SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Proud Deplorable who wrote (88159)10/30/2007 7:40:39 AM
From: Mike Johnston  Read Replies (6) | Respond to of 110194
 
A very good question and i will be glad to respond.

You correctly mention the predatory lending phenomenon and massive foreclosures, as a scam that robbed many people.

However the answer is, as you will read, that it is capitalistic - socialism that has destroyed those people, and not capitalism, because true free market capitalism does not exist here.

The fact is that socialism - government intervention in the US housing market - in the form of excess money issuance, artificially low rates and existence of GSE's has created the bubble.
Only the government is responsible for hyperinflation in housing and all subsequent dislocations. And what is the definition of socialism ? - Government intervention in the economy.
Thus we can conclude that housing hyperinflation has been caused by socialism.

In a "free market capitalism" real estate bubble would have never occurred, because nobody would lend to people that have no ability to pay and the market would adjust interest rates to a level that would prevent hyperinflation from occurring.

In a "free market capitalism" the poor would simply save for most of their house instead of signing up for predatory loans, because the prices of houses would be constantly stable, there would be no panic to buy, and there would be no inflationary destruction of savings.

Many poor signed up for those loans out of pure desperation, afraid of further government-sponsored hyperinflation and by being pushed by scamsters who would later sell those loans to a socialist government institution or a foreign government or a hedge fund guaranteed by a socialist "greenprint put".

The enemy is not capitalism, but socialism, more specifically a version of capitalism that is characterized by privatization of profits and socialization of risks.
What we currently have in US is a version of capitalism that is worse than socialism itself. What we have here is a phony, corrupt, fraudulent capitalism aka "socialism for the rich " characterized by fraud and interplay of Fed, Wall Street, banks, Goldman Sachs, Fannie Mae and others.

-



To: Proud Deplorable who wrote (88159)10/30/2007 12:34:39 PM
From: benwood  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 110194
 
"[...]where other predators (the rich) are bidding on the foreclosed homes of the poor who Wall Street [...] has robbed and cheated."

I don't think one can be classified as "cheated" out of something that they did not pay for. Yes, it's a travesty, and some are trying to stay put under financial pressure post interest rate reset. For some who really thought they could handle it, the most tangible thing they'd be cheated out of may simply be their credit rating, enticed and/or bamboozled into getting in way over their heads.

But in exchange for their zero down liar loan and teaser rates, many lived for the same or less than they were paying renting, hence the no-brainer move on their part. And when they throw in the towel and await foreclosure, they will pay no property tax nor mortgage payments, living free for several months or more.

The ones being cheated are the US middle class taxpayers who will pay the brunt of the bailouts handed to the US banking industry and the distorted financial tentacles on Wall Street.

Seriously, you can't be "poor" and cheated out of a 600k house for which you made no down payment and teaser interest payments. And if you lied to get the loan, who's getting cheated?

Many ignorantly believed they'd get something for nothing, the same as those who "invested" near the zenith of the tech bubble in late '99 and got "cheated by fate." Or to those who recognized the fallacy, cheated by their own ignorance and willful blindness.