Americans Sacrificing Freedom to Avoid Another Meltdown

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout ... 31552.html


..."No matter what you hear to the contrary greed didn't create the housing bubble. People are always greedy and anyone suggesting otherwise is selling you something. What unleashed the worst of our greedy instincts was a series of horrifically ill-conceived regulations crafted by buffoons on both sides of the political aisle. Through the power of misguided regulations elected officials created a system that violated the basic laws of economics. The result was a systemic promotion of our most base greed instincts at the expense of collective common sense."...


..."So why are pawnshops and other businesses totally unrelated to the meltdown part of the the new regulations? Because the crisis is being used by politicians on both sides to exert more control over parts of people's lives that are unrelated to the meltdown."...

I'll see your "blog" and raise you...

"No matter what you hear to the contrary, greed DID create the housing bubble." - LJ

We didn’t have a housing bubble in the ordinary sense because consumers don’t buy houses; banks buy houses. The housing market cannot undergo a demand-driven bubble without lender collusion and complicity.

No Bubble Without Bankers Blowing It

Home buyers who don’t have enough cash have to get a bank’s permission to buy. The dollars involved are big enough that banks historically did not hesitate to say “No, sorry, I know you want that house, but the house just isn’t worth that much, and besides, even if it were, you’re kidding yourself when you think you can repay the loan you want. No dice. Go find something more reasonable and we can talk again.”

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/04/23/ ... ubble-lie/

It also helped to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buying all the dubious loans from the banks.
A Public/Private bastard hybrid that paid obscene bonuses for taking on more toxic debt.
Both parties wanted to see more homeowners even if they didn't really qualify.

When we saw housing prices going up by 5% every year while wages were stagnant, alarm bells should have been raised.

Greed is also the reason most parents can feed their children and are able to keep them out of the cold and rain.

Greed is the primary incentive in life. To deny it would result in the society outside your door.

Greed did cause the housing bubble. The greed of those that want the govt to have so much influence of everything. The housing bubble was designed by those greedy fucks in power to get more of your money in their control. See most taxes, regulation and the ACA. Typically this massive govt greed is propped up by those that hate it the most...like most Republicans and Democrats and those they elect....you know the ones that literally designed the fake crisis. They won.

Just like most things in society, things will go better if these things are reserved for the people and kept out of the hands of the govt. So the govt used bad greed to take advantage of the only thing that moves society forward, good greed, YOUR greed.

Oh and Fred the alarm bells were raised. The process started with basic education, was added to with basic conversation. Anyone with half a brain new this was coming. Most thinking folks did not get caught behind the bubble and those of us that know that houses are never really worth more than $200k knew it. You cannot be implying that the govt should have raised an alarm, they were literally designing the meltdown and then the harvest that came after. They were far to busy to tell you they were doing it.

It was just as obvious as the crash associated with the ACA or the one coming due to primary, secondary and college funding. They will be bigger, we all know it (those of us not in compete denial), we are all hoping we get old enough for it not to effect us. Those of us that know this are preparing financially. Those that think these things will make things better and not preparing.....which ironically, because greed is what drives things and competition is the process it is driving, the lack of preparation of those that are naive (Native without the T) will only help those of us that are confident things are only going to get economically worse. My perspective is that this is the best economy I am likely to see for the rest of my working life. There is nothing out there that says the opposite except for dreamers.

Some people did see the bubble, like myself. But even experienced investors I knew got blinders about the higher prices. It was clearly unsustainable.