Mortgage giants were blind to housing risks

And the top guys at these institutions were taking home 13million a year plus fringes because they were such great managers and leaders. The entire board of both should be put on trial for corruption and fraud !

The hell with the top guys. Alan Greenspan is the kingpin for all of this. Why we even give this guy 5 minutes of airtime anymore is a mystery to me.

These guys and yes even some at the federal reserve should be going to trail then stright to jail for the fraud, thieft and the out right looting of the tax payer. The out right fraud that has been committed by those in our goverment and the wall street firms is just out right criminal.

What I do see is that alot of these fraudsters are walking away with millions of dollars of tax payer money in their pockets and no one is going to jail.

What is needed is a big time investigation into the federal reserve and our very own goverment. Its high time that alot of finacial bank records should be made public to see who profitted off this mess. What you will find will outrage the american people to say the least.

Here is the part that pisses me off just as much:

"Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been in contact in recent weeks with foreign governments that hold billions of dollars of Fannie and Freddie debt to reassure them that the United States recognizes the importance of the two companies."

So now we have forgien goverments who invested in this scam and fraud is now wanting a bail out also. This is far reaching than just in our own back yards. Now folks grab your socks because we all are going to get this biggest ass @!$%#ing in history.

People need to goto jail period and if that means some big good ol boys on capital hill and the fed reserve then so @!$%#ing be it. This is not right and this could cause the biggest stink ever when it comes to the people vs the goverment.

5 TRILLION dollars my ass if you include the bail outs of forgien goverments then the cost is well out of this world. Where in the @!$%#ing hell are we going to get that kind of money to do this. Paulson stating "minimal risk" to the tax payer. I call bull@!$%# to that bull@!$%#, that is a flat out bold faced lie period. We are going to get so so screwed in this.

What about the protection of the constitution that so states no taxation without representation. So what ever happened to the debates and the voting on this so important issue. I havent heard of anyone asking if this is ok to do. My constitutional rights have been violated, why I do not agree with this and I do not agree to the additional tax that I will have to incurr to payoff this fraud.

PEOPLE NEED TO GO STRIGHT TO JAIL.................................................................................

Way to go BUSH! Be sure now to rush right out and vote for McCain! Americans just LOVE to be screwed! He He He He !!!!

There is none so blind as those that will not see.don't blame BUSH, Clinton is the guy who removed all the oversight and regulations from the markets and he also brought you 4 buck gas This was set in motion on his watch

I still don't own a mortgage and probably never will with how tight the lending opportunities are today. But two years ago many of my realtor friends have been wondering why I was not jumping into the opportunity of having a mortgage. Well, what's happening with the real estate industry and with the housing industry as a whole is a vindication on my part, reasoning with many of my realtor friends that one day the bubble would burst like the what happened with the technology bubble. And I also told them that the faster home prices go up the faster the bubble would burst, that was two years ago.

Their reasoning to me two years ago was that it is an "investment." In fact, I've heard that reasoning decades ago, when I was unable to afford to get into a home. If I would have listened I would be one of those in the loosing end today as well. Sometimes, or perhaps often times, you just have to go with what is right.

Wow! Once again failure is rewarded. However, the government has a history of selected bail-outs going back to Lockheed in the early 1970's. To bad Enron and Worldcom did not meet their criteria for bail-outs, what ever that is.

So their accountants didn't think it was possible for the US housing market to decline? What are they, teenagers? And it's kind of amusing that the government has to step in now to keep the foreign investors putting money into the US mortgage market. What a crock! They have to keep the foreign investors happy so they'll continue to buy US debt!!

This whole mortgage mess is just mind-blowing. My wife and I would watch re-modeling shows on networks such as HGTV and would sit there in bewilderment on the home prices for CA homes the size of shoe boxes. What got me was the type of people who would be in the market for these homes. These people had no business looking at homes let alone ones that cost north of $500K.

This process of unrealistic home values and mortgage products were fueled in large part by Freddie and Fannie. I only hope that the Feds can find something on the Senior Leadership at these organizations that allows them to be brought to justice. The fact that the government stepped in after countries such as China started to pull out is really telling because it only goes to show how messed up we really are. We are so dependent on foreign investment to keep this nation's ATM filled to the gills.

