business

It is so obvious that this couple had absolutely no idea what they were getting into. These lenders should be rounded up and made to pay off this couple's mortgage.

But why were two vulnerable adults allowed such financial freedom in the first place without adequate supervision in place, such as conservator? The fact that a person with first-grade math skills was permitted to freely spend tens of thousands of dollars just boggles the mind. Their families and the social workers should have stepped in way before the multiple refinancings took place.

This story is heartbreaking. How about naming the predatory lenders?

Isn't this deregulation, what the John McCain, George Bush and the Republicans are always advocating for? After all, we don't want the government coming in and telling these people they can't buy a house or get a loan, do we? We don't want the government to be in the housing business, do we? We don't want the government protecting people, do we?

"We don't want the government to be in the housing business, do we?" No...we don't.

In 2004 when the Attorneys Generals of some of the states started taking action against predatory lending practices, the Bush administration's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued opinions using an obscure clause in the 1863 National Bank Act that preempted the states' actions. And then to top things off, they made rules that prevented the states consumer protection laws from applying to national banks. The Bush administration has no one but themselves to blame for these bad loans coming back to bite the country in the ass!

This is what your Dems wanted all along, and they put it in place: minority and subprime and questionable loans for anyone. The lenders were told they had to, and they were told they'd be backed by the government. The Dems bought a lot of votes, and now it's blown up. Lie about it all you want, but your Dems caused it and I'll be paying to bail them out.

mrkottah, I have no intent on blasting you and for the record, I don't know who I will vote for, but the de-regulation is a President Clinton move. He pushed the legislature in 1999 to allow banks to move toward allowing more people to get loans for home ownership. It was a change in the banking industry being separate from Wall Street. If you don't want to take my word for it, research it or ask President Clinton as did the Today show. President Clinton admitted that the information is correct defending the move because we were in financial different times. However the regulation that was changed was put in place after the great depression to avoid this very financial mess we are in. Guess the politicians were better educated in 1930 to make the decision to seperate Wall Street and Banking than the politicians were in 1999. However, the story here is tragic and the banks and thier representatives that prey on uninformed people like this should be held accountable.

The loans that caused the problems were not the CRA loans! It was the subprime ARMs that lenders were selling buyers on with the low introductory "teaser" interest rates that ballooned after a few years. Nobody was forcing the lenders to make bad loans. But many of them were overstating the value of properties and using stated income when a buyers income didn't qualify them for a loan. Then they packaged the bad loans and sold them and got their money. It was the institutions that bought the loans that got stuck holding the bag.

According to you, then, Freddie and Fannie must be the only ones in trouble. You better tell someone and quick.