Watchhttp://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/for-obama-housing-policy-presents-second-term-headaches/
But as President Obamas first administration comes to an end, the government is still deeply embedded in the mortgage market. In the third quarter, various government entities backstopped 92 percent of all new residential mortgages, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a publication that focuses on the home loan industry. Mr. Obamas economic team has consistently said it wants the housing market to work without significant government support. But it has taken few actual steps to advance that idea. I think Obama is absolutely committed to reducing the governments role, said Thomas Lawler, a former chief economist at Fannie Mae and...
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San Antonio, TX
jvolstad's website
Put those houses on the market. I'll buy one if the price is right. The seller is underwater? Too bad. Next time don't listen to the Realtors.
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Yep, great idea. Let's put more government subsidies toward bailing out the people who overextended themselves on a home with creative financing, KNOWING that in reality, they couldn't afford it if it weren't for their magic mortgage. Let's offer more loan modifications and put a nice band-aid on this problem so that we can last a few more years before the whole thing REALLY goes to sh**. In case you didn't notice, that was utter sarcasm. This is why I have a problem with the Obama administration and their focus on the low-income housing. If we keep manipulating the system to accomodate the lowest common denominator, we will just keep sinking lower. And JVolstad, the realtor doesn't twist people's arms and FORCE them to sign the paperwork. Again, easy to point the finger at someone else, but if you've ever purchased a home yourself, you know there are tens and tens of hurdles to jump through to go from the point of "hey, i'd like to buy a house" to "I now own this home"... providing documentation to the loan broker, property searches, disclosures, approvals, contingency removals... the escrow process is usually 30 days for anyone getting financing, so if you tell me that a Realtor can mind screw you into a stupor for a full month, so much so that you can't back out of the deal, well than I would suggest you get a little more information on how the process works. yay for Obama.
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Tarzana, CA
OK, They don't even know what to do about it. Fair enough.
"“I think Obama is absolutely committed to reducing the government’s role,” said Thomas Lawler, a former chief economist at Fannie Mae and founder of Lawler Economic and Housing Consulting, an industry analysis firm. “But no one’s yet found a format to do that.”
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David9 says
Yeah right, what utter crap. The only way to deal with FNM and FRE would have been to let them go bankrupt asap (= years ago) and auction off their houses to the highest bidder. That would be the only credible commitment of Obummer to reduce the government's role.
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Scottsdale, AZ
robertoaribas's website
mell says
Yes. If your goal was to cause the second great depression, and watch gdp fall say 10% more than it did, this would be a great plan...
Am I to take it that I'm the only person on this thread who has studied economics in any serious way?
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jvolstad says
at this point.. that would be in contradiction to the comments...
"to work without significant government support"
therefore it is left for you to be the next fool to close the gap.
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robertoaribas says
so did many others pre-1929 and pre-2008, but that didnt help ... yes its a great read...
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mell says
should have been shut down during Bush, as all the cover up with the fraud was coming out.
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Tarzana, CA
mell says
That would have been good for us. Unfortunately, it's all about the Banks. Greece just voted in austerity today cutting 13 billion just so they can get a loan to pay the Banks 39 billion!
I see a connection.
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robertoaribas says
You don't need to study anything, basic math will do (if you paid attention in school). Nominal GDP growth subtracted from deficit spending will give you real GDP growth and that has been looking ugly and will continue to do so as long as you don't clear the bad debt and throw good money after bad.
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thomaswong.1986 says
Fair enough.
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David9 says
Absolutely, they should show the banks the finger and default instead - there would still be austerity needed for everybody (they should start with their politicians), but not as much and they would recover much sooner without having to pay interest and going into serfdom to the central bankstas.
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El Cerrito, CA
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Make political campaign contributions to unethical shills. Check. Have them lower tax rates on massive personal income in return for agreeing to allow irresponsible government spending. Check. Gut banking regulations and oversight. Check. Lend working peoples savings to millions of fools so they compete against each other using interest only loans and fractional reserve banking to inflate home prices. Check. Take a cut. Check. Arrange to cloud title and avoid fees through private bogus electronic deeds that no one can trace. Check. Buy insurance on stupid loans from phony, no reserves insurance company. Call it a credit default swap to avoid insurance laws. Check. Take a bonus. Check. Bribe rating agencies to get AAA ratings on garbage. Check. Sell toxic mortgages to pension funds and take a commission. Check. Ship US jobs overseas to commie slave plantation to avoid US labor and environmental laws and product accountability. Check. Lower quality on brand names and reap massive profits. Check. Sell garbage at low prices and drive quality products off the market. Check. Reap huge profits. Check. Raise interest rates. Check. Crash investments around the world and extort trillions from treasury. Check. Collect insurance on bad loans from phony insurance company bailed out by strategically placed appointed cronies in government. Check. Take another bonus. Check. Create new unheard of regulations by decree and purchase trillions of dollars of real property at inflated prices with counterfeit money to 'save the system'. Check. Sure beats working.
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Belmont, CA
robertoaribas says
No, you are just good at exploiting the economic situation and then flaunting your rentier income like a nouveau riche schlemiel.
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"to work without significant government support"
Sure. Obama already got those poor people's vote. Now, it is time to wash his hands. He might socialize the housing if he can have the 3rd term.
But too bad.
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robertoaribas says
I thought many people already complained so much demages caused by those "economists". At this point, common sense works better than economics.
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Seattle, WA
David Losh's website
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This is all about banks, and propping them up. Housing is a distant second to the fact banking is needed, at this point, to make the economy working.
It's all complicated, or is it?
I talked with a guy yesterday who bought a children's shoe business he helped start. He borrowed from Venture Capitalists in San Francisco. Now he has to sell the company to pay them back because he just realized they aren't nice guys.
Yes he said they aren't nice guys, can you imagine?
What Roberto is saying is that economics is about the advantage of financing as passive income. Nobody wants to work any more, it's all about that money for nothing.
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David9 says
Yeah and Iceland told the banks to go take a hike. They are just fine-their bankers took a hit-but the nation is fine.
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Bellingham, WA
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Iceland can print. Greece cannot. That's the difference.
Plus Iceland has a trade surplus.
As a general rule, Trade surplus == non-fucked nation.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NETEXP
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Bellingham Bill says
Umm, Iceland can print-BUT THEY CHOSE NOT TO. Instead they let the bankers sink, despite threats from Britain and other Euro nations.
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Call it anything you want. We are toast.
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Bellingham, WA
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lostand confused says
no, they printed, too, I think. At any rate, that's how they got their trade surplus, running a weaker krona -- ISK is 50% weaker now than 2008.
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Bellingham, WA
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carducci22 says
technically, if we had a 10-year phase-in of fiscal sanity, we could save ourselves.
the longer we put this off the harder it's going to be, since the baby boom is steadily getting into retirement age . . .
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=cEP
shows tax to GDP is relatively low now. We just gotta raise one or the other to fix things . . .
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lostand confused says
I remember talk about Iceland getting $5B loan from Putin. Did this happen or it was just bluff?
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Those with anti-corporate mentality forget that the US government is now the largest corporation and 90% of real estate loans in the US carry direct government guarantees. It is nature for any corporation to inflate the price of their assets. Only those poor people who have just elected the leader of this government would never be able to afford a house unless they are squatting in one already.