Sub Prime Loan Mess

I'm not sure if anyone has been following the Sub Prime Loan mess going on, but it truly is a heart wrenching scene to see all of these families about to lose their homes to foreclosures.



In a town called Brockton, Massachusetts there are 500 homes that are endanger of foreclosing. The mayor of that town is trying to do something to get a better deal, but because alot of these loans have been securitized on Wall Street - the powers that be are not willing to negotiate. They would rather take the house.

Housing prices went up so high that in alot of cases peoples mortgages are now more than the value of the home and land. In Massachusetts housing prices have dropped 15%.

Here are some interesting articles on the whole mess:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_by...equality_in.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7032501323.html

http://www.azfamily.com/news/consumer/stor...me.3236ee6.html

I can not help but to think of the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" only in this scene Potter has won and George Bailey has been sent to Potter's field.



As an American I wonder if we have lost site of what America is all about. Have we become just one big spending spree, one credit card interest rate - a means to line the pockets of fat old men with more money that one can imagine - a profit to the oil companies? We need to spend more time and energy taking care of our own and raising everyones standard of living.

Does anyone care any more about these families about to lose their homes? There was a day not long ago that corporations use to give back to their community in ways unheard of by todays standards. Instead, they are backing groups like the RIAA in purposely sueing families. Again, using our own legal system against the people.

Changes need to take place and I can feel a growing discontent with the way things are going. By 2008 I suspect they might reach a crescendo........what that means from a political perspective is anyones guess.

This is indeed a giant scam run by the home mortgage industry. I bought a house on Dec. 1, 2006. In spite of various offers, I was careful to specify "conventional 30 year, fixed interest", end of discussion. My mortgage payments and interest rates will remain the same to the end of the loan. I was ALSO careful to specify that I could prepay without penalty. The lure of low payments for x years of the loan is bait on the hook.

Yes; corporate serfs and indentured servants to the banks (and of course cannon fodder).

No. Casualties of free-market capitalism.

My guess is that it means absolutely nothing. There are 125 lobbyists for every Congressman in Washington, and they spend 20 million dollars a week to influence legislation; they are Congress's true constituency; not you and I. In 2006 it cost an average of $966,000 to run a Congressional campaign. That kind of money doesn't come from people like you or I sending in five (or fifty) dollars with an "attaboy!" letter. That's why we have health care legislation written by the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, and bankruptcy "reform" bills written by the banks. Government with the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. Next time someone talks about representative democracy, take a good look at what's going on and ask exactly who's interests our elected representatives are representing.

Paul you are just a kid but I respect your opinion beyond all others based on what you have done with Highland Radio.

Back in my day, in the 1960s, we actually believed we could make a difference in how the US of A was operating but, dang it, nothing has changed. The fat cats still run the country along with their government buddies. It is still fueled by greed.

You said it all in your post and I have nothing of any importance to add except maybe a small personal story as boring as it may be.

In my youth I thought it would be nice to help people instead of trying to amass as much wealth as possible so I choose social work as a career. I pursued my academic intentions, interrupted by a stint in Vietnam, which what all non-rich kids in those days had to do. We served our country as we were taught to do by our parents and others. I somehow obtained my Masters in Social Work and I don't think any banker ever worked harder.

Let me tell you the results of all of this. After many years of rewarding work in the social work field I am now retired. Since I was employed by the "government" I was somehow planning to live a comfortable life in my declining years but guess what? Nearly all of my retirement income goes to medical insurance and housing.

This is not, by any means, to be a plea for me because I have no self-pity and will survive, but just an example of how the citizens of the US of A are treated if they don't pursue the me me me attitude I see everywhere.

Thanks.

“Sub” is the operative word, in the Sub Prime Loan scam, and it keeps us exactly where they want us. On our knees, begging for food, and justice, all goals which we will never achieve, by voting alone. All of which leads me to say, that we need fundamental change, even if we have to resort to force to make it happen.

Let’s face it. We live in a country run by lying greedy extortionist, extortionist who will stop at nothing to maintain the status quo. That of course is to keep the rich, rich, and the poor, poor. Maybe it’s time to follow the french, and dust off the guillotine.

If you ask me, I’ll take anarchy over slavery… any day.
JC

Ah, my good JC, that brings me back to those times Merle was talking about -- the student activist rallies, when we all sang:

"Four years after the revolution
and the old king's execution
four years after the Bastille fell
Marat still hears that old rebel YELL --
Marat, we're poor, and the poor stay poor,
Marat, don't make us wait any more!
We want our rights, and we don't care how!
We want our revolution NOWWWWWW!


It's a nice fantasy when you get really exasperated, but creating a rude, violent power vacuum at the top didn't save the French from themselves, and I doubt it would save us either.

I really do wonder if Washington and Jefferson and the founding fathers would turn in their graves at how politics has become an exclusive club for the rich - only the rich can compete at the national level. It seems that most of the presidential candidates are mainly multi-millionaires.

In the majority of the cases the founding fathers gave up all of their riches, money and such for the cause. Many of them died penniless.

Would Bush, Clinton, Bush, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson give up their worldly fortunes for the sake of the country. Seems to me they are more interested in building their libraries and securing their legacy.

I'd like to see leaders of the country that are real, fight for the people and secure a better future for all Americans! I'm so sick of hearing Republican or Democratic. We are all Americans and we have more in common than differences.

Why the heck are we outsourcing jobs to foreign countries when we have millions of poor and under-privelege kids in our own back yard that given the skills, education and self-confidence could perform those same jobs on U.S. soil.

See stoirmeil, that’s why we get along, but didn’t our revolution workout ok untill now? Besides, isn’t all about doing things over and over again, till we get it right?
And weren’t the French smart enough to stay out of this crooked war.

Maybe I should forget about Scotland, Costa Rica, or Vancouver, and move to France?

Later, JC

Mac, I feel your pain, and unfortunately I think the one answer to your questions is. There’s not enough money in it for them.

I have thought the same thing in regards to the immigration issue: why do so many people from Latin America come to this country to perform all this labor-type work? Are there not any native-born people that need jobs too?

Because of the dipstick we use to measure national prosperity; not the median income, but the stock market. 80% of stocks are owned by 10% of the population, so we define national prosperity as prosperity for the richest 10%. In 2005, the most recent year for which data is available, this 10% of the population received the largest share of national income since 1928. This 10% got so much of the national wealth (up 14% to 48.5%, nearly as much as the rest of us combined), that national income was up almost 9%, but when this top 10% are excluded from the equation, income for the rest of us decreased an average of $172, or 0.6 percent, the fourth annual decrease in a row. Having gutted the estate tax (the "Paris Hilton tax") and generated the largest national deficit of any president in history by tax cuts that largely benefit the obscenely hyper-rich (averaging over $150,000 a year to people making more than a million dollars a year), we now have a dynastic oligarchy which makes Rockefeller, Morgan, Dupont and the rest of the Gilded Age robber barons look like paupers and political dilettantes. The sole purpose of American government today is to serve the interests of this patrician class; the rest of us aren't even considered in the discussion any more.