Just how was it that a lot of intelligent, educated people such as Real Estate Agents and Economists get suckered into the whole mortgage mess the way they did?
While Cheney and the press are going over Weapons of Mass Torture, the Senate has a vote pending that will probably affect you personally more where it hurts--your credit cards. Are you paying attention?
What is happening to your income? Have you been asked or ordered to take a pay cut for your company to survive? How is this going to help everyone? It won't.
More, plus links, below the fold.
Sorry to mostly just give you summaries and links to articles, but sometimes that's better than boring you to death with my own ravings.
There is a wonderful article, actually an excerpt from an upcoming book, over at the New York Times about how an intelligent, educated person who should have known better, got suckered into taking one of those toxic mortgages. Like me, Edmund Andrews should have known better. He's a professor of Economics and Economics reporter for the New York Times, I'm a licensed Real Estate Agent who occasionally opens his mouth here. But what we both have in common is that our mortgages are well past due, and neither one of us can pay them at our current rates. While our circumstances differ in a few details, like he pays child support and I don't, and he had spousal problems that I didn't, the overall arc of his story fits me pretty well.
At that time, he correctly states that mortgage companies were more than willing to throw excessive amounts of money at people. He got a loan for $400,000, my wife and I got one for about $650,000. Our actual income was higher than his was at the time, but still inadequate to afford this kind of luxury.
The excerpt of his book, which you can read over at the New York Times, is excellent. Read it if you've been sitting there asking yourself how some people got themselves into this mess.
Kiku here at the Daily Kos has posted a diary about the Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights, and the Republican "don't look at the man behind the curtain" drive to put the torture issue in front of everyone instead. Read it and then contact your Senators to let them know how they should be voting (Hint: They work for US, not the banks!)
I wrote a diary entry some time ago about why I was giving my employees a bigger raise now that the economy is kaput (the IMF is calling it a Depression now,) and Paul Krugman has an Opinion piece over at the New York Times as to why I'm probably right. You see, if all of the businesses decide to cut salaries at the same time, that means that everyone has less money to buy things that the businesses make. Mr. Krugman probably explains it better, so I would refer you to his article.