"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 19:56:43 -0400, "Beauregard"
wrote:

The current slump is caused by a meltdown in the housing market that
was fueled by irresponsible lending practices, advocated and supported
by the current administration's laissez-faire policies toward America's
financial industry.

Gee, yeah. Those irresponsible evil bankers just pushed money at
people and let folks who shouldn't be allowed to own houses buy them.
Now maybe one in ten of those folks will lose that non-existent
down-payment. The gummint should have insisted that those folks be
kept down on the plantation in those perfectly fine public housing
projects. Meanwhile all those defaulted mortgages are gonna make the
irresponsible bankers rich.

Some, perhaps, but not all. Many banks, counting on the upward spiral of RE
values, loaned money with no down payments and interest-only monthly
payments. If the properties in question fell below the principle amount
loaned--any most have in such places as San Francisco and Chicago--the buyer
walks away from the home, but the bank takes a bath, unable to resell the
property for anything near the amount invested in it and essentially unable
to sell it even at a loss due to the market slump.

Max