I agree, Ex-SD. The writer squarely fingers the 3 primary partners in the crime:

1. Home buyers

2. Mortgage bond investors

3. Middlemen between 1 and 2

The “crime” of this mortgage melt-down could not have been committed without the cooperation of all 3 parties, and most of that cooperation was as knowing and informed as it needed to be to make them fully culpable. [Warning: full rant in progress…]

Even “dumb” home buyers made a very conscious choice to give up renting and buy instead. And that was only partly so they could paint their home purple. You’d never pay your landlord $200,000 for the privilege of painting your rental apartment purple. So you don’t take on the risk of losing $200,000 of your own money to buy a home just so you can paint it purple. Buyers all along were hoping for big windfall gains. And they all along knew they could mail back the keys if it didn’t turn out that way. No one taught them about options, but they smelled that they were being given an incredibly cheap call option.

Patient renter in OC

1. Home buyers
“Even “dumb” home buyers made a very conscious choice to give up renting and buy instead.”

Patient: I think they may have been sick? Shopaholic sick?

Give a shopaholic ,get and spender a chance to buy a house and they probably can’t refuse.

I just found that the people who bought my house in 2005 are selling. I sold them the best, too big for the neighborhood house at the lowest price per square foot for miles.It had a decent size yard. Paid their closing costs. They were 100% financing. The MLS pictures show that they have done at least 50k in remodeling and put in 100’s of hours(on a perfectly good house).I know they did a lot of work themselves. They also replaced a very new stove, fridge and had way nice brand new funiture,rugs etc. wall to wall.I suspect credit cards.
It’s got a NOD hanging over it (surprise).The list price has them in the hole considering the price of the work and closing costs. It is a very nice house.

Would a “dumb” person do that? I don’t even think someone who was just “dumb” would do that…It takes something else. Given easy credit, were a bunch of under-qualified people trying to compensate or fit in? I think so. People should watch “Revenge of the Nerds” a little nore often, I guess. For feeling good it sure beats the hell out of a BK.

1. Home buyers
“Even “dumb” home buyers made a very conscious choice to give up renting and buy instead.”

Patient: I think they may have been sick? Shopaholic sick?

Give a shopaholic ,get and spender a chance to buy a house and they probably can’t refuse.

I just found that the people who bought my house in 2005 are selling. I sold them the best, too big for the neighborhood house at the lowest price per square foot for miles.It had a decent size yard. Paid their closing costs. They were 100% financing. The MLS pictures show that they have done at least 50k in remodeling and put in 100’s of hours(on a perfectly good house).I know they did a lot of work themselves. They also replaced a very new stove, fridge and had way nice brand new funiture,rugs etc. wall to wall.I suspect credit cards.
It’s got a NOD hanging over it (surprise).The list price has them in the hole considering the price of the work and closing costs. It is a very nice house.

Would a “dumb” person do that? I don’t even think someone who was just “dumb” would do that…It takes something else. Given easy credit, were a bunch of under-qualified people trying to compensate or fit in? I think so. People should watch “Revenge of the Nerds” a little nore often, I guess. For feeling good it sure beats the hell out of a BK.

I dunno, I think this whole thing can be summed up as ‘lending money to deadbeats is bad business, no matter how much interest you are charging them’.

kewp: the credit card industry disagrees…

speaking of cc’s, cap one… 1900 laid off… they’re one of if not the biggest junk mail pre approved 25% cc companies… wonder when they sound the claxon alarm…

kewp: the credit card industry disagrees…

speaking of cc’s, cap one… 1900 laid off… they’re one of if not the biggest junk mail pre approved 25% cc companies… wonder when they sound the claxon alarm…

“I dunno, I think this whole thing can be summed up as ‘lending money to deadbeats is bad business, no matter how much interest you are charging them’.”

If only your quoted statement were true, we wouldn’t be in this mess. The fact is that the teaser rates were very low, so in reality this whole thing can be summed up as ‘lending money to deadbeats is bad business, no matter how low the initial teaser interest rate.’