US Taxpayers to lose up to $14 trillion providing the "American Dream" to wall street CEO's or 23 times the yearly defense budget.

http://waronyou.com/topics/pillaging-the-average-american-wall-street-paying-ba c k-bailouts-with-bailouts/

FTA: Lax regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led to the mortgage companies taking on too many risky loans, Wallison said.

We'll just ignore the expansion of the money supply and the artificially low interest rates, without which none of this could have happened. We'll also ignore that fact that, due to the expansion of the money supply and the artificially low interest rates, no amount of regulation could have prevented the bubble.

according to Peter Wallison, a former general counsel at the Treasury who is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.


"AEI scholars are considered to be some of the leading architects of the second Bush administration's public policy. More than twenty AEI scholars and fellows served either in a Bush administration policy post or on one of the government's many panels and commissions."

Yeah. THANKS for the advice NOW, but no thanks...

GAT_00: ScubaDude1960: the artificially low interest rates

I wonder if you're aware who put the interest rates that low. Nah, you're curiously blind to anything that happened while Bush was President.

Bazinga.

GAT_00: ScubaDude1960: the artificially low interest rates

I wonder if you're aware who put the interest rates that low. Nah, you're curiously blind to anything that happened while Bush was President.

The FED keeps the rates low. It's been doing it almost non-stop since it was formed. What does this have to do with Bush (whom I've been criticizing since the day he took office)?

GaryPDX: You won't see this on MSNBC.



no one can push the pie in the sky bulllshhittt as well as american boob toob advertisers. they're professional bullshhhitttt artists.

Strangely, I can't help but wonder whatever happened to single income households being somewhat common, martini lunches, and 9-5 jobs.

/The American dream has been dead for some time now, if it ever existed at all.

Marcus Aurelius: 2/3 my ass.

The DoD budget for 2010 is about $636 billion - it's close, if you take only the DoD budget into account. However, when you take related expenditures into account, that total increases to anywhere from $880 billion to over a trillion bucks.

Bloomberg

Once I saw this I realized it was complete sensationalist bullcrap.

tzzhc4: Bloomberg

Once I saw this I realized it was complete sensationalist bullcrap.

Yep, but there's no harm in countering it with common sense. I love the article's theme, too - "it wasn't their fault, they were just too big and messy to regulate - but, please, keep buying their debt."

That's right, subby, blame the average schmucks trying to eke out a living. Blameless are the investment bankers who cooked the books and mortgage brokers who lent money to everyone looked through the the office windows.

TofuTheAlmighty: That's right, subby, blame the average schmucks trying to eke out a living. Blameless are the investment bankers who cooked the books and mortgage brokers who lent money to everyone looked through the the office windows.

Not to mention the investors demanding greater and greater returns on riskier and riskier loans.

In times long past, people would assume that if a banker approved them for a loan, they could pay for it. After all, a surgeon will only tell a patient they should get a surgery if they actually need it, and (despite the jokes) a tradesman will do the best job they can for the cheapest cost.

TofuTheAlmighty: That's right, subby, blame the average schmucks trying to eke out a living. Blameless are the investment bankers who cooked the books and mortgage brokers who lent money to everyone looked through the the office windows.

And the politicians pushing mortgage companies to make loans to people who couldn't afford them. And repealing the regulations that were put in place during the Great Depression to prevent this very thing from happening (again).

I have paid off my mortgage, live on cash, and am 100% miserable. Coincidence?

/Cool story, scro

I have absolutely no problem with that

TofuTheAlmighty: That's right, subby, blame the average schmucks trying to eke out a living. Blameless are the investment bankers who cooked the books and mortgage brokers who lent money to everyone looked through the the office windows.

Or maybe, just maybe, there's plenty of blame to go around.

Thing I don't understand, is that if the government is going to own most the mortgages...

Why even bother with the current mortgage structure at all?

Wouldn't it be more profitable to have an interest only for life structure in place? Most of these defaults started occurring when mortgages reset, why have them reset at all? Just take any fannie/freddie loan and say hey, you just make your interest payment, and if you don't pay off the loan by the time you die, we take the house and sell it to someone else.

Fine, I suggest anyone who hasn't bought their house in the US with cash like I did should be castrated for being total and utter losers who are bringing down America.

When Barney Frank "rolls the dice," taxpayers are the ones who lose. Thanks Barney.

Or only about 1/5 of yearly federal social entitlement spending.

dustman81: aneki: Thing I don't understand, is that if the government is going to own most the mortgages...

Why even bother with the current mortgage structure at all?

Wouldn't it be more profitable to have an interest only for life structure in place? Most of these defaults started occurring when mortgages reset, why have them reset at all? Just take any fannie/freddie loan and say hey, you just make your interest payment, and if you don't pay off the loan by the time you die, we take the house and sell it to someone else.

So in other words, renting but with an indefinite lease term and you get to write off the rent on your income taxes?