It's real simple. If you don't have the 10-20% down payment for a house, you can't buy it. We saved up enough for the down payment on our first home and used the equity when we sold to apply to our next home. Yeah, that may be old fashioned, but you know what, I sleep well at night knowing that I have a mortgage note that is manageable.

If the Freddie and Fannie folks are not considered for possible prosecution, my hunch is because the blame can be easily traced to the very senior outposts in our government. I really feel sorry for Obama or McCain cause whomever wins is going to inherit one messed-up country.

No Such Thing as Easy Money, right on!!!!! I've said the very "same" thing myself. Whoever becomes President will have inherited one huge MESS!

Also, I totally agree with getting back to the roots of our old-fashioned values. Putting 20% down on a house without having to pay PMI, and no such thing as an ARM loan/only fixed rate, should be a requirement from here on out. If people can go back and claim they were too dumb to read a contract, then let's just make it "simple" on everyone.

And, I'm holding my elected officials accountable for going after the executives in these mortgage lending companies for one thing plain and simple - FRAUD!!! You do get jail time for that!

Ohhhh, and yes, the tax payer is going to pay and pay and pay for all of this, but it is what it is, and we have to be mad about it - yes - but move forward.

All loans assumed by the Federal gov including any secondary loans attached to the property cannot be cleared in Bankruptcy or chapter 7 as most people call it. These loans are now Government property and are not dischargable. That means that 4 million people can have their wages garnished and their SS garnished and their bank accounts and 401k attached. The winners the mortgage companies, banks, China, Saudis, any holder of these debts. So if you think you can walk away from a housing debt think again. The losers all those who used their home as an ATM and Those who are already in default that have not cleared the bankruptcy counts.

This is better than the Sallie Mae and the Student Loan defaults. The Loans are much bigger and the Government will make more money.

Don't forget all those illegal immigrants that have sub-prime loans too.

For all those people that are paying your homes on time and feel they have no worries wait until you loss your job or become ill or disabled you will still be paying for your house up until you die or PAY IT OFF!!!!! REMEMBER YOU CANNOT DISCHARGE THIS DEBT.

I love this president and congress. First the the stock market sweep, than the it bubble sweep, now the housing sweep, now the Fannie and Freddie sweep. I wonder where they will get the money from the American people next?

Maybe Cars and Credit Card Debt

According to a recent documentary on NHK World TV (satellite) Wall Street was looking for ways to make money after the collapse of the Internet Companies. The decision was made to package various types of loans together (good and bad ones) and sell those off.
Many banks were told they would make good commissions for writing and then selling these loans. One guy on the special said that they targeted low income people and illegals knowing that these loans would never be paid off.

It was said that Greenspan knew things were going bad, but he claimed he did not have enough information to make a good decision.
Now that the housing bubble has burst Wall Street is going after the Oil markets.
I say, let's start getting our money back from Wall Street and work our way through the chain.

The people in charge were not blind they saw it for what is was, a chance to make millions. they did not care what happened to anyone. I am not in finances and I saw it coming a couple years ago. who would loan money to risky people? If you could not afford a down payment, HOW can you afford a mortgage at all? Why did the Federal government turn a blind eye to the growing problem? Aren't they the ones who run the security and exchange. Also we have Federal bank chairman, at the time, 'Greenspan ' to thank. He should shoulder a lot of the blame.

Who geased the skids for this to happen ???

McCain's old buddy & old campaign co-chair and economic policy guru, lobbyist Texas Senator Phil Gramm.... The creator of the ENRON Loophole

Gramm slipped in a 262-page measure called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. Written with the help of financial industry lobbyists and cosponsored by Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the chairman of the agriculture committee, the measure had been considered dead—even by Gramm. Few lawmakers had either the opportunity or inclination to read the version of the bill Gramm inserted. "Nobody in either chamber had any knowledge of what was going on or what was in it," says a congressional aide familiar with the bill's history.

Influential people warned us years ago. They slime-bags were blind from all the money (compensation) in their eyes.

Greed and dishonesty are the main threats to America not liberals, not government, and not gays.

Seems like some folks in this discussion have it right. For all those who continue to blame the government for the problems we are in with this housing bubble, I guess it is always easier to blame someone else. At what point are people going to step up and take the blame for their own doing. Shame on the regulators for allowing the sub-prime loans and appraisal inflation but deep down all of these folks in trouble knew they could not afford the loans. There is a grand confusion in the American dream and that confusion is between two words opportunity and owe. One group of out there people thinks that America owes them their 500k home and 50k car. The rest of us didn't feel we were owed anything and took the opportunity to establish strong credit, exercise fiscal self control and live within our means. Interestingly enough it is all of us who will also pay for all those who are confused about being owed something.

