[patientrenter]

We’ve had a certain kind of economy in this country since WW2. If we’ve become a country where repaying debt is considered equivalent to enslavement, or only really obligatory if the debt was used to purchase assets, and only if the assets have risen in value, then we will have a different kind of economy in the future.

People elsewhere have been lending us lots of their money. Would you lend your retirement savings to the neighbor who says he might pay you back if the bets at the races all go his way?

[patientrenter]

We’ve had a certain kind of economy in this country since WW2. If we’ve become a country where repaying debt is considered equivalent to enslavement, or only really obligatory if the debt was used to purchase assets, and only if the assets have risen in value, then we will have a different kind of economy in the future.

People elsewhere have been lending us lots of their money. Would you lend your retirement savings to the neighbor who says he might pay you back if the bets at the races all go his way?

[patientrenter]

We’ve had a certain kind of economy in this country since WW2. If we’ve become a country where repaying debt is considered equivalent to enslavement, or only really obligatory if the debt was used to purchase assets, and only if the assets have risen in value, then we will have a different kind of economy in the future.

People elsewhere have been lending us lots of their money. Would you lend your retirement savings to the neighbor who says he might pay you back if the bets at the races all go his way?

[patientrenter]

We’ve had a certain kind of economy in this country since WW2. If we’ve become a country where repaying debt is considered equivalent to enslavement, or only really obligatory if the debt was used to purchase assets, and only if the assets have risen in value, then we will have a different kind of economy in the future.

People elsewhere have been lending us lots of their money. Would you lend your retirement savings to the neighbor who says he might pay you back if the bets at the races all go his way?

[patientrenter]

CA Renter, private lenders could not compete with loans from FNMA or Freddie that give away govt guarantees. Because of that, private lenders could only operate succesfully at the margins of the market. In a rational market, they would not receive much funding for these marginal loans. Enter the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy, and you go from a normal housing cycle to an unprecedented bubble.

I sure hope that serious economists, minus the political hacks on either side, will move to a consensus in the next year or two on the most important underlying causes of this financial crisis. If Dodd, Frank,and Schumer aren’t fingered, along with the “deficits don’t matter” Republican group, then we are guaranteed to have a repeat, in housing or elsewhere.

[patientrenter]

CA Renter, private lenders could not compete with loans from FNMA or Freddie that give away govt guarantees. Because of that, private lenders could only operate succesfully at the margins of the market. In a rational market, they would not receive much funding for these marginal loans. Enter the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy, and you go from a normal housing cycle to an unprecedented bubble.

I sure hope that serious economists, minus the political hacks on either side, will move to a consensus in the next year or two on the most important underlying causes of this financial crisis. If Dodd, Frank,and Schumer aren’t fingered, along with the “deficits don’t matter” Republican group, then we are guaranteed to have a repeat, in housing or elsewhere.

[patientrenter]

CA Renter, private lenders could not compete with loans from FNMA or Freddie that give away govt guarantees. Because of that, private lenders could only operate succesfully at the margins of the market. In a rational market, they would not receive much funding for these marginal loans. Enter the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy, and you go from a normal housing cycle to an unprecedented bubble.

I sure hope that serious economists, minus the political hacks on either side, will move to a consensus in the next year or two on the most important underlying causes of this financial crisis. If Dodd, Frank,and Schumer aren’t fingered, along with the “deficits don’t matter” Republican group, then we are guaranteed to have a repeat, in housing or elsewhere.

[patientrenter]

CA Renter, private lenders could not compete with loans from FNMA or Freddie that give away govt guarantees. Because of that, private lenders could only operate succesfully at the margins of the market. In a rational market, they would not receive much funding for these marginal loans. Enter the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy, and you go from a normal housing cycle to an unprecedented bubble.

I sure hope that serious economists, minus the political hacks on either side, will move to a consensus in the next year or two on the most important underlying causes of this financial crisis. If Dodd, Frank,and Schumer aren’t fingered, along with the “deficits don’t matter” Republican group, then we are guaranteed to have a repeat, in housing or elsewhere.

[patientrenter]

CA Renter, private lenders could not compete with loans from FNMA or Freddie that give away govt guarantees. Because of that, private lenders could only operate succesfully at the margins of the market. In a rational market, they would not receive much funding for these marginal loans. Enter the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy, and you go from a normal housing cycle to an unprecedented bubble.

I sure hope that serious economists, minus the political hacks on either side, will move to a consensus in the next year or two on the most important underlying causes of this financial crisis. If Dodd, Frank,and Schumer aren’t fingered, along with the “deficits don’t matter” Republican group, then we are guaranteed to have a repeat, in housing or elsewhere.

[patientrenter]

[quote=kewp]But they usually have some competition, and that seems to be the only effective way to keep waste levels down across an enormous range of economic activity.

Somewhat ironic that you post this on a site devoted to the housing bubble; the greatest mal-investment in the history of the world.[/quote]

Ironic? Not really, kewp. The housing bubble would have been very mild had there been no government incentives to buy houses. Absent FNMA, Freddie, FHA, tax deduction for mortgage interest expenses, artificially low federal funds rates, congressional pressures to lend to poorer risks, and all the other govt measures funneling money into houses, and the bubble would never have got very far.

[patientrenter]

[quote=kewp]But they usually have some competition, and that seems to be the only effective way to keep waste levels down across an enormous range of economic activity.

Somewhat ironic that you post this on a site devoted to the housing bubble; the greatest mal-investment in the history of the world.[/quote]

Ironic? Not really, kewp. The housing bubble would have been very mild had there been no government incentives to buy houses. Absent FNMA, Freddie, FHA, tax deduction for mortgage interest expenses, artificially low federal funds rates, congressional pressures to lend to poorer risks, and all the other govt measures funneling money into houses, and the bubble would never have got very far.

[patientrenter]

[quote=kewp]But they usually have some competition, and that seems to be the only effective way to keep waste levels down across an enormous range of economic activity.

Somewhat ironic that you post this on a site devoted to the housing bubble; the greatest mal-investment in the history of the world.[/quote]

Ironic? Not really, kewp. The housing bubble would have been very mild had there been no government incentives to buy houses. Absent FNMA, Freddie, FHA, tax deduction for mortgage interest expenses, artificially low federal funds rates, congressional pressures to lend to poorer risks, and all the other govt measures funneling money into houses, and the bubble would never have got very far.

[patientrenter]

[quote=kewp]But they usually have some competition, and that seems to be the only effective way to keep waste levels down across an enormous range of economic activity.

Somewhat ironic that you post this on a site devoted to the housing bubble; the greatest mal-investment in the history of the world.[/quote]

Ironic? Not really, kewp. The housing bubble would have been very mild had there been no government incentives to buy houses. Absent FNMA, Freddie, FHA, tax deduction for mortgage interest expenses, artificially low federal funds rates, congressional pressures to lend to poorer risks, and all the other govt measures funneling money into houses, and the bubble would never have got very far.

[patientrenter]

[quote=kewp]But they usually have some competition, and that seems to be the only effective way to keep waste levels down across an enormous range of economic activity.

Somewhat ironic that you post this on a site devoted to the housing bubble; the greatest mal-investment in the history of the world.[/quote]

Ironic? Not really, kewp. The housing bubble would have been very mild had there been no government incentives to buy houses. Absent FNMA, Freddie, FHA, tax deduction for mortgage interest expenses, artificially low federal funds rates, congressional pressures to lend to poorer risks, and all the other govt measures funneling money into houses, and the bubble would never have got very far.

[patientrenter]

Shaming people for not paying back their debt. That’s so…. un-American.

[Author]

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