Creator of subprime loans passes away

Exactly. This is what pisses me off. My retirement investments (however small) are taking the hit because the subprime B.S. is sinking the stock market, in which my retirement investments (however small) sit.

I watch them dwindle with every report I receive.

I wasn't dumb enough to take a mortgage I couldn't afford. I wasn't stupid enough to buy an SUV and take eight years to pay it off. I was, however, smart enough to start saving for the future. And now I'm still getting fucked.

 

I'm a little annoyed at myself for not moving more of my 401-K investment into safer funds about a year ago. I saw it coming and didn't pull the trigger. Now, I just have to ride it out.

 

It's the Invisible Hand, folks.

Except it just got shoved up your ass.

 

Always and forever deflecting blame from those who deserve it onto the "greedy capitalist".

It isn't the banks fault if you can't pay your mortgage. It just isn't. There is no pyramid scheme here. No bait and switch. It was bad business, obviously, and the casualities are piling up for those bad business decisions. But there was no great conspiracy to screw the working man. It was just bad business, and it is the home-buyer's fault if they can't repay the mortgage. They signed the contract, they should have known the risks involved. Just because they are too poorly educated or dumb to understand, or just because they have too much optimism in their own prospects doesn't mean that it was some evil snake who bit them. Perhaps he offered them an apple, sure, but it is their personal responsibility to repay that loan, and to understand the risks involved, up to and including losing the house.

All the cries now are to steal from those who were responsible and didn't buy homes over their means and bail out those who did. What does that say about our world if we allow that to happen? That the bad decision makers and irresponsible speculators will be rewarded in the end. It is not the bank's fault for lending them money.

 

Until recently, I haven't had enough extra money to worry about a 401k or any type of investments. Kind of glad about that now.
This same time last year, before we got married, I put some of our savings and gift money into a CD. Just so we wouldn't have a couple thousand dollars lying around the house and we could get maybe $50 or $100 extra in interest before we needed it in a few months. The CD was giving something like 4 percent interest. We have a little over $1,000 saved up now, so I went to the same bank this week and asked about the same type of CD. The yield now is 2 percent. I can't even imagine what the interest rate on a regular savings account is.
I figured I was better off stuffing the money in the mattress.

 

Batman-

Fuck the local bank. Check out ING or eTrade bank or one of those places. You'll get a higher yield than any walk-in local bank. And they're FDIC-protected, too.

 

Agreed. We have a large sum in an ING account. Pays MUCH more than any bank would.

 

I remember this story. Was trying to find a link but couldn't.

 

Of all the people involved in this mess, from the buyers on up, I think the bank has the most to blame. They are the ones supposedly vetting the deal.

The dumb schmuck buying a house he can't afford can walk away. The bank is the one holding the bag.

It's the damn business of the bank to loan money responsibly.

Shouldn't they be the ones being careful?

 

Obviously you know nothing about business, Ace.

Why should they be careful when they can just get bailed out by Joe Six Pack Taxpayer?

Privatize gains, Nationalize losses. That's the way it works.

You've got a lot to learn, bub.

 

You are right. Those low-income, future-forclosees probably stormed into the bank with a ski mask on demanding to pay $3,000 a month in a combo first and second mortgage with a balloon payment due in five years.

 

You've heard about due diligence and fiduciary responsibility, I assume

I agree with your earlier post that there's enough blame to go around but the people here who maintain that it was entirely the responsibility of the dumb fucks who took out the mortgages are being pretty simplistic.