Next up: U.S. mortgage rescue plan

[cobra de capell]

The Obama administration's plan, which is still evolving, would be open to borrowers who are making timely payments and yet spend a large share of their income to cover the mortgage. The government would subsidize their monthly payments under the plan.

Snip.....http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...51C60Q20090213
____

Hmmm.......

Anyone here making timely RE payments, but those payments are a big part of your income? Well, help may be on the way from your Obama!

Of course, if you aren't qualified for this 'support' - you should have bought a bigger house!

My only wish is for VRM, CobraBill and Excalibar to somehow put their funds up first - liberals (at least Obama supporters/Non-McCain/Palin voters) first, conservatives last up. Now that would be justice done!

[Scott S]

I think the best remedy for a default on a home loan would be arson. Can you imagine if the millions of homes in the US that are in default suddenly went up in flames?

At least I could go back to work.

I make my payments on time, in 30 years of home ownership not once have I been late on a home loan. Why should I subsidize anyone that has been less responsible than me?

Scott S

[cobra de capell]

Well, in a socialist country you would have to assist others with their payments.

[Bill Bess]

It's all bout takin care of da brothers and sister's, we all got ta share da wealth..after all it's only fare, don't ya know!

I need to refi...so I can get me a new Cobra...it's only fare, don't ya know!

WantSomeMoBill

[TButtrick]

Absolute phucking bullsh!t. I understand reaching out to those who have lost jobs temporarily but subsidizing those just because the big payment might be painful is just WRONG. Sleep in the bed you've made.

[Bill Bess]

Well, if things get too bad, I'll just go out into the desert and live in my trailer. Run my generator for power, truck my water in and eat beans and rice. Maybe I'll just look for day jobs, or maybe a real steady thing at Walmart or the local soup kitchen.

Most importantly, I'll need to rent a storeage shed to park the Cobra in..so I can keep it clean for my trips to Mc Donald's on cruise night. There are just certain things I refuse to give up!

The new fair and balance, lower standard of living from our government and all the cheating crooks in America ...is a wonderful thing.

Enjoy, Bill (I'm joking you know)

[cobra bill]

My only wish is for VRM, CobraBill and Excalibar to somehow put their funds up first - liberals (at least Obama supporters/Non-McCain/Palin voters) first, conservatives last up. Now that would be justice done![/quote]

Hey, thats Cobra Bill with a space, don't go pissing off that other CobraBill
That said, gosh its nice to know your thinking about me!

[VRM]

Originally Posted by cobra de capell

My only wish is for VRM, CobraBill and Excalibar to somehow put their funds up first - liberals (at least Obama supporters/Non-McCain/Palin voters) first, conservatives last up. Now that would be justice done!

Well, when are you going to take responsibility for the candidate you had in office for the last 8 years who managed to double the national debt? Lets just double your taxes to cover it. Learn to take responsibility for your actions.

[mdmull]

I'm looking for the phone logs containing the calls from the republicans to the idiots that bought a home that they couldn't afford. They must exist, the idiots couldn't be that stupid on their own. If this keeps up, the financially responsible among us will stop paying taxes. If say 10 million people withheld their taxes, what would the IRS do?

[bomelia]

From TechCentralStation (yeah, I know Steve, a very suspect site)

How Republics Die:
Plato's Cautionary Tale


By Mark J. Boone : BIO| 06 Feb 2009


Insofar as an economic downturn has traceable causes, the present recession seems to have origins in the behavior of at least three groups of people: reckless lenders, who encouraged people to spend their money irresponsibly; reckless borrowers, who took their advice and spent well outside the limits of need and the ability to repay; and a government which at times encouraged such behavior through organizations such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

This is old news to the astute observer and the regular reader of TCS. What they may not know is how vividly, and how long ago, great philosophers warned us just how dangerously our society was using money. The great philosophers understood that economics operates on a moral plane, indeed a spiritual plane; that economic problems are often moral problems; and that financial markets are corrupted as much by bad behavior as by bad economic theory. The antiquity of their advice only serves to belie its strikingly acute contemporary relevance.

Read along from an excerpt of Plato's Republic (Book VIII, 550d-566), and see if any of it sounds familiar. It's the tragic tale of a declining republic, a tale of war, money, and politics all gone wrong through a combination of bad judgment and disordered cravings. We begin with moneylenders who have a nasty habit of lending money to people they know will use it irresponsibly, especially to youths whom they encourage to fritter it away on useless luxuries. They prefer that their money be wasted on frivolities; the more of it is wasted today, the more they can charge in interest tomorrow.

But their clients are just as bad, if not worse. By spending others' money on frivolities, they fail to take responsibility for themselves. A group of people recklessly spending other people's money soon becomes a leech on society: a class of those who have ruined themselves burning through borrowed money.

The class of bitter, bankrupt borrowers finds it has a friend—or what looks and talks like a friend—in a group of politicians who promises them honey, served in a silver bowl at the expense of the moneylenders who got them into trouble in the first place. Their alliance only lasts until one of the honey-tongued politicians stirs up the bankrupted class, whips them into a frenzied mob, and makes war against the wealthy class, seizing their money by force. This politician emerges as a tyrant, and the old republic has died.

