On July 14th, 2008 at 1:13 pm, lgm said:

The government does lots of things to encourage personal home ownership, including the mortgage tax deduction and support for Fannie Mae. Should we take those back?

Yes! The prices for homes would drop like a rock, more than they are now. And nobody mentions that the housing market crash has made housing affordable for lower income folks. That’s a good thing.

Yes, people that bought too much house, figuring that the equity would save them were fools. So were those who bought houses on speculation.

None of them deserve a penny of my money. I paid PMI when I couldn’t quite make a 20% down payment (that means I paid for insurance to protect the bank if I defaulted. Nice, huh?). I took a fixed rate and refinanced when it was timely to do so. Adjustable rate? For short term ownership only. Interest only mortgages? Foolish.

If anyone couldn’t understand the reams of paperwork they were signing when they financed a house didn’t deserve one in the first place.

Dodd would do better to arrange some “VIP” financing for regular people, not just himself.

Now if we could just pry your elitist butt out of your rent controlled apartment, lgm, maybe you would view reality with a clear head.

Isn’t it remarkable that all the truly expensive housing is in the liberal meccas of NY, CA etc?

What’s more, it would probably mean the job of every congressman and hanger-on as a furious (and broke) public came howling for their heads, and you KNOW we can’t have that! /s

Yep you watch how fast the government would suspend the Constitution, particularly the Second Amendment…

On July 14th, 2008 at 1:13 pm, lgm said:
The government does lots of things to encourage personal home ownership, including the mortgage tax deduction and support for Fannie Mae. Should we take those back?

True encouraging home ownership is good LGM, but this current situation is beyond understanding…how can anyone in their right mind make out a home loan without checking for income?..I mean this is stupid. Both parties have had their hands in this mess… regulatory wise and it appears that lenders themselves have been greedy to the point of self -destruction…and the rest are just expected to just pay for it???

I DO NOT LIKE the situation and am of the opinion that it is largely self inflicted, what with the gov’t allowing/encouraging the over centralization of mortgage lending in Fannie and Freddie (decentralization would have meant less individual home ownership, but since it’s irresponsible home lending that got us into this mess…), but to quit cold turkey would entail a crash that I’m not sure I’d want to live through. A better idea might be to swallow the bailout (painful on the pocketbook, but survivable) and then wean Fannie and Freddie out of the central role they play in the mortgage industry with an eye towards possibly eliminating them all together. Pipe dream, I know, but that’s what I’d do if I were king.

The government does lots of things to encourage personal home ownership, including the mortgage tax deduction and support for Fannie Mae. Should we take those back?

While I love my mortgage tax deduction, the principal behind it is completely flawed. Government should not be in the business of incentive-izing anything. If the tax credit were simply to be abolished it would translate into a massive tax hike for 10’s of millions Americans, but if our government actually followed it’s founding principles, we wouldn’t have an income tax to begin with.

These investors threw billions into the market, and they knew that the subprime bubble was built on sand. Normally the investor class gets rewarded because it bears risks, but no more, apparently; even they want a risk-free socialist paradise, if they can get away with ripping us off. Surely it’s cheaper to buy a congress-weasel than it is to suck it up.