In My View - US consumer advocate - 27 May 08

[maxbeachguy]

Great video. Very thoughtful.

[trueuniverse2100]

Why should the middle class keep their home mortgage when they can afford a small apartment, but the lower class can hardly afford an apartment?

[javierenchina]

let's not forget an individual's responsibility to understand the financial situation he's getting himself into...and not overborrow

[JAZIBZAH]

very true and rarely talked about

[lastnymleft]

"...take them hostage..."

"...invade their homes..."

"I enjoy the confrontation"

Hmm. Militant homeowners? Perhaps that's from where the next American revolution will come?

[sugarpuddin88]

It is too late for the USA to come back from this debt

The USA lets banks print all its money

Our Gov had pledged 96 trillion dollars to SS and medicare - That equates to one million dollars from every single adult in the USA

Our annual taxes aren't enough to even keep interest payments

There wouldn't be interest payments if the US Gov printed its own money!

Both Abe Lincoln and JFK tried to take back the right to print money - Both were killed over it

Two attempts on A Jacksons life!

[DrBenDoverHere]

This problem goes beyond politics. It is the agressive lending strategies of the banks that is the problem. The pressure on them from their shareholders to make make money is too great. There should be a certain amount of social responsibility written into the bank's charters to ensure that people aren't conned or coerced into taking out a mortgage they can't afford

[sugarpuddin88]

Private individuals own the so-called Fed Reserve bank

They can print money out of thin air - And the USA has to pay them back with interest - In fact, the USA does not make its own money

Moreover, banks are allowed to lend 10 times more money than they actually own

And they consider loans hard cash to loan out ten times that loan in money to others

Therefore all banks legally make money out of thin air!

Our founding fathers warned us - Ben Franklin said rev war was due to Bank of England

[DrBenDoverHere]

It is not the Fed Reserve bank who approves mortgages. It is the banks who do so. They are pressuring their employees by giving them unrealistic sales targets to acheive. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Fed Reserve. It should be illegal for banks to force there staff to meet sales targets - particularly home loans. Ask any bank employee and they will tell you they are pressured into getting people to sign up for mortages.

[lastnymleft]

The Fed creates the environment in which these practices arise. After 2001, Greenspan kept bank lending rates too low, for too long, effectively flooding the market with cheap and easy money. It's only natural that the subordinate banks act similarly. In fact, it's each bank Board's fiduciary duty to use that money, to try to get maximum returns for their shareholders. And here we are in the housing bubble, still in the early stages of collapsing.

Predatory lending, however, is beyond the pale.

[EsotericDesi]

People should have more say in how economy's run, not big corporations and crook politicians..!

[lastnymleft]

EsotericDesi: People have the ultimate say - by voting with each and every dollar they have. They choose to take out the loans, etc., and invest in bubbles. The problem is they are largely uneducated about economics, and can easily be sold snake oil by the MSM.

[jerkinp]

The U.S. should cut back on it military spending. Majority of it is actually spent on maintaining forces on foreign soil and patrolling water far from the American continent. Seeing as how they are in debt now it makes no sense to have such luxuries.

[smcuriel]

That's right we should NOT be bailing out the lenders criminals from their crimes.

[bigblue4321]

Great man.

Fights for the people.Keep up the fight pal.

[OgoTomO]

McCain's man, Phil Gramm of UBS is tied to the sub-prime crisis.

My hope is that people can overcome this debacle and be able to purchase a home, again.

Neighborhoods that have owner-occupied homes have a higher tax base. Good video!

[lastnymleft]

OgoTomO: "My hope is that people can overcome this debacle and be able to purchase a home, again"

That will only happen after the Big Crash. The Fed is currently prepared to do ANYTHING (eg BSC) to sustain this unsustainable bubble, but it will burst eventually, and when it does, look out

When you see headlines about it raining brokers on Wall St, and layoffs in the tens of thousands per Fortune 500 company, that's the time to buy, because housing will finally be affordable again. Be prepared!

[PrymeMick]

Great program.