Tully Mars

To some extent I agree with that statement. However I think there's blame enough for all.

IMO, too many people looked at their home as a bottomless money pit, taking out two and sometimes three home equity loans. All too often these loans were used to buy toys. An RV here, a boat there a few ATV's here and there. Ten thousand here and twenty thousand there and soon enough you're taking about real money.

Then there's the folks that decided the home they were in wasn't impressive enough. They needed not 2000sft, they needed 4000sft. Standard run of the mill counter tops and cheap cabinets? Screw that! The neighbors have granite and solid oak! Gotta have that.

And yes lenders were more then willing to line up and lend, lend and lend some more. Often telling people as they signed their ARM that "there's nothing to worry about, the rate won't go up." All while the very contract they were signing stated it would go up, how much and on what date.

There is good news. Well good news for some. Anyone with any cash is likely going to be able to find deals on all kinds of stuff in the coming months. Houses prices are headed south, I doubt they've hit rock bottom. Looking for a rental property? Want a new "toy?" Keep your eye on the classifieds and auction sites. I recently flew north to look at a sailboat, well mainly to visit my daughter and son-in-law. but the boat was part of my trip. Two years ago I looked at the same make and length, the boats were in very similar condition, this one actually had better Nav. equipment. The boat I looked at was being offered at 50% of the one I looked at just two years ago. Once my taxes are done this year I'll likely buy a boat. Though I doubt it will be this boat as the guy I was dealing with was all but begging me to take it off his hands. My guess is by the time I'm ready it'll be sold. If not I'll bet I'm talking to his bank and not him regarding the deal.

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Lasereth

A lot of people seem to think they know how it happened according to the poll but I see a lot of members saying it's because of home loans being given out to people who couldn't afford it even though that's only a small part of the credit crisis. No I don't understand it (I chose no) but I do know that the housing market being in shambles is only a small chunk of the big issue.

samcol

This has everything to do with the failure of the Federal Reserve and the Congress not abolishing it. Ron Paul was right.

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roachboy

there is a quite good--but long--article from yesterday's ny times on the linkages between the crisis, the rise of derivate trading, banking deregulation and neoliberalism (the last being a condition of possibility and not an explicit object of critique--this after all being amurica where the horse has no name, still):

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/bu...pagewanted=all

you may have to join, but it's free.
worth reading--i could paste it too, if that ends up being easier.

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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

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Baraka_Guru

What should we take from this?

Park what you can in cash and ride it out.


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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Sion

care to elaborate?

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Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz

I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...

spindles

I voted no, but I probably sit closer to the 'i don't care' camp. I have a fairly sizeable mortgage on my home (and the default loan in Oz is variable loan, though fixed rate loans *do* exist). Having said that, my current income means that we can service this debt relatively easily. The housing price issues in the US really hasn't happened as much here, yet and our economy is still relatively strong (our reserve bank rates are trending up - 6 consectutive rate rises and probably more to come).

I think the biggest issue here is that people are being loaned ridiculously large sums of money - a debt that they do not have a hope in hell of servicing. I recall my brother attempting to borrow money to buy a car 20 years ago and being knocked back because the repayments were too much of his income (he was probably earning 20K and the car was 5 or 6K). This kind of knock back just does not happen as much as it should now.

Commenting on the parental responsebilities - my parents were always in the 'no cash, no buy' situation (excluding cars/houses). They were in their late 50s before they even got a credit card (and they only got this for travelling purposes - read Emergencies).

My wife and I don't have a credit card (we have a amex charge card, but as this needs to be paid off in full each month it is carried for convenience rather than for access to credit) and our only debt is the house loan. People should be more like this...

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who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?