Where do I start? The stock market is belly up. The finance industry is sucking the American taxpayer dry with nice handouts billions at a time. Regular folks like the rest of us are losing our jobs, our homes and our incentives to keep trying. What happened?
It was less than two years ago when everything seemed fairly rosy. The Dow was humming along at over 13,000, financial institutions (as far as we knew) were safe and most of us were paying our house payments on time and life was grand. Then along came a new phrase that we all had to learn and eventually hate: sub-prime mortgages. Did they really cause all of this mess we're in today? It's hard to imagine but from what I can tell that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Some folks who barely had enough income to buy gas for their cars thought how way-cool it would be to own their very own home. After all, isn't that what all the experts said we should do? It's the American Dream. Buy your very own house and you'll live happily ever after. One little thing they forgot to point out: "Oh yeah, you need to have a real job and be able to make house payments for 30 years." That's the part that no one was telling these folks. Not even the very people who were handing them the money. The lenders were even helping borrowers to lie on their mortgage applications just to meet quota for the month. Everyone was doing it, so why shouldn't they? Why, indeed?
Now we get to beg, borrow or steal our way out. I'm sorry folks but I don't believe throwing more money at it will make it go away. History has taught us that what we sow, we must reap. Too bad our government hasn't yet learned that lesson.
Roger Taylor
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