More Creeping Socialism in the US.

[skadistic]

PSS: Not to mention that with a failure would come a really devestating blow to the housing crisis already underway.

There is no housing crisis. 96% of all mortgages are paid on time and in full.

Home prices shot through the roof artificial and now down to more reasonable levels.

The only issues here are idiots who overpaid for homes and got adjustable loans they couldn't afford. Now they and the lenders are having troubles. Good let them suffer their consequences. It will not crash the whole market. It will not be the end of the world.

There also is no "climate crisis". Crisis is to over used.

 

[mangxema]

That sucks. Mainly because that is the only stock I have, although fortunately it's not much.

Who the hell are these companies, and why do they have such silly names?

They are all related:

Sallie Mae, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Farmer Mac, Ginnie Mae...

I believe they were all set up by the Federal Government.

Fannie at least started as the Federal National Mortgage Association, but that's kinda long-winded, so they call it FanNie MAe.

Also... Sen. Dodd says to settle down:

"There is a sort of a panic going on," he said. "The facts don't warrant that reaction in my view. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were never bottom feeders in the residential mortgage markets. People ought to feel confident about them."

 

[FriendlyFire]

96% of all mortgages are paid in full and on time.

Bail outs for no one!

Ouch I guess 50% of all mortgages are about to be "called in"
On the other hand US government taking on another $12 TRILLION in debt is going to put presure on inflation.

Together the two companies touch more than half of the nation’s $12 trillion in mortgages by either owning them or backing them. They hold more than $1.5 trillion of the mortgages as securities. Others are sold to investors in the form of mortgage-backed bonds.

 

[Julian Delphiki]

US could have had another war with all that money.

 

[Oerdin]

I still don't understand how so many people ended up getting mortgages they couldn't afford... and why they were given such mortgages in the first place.

I'm no expert, but that's what ended up leading to this whole mess.. didn't it?

Is buying things you can't really afford an American past-time?

The mortgage lenders where flush with cash from low interest rates and they were basically giving money to anyone no questions asked. You didn't even need to prove what your income was or tell them how much debt you owed. Further more the mortgage lenders figured they wouldn't be caught holding the bag because they'd just package all these loans together as a "security" and then sell them on to some other fool. Even worse was the mortgage brokers who got paid commission on every new loan they made (even if it went into default just a few months later) so they had a financial interest to just lend, lend, lend to anyone and since it wasn't the brokers money why should he care?

This type of horse crap is what always happens with deregulation. Republicans say deregulation speeds growth and it does for a little while then you end up with a cluster f*ck like this and the tax payer ends up having to pay through the noise just to prevent the whole financial system from going bust. That was the whole reason we regulated these things to begin with.

 

[Cutlass]

So if the government does nationalize them, the smart thing to do would be to break them into pieces too small to cause future problems and sell them off again.

 

[Merkinball]

This thread kinda backfired didn't it Mark?

 

[Kerozine]

What's in it for the taxpayers?

 

[Cutlass]

What's in it for the taxpayers?

A less severe recession

 

[Sims2789]

Would right wingers care to come and rail against this creeping socialism with the vigor they would if a single mom got food stamps and subsidized housing?

No, only poor people are "whiners," you communist. While you're at it, blame everybody but America first for our foreign policy problems. What happened to your sense of personal responsibility?