Bernanke couldn't be more wrong.
Jan. 19th, 2008 04:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verushka70After Bernanke testified to Congress that an economic stimulus plan would have to put money in the hands of "the people most likely to spend it quickly" (the poor and middle class), I really had to laugh.
They honestly think giving people $300-800 is going to help, at this point in the downward spiral that is our economy? In the same breath that the financial news tells us that people aren't paying their credit card bills, cell phone bills, or car payments, they tell us (and expect us to believe) that tax breaks and tax refunds or credits will stimulate the tanking economy because if given to the right people, the money will be dumped right back into the consumer economy by the "people most likely to spend it quickly."
Dude. Seriously. If you give people who aren't making their bills money, where do you think it's going to go? It's not going to go towards new televisions. It's going to go towards paying the Rent-A-Center and credit card bills and car payments they're already behind on.
Although, in Chicago anyway, nothing says ghetto rich quite like wearing expensive designer clothes while your utilities are turned off, you are evicted, and/or your children are suspended from school for not having required immunizations. Because it's all about appearances.
Last spring, my bf tried to help a married couple refi their mortgage (which was an ARM) before they lost their home (they were six months behind on their mortgage). But you know what? They never missed a single payment on their twin Jaguars.
So maybe in "normal times," Bernanke would be right. But at this point, I'm thinking it's all a day late and a dollar short. Even the so-called foreclosure bailouts and assistance to people only help those people who continue to qualify for refinancing. But that's a shrinking pool of people because lenders have tightened their criteria so much, fewer and fewer people qualify for refis. Which means more and more people will be inevitably foreclosed on.
I'm not sure who to blame. I blame the people who signed mortgages and didn't read the fine print. But I also blame the lenders and what I know to be evil, scum-sucking predatory mortgage brokers, many of whom are immigrants and who fucked over their own people worst of all with pages of loans in English the borrowers couldn't read. If they hadn't loosened up all their criteria to begin with, the people who are now losing their homes to foreclosures would never have thought they could own their own homes. And none of this would be happening. As usual, though, the people who deregulated mortgage lending saw a shitload of money to be made swindling people... and that's what they did. All I can say is at least some of those low level scum sucking shitbag brokers are now themselves losing everything they've got because they're in just as bad shape as the people they fucked over. Because they bought into "the dream" too.
They honestly think giving people $300-800 is going to help, at this point in the downward spiral that is our economy? In the same breath that the financial news tells us that people aren't paying their credit card bills, cell phone bills, or car payments, they tell us (and expect us to believe) that tax breaks and tax refunds or credits will stimulate the tanking economy because if given to the right people, the money will be dumped right back into the consumer economy by the "people most likely to spend it quickly."
Dude. Seriously. If you give people who aren't making their bills money, where do you think it's going to go? It's not going to go towards new televisions. It's going to go towards paying the Rent-A-Center and credit card bills and car payments they're already behind on.
Although, in Chicago anyway, nothing says ghetto rich quite like wearing expensive designer clothes while your utilities are turned off, you are evicted, and/or your children are suspended from school for not having required immunizations. Because it's all about appearances.
Last spring, my bf tried to help a married couple refi their mortgage (which was an ARM) before they lost their home (they were six months behind on their mortgage). But you know what? They never missed a single payment on their twin Jaguars.
So maybe in "normal times," Bernanke would be right. But at this point, I'm thinking it's all a day late and a dollar short. Even the so-called foreclosure bailouts and assistance to people only help those people who continue to qualify for refinancing. But that's a shrinking pool of people because lenders have tightened their criteria so much, fewer and fewer people qualify for refis. Which means more and more people will be inevitably foreclosed on.
I'm not sure who to blame. I blame the people who signed mortgages and didn't read the fine print. But I also blame the lenders and what I know to be evil, scum-sucking predatory mortgage brokers, many of whom are immigrants and who fucked over their own people worst of all with pages of loans in English the borrowers couldn't read. If they hadn't loosened up all their criteria to begin with, the people who are now losing their homes to foreclosures would never have thought they could own their own homes. And none of this would be happening. As usual, though, the people who deregulated mortgage lending saw a shitload of money to be made swindling people... and that's what they did. All I can say is at least some of those low level scum sucking shitbag brokers are now themselves losing everything they've got because they're in just as bad shape as the people they fucked over. Because they bought into "the dream" too.