As my old prof Paul Samuelson said "there's nothing wrong with good, clean greed".

Trouble is, nothing anymore is good or clean.

Don't tell me that they didn't see this coming. And don't tell me that the hedge fund nuts betting on naked short-selling should have us feeling sorry for them. And don't tell me that we need less government controls. People are no damn good these days. We could have been clear of most of our foreign oil if we had kept the cafe' rules in force all these years and developed alternate energy sources.

It's like a plague.

i am an insurance agent/ i write house insurance all day/ over the past 15 or so years i have watched greed, mtee, buyer and inusuror all, destrpy the houseing market and the system itself. i leave no one out because it took everone to make it happen. everything always hapens at the consumer level, but ceo's ands governement are too busy looking macro to see greed errode. it went like this..... you sign to buy a house for 110000. that includes the lot on which it was built (which does not need to be included in inusrance as it is impervious to wind and fire etc) you then are told by the mtgee that you can include other debt, credit cards, the closing costs, and the 205 downpayment. maybe you end up with a 120,000-125,000 loan amount. now the package is ready. so you send it up. maybe the house you currently live in is not selling fast enough even in the blistering amrket of two years ago so you call it rental property and turn a liability into an asset. well the loan officer calls and says they need insurance for a 125,000 house and they have a good appraisal to show that. i say that i will insure the house for 100,000 ( hosue less real estate value) and they go nuts. they tell me the customer will go to another agency. i stay put. later the customer calls and says why am holding uup the loan? i tell tehm what i am teeling you. a few get it and make another choice. most go with insurance the mtgee has lined up in case i balk. there is so much water in the value of freddie mac and now with the american taxpayer that it will never be gone. like a flood that doesn't receed. meanwhile washington mutual, country wida have takken the profits and are fat and happy. it took everybody. and now we float on a sea of greed without a paddle or a captain but still in a fine boat (?). the lesson is to always watch what is happening on the ground. where the customer signs the contract.

I say "no taxation without representation." Last week Bill Gross of PIMCO said he will not buy anymore GSE debt. To the rescue, Hank Paulson. When Cramer whined about interest rates, Bernake lowered them. It seems to me that the government is listening to Wall Street rather than Main Street. The companies that made so much money off of irresponsible loans should be held responsible for this situation. Not the average American who works hard and pays his/her bills.

Fannie and Freddie both knew what they were getting themselves into. How can you justify an approve/eligible though THEIR underwriting engines on a 100% 500 credit score? It is crazy to think that a loan, many loans, such as these would ever perform.

I believe that the mess was unavoidable but people and lenders got greedy. That's the bottom line. Any lender who wants to take the risk of approving loans should have to pay the piper....period.

Now the good lenders are left cleaning up the mess.

Corporate America has the responsibility of having this blood on their hands. We need to look a bit further into the future before going with the type of disaster they put themselves into.

Many people blame loan officers for pushing these loans to borrowers. Here some food for thought - why aren't the lenders taking responsibility and more importantly why aren't borrowers taking responsibility? How can you be so irresponsible to not know what you are getting into. Bottom line it is the borrowers responsibility to know what type of financing they are getting. There is enough information available to find out. If you are checking with your lender, as they should, and they don't respond, then find somebody who will.

This industry has received a huge black eye from both the lenders and unscrupulous loans officers who don't give a crap about the borrower.

The last thing these guys were is blind to the bubble. They were crimminally negligent in allowing their portfolio to get bloated like a stuck pig with bad loans through shady, irregular, common sensically badly underwritten loans!!! This country is so stupid, kind of like the Florida State Government allowingf the citizens to insure themselves through the State pool for hurricane losses, as if the citizens of Florida could come up with $100 million in the case of a catastrophic loss. The Treasury has basically assumed, at great risk to our national security, and at greater peril to the livelyhoods of all Americans, a risk that should be borne out by the public sector. We have totally screwed ourselves....socialized our monetary system.

Land Developers committed the biggest frauds - through land flipping to establish higher and higher land values, then borrowing more and more against the land, lending more and more against the houses on the land all in some grand pyramid scheme backed by Fannie and Freddy!!