Its funny how some people allready blame Obama....

If this doesn't get worse then teh late 70's Obama will have done a miracle..

Lifelong attitudes are hard to overcome. Luckily, as evidenced by the election, and now, the approval ratings, those people are in the minority. I guess they'd rather see the nation in distress than see HIM succeed. All we can hope for is that each succeeding generation will become more enlightened and more tolerant.

I know that this is not the right forum for this discussion but it really pains me to see the national good will generated by this election sullied by a handful of haters.

chas

All I can add is...................
I bought my first house in 1983 and the one I'm living in, in 2000. I had average credit and was middle class. Both times, the loan application process took over 10 days. Employers, references, credit history was checked thoroughly. I was required to put down 10% and they actually did several interviews to insure I could pay back the loan. I work with numerous people who live in homes worth 4 times mine. Their payments are 4 times mine and they are all in trouble. Who's fault is that?
I've been transferring all my VHS tapes to DVD the past several months. I've got many major network recordings from the last 10 years and the ones from 2000 - 2005 have tons of mortgage commercials. Many offer equity loans for 200% of your homes value, no money down, no closing costs, ect..................
I remember being tempted several times to take out a second mortgage. Many of my friends did, and easily. Luckily I did not and am sitting better now than most..........even if I actually have less. I've made sacrifices and lived without many times to keep up with all my payments, which I have done. Now, my tax money is going to bale out many who made the choice to live beyong their means. I've said this before...............When did we, as a society, become so irresponsible where their is no honor in paying your debts. My grandparents would be in shock to witness the greed and lies that have consumed so many. It is not what they taught me and my parents..............................-charley

Watch 'The Ascent of Money' on PBS (you can stream it)

This deregulation frenzy started with Reagan, ably abetted by Bush 1, continued by Clinton and accelerated by Bush 2. Plenty of blame to go around. Let's put it this way... if the sh*thouse we are in now is due to Clinton, and couldn't be reversed by Bush, given EIGHT YEARS to do it, then anything that goes wrong in the next eight years is on Bush, no?

Or is that going to be, ONLY if something goes right in the next few years will it be Dubya's legacy. If it goes wrong, it'll be Obama...

Republicanism isn't a political party, it's a religion. When the facts don't fit, fall back on dogma, eh? The Republican president is like the Pope. Simply infallible... Anything goes wrong, it's Satan (Dems!), anything goes right, it's the Pope.

You'd have thought they would have sought a tax-free religious status by now

Charly,
Right on - why in hell should those of us who have lived a responsible financial life, paid our bills, worked multiple jobs, and still managed to raised our kids with good moral standards and send them to college spend our hard earned money on the fools who think everything in life is free or deserved without working for it?

Chas, I think you miss the point - I really believe the folks you refer to as "haters" are really people who just don't believe in what our president is suggesting as a way to improve the lives or our citizens. As far as blame goes - well that sits firmly in the laps of all the people in the country who thought they were on a free ride and didn't look to the future. Some call it greed.

Hey - it is still a great thread.

Hammer

But they believed in the Bush plan... now, apparently the Obama legacy. It's not so much the deflection of blame, more the wholesale failure to admit it had anything to do with their politicians' mad rush to give the financial market 'free rein', as if there was NEVER a reason for regulation in the first place...

You can remember the 70's? Bully for you.. Shame you don't remember the 20's as well. Financial institutions have no vested interest in the health of the country as a whole. The are international, shadowy entities that profit, and profit alone drive. If you can make money at the expense of any country's economy, you do it. Only governments have the power to rein them in. Once a government abrogates that responsibility, it's devil take the hindmost.

Tonight's CNBC program 'House of Cards' is another objective look at the collapse. And once again, just like 'The Ascent of Money', the blame for what happened gets placed firmly in the laps of greedy Wall St. traders, dumb (or deliberately misled) buyers, and the 'asleep at the wheel' SEC and government entities that were run by the wolves they were supposed to guard against, NOT Democratic politicians or policies. This debacle happened squarely on the watch of the Republican party, and anyone that thinks their mantra of tax cuts and deregulation, after precipitating this crisis, is going to solve it as well is in the grip of a religious fervor...

Insanity is the expectation of a different result, despite trying the same thing over and over...

Sad, sad, sad. Clearly Rush Limbaugh and his ilk have done their work well. How can any rational human being possibly believe that a handful of ignorant, uneducated, low-income, inner-city, minorities were suddenly given the keys to multi-million dollar mansions which they clearly could not afford and now all of us hard-working, tax-paying, by-the-book, REAL Americans, have to pay for it. And further, that the irresponsible actions of these low-lifes have somehow triggered a GLOBAL economic melt-down. Of course, banking executives and CEO's who gave themselves BILLIONS in bonuses while running their companies into the ground with bad business practices motivated solely by greed, had nothing to do with it. Or ponzi schemes that bilked investors (including pension plans, charitable institutions, 401k's) out of 50 BILLION dollars. Oh yeah, they're blameless. After all, they worked hard, sent their kids to college, and generally fit the American image better. That makes the fact that their greed devastated the lives of millions around the globe, somehow, more palatable. When I hear some self-righteous, sanctimonious hypocrite try to lay the blame for this terrible economic tragedy at the feet of some poor slob for trying to 'live the American dream' by buying some $140k shack on a 20k salary (aided and abetted by the 'hard-working' banker/mortgage lender who has assured him that he can afford it, despite his unemployed wife and five kids), I have to question the intelligence of anyone subscribing to that. Of course, we believe what we want to believe. It's difficult to override a lifetime of brainwashing. What's easy is looking for the most popular scapegoat.

Why, oh why, oh why, do you want to pass this crap on to your kids and grand-kids. Take the high ground. Break the cycle. You'll be a better person for it.



Hammer, I've lived in this country all my life. I was born here, raised here, educated here, raised a family here, and will probably be buried here. I DID NOT MISS THE POINT. With all the hostility towards Obama (whose biggest crime seems to be his middle name) on these threads, where is the outrage towards Bernie Madoff? Maybe it's time to face the truth not only about ourselves but about where America still is regarding social attitudes.

BTW, I realize that the attitudes expressed here are basically the attitudes of 'old men', men whose attitudes were shaped by the social mores of the 40's, 50's, 60's, and even the 70's. Hopefully, when this population dies off, it will be replaced by a generation less tainted with this plague. It would be so nice if the community of artists and musicians led the way.

chas

Chas when this population is gone....this world is doomed!

Well maybe it'll take greed, avarice, environmental pollution, hate, intolerance, bigotry, Chinese food, GM cars, and religion, with it. There IS something to be said for 'a fresh start'.

chas

Chas dont worry we won't be here to find out Just smile that you woke up today, fulfill each day with happiness & enjoy your life as much as you can.