Clipmarks - cmstratton's clipmarks from July 23, 2008

by cmstratton 7-23-2008

I don't get this one either. If you're with a mortgage broker and they're offering you a rate of 7.5% on an ARM, why would you just accept it and not reach out to other banks or brokers for better offers? If you went to a car dealership looking for a car and they offered it to you for more than MSRP, would you just say "ok, I guess I have to pay it?" Or would you say "thanks for the offer, I'm going to shop around and see if I can find a better one?" If you'd just take the offer you didn't like, I'm sure there's plenty of salespeople out there who'd love to meet you.

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POPS Beating a Dead Horse

by cmstratton 7-23-2008

I've commented on this topic many times over the past months, so why not give it one more go. There are two groups responsible for the mortgage mess - the individuals who took out exotic mortgages on houses they couldn't afford, and the financial institutions who sold them those mortgages. I understand we can't let the system fail, but I see no reason why my tax dollars have to go towards helping bail these two groups out. They made terrible decisions. All a bill like this does is reinforce stupid behavior, because if we fail, the government will bail us out. If you had your home re-possessed, it's because you couldn't afford it in the first place. If a financial institution is going down because of all the write-downs they've had to take on bad mortgages, it's because their leadership authorized bad decisions. Are there some exceptions to the above - sure there are. But those aren't the situations that this bill is addressing.