buy this wonderful house, promising to make it affordable for you, even if you don't have two nickels to rub together. No one was "forced" to buy any of these homes. Banks *were* forced, however, to ignore common sense when loaning to people who couldn't afford to buy a home, and were bad credit risks. We *know* this is so, now. We also *know* who was doing the forcing. Just because Republicans support deregulation and free markets in general, we know there needs to be oversight, and when we asked for more oversight, we know who said, "Everything is fine. We don't need more oversight. There is no problem." Well, there was, indeed, a problem, and now it threatens to destroy our way of life. This was nothing more than a social engineering project by the far left to redistribute the wealth in this country. So yes, I blame the Democrats who pressured the banks, and I blame the poor people who jumped on these loans, knowing they couldn't afford the payments. One can only wonder whether or not they were told, "Don't worry. Once you are in the home, we will get the government to find a way that you can keep them." So now 1/3 of my retirement money is gone, I'm disabled, and cannot get another job because I'm too old and too much of a "health risk". I, too, grew up poor. I've worked hard since I was 15 years old, played by the rules. I put myself through college. I didn't own my own home until I was over 50. Is this what you call fair? I expected to have to economize in my retirement. Now I don't know what to do. No amount of economy on my part is going to make my money last long enough. I have never been so angry in my life. You and your kind have stolen the life that my hard work and honesty built for my old age. And now my country is in grave danger of being taken over by a stinking bunch of socialists. And you are clearly one of them, by intent or by ignornace. I hope that the decent people of this country will rise up and drive you all into the sea, like the bunch of lemmings you are.

Hey morons new fact reported 5 million homes in Calif. forclosed belonged to "illegals".Expected to be more than 12 million nationwide.This is per HUD.What a shock!Keep voting the way you have been and then letting the politicans ignor the law and the will of the people!