If I were the boss of most of the politicians I see, I'd be firing a bunch. One blames the other. One blames greedy executives. Another blames Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac;
I think what we need to do as Realtors and as Americans is to dig for the facts. Learn how things work and what caused the problems.
Derivatives. This is the house of cards upon which the current crisis was built. When a holders of a piece of paper which shows "interest" in bundles of mortgages decides the risk is too great and wants out--the money has to come from somewhere. When a lot of folks ask for their money back at the same time it's like a run on a bank.
At bottom are mortgage bankers who loaned money to people who couldn't pay. A lot of people defualted on their mortgages at the same time. Money dries up. So, financial institutions can't meet their obligations either.
Behind this is the fact that mortgage bankers were encouraged by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac (Democrat "controlled") to offer loans that required little money down. Why? Politicians (particularly Democrats) and Presidents--including Bush like to brag about how home ownership has increased on their watch. At the root of this entire debacle are the politicians who are now blaming everyone else but themselves. Politicians are greedy for power and money.
There are other abuses: On the part of politicians who took campaign contributions (Dodd and Obama are the top two beneficiaries) and on the part of CEO's who took large bonuses even though their institutions failed to perform
Politicians were the very ones who encouraged this looseness in standards and exchanged prudent financial responsibility for applause, monetary gain and power. Mortgage bankers were looking at a gravy train--greed trumped reason and right.
Well, Lehman, Goldman Sachs, Merrill, and whoever is next: Good riddance!
Getting the Government involved in business is the worst thing we can allow. But it is happening and AIG is now being run by the Government. Fannie and Freddie are Government Sponsor Enterprises--The Government has demonstrated that they lacked a major skill required by those who run enterprises and that is managing risk.
Now, let's stop the finger pointing and put our heads together and come up with some solutions to (a) resolve the short-term (b) get the Government out of our lives and our institutions (c) Not stoop to the lowest form of leadership which is REGULATIONS. If you can't lead, you create regulations.
The financial area is one of the most regulated in the world and yet our politicians are calling for more--and what do regulations create? More oversight, more government bureaucrats watching over them, more red tape, more cost: LESS Liberty!
This call for MORE regulation is so much grandstanding. It does only one thing: Too the American Populous who hasn't a clue as to the nature of the problem-it looks like you're "rough and tough" and you're gonna get the bad guys. Only problem is these solutions are presented by the very same people who created the PROBLEM in the first place
Wake up America.The election is coming. Know the issues. Get the facts, and don't listen to the emotional drivel you get from ignorant news anchors who can only read what they're fed on a teleprompter--Kinda like one of our Presidential candidates.
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