How did it help?


The government made it worse
A few days ago Orson Scott Card had a column about honest reporting and the housing crisis. Emphasis added.

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house“ along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

It's a great piece, you should read it.

I just want to know why the Democrats aren't getting any blame for this.

And I want to know when the politicos decided that the only true compassion came from the government and was firmly under their control.

So people couldn't afford houses. Was there any effort to remove regulations so that it would be easier to start a business? Was there any effort to help people better themselves rather than giving them a loan they couldn't afford?

I think this calls for a new catchphrase.

Government help makes it worse.

I'll see about designing a banner for that.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - October 24, 2008 at 12:13 PM  Tag


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