Originally Posted by motordavid

Interesting article but it avoids talking about the 200 pound rabid rat in the room, imo:
-Some/more than some, consumers treated the artificial and unsustainable housing "appreciation"
as a personal piggy bank they could "borrow" against Not sure, even in these lean calamitous times
that many have learned their lesson.

-If V&I were still working, but like many employed today, were nervous over our short term future employment situ,
all the inducements proposed would have little effect on our running out to buy a new house, different house.

-The deadbeats are indeed a small % compared to those paying their morts; however, the "value" of everyone's home
is substantially less than "it was" or, what someone might have paid for it in the past 5 years.

-A huge portion of all mortgages, of all design and terms, were run through the investment bank securitization process, spread
thinly like manure on a million sandwiches and, resold in various forms; thus, the toxic lunch pail that many banks and other
financial companies possess abd hold on their books.

-Add in CDSs, CDOs, run the blender again and that, simplistically, is a major part of the reason(s) the econ is where it is, imo.
AIG didn't lose $62 Billion last qtr because the real insurance biz was off that much; it is the continual unwinding of CDSs, et al,
that is in a major effect, eating up these companies.

The continual laundry list of "fixes" that roll out of the politicians' lobbyist driven staff offices, seldom address those issues above, imo.