"Feed me, Seymour!"

So, I’ve read/heard recently that the “Macs” of the Freddie and Fannie type are in need of more money from the bailout package. Apparently $14 billion wasn’t quite enough. What the . . . .

Are they worth it? Is it beneficial to keep/support organizations that have botched their purpose as badly as they have? Some say that we should keep them, but couple it with better regulation. Is more regulation going to help when the Macs are so large, the right hand doesn’t even appear to know what the left hand is doing? And, who or what is going to do the regulating? How long will it be until the regulators are firmly in the back pocket of the Macs and their power is neutered?

Whatever happened to the days when owning a home was more of a privilege, and not a right? A product of hard work and saving? Starting out in an apartment, purchasing a smaller home, and working up to the larger home? With the policies that were in place, everyone, even high-risk borrowers, should have a home at a really cheap interest rate.

I understand as well as anyone the sense of pride and security that home ownership brings. I have been blessed in that my ownership has come during periods of very, very (almost unrealistically) low interest rates. Of course, these rates help people own a home at a more reasonable rate. But, these rates have also been used to lure people into the trap of owning more than what they can really afford, and the Macs have certainly contributed to this cesspool. (This certainly does not excuse the mortgagee from fault!) Accepting real estate appraisals that reflect an artificially inflated market and accepting loans at 125% of the “loan to value ratio” don’t help, either. “Everyone should own a home!”

As Oliver Hardy so eloquently states, “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Stan!”
I become so angered when I think that my tax dollars continue to help bail out these gluttonous pigs! NO MORE MONEY! STOP!