Hey!  I know how you feel.  I played by the rules too, put 20% down on my modest house and paid the mortgage each and every month before anything else.  I got it paid for and on paper it has more than doubled in value over the past 16 years.  Of course, that means nothing unless I decide to sell the place.

Others I have known and worked with bought houses that seemed way out of line with their earnings in my opinion and would then use the equity like it was free money so they could buy toys.  I couldn’t go that route, because it would have kept me up all night knowing that one stumble and all could go down the drain.

And yeah, some of those people will actually come out ahead in all of this, because the government is stepping in and bailing them out with money it doesn’t have.  Go figure…..

i honestly dont have the answer. but i feel cheated for playing by the rules and surviving while my neighbor is in a bigger newer house he cant afford and he gets to keep it. i did use my inflated value to feel better about living here though, never thought i would live in a 1/4 of a million dollar house.(I obviously dont, thats just what they say its worth)  when i am out at the farm workin the dirt i just laugh and laugh. what they say its worth. all i get out of it is a sore back and fresh vegtables once and a while.

Claycity - They don’t have your best interest at heart.  They are driven by greed, self-interest and a sense of entitlement.  But, they are not typically political creatures.  They play the system and their way of keeping score is with a balance sheet.  They have no moral allegiance to any political party.

Carter’s idea about home ownership was a laudable one for sure, but it presented the perfect environment for corruption and exploitation.  Once the bubble began to expand during the Clinton years no one (from either party) wanted to make waves.  Well, the bubble popped just like everyone knew that it would.  Instead of allowing a free market to make needed corrections, the new administration is trying to re-inflate the old bubble by pushing money into the leak.  It might delay the collapse, but the collapse will come and will probably be much worse because of government involvement.

you are correct bob, i clearly associate big business, banking, and wall street with the republican party for some reason. i just dont see those guys as having my best interest at heart.

i think it was the ditechs and countrywides that started the mess, although fannie mae had a role.  i would agree with carter’s noble idea and encourage home ownership. i think it stabalizes neighborhoods, and ads pride. its still a work in progress with hfh and other programs. i would agree unrestricted homeownership is a mess, AEB 30yr morgatges on trailers, 125% of equity loans, etc but the basic premise i htink is sound and i would support it rather than keeping them in the indentured seritutde of rent. some things we agree on , others we dont. its the alabama/auburn delimma. sometimes (insert your team here), sometimes (the other team) wins, maybe of the conservatives found things about the new presidents plans they could get ON board with instead of things they cant get ON board with they could find some common ground. but the dems enjoy a bigger majority than bush did and along party lines do not need even one republican concurring vote to rule like bush tried to

Some folks have this mistaken idea that all the fat cats on Wall Street are Republicans.  That’s far from the truth.  The bulk of the money they “contribute” to politicians goes to Democrats.  Of course, most will change on a dime, if it is in their best self-interest.  They have no political loyalty.  They buy politicians like Dodd (D), because it serves their purpose.

“Beginning in early 2001, the Bush Administration issued 34 warnings to Congress about the need to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before it caused substantial economic turmoil in the financial markets. However, they met continual opposition by Congressional Democrats who feared that tighter regulations on lenders would disqualify low-income applicants from affordable housing.”

What else could the guy do about the impending mortgage melt down?

Well, I don’t agree with much of that.  Carter had this wonderful, noble idea that everyone should own a home.  Nice idea but totally unrealistic.  But he got the Community Reinvestment Act passed and opened the whole can of worms.

Then along comes Clinton and he repeals the Glass-Steagall Act which was established in 1933, because a hard lesson was learned about banking in this country.  That allowed for the line between commercial banks and investment companies to become invisible.

that is kind of funny bob, thats what i saw bush and his crowd doing the last eight years, shoving legislation through that wil take years to correct.war, deficit, financial mess etc.  did you make more money form 92-2000 or 2000 -2008. i tripled my money from 92-2000 and would have lost money had i not pulled out when i retired about the millenium actaully october of 00.

i also dont know where you are on your home morgatge, which may or may not have contributed to the mess, that is if you were borrowed up tp 125% of your equity as many were. (I was on my original loan then and almost paid off like i was supposed to) remember the interest deduction was a bone that was thrown to the republicans when credit card interest was removed as a deduction and it was the “Conservatives” who exploited it and got us in to the mess.

Would that be the same democrats that made this mess that the current administration keeps saying they inherited? The ones that were leading the economic mess we are going through that now want to claim it was all the past administrations mess they are trying to fix.  Yea the same Democrats that have no idea how legislation allowing AIG bonus’ to get into a bill they didn’t even read before passing.