In arguments here and with people I know in the flesh and blood world, I've repeatedly said what I've known to be true: housing loans made to poor people weren't the reason our economy tanked. In fact, I've pointed out, loans made under the CRA were less likely than "regular" loans to default and more likely to stay with originating banks as opposed to being turned into the unregulated investment instruments of the sort that did play a huge role in the recent unpleasantness.
So here's an article that makes me sound like a damn genius:
... Irresponsible lending might have been one of the many causes of the financial crisis -- but not just irresponsible lending to poor people, according to a new study.
"The large majority of mortgage dollars originated between 2002 and 2006 are obtained by middle- and high-income borrowers (not the poor)," the authors write. "In addition, borrowers in the middle and top of the distribution are the ones that contributed most significantly to the increase in mortgages in default after 2007." Rich people tend to take out larger mortgages, of course, but the fact is that the amount of money poor borrowers failed to pay back was just never that significant, as this chart from the paper shows...Well, what's done is done. Money under the milk. But it'd be nice if there were something to be learned from it all. Oh, it's not that there's nothing to learn; just that those who need the lesson aren't in class. Pesky facts get in the way of their preferred self-serving and dishonest narrative, so they prefer to tell tales out of school.
In a world where facts mattered and where there were enough people who preferred solving problems over denying or ignoring them, one might think this sort of information would be useful. Maybe it'd make people reconsider; the ones trying their hardest to undo what meagre regulations followed the crash. I think I might have lived in that world for a little while, maybe the first two or three decades of my life. As I recall, things were moderately hopeful, way back then.
The only cause for hope nowadays is that Congressional Rs will continue to shed all pretense of rationality, to an extent that even the Foxified will start to recognize that their agenda is inimical to having a future.
Sadly, though, because that's the only scenario which might provide reason to hope, there really ain't much cause for it at all.
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"But it'd be nice if there were something to be learned from it all."
ReplyDeleteThere was and is of course.
You touched on the one and only issue. People are clueless. Not all people of course.
In our day...
As Americans we stuck together.
Stay at home moms were the norm.
Harvard was 7K a year to attend.
My local community College at the time was Deanza CC was free to anyone in the state for 6 months. Pell grants covered 116% of costs in CA...Then 50 bucks a semester once they slashed the funding in the mid 70's (See Ronnie "trickle down" Reagan)...But how would you like to go here/there for free?????? You'd be making about 100K a year give or take once you graduate and have a prestigious piece of paper forever that nobody can take from you...You'd be on the ground floor of Silicon Valley. A well known area of poor people and crime. *rolls eyes*
The High school, Homestead HS is where a dude named Wozniak graduated a decade before me. There was another guy too...His name escapes me. *tongue in cheek*. Go look how nice Homestead looks today. Bellevue ain't got shit on Homestead. We even had a smoking section for students in my day! The tree huggin' folks down there in CA. made it go away. Communists!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Anza_College
I could go on but...Back in our day we had a country the envy of the world because we had true pride and compassion and we cared and invested in eachother. We respected everyone and our country regardless.
What about today?
As Americans we could hardly be more divided and it's 24/7 senselessly arguing dog shamelessly eating dog kind of America.
Stay at home mom? What's that? Lasting marriages? Where?
School? Can't afford a semester in an online course. Forget about a real brick and mortar school unless you got 25K minimum.(4 years)...That don't count living expenses, that's just books and tuition, laptop etc.
Good luck getting paid for that hard earned education if you can afford any higher education like 100K to go to a university.
Our infrastructure that was new in the 50's and 60's is now literally killing people and falling into the rivers and blowing up, and venting in the Dakotas, Failing and exploding Pipelines, rail cars, fertilizer factories, off shore rigs etc. are blowing up so frequently that it prolly looks like the 4th of July in space.
Half of America doesn't want to pay for anything yet be able to use everything. Ask Cliven Bundy about that sometime.
Your average stupid neighbor now has the ability to find millions of stupid people for a humongous world wide stupid fest 24/7 and spread it in their tighty whities. Smart people can do this as well and do(we are doing it as I type). But if you are not educated (see price of college). Then the stupid just grows and grows and grows and grows and grows. The neighbors used to talk behind the wingnuts back at the supermarket. Now we post it on Facebook for the entire world to see and hear.
So what's the key to change? VOTE! VOTE...Whether you like a single candidate or not, or any issue or not. Show up and vote. It's the one thing that everyone is capable of doing no matter how smart, dumb,rich,poor,Hobbit,elf, both real elves and Will Farrell their mascot/union rep. elf giant. VOTE!
I know how to reverse this trend and we ain't doing more than half of it. I'll save that for another time when the subject arises. It's a whole other chapter.
Hey Sid...What did your school cost to get your education? Just curious...Did you get pell grants or Staffords?...? Do you know anyone who did back in the day and what they paid?