Breaking News: President Bush Speaking to the Nation on the Financial Crisis

[Limnos]

It is on TV right now. Pick a channel.

[Texas Golfer]

It lasted only 15 minutes.

[Limnos]

Short, sweet and to the point. I hate what I am hearing though.

[atxtraveler]

This ****es me off. We are essentially going to give a free pass to greedy Wall Street financial thinkers, who decided it would be a good idea to sell subprime mortgages to people who decided they should buy a 2.5 million dollar house when they make less than 200k a year. Now all of a sudden, the bottom drops out of the market and they realize they can not just continually refinance.

What happened to the fundamentals of the mortgage system, and conservative spending?

The gotta have it now generation should have never been able to afford this luxury at the cost of my tax dollars.

..... this is a major hot button issue for me right now.

[Limnos]

It's a major world wide crisis. If our market fails (and it teetering right now) the world economy suffers. We are in deep caca and a recession is very possible. I hate that we are giving money to those who do not need it, but government has to act somehow. The stipulation should be that noone profits period until all debts are settled. I'm ****ed too.

[DONNIE D]

This ****es me off. We are essentially going to give a free pass to greedy Wall Street financial thinkers, who decided it would be a good idea to sell subprime mortgages to people who decided they should buy a 2.5 million dollar house when they make less than 200k a year. Now all of a sudden, the bottom drops out of the market and they realize they can not just continually refinance.

What happened to the fundamentals of the mortgage system, and conservative spending?

The gotta have it now generation should have never been able to afford this luxury at the cost of my tax dollars.

..... this is a major hot button issue for me right now.

I was watching "Millionare" on tv, and this 20 something girl was on it saying her boyfriend and her had bought a house together and needed the winnings to be able to keep their house. She was dressed to the 10's and I just kept thinking why??? She was from Calif. so I'm sure it was some major cheese. She won $25000, and you could tell when she left the stage, she had it spent already. Sad I tell ya.

This "keeping up with the Jones" is killing us.

[Preacher Moze]

I feel much better.

W is on the job.

I was wondering because I haven't seen much of him lately. Reps wouldn't even have him at their convention, except by remote broadcast.

[Preacher Moze]

This ****es me off. We are essentially going to give a free pass to greedy Wall Street financial thinkers, who decided it would be a good idea to sell subprime mortgages to people who decided they should buy a 2.5 million dollar house when they make less than 200k a year. Now all of a sudden, the bottom drops out of the market and they realize they can not just continually refinance.

What happened to the fundamentals of the mortgage system, and conservative spending?

The gotta have it now generation should have never been able to afford this luxury at the cost of my tax dollars.

..... this is a major hot button issue for me right now.

There's lots of blame to go around. But you also have to include greedy financial institutions that made bad loans. They also came up with ridiculous instruments like selling mortgages like stocks.

The people on Main Street aren't to blame for this. This is pure Wall Street greed. And now you and I are going to pay for it and become a socialist state.

[DONNIE D]

There's lots of blame to go around. But you also have to include greedy financial institutions that made bad loans. They also came up with ridiculous instruments like selling mortgages like stocks.

The people on Main Street aren't to blame for this. This is pure Wall Street greed. And now you and I are going to pay for it and become a socialist state.Do you not place any blame on people buying over their heads? Just asking.

[Volunteer]

There's lots of blame to go around. But you also have to include greedy financial institutions that made bad loans. They also came up with ridiculous instruments like selling mortgages like stocks.

The people on Main Street aren't to blame for this. This is pure Wall Street greed. And now you and I are going to pay for it and become a socialist state.

No doubt that Wall Street played a major role, but to suggest that Main Street didn't play a role is inaccurate. No one forced people to take loans they couldn't pay for and not all sub-prime loans are in default because the adjustable interest rate went up. Donnie D is correct in that keeping up with Jones's has been a significant factor.

It is also becoming more clear that the Clinton administration and Congress back in the 1990's pushed hard to get banks to accept sub-prime mortgages in order to increase the percentage of minority home ownership. Certainly not a bad idea, but the implementation has proven quite costly.

[Volunteer]

Do you not place any blame on people buying over their heads? Just asking.

Don't know what Moze feels, but there are lots of people that blame the banks for enticing people to take these loans. Kind of like the people had no choice. So if you go out and buy a high end car that you really can't afford and it gets repossessed, it's the car dealer's fault. It's the blame someone else strategy gone crazy.

[FIJIFan]

And now you and I are going to pay for it and become a socialist state.

Couldnt have said it better myself.

I do appreciate that President Bush took the problems down to "our" level, in that he explained what everything means and how everything happened. So many times you see the "talking heads" and politicians talking about things in terms that half the time they dont even understand!

[nein51]

Look up "too big to fail" and you will understand this on a much higher level. There isnt really a whole lot of choice. Sadly, I am with the side that says, "F em, not my fault they bought more than they could afford." I just dont think that will work this time around.

Even more sad is that I bet people still dont learn from it. Further, until the median home price drops considerably or median income rises considerably anything done today will just be repeated in the not so distant future.

[atxtraveler]

This is just absolutely a train wreck that I could see coming from a mile away. I have A grade credit, my wife is AA, and even we got suckered in by a bait and switch mortgage broker who at the last minute threw in a 3-year pre-payment penalty on my loan. Now I am locked on a high interest rate while this whole thing is going on.

The difference is, I did not buy more house than I needed. I looked at my overall spend and decided what we could afford, and then shopped in our range.

[atxtraveler]

Looks like Gilbreath was ahead of the curve...

http://www.baylor.edu/business/index.php?id=59116

[Limnos]

Looks like Gilbreath was ahead of the curve...

http://www.baylor.edu/business/index.php?id=59116

If only the world would listen to Baylor Bears. ;) Seriously, Gilbreath is a strong thinker. The world would be wise to listen to him.

[ChipOC]

They shouldn't give a dime to the banks that did this. Give loans to the banks that made good decisions and let them buy the assets of these *******es.

[atxtraveler]

They shouldn't give a dime to the banks that did this. Give loans to the banks that made good decisions and let them buy the assets of these *******es.

I agree.

[Texas Golfer]

I feel much better.

W is on the job.

I was wondering because I haven't seen much of him lately. Reps wouldn't even have him at their convention, except by remote broadcast.

Leave it to Moze to turn this into a partisan issue.

[nein51]

They shouldn't give a dime to the banks that did this. Give loans to the banks that made good decisions and let them buy the assets of these *******es.
Cant, too many investors from those "other banks" already.

[KellerBear]

If we do buy these assets from these banks...the government better charge one HELL of an interest rate, so at least in the end money will be made.

[Bexar Fan]

A few years ago the government tightened the rules for personal bankruptcy.

This year the purse strings are loosened for corporate bankruptcy.

Ironic isn't it?