Comments on: Racism and Betrayal: What the Bailout Failure Taught Obama About Republicans

By: PJEvans

PJEvans — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:53:51 +0000

I suspect that Obama’s advisers are all DINOs, or anyway closet Republicans.

Our so-called leaders in Congress are apparently planning to put in a tax cut to get the GOoPers and the blue dogs to vote for their bailout plan. Ghu, they’re stupid!
They should tell those guys ‘Either vote for a bill that fixes the underlying problem of bad mortgages, regulates the derivatives and hedge funds, and makes executive pay and bennies either reasonable in amount or heavily taxed, or explain to the voters in your districts why you think they don’t matter.’

By: kathyinstlouis1

kathyinstlouis1 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:30:34 +0000

The most successful program that the government has ever come up with is FHA loans. I sold houses for 20 years, and FHA is one of the best things out there. Anyone can get into a home with three to fiver percent down. It’s not a poor people’s program, it’s just a good way to buy a house if you’ve got a job and decent credit but not a lot of cash on hand.

Most of the other programs to assist lower income families to purchase homes follow FHA guidelines and have other protections built in. Only problem is you can only buy a house up to a specific market average in your area, meaning that if the average home in your area is $250,000, that’s about what FHA will lend on.

60% of the foreclosures in the country are on refis, where people have taken equity out of their homes to use for other items, or just to get a low interest rate for a while. A lot of these homes are very high end, and would have never belonged to lower income folks in the first place. REgardless of anything else, you had to qualify for the house at some point.

Blaming the poor is as old as greed. I watched the lenders weaken the requirements, skirt the Private Mortgage Insurance requirement, encourage folks to play Russian roulette with the equity in their homes for a lot of years. There never should have been anything like a 100% or 105% mortgage. Those are just accidents waiting to happen if the real estate bubble bursts.

There was a lot of really questionable stuff out there, and to listen to neocons at the American Enterprise Institutes, Ben Stein and others blame it on some government programs that gave families the hope of home ownership is totally irresponsible and completely expected.

By: MrWhy

MrWhy — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:39:45 +0000

Ask yourself, who in Congress was elected to represent DC?

By: MrWhy

MrWhy — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:34:16 +0000

Such a proposal will mean nothing if the Dems aren’t willing to follow through and present it to Bush and a likely veto. But I like it anyway.

By: Pachacutec

Pachacutec — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:32:15 +0000

Obama’s lifelong response to racism has always been, from what I can tell, to make himself seem less “scary.” He’s an establishmentarian. Encounters with racism don’t radicalize him, they move him further into the bosom of the elites.

By: Bluetoe2

Bluetoe2 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:03:37 +0000

Great analysis. Obama is a very “conventional” candidate wedded to the established power structure but certainly preferrable to the alternative. In the U.S. the political discourse swings from the extreme right to the center. There is no voice on the left that is given any considereation in the corporate media. This is an opportunity for transformative legislation yet Obama takes a “safe” centrist course. I guess he really believes that he can get along with Republicans. The Social Democrats thought they could “get along” with the NDSP in Germany circa 1933.

By: BooRadley

BooRadley — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:55:45 +0000

Ian, thank for bringing up the white supremacist meme.

How is McCain going to vote on this bill?

By: sunshine

sunshine — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:40:02 +0000

All (millions) of Pennsylvania teachers don’t even know how much money they lost in their retirement accounts because of the borrowing practices and etc. of according to an article in Forbes magazine Aug 21 (or July 21) 2008.

By: sunshine

sunshine — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:27:04 +0000

Warren Buffett on Charlie Rose tomorrow.

By: SunnyNobility

SunnyNobility — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:10:44 +0000

Christine, I had a similar eye opening experience some years ago. Was dealing with a number of multi-family properties along the east coast. Saw the sublime (some senior properties), the very good (many surprisingly in not particularly prosperous large towns/small cities), to the adequate/marginal.

The shockers were ghastly properties in DC. It’s affected how I’ve viewed our politicians ever since. If they can’t be entrusted with the care of DC, how could we possibly expect them to care for the country.