Yep, and when some lower middle people that have to have a house pay interest for 50 years and pay the Fed 15x what the house was worth, the taxpayers win.

aneki: Thing I don't understand, is that if the government is going to own most the mortgages...

Why even bother with the current mortgage structure at all?

Wouldn't it be more profitable to have an interest only for life structure in place? Most of these defaults started occurring when mortgages reset, why have them reset at all? Just take any fannie/freddie loan and say hey, you just make your interest payment, and if you don't pay off the loan by the time you die, we take the house and sell it to someone else.



The word Depreciation (new window) invites you over for a cup of tea.

helix400: Or only about 1/5 of yearly federal social entitlement spending.

That's mathematically impossible.

Defense spending alone makes up 63% of the taxes you send to Washington.

As butthurt as Republicans are about being decent human beings, fact is that it's a drop in the bucket compared to how much we pay our military.

dustman81: So in other words, renting but with an indefinite lease term and you get to write off the rent on your income taxes?

Great. And then rents will rise by the ammout written off on income tax.

/no thanks

pedroloco: Great. And then rents will rise by the amount written off on income tax.


/FTFM

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: helix400: Or only about 1/5 of yearly federal social entitlement spending.

That's mathematically impossible.

Defense spending alone makes up 63% of the taxes you send to Washington.

As butthurt as Republicans are about being decent human beings, fact is that it's a drop in the bucket compared to how much we pay our military.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_budget (new window)

or maybe not

If only someone had tried to fix Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the housing meltdown.

"There's nothing wrong with Fannie Mae." -the Democrats (new window)

Meanwhile, lots of local governments hold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds. Letting those two go belly up isn't an option.

GaryPDX: MusicMakeMyHeadPound: As butthurt as Republicans are about being decent human beings, fact is that it's a drop in the bucket compared to how much we pay our military.

mmmm..gay sex references. The liberal norm.

Where?
/you're projecting again, gary.

GaryPDX: You won't see this on MSNBC.

You mean how Bush presided over an unpopular but probably very necessary evil due to the horrific oversights he allowed during his Presidency? How would you not see such a story as being right up the "libruls'" alley, exactly, trollboy?

Good Behavior Day: Meanwhile, lots of local governments hold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds. Letting those two go belly up isn't an option.

Transferring wealth does not create wealth. It will just cause equivalent failures elsewhere. It's nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

I thought an over-inflated military industrial complex with a side-order of fanatical laissez-faire capitalists was the "American Dream".

ScubaDude1960: FTA: Lax regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led to the mortgage companies taking on too many risky loans, Wallison said.

We'll just ignore the expansion of the money supply and the artificially low interest rates, without which none of this could have happened. We'll also ignore that fact that, due to the expansion of the money supply and the artificially low interest rates, no amount of regulation could have prevented the bubble.

This is interesting to me. Given that lobbyists have an enormous amount of power I think you are correct, but in a rational universe this would not be so. Lots of ordinary americans made a ton of money while many big losers were also created. The question for me is that since Wall Street has mastered hedging via derivatives and other financial devices and since the big money is in knowing what side of volatility to be on, is it really in the best interest for big banks to create a stable economy?

aneki: Thing I don't understand, is that if the government is going to own most the mortgages...

Why even bother with the current mortgage structure at all?

Wouldn't it be more profitable to have an interest only for life structure in place? Most of these defaults started occurring when mortgages reset, why have them reset at all? Just take any fannie/freddie loan and say hey, you just make your interest payment, and if you don't pay off the loan by the time you die, we take the house and sell it to someone else.

This is a banker's wet dream. Flood the market with money, and drive up prices to the point that the banks own everything and everybody else rents it from them.

aneki: Thing I don't understand, is that if the government is going to own most the mortgages...

Why even bother with the current mortgage structure at all?

Wouldn't it be more profitable to have an interest only for life structure in place? Most of these defaults started occurring when mortgages reset, why have them reset at all? Just take any fannie/freddie loan and say hey, you just make your interest payment, and if you don't pay off the loan by the time you die, we take the house and sell it to someone else.

There's two reasons that this is colossally stupid:

The first, already alluded to by others, is that the "buyer" would end up with all the incidents of ownership (responsibility to make repairs, cover insurance, absorb liability, etc.) with none of the benefits. A similarly-situated rented has none of these problems.

The second is that someone who incurs debt only for the deduction is the definition of a financial idiot. It's not mortgage payments that are deductible, it's mortgage interest. Interest, by definition, is the cost of money. In 2009 the standard deduction is $5,700 per person, but you lose this when you itemize to take the mortgage-interest deduction. Therefore, only interest payments above $5,700 during the year result in additional deductions. Moreover, the middle marginal rate is 25%, so you only avoid 25 cents in taxes for every dollar you spend. Dollars of interest, remember, not purchasing dollars. And only after the first $5,700 of course. Which you would have avoided anyway...

Just another reason why buying a house is not an "investment."