Question?--How many homeless are you all seeing--what cities--what states?

[oreo]

I live in Woodland Park, CO--& drive down Ute Pass to get to Colorado Springs-about a 22 mile drive. The number of tent cities I am seeing are unbelievable along the creek. I have lived here all my life & have never seen this. Right now it is winter--December & as I was driving up the pass tonight I noticed the temperature was 0.

These people are families with children--I have seen their clothes hung out on the line. These are American families that have lost everything & are now living in tents & we are in the winter months--& it makes me sick to my stomach. I don't believe that we have the shelters to house this many people.

Colorado has a relatively low unemployment rate at 7% compared to the rest of the nation, so I know some of you are seeing worse. So here's your chance to tell the rest of us what you are seeing in your communities.

BUT I WANT TO MAKE ONE POINT--THAT I WANT YOU ALL TO REMEMBER:

Don't ever forget that our federal government did this: They are the creators of this current economic collapse. They did it by co-signing our names to 50% of the mortgages in this country through Fannie/Freddie while at the same time lowering lending requirements, using sub-prime mortgages, in which people who could really not afford a certain home were able to buy one anyway--with your signature attached to it.

"When government is big enough to give you everything you want, it's also big enough to take everything you have" Thomas Jefferson

Are you stupid enough to think the very poorest people in our society brought down our economic system.
You think government guaranteed loans of the very least expensive homes of our very poorest almost brought down the world banking system.

Please

The government mandated sub prime loans was a small part of a much larger problem.

The private sector applied sub prime loans to the middle class and the upper class who the government never intended them to be applied to.
Banks relaxed their requirements for home loans for all.
Wall Street bundled the toxic loans in to investments that were traded.
Then Wall street created derivatives to hedge the bundled loans in the form of credit swaps and basically leveraged the bad debt causing a multiplier affect.
These investments should have been more closely regulated. The credit swaps should have been classified as insurance instruments but clever wall street execs had them classified as investments to avoid insurance regulation.

If you do not know what you are talking about don't say anything. Even the most conservative economists agree to the scenario above.

Are you dumb enough to believe that it was poor people that brought down this economy? What started out under Jimmy Carter to provide "low income families with "low income family housing" turned into a macro--economic financial disaster that we are experiencing today. Government went from insuring for "low income housing" to 500 thousand dollar custom homes to even luxury beach properties. All guaranteed by the American taxpayer.

Sub-Prime mortgages were institued by the FEDERAL RESERVE BANK under Alan Greenspan--(FED CHAIRMAN) & supported whole-heartedly by Clinton's treasury secretary Robert Rubin. Fannie/Freddie--was de-regulated at that time in the 1990''s. Meaning for many years people could qualify for a mortgage loan with lower incomes & less than a desirable credit rating. The federal reserve bank which is the BOSS, if you wish of all other BANKS in this country. They set the rate of short term lending & organize mortgage loan lending in this county. One single woman, "I can't remember her name" called out sub-prime lending & talked about the incoming disaster which we see today & was completely shut out by Rubin & Alan Greenspan. Greenspan has already admitted his error in the sub-prime mortgage disaster & has actually apologized for it., & so has Rubin. They admit they never saw this disaster coming.

Wall Street, after the tech crash, started using mortgage backed securities (taxpayer guaranteed mortgages) & started trading them & using them as collateral across the world. Then Wall Street & our Bankng industry collapsed--on a house of cards. We are here today because of a wreckless incompetent government.

So while you want to point your little pointer finger at Wall Street--it's really time you look at where the problem originated. Your GOVERNMENT.

Here it is again: PAY special attention to this article in the 4th or 5th paragraph & "read & weap"

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html

 

[Polk]

Stop will all this "low income family housing" bullcrap. We both know what you're really trying to say is that you think minorities are bad credit risks. The CRA wasn't about lower income housing. It was about racial discriminatory practices by banks.

 

[amrchaos]

A couple of hundreds (I say 2 or 3)

MIAMI

 

[saveliberty]

The federal government didn't force banks to lower lending requirements. Banks did that on their own because they could repackage the loans and sell them as securities, minimizing the downside risk.

Read it & weap

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending - The New York Times

Government deregulated AIG--Fannie/Freddie in the 1990's.

You will note in the above article that Clinton "banking officials" were puttng PRESSURE on Fannie to reduce lending requirements.

Pay special attention to the 4th or 5th paragraph of this article with the warning that was made 10 years ago.

Do you ever stop to consider what you write? If the government deregulated the sector, that's not the government creating the crisis. That's the government doing what your side is always calling for (reducing regulations). If deregulation creates a problem, that's an example of too little government involvement, not too much. Also, the much larger factor that caused banks to get in to subprime loans is that even selling them in part to Fannie and Freddie, they kept part of it on the books are were exposed to the risk. Once they no longer had to do that, they had no incentive to care. They set up the mortgages then sell them off. If trouble appears, they're already banked their money. It's those with mortgage-backed investment vehicles who are holding the bag.

