At the risk of getting into hot water with some people, here is my perspective on how we got into the current financial mess in this country.
In order to solve a problem you must get back to where it actually started. So, with regard to the housing mess and governmental bailouts, where is that?
Well, the best explanation I have heard is that it all started with "Affordable Housing". How so? If you look at what toppled the mortgage market, Lehman Brothers, AIG and all the smaller banks taken over recently, behind it all are the questionable loans issued 3 -5 years ago.
No doc, adjustible rate and 80/20 (100%) loans (just to mention a few) put people in houses who really could not afford them. That subprime paper found its way to Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers, AIG and many banks which bought these loans as part of investments portfolios.
Now there are mis-management situations with Freddie, Fanny, AIG and others. But if that subprime paper was not available, chances are the volume of bad investments would not have reached the crisis proportions we are seeing now.
There you have it. But for the "Affordable Housing" mantra from Washington politicians over the years, we would not be in the mess we have on our hands today.
Feel free to comment.
Richard
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Thanks for joining in the discussion.
Richard