Republic is a complex and profound morality tale in which we can see, if darkly, the reflection of our own republic. Its story is not exactly ours, but we have a lot in common with this once-beautiful city. Specifically, we have the same moneylenders and borrowers. The eeriest similarity to Plato's moneylenders is the agressive marketing of credit cards to college students. However, the reckless use of home loans on the part of both lender and borrower has proven more devastating.

We have been blessedly spared from the final stage of the societal destruction portrayed in Republic, wherein a redistribution of wealth proceeds by way of a violent coup to tyranny. The American republic is stable enough that for the foreseeable future we need not fear such madness.

But the same disease can also kill a republic slowly. Cicero, the great Roman statesman and philosopher who was also a great reader of Plato, warns that redistributing wealth by taking it from lenders and giving it to borrowers is among the worst things a leader can do because it wreaks havoc on a credit system (On Duties, Book II, chapters 83-85). This in turn can cripple an economy and lead to the same awful result: the death of the republic. Since credit is a function of the credibility a borrower has in the eyes of a lender, nothing can damage it more than if lenders expect to be repaid with their own taxes. While we can be grateful we haven't seen more of this, we should keep a hawk's eye on the new Congress for any signs of this sort of redistribution.

After all, we would only be deceiving ourselves if we thought that our republic by virtue of its size, technology, hefty GDP, or anything else is somehow immune to what destroyed other republics. Human nature destroyed ancient republics, and it could destroy ours.

[cobra de capell]

Originally Posted by VRM

Well, when are you going to take responsibility for the candidate you had in office for the last 8 years who managed to double the national debt? Lets just double your taxes to cover it. Learn to take responsibility for your actions.

As always, VRM the truth suffers when you post. I'm thinking.....

Back to the subject, versus a serially repeated history lesson from a biased reporter - this is nothing but smoke and mirrors. But the media will start reporting how much this helped the people and they’ll never again mention the word “foreclosure”. The messiah has acted and all is well!

[cobra de capell]

Originally Posted by cobra bill

My only wish is for VRM, CobraBill and Excalibar to somehow put their funds up first - liberals (at least Obama supporters/Non-McCain/Palin voters) first, conservatives last up. Now that would be justice done!

Hey, thats Cobra Bill with a space, don't go pissing off that other CobraBill
That said, gosh its nice to know your thinking about me! [/quote]

See my message to VRM, I'm thinking (also in your case)......

[cobra de capell]

Here's a sample of different scenarios that shows the impact of this proposal at the house owner level....

http://www.treas.gov/initiatives/ees...ampleSheet.pdf

[cobra bill]

Your still thinking about me, and that's special!

[VRM]

Mike,
Excellent post!
I'm not familiar with the site you posted from, but like a broken watch that is correct twice a day even WND and Move-On can get it right once in a while.

Subprime loans are nothing new. They have higher risk, but they also carry a higher reward. Thinking banks can regulate themselves is like thinking that you can negotiate with a fox to only take 1 chicken every 3 days if you let him into the henhouse. It is just not in their nature.

I despise regulation, but I also know that in some cases the alternative is worse because human nature will will frequently cause us do the thing that might seem like a great idea in the short term, but is ultimately bad in the long term. In this case these regulations need to be there to protect the idiots trying to get loans as well as the people who will be forced to cover the losses when the banks are allowed to abdicate their own responsibility.

The only thing that gives us a chance at surviving in a civilised manner is our laws, and the penalties for not following them (we need to beef those up as well).

Steve


BTW CdC,
That one was actually funny! I'm used to your usual repetitive mantras showing that you have no imagination (and you managed to not disappoint me again this time), but the graphic you managed to find somewhere was quite good!

[cobra de capell]

Funny and right on the money. When I first viewed it, you and Cobra Bill (and Excaliber) came to mind, plus a few others - but the three of you are stand outs, big time.

[cobra bill]

Its good to be loved!

[Sharroll Celby]

They dont call it the "Bush Recession/Depression" for nothing.

[TButtrick]

I'd just seen a recent episode of CSi... GWB is of reptilian decent. True...

[SPF2245]

VRM, regarding the national debt...it's not the total number of dollars of the debt which is the issue, it's the % of the debt vs the GDP which is the true measure of comparision. And let's not forget the $5 trillion Bush had been blessed with when he took office. Either way, this was a long time in the making...and both parties are equally at fault.

As for the sub-prime lending mess that got us into this mess, I laughed working at a small bank in 1993 when this whole mess got started (I have to admit, I did profit well from it). This coupled with Clinton's re-write of the The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 with special low credit scores previsions for who would normally not be able to qualify for a loan opened a flood gate of idiots into the housing market with no means to pay for food...let alone a house. And it all spun out of control...both parties at fault (though some more then others), and the American public fueled it with hedge bets on future property values. Oh well, now let's throw more money at it and see what happens...