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Let Market, Not Government, Deal With Subprime Mortgage Problem
IBD ^ | August 15, 2007 | Dick Armey

Posted on 08/15/2007 6:11:20 PM PDT by Kaslin

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To: quack

>The President is issuing “America’s Homeownership Challenge” to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to join in his effort to increase in the number of minority homeowners by 5.5 million families by the end of the decade.<

And just what does he expect the real estate and mortgage finance industries to do? Sounds like more welfare to me. If he would just close the borders, and clear the decks of illegals, jobs at the entry level and above would open to those minorities, enabling them to close in on their dreams of home ownership. It might even serve to preserve the middle class!


61 posted on 08/16/2007 9:10:50 AM PDT by Paperdoll ( Vote for Duncan Hunter in the Primaries for America's sake!)
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To: All
Do you think part of this problem is that the banks and lending institutions were approving mortgages for more than the actual house was worth? My wife and I house shopped for two years and I was scratching my head at some of the prices. They were all way up there. I kept asking the Realtors “Why?”
62 posted on 08/16/2007 9:14:37 AM PDT by 4yearlurker (All comments now being monitored by BOR. He's looking out for you!)
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To: RockinRight

>If you have 5% down, verifiable income, and a decent credit score, it’s still doable rather easily. Don’t let the media fool you.<

Better 10% down with verifiable income (three years income tax returns), and a decent credit rating. Three important prerequisites missing the last five years or so!


63 posted on 08/16/2007 9:14:45 AM PDT by Paperdoll ( Vote for Duncan Hunter in the Primaries for America's sake!)
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To: 4yearlurker

The rise in the market prices were DIRECTLY the result of easy lending policies of the Fed and the banks.
That fueled the speculation.

If the Fed wants prices of new cars to go down or stabilize, they cut back on new car loans. If they want the prices to rise, they make loans more available.

Simple as that.


64 posted on 08/16/2007 9:18:51 AM PDT by djf (America welcomes immigrants! Sadly, America welcomes crimmigrants even more...)
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To: djf
I believe you are right. The monster just kept getting bigger and bigger till the mortgage payments started to default.
65 posted on 08/16/2007 9:39:47 AM PDT by 4yearlurker (All comments now being monitored by BOR. He's looking out for you!)
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To: Southack
Yes, I agree. These notions are neither proximate nor important in dealing with the crisis, but at some point when the crisis is over, we all need to reflect on how we got into this mess.
66 posted on 08/16/2007 9:58:44 AM PDT by Old North State
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To: Old North State

I concur.


67 posted on 08/16/2007 10:07:43 AM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack
And the job of the Fed is to mitigate such a crisis. You can't just let our entire financial system shut down like it did in 1930. Heck, why even have a Fed at all if it lets such a situation reoccur?!

I see, so the problem is not one of the failure of Central Planning. In your mind, it is just a matter of needing the "right people" to centrally manage the economy.

Ugh.

68 posted on 08/16/2007 11:45:53 AM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: AdamSelene235

There is no evidence of planning, much less “central planning.”

The Fed is supposed to foresee and forestall liquidity crisises...that’s its job.

Why is it asleep?!

Why even have it if it won’t do its stated job?


69 posted on 08/16/2007 11:55:33 AM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack
The Fed is supposed to foresee and forestall liquidity crisises...that’s its job. Why is it asleep?

LOL. The Fed's job is to provide the Federal Government with infinite credit regardless of the damage done to the private economy.

Naturally this results in crisises. The entire point of the Fed is to regularly generate crisises and unnatural inflationary asset bubbles that allow the FedGov and favored banking institutions to consolidate and centralize control of the economy.

They've been debasing the currency at 8% per year since 1995 until they abolished money supply data. Since then its been running 13% per year.

What in the hell did you think was going to happen?

70 posted on 08/16/2007 12:11:31 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: AdamSelene235

The current liquidity crisis threatens our entire banking system. It does not benefit them.


71 posted on 08/16/2007 1:27:27 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: AdamSelene235
The Fed's job is to provide the Federal Government with infinite credit

The Fed does not print money and give it to the government.

They've been debasing the currency at 8% per year since 1995 until they abolished money supply data. Since then its been running 13% per year.

Because every dollar they print debases the currency? That's funny!

They eliminated M3 so they could inflate in secret? That's funny too.

72 posted on 08/16/2007 1:28:11 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Ignorance of the laws of economics is no excuse.)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
They eliminated M3 so they could inflate in secret? That's funny too.