Look spin doctor, this was REQUIREMENT reduction. Reducing income requirements and varification of the income. Allowing derivitives was a government move as well. These were proactive moves of government not a lack of regulation.

 

[Dr.Traveler]

Just want to single this out:

Government deregulated AIG--Fannie/Freddie in the 1990's.

Deregulation is a popular topic with Conservatives. Its just unfortunate no one ever bothers to figure out why the Regulations exsist in the first place. Willy-nilly deregulation always leads to a collapse of some sort.

There were a lot of regulations lifted from the banks and the stock market. Regulations put in place specifically to stop a financial crisis like this. Bravo.

 

[ElmerMudd]

I live in Woodland Park, CO--& drive down Ute Pass to get to Colorado Springs-about a 22 mile drive. The number of tent cities I am seeing are unbelievable along the creek. I have lived here all my life & have never seen this. Right now it is winter--December & as I was driving up the pass tonight I noticed the temperature was 0.

These people are families with children--I have seen their clothes hung out on the line. These are American families that have lost everything & are now living in tents & we are in the winter months--& it makes me sick to my stomach. I don't believe that we have the shelters to house this many people.

Colorado has a relatively low unemployment rate at 7% compared to the rest of the nation, so I know some of you are seeing worse. So here's your chance to tell the rest of us what you are seeing in your communities.

BUT I WANT TO MAKE ONE POINT--THAT I WANT YOU ALL TO REMEMBER:

Don't ever forget that our federal government did this: They are the creators of this current economic collapse. They did it by co-signing our names to 50% of the mortgages in this country through Fannie/Freddie while at the same time lowering lending requirements, using sub-prime mortgages, in which people who could really not afford a certain home were able to buy one anyway--with your signature attached to it.

"When government is big enough to give you everything you want, it's also big enough to take everything you have" Thomas Jefferson

Are you stupid enough to think the very poorest people in our society brought down our economic system.
You think government guaranteed loans of the very least expensive homes of our very poorest almost brought down the world banking system.

Please

The government mandated sub prime loans was a small part of a much larger problem.

The private sector applied sub prime loans to the middle class and the upper class who the government never intended them to be applied to.
Banks relaxed their requirements for home loans for all.
Wall Street bundled the toxic loans in to investments that were traded.
Then Wall street created derivatives to hedge the bundled loans in the form of credit swaps and basically leveraged the bad debt causing a multiplier affect.
These investments should have been more closely regulated. The credit swaps should have been classified as insurance instruments but clever wall street execs had them classified as investments to avoid insurance regulation.

If you do not know what you are talking about don't say anything. Even the most conservative economists agree to the scenario above.

Are you dumb enough to believe that it was poor people that brought down this economy? What started out under Jimmy Carter to provide "low income families with "low income family housing" turned into a macro--economic financial disaster that we are experiencing today. Government went from insuring for "low income housing" to 500 thousand dollar custom homes to even luxury beach properties. All guaranteed by the American taxpayer.

Sub-Prime mortgages were institued by the FEDERAL RESERVE BANK under Alan Greenspan--(FED CHAIRMAN) & supported whole-heartedly by Clinton's treasury secretary Robert Rubin. Fannie/Freddie--was de-regulated at that time in the 1990''s. Meaning for many years people could qualify for a mortgage loan with lower incomes & less than a desirable credit rating. The federal reserve bank which is the BOSS, if you wish of all other BANKS in this country. They set the rate of short term lending & organize mortgage loan lending in this county. One single woman, "I can't remember her name" called out sub-prime lending & talked about the incoming disaster which we see today & was completely shut out by Rubin & Alan Greenspan. Greenspan has already admitted his error in the sub-prime mortgage disaster & has actually apologized for it., & so has Rubin. They admit they never saw this disaster coming.

Wall Street, after the tech crash, started using mortgage backed securities (taxpayer guaranteed mortgages) & started trading them & using them as collateral across the world. Then Wall Street & our Bankng industry collapsed--on a house of cards. We are here today because of a wreckless incompetent government.

So while you want to point your little pointer finger at Wall Street--it's really time you look at where the problem originated. Your GOVERNMENT.

Here it is again: PAY special attention to this article in the 4th or 5th paragraph & "read & weap"

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending - The New York Times

Granted, sub prime loans were not a good idea. But the real problem was what Wall street did with the bad government decison that was the big problem.

What you and whoever wrote the article are saying is like saying in a capital crime using a gun, the gun manufacturers is at fault. The gun manufacturer made the gun but the criminal decided how they would use it and must take responsibility. Same with Wall Street.

Our society has a major problem with people who depend on the government and do not need to.
There is another group that is a problem that includes Oreo. They blame everything on the government that goes wrong. They are part of the problem not the solution.

They use simplistic thinking and solutions for complex problems.