Monday, October 19, 2009

Hey, Taxpayers! Stick Your Hand In The Fire Again And See If It Still Gets Burned

I know politicians are not known for having long memories, but this is ridiculous: “Easy-money mortgages still provided, by the feds”.

From the article:
The significant expansion and liberalization of FHA's loan programs is enabling Americans to go back to many of the same bad credit practices that analysts say were at the root of the housing crisis, likely feeding further waves of default and foreclosure. But this time it is the taxpayer - not the banks - who could end up holding the bag.

Whitney Tilson, manager of investment firm T2 Partners LLC and author of "More Mortgage Meltdown: 6 Ways to Profit in These Bad Times," called "cataclysmic" the surging default rates of more than 30 percent on loans insured since 2006 by the FHA. That is not far below the 40 percent rate of default and foreclosure on the notorious subprime loans that ignited the credit crisis.

"The FHA's portfolio is exploding and the taxpayer is now on the hook for 100 percent of the losses," he said.

Of course, this isn’t really a matter of short memories; it’s part and parcel of the government’s tendency to metastasize into a bloated tumor that sucks the life out of our economy. If anything deserves to go before a death panel, it’s government expansionism.

6 comments:

RebeccaH said...

The disease is called "social justice" as defined by the pseudo-communists infesting our major institutions. The cure is a nasty, loud, surgical repudiation of all that.

JeffS said...

"The cure is a nasty, loud, surgical repudiation of all that."

With emphasis on "surgical".

JeffS said...

I hasten to add, "nasty" and "loud" are equally important.

mojo said...

"Just when you think you've got a foolproof scheme, somebody invents a new, improved fool."

P.K. "Pug" Parker-Noonan, Conservative Doyenne said...

Oh,sure, you may have wildly overstated your income in your dead-end job to secure that federal mortgage you have no intention of paying, in the hopes that the Democrats will write off your debt again rather than accept responsibility for their economic ineptitude...

...but really, aren't we all to blame...?

Paco said...

Nice pseudonym, Richard!