Admiral Valdemar wrote:On the other hand, the emo-tastic ranting on radio and TV from families experiencing mortgage rate increases despite the BoE cut the other day is getting annoying. Bad as the banks were (and government) in offering such stupid products, the people who fell hook, line and sinker for it are as much to blame. I sure as fuck am not keen on having my tax payer's doll-, pounds, pay towards bailing people out who failed economics 101.
Can't pay for your McMansion and have fancy holidays and consumer products to go with the lifestyle? Tough.
The biggest victims here aren't the mortgage holders. They're the savers: the people who are older and living on fixed incomes, and who have seen the yield of fixed-income securities fall away to nothing in the rush to encourage lending. They are forced to invest in equities and accept much higher risk than an older person on a fixed income should tolerate. And all of this was true before the sub-prime collapse.
Worse yet, they were confronted regularly by "economic experts" telling them that their whole way of thinking was wrong, and that they should embrace the new high-growth low-savings mindset.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
I have only student loans as outstanding debt, and the Student Loan Company is a government entity with the loan interest rate only being set at inflation. Other than that, I have a bank account and a nice ISA for my savings. I am, more or less, in the black and can comfortably live (for now) on just my salary. Never touched a bank loan or the overdraft.
So imagine my adoration for the people who do use those facilities to supplement their pathetic jobs and totally absent fiscal responsibility, when this crisis popped up on the radar.
Someone's going to get lynched over this and it's a toss-up over The Powers That Be or the realty bubble blowers and their houses no one else can get.
The best is yet to come (PDF). Spain and Ireland are even worse and, if France and Germany have their way with the ECB, they won't be thrown a life ring for this one.
Admiral Valdemar wrote:On the other hand, the emo-tastic ranting on radio and TV from families experiencing mortgage rate increases despite the BoE cut the other day is getting annoying. Bad as the banks were (and government) in offering such stupid products, the people who fell hook, line and sinker for it are as much to blame. I sure as fuck am not keen on having my tax payer's doll-, pounds, pay towards bailing people out who failed economics 101.
Can't pay for your McMansion and have fancy holidays and consumer products to go with the lifestyle? Tough.
While I think that's true in some cases, some originators were misleading to their customers or outright fraudulent. Banks gave kickbacks to mortgage brokers who convinced their clients to go with a higher interest rate, for example, and some brokers simply didn't tell the client they qualified for a lower rate.
