On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:03:58 -0500, "John" wrote:


"D.Duck" wrote in message
m...

wrote in message
...
On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:30:17 -0500, JimH wrote:


He promptly blamed the lender as he said he did not know what an ARM
was. Doh!

Summary of sub-prime write-downs in Q4
UBS $13.7 bln
Citigroup $13.7 bln
Morgan Stanley $10.3 bln
Merrill Lynch $8.4 bln
HSBC $3.4 bln
Bank of America $3.3 bln
Deutsche Bank $3.1 bln
Barclays $2.7 bln
Royal Bank of Scotland $2.6 bln
Credit Agricole $2.3 bln
Bear Stearns $1.9 bln
Credit Suisse $1.9 bln
JP Morgan Chase $1.6 bln
Goldman Sachs $1.5 bln
Wachovia Bank $1.1 bln
Lehman Brothers $0.8 bln
SunTrust Bank $0.6 bln
Total: $72,900,000,000 and counting!

I guess the lender didn't know what an ARM was either.

Yep, the lenders screwed up big time. How in hell they thought the loan
recipients were going to be able make the payments when the ARM kicked in
is beyond me.

60 Minutes had a piece on the debacle last Sunday. Simply put is was
greed. All along the food chain people/institutions were getting there
commission. It some respects it was kind of like a Ponzi scheme.

The 60 Minutes story reported that it was extremely easy to get a loan and
figures on applications were not even verified.


Add on top of that, because of the cheap easy money, more people were in the
market driving the housing boom, which was the only thing that kept Bush's
economy growing. My vacation home went up in value about 400%. Of course
houses are now sitting - but my taxes will never go back down.

I know a lot of people who refinanced their homes and kept taking equity
out, I know dumb - but if you get cash in hand and your mortgage payment
goes down...... I just hope that they are not caught with an adjustable
loan.


I *knew* it was Bush's fault!

At least now someone admits the economy *was* growing. That's the first
I've heard that.
--
John H