PornMD

On one hand you say things like this (which I agree with) - on the other hand you're one of the biggest defenders of certain politicians when just about all the politicians being discussed on this board (with maybe the exception of Ron Paul) are bought and paid to serve the huge corporations dead set on fucking all of us for their gain while shepherding the public to get their vote again each election. I don't get it.

To answer Vend, the housing shit started long long ago and is the ultimate cause of all of this, between the mortgage companies directly involved in creating the bubble, the investment firms and banks that invested in that bubble and did what they could to keep it alive and growing, and the government who didn't stop it when it could have been stopped. On that last note, Dems in power in 2006 would have been trying to stop a freight train with a zebra...everything was in motion well before that.

Having worked intimately with a number of mortgage companies from 2004 to 2007, I saw firsthand the absolutely ruthless tactics they would use to make sure a loan went through whether it should have or not. Paying off appraisers to boost home values, threatening appraisal companies to give them values they wanted whether they were true values of the homes, promising the world to homeowners and then doing every underhanded tactic they could think of to deliver a mirage of that world, etc. Some huge companies were involved in this, some of which since got reamed by the govt for it, but as an afterthought when the damage had already been done. Inflated appraisals caused inflated sales which caused further inflated appraisals, etc.

Certainly it wasn't just the companies themselves either - with all the investment firms and banks investing in those mortgages, politicians were likely getting gobs of money to let the problem continue (which yes likely included Dems in 2006 but by then again it was too late anyways - homes were already far too inflated). Ultimately, the people that couldn't afford the homes they were buying trusted these banks and politicians when they should have been looking at the big picture and asking what was wrong with that picture, though some of them probably simply couldn't avoid it due to timing.

I was one of those...I myself bought a home in 2007 because I had to move out, it was either that or rent, I could afford the mortgage payments and could get a fixed rate loan with at the time a ridiculously low rate vs. the irresponsible ARM/interest only, and all my life I was told the best investment one can make is in real estate. I can still afford the mortgage payments on my home that is now worth less than 60% what it was then and I have no intention of moving any time soon, so it's hard to say it was a BAD decision, but I got to feel what it's like to see tens of thousands of dollars in down payment vanish into thin air and it's a brutal feeling. The huge mass of people that bought in 06-07 were buying hugely inflated houses in a "good" economy and many with ARMs allowing for low payments they could afford, only to soon find their home worth far less, the economy all of a sudden sucking ass, and that mortgage payment much more monstrous either literally or figuratively.

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