"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:12:21 -0700, Stephen Trapani
said:

Basically Fannie and Freddie regulations created a false market which
was then not subjected to enough oversight and hence abused.

Fannie, Freddie and CRA were certainly all contributing factors to the
problem. However in the case of Fannie and Freddie the problem arguably
was
as much a problem of too much oversight of the wrong kind, not too little
oversight. Long after the risks had been identified (as far back at least
as
2001) you had Barney Frank and Jim Shumer standing on the sidelines
cheering
both GSEs to buy more and more mortgages so more and more homes could be
sold to people who couldn't afford the mortgages, and loudly proclaiming
that there was nothing wrong with either GSE. Their protection racket was
of
course funded by generous contributions from Fan and Fred. Anybody know
who
the biggest recipients of Fan and Fred's largesse were? Hint: number two
chose a former President of one of the organizations to run his vice
presidential selection.

Why is it people so conveniently have forgotten the root cause of the
sub-prime lending fiasco which root cause is energy prices through the roof.
For two years the world has been shelling out twice too much for it's energy
needs.

Americans will continue to put gasoline and diesel in their automobiles and
trucks and come the end of the month, lo and behold, there ain't no cash
left to pay the mortgage. None left to pay the other bills either - so they
charge up the credit cards and end up having even less with which to pay the
rent. So they default on their obligations. Fannie and Freddie were the
first to feel the effects and now it's permeating the entire economy.

But, it was and is the high cost of energy that's at fault for the mess the
whole world is in. Ask yourself why the whole world is feeling the same
pinch we are in the USA. It's because the whole world is paying the same
rip-off energy prices. And why is gasoline still $3.50 to $3.75 per gallon
when a barrel of oil has gone from $150 to less than 90 bucks? Logic
dictates a gallon of gasoline should be around $2.75 per gallon.

It is this continued high cost of energy that has driven up the prices of
groceries and other consumer items. All these inflated prices have taken too
big a chunk out of the consumers wallet. The mortgage is where the buck
seems to have stopped. Not enough left in the purse to shell out that large
sum of money.

Why is nobody but me aware this obvious root cause?

Wilbur Hubbard