Shhhh. It'th a thecret!

73 posted on 08/16/2007 1:31:08 PM PDT by Petronski (Why would Romney lie about Ronald Reagan's record?)
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To: AdamSelene235
The entire point of the Fed is to regularly generate crisises and unnatural inflationary asset bubbles that allow the FedGov and favored banking institutions to consolidate and centralize control of the economy.

Whew, you need to up your dosage.

74 posted on 08/16/2007 1:34:56 PM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: Southack
The current liquidity crisis threatens our entire banking system. It does not benefit them.

True. But they were having a good ole time right up until now.

Now we will need to bail them out for the sake of the little people, of course.

75 posted on 08/16/2007 1:40:28 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: Loyal Buckeye

Not quite yet...


76 posted on 08/16/2007 9:39:15 PM PDT by 31R1O ("Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."- Immanuel Kant)
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To: sarasmom

Yeah sure we banked the windfall.
With more employees, workers comp rates rose. So did business liability since both workers comp and general liability rates are based solely on payroll.
Alsi there were increased withholding matching taxes. Unemployment tax, federal and state, increased because of more payroll. And to get decent help, wages were pressured upwards to compete with the demand for help. all contributing to the government and insurance industry getting richer.

Replacement cost of equipment rose. Gasoline for the truck rose. Repair costs for the truck rose. Rental equipment rose. Phone bill rose. Advertising went up.

Yeah, for all the hard work we really made a killing and saved a lot of money back for hard times.
Do I think I made some bad choices? No!
Occasionally a questionable choice looking back. But I did what was necessary to remain competitive, keep the lights on, keep a payroll reserve, and pay insurance.

Sitting in your ivory tower it is easy for you to say I made a bad choice because of my trade.I am not a fortunate son. Kiss my a$$.


77 posted on 08/18/2007 9:48:15 AM PDT by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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To: hocndoc

it isn’t that there are not houses going up. Just not as many. So there is downward price competition of at least 20% less for the same work this time last year. This is great for the builders who prod on the subcontractors to drop prices to a ridiculous level!

I can’t begrudge the builders for siezing on the opportunity to save some money. But any loyalty based on past business relationships has gone with the wind. But this situation is creating a business climate where nobody can sustain a viable business. Bricklaying is hard work and a skill that few people can do. I cannot operate a business with quality employees when they make more money than I do and don’t have overhead like taxes and insurance. So why work my ass off and give a skill away and still go broke?? That is where the pressure falls and frankly I can’t sustain without hiring illegals for below minimum wage.
Assets in knowledge and equipment don’t pay the bills if the work is not there.

Good luck on the remodeling job.


78 posted on 08/18/2007 10:07:39 AM PDT by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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To: o_zarkman44
Cry me a river!
Your rant sounds remarkably close to the ones the IT specialists were making a few years ago...
After Y2K, they were no longer commanding six figure salaries for keeping the network online.Their business hostages revolted.
I’m guessing you don’t see any correlation between them and yourself.
I live in Florida, and see perpetual “for sale” signs on many “never been lived in” houses(after 4 years are they still considered new?) in subdivisions nobody who actually lives here can afford.

Who was it that made the bad choices to overbuild and overprice?
I can honestly say I played no part it that debacle.
Can you do the same?

BTW, I never kiss any portion of a total strangers anatomy.
And as you have outed yourself on this thread as a knowing employer of imported illegal slave labor, I would be much more inclined to kick rather than kiss your “a$$”.

79 posted on 08/20/2007 8:29:14 PM PDT by sarasmom (Hunter-Thompson 2008 . It satisfies the senses on multidimensional levels .)
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To: sarasmom

I am not an employer of illegal immigrants. I never said I was. Learn to read the ENTIRE sentence rather than focusing on key words.
Oh and I wish I was making the six figure income the IT people were. I am just a sub contractor. I finish the project the GENERAL CONTRACTOR starts.
Here in Missouri the housing is still affordable. People don’t stick out their neck building mansions hoping for some rich snow bird to come buy. I have no sympathy for them either.
Why should I take any abuse from someone from Flori DUH where people can’t even vote correctly and whine every time a hurricane smacks them in the side of the head crying for government assistance??? We build things once here. A foundation of sand is never a secure investment.
To rebuild every few years is a complete WASTE of money and natural resources that drives up the cost for the people who build on stone foundations.

Who needs their a$$ kicked????


80 posted on 08/21/2007 4:32:49 AM PDT by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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