Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Friday, October 3, 2008

One Debate Point

Watching the Vice Presidential debate from last night, I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear this, but I think Governor Palin won by a decent margin. That being said, Senator Biden handled himself better than I would have expected him to, but not good enough, and he clearly has a problem with the truth, but what else would you expect?

There is one point that I want to address though. At one point while debating the economy, Biden stated that when it comes to Mortgages, the Government should have the authority not only to readjust interest rates to make it easier for people to make their payments, but also to adjust the Principle. Did you get that?!!? He wants the Government to be able to simply wipe out part of the debt! That is to say that people who were irresponsible and bought houses that they couldn't afford, sometimes by a lot, and let them keep their big expensive houses, and they don't have to pay the full amount for them!! So, if someone could only afford a $100,000 house, but they took out one of those subprime mortgages, that they would have to be complete morons to not realize that they couldn't afford them, and bought a $450,000 house, well, then Uncle Sam will step in and adjust the principle on that loan so that they can afford it now. Well, if they could only afford $100,000 before, then they can only afford that now, so are they going to wipe off $350,000 of that persons debt? Talk about Socialism and redistribution of wealth! And let's be clear, that's transferring wealth from regular folks like me, who bought a house we could afford, and didn't take out a crazy mortgage, and don't make a ton of money, to irresponsible morons who had no self control, and made stupid decisions, and make at least as much money as I do, if not more, likely more.

If nothing else this should show everyone that the Obama/Biden view of the world is based on seriously flawed logic. People really need to wake up and see that Obama/Biden would spell serious disaster for our nation, and would do nothing to help the world either, regardless of their rhetoric.

This really is disgusting to me.

3 comments:

Nader Jomaa said...

Matt:

As a former mortgage broker and founder of a successful, ethical mortgage brokerage firm I think you've got it very wrong when you say:

"irresponsible morons who had no self control, and made stupid decisions, and make at least as much money as I do, if not more, likely more."

Most (not all) of the folks who bought houses between 2005 and 2007 who had good credit, strong income and did things the right way who put down less than 20% would have seen any equity in the homes quickly diminish. You would also see those who had less than perfect credit who bought a house well within their reason with the hopes that they would be able to repair their credit in the coming years take adjustable rate mortgages as they were more affordable.

I find it irresponsible for you to make a blanket statement such as the statement that I noted above without really considering that fact!

Blessings & Grace,
Nader :-)

Matt W. said...

Hey, First of all, thanks for the comment.

Second, ok, yeah, I have to concede that my statement was overly broad, but still not totally inaccurate. Clearly those who did not overbuy, and got ARMs, thinking that they could refinance before the adjustment came, and then were unable to for whatever reason, and kinda got left holding the bag. Clearly, these people aren't the ones I was talking about, as they wouldn't need to have the Principle adjusted, they just need to be put into fixed rate mortgages. Still, the Government doesn't have the authority to do that, but, and maybe you can answer this, why aren't the lenders doing this? Wouldn't they rather have money than foreclosed houses?

Still there are those who grossly overbought, so even a fixed rate mortgage won't do them any good. There are those who got interest only loans (do you really think this is ever a good idea?) or one of those balloon mortgages, and that is pretty irresponsible, wouldn't you say? Or those who financed up to 125% of the value of the home? Those were generally people with quite a bit of money, but took loans with crappy terms. yeah, things like that are because of the irresponsible lenders, but also because of the people who took the loans.

In any event, the main thrust of what I was saying is that it is wrong for the Government to be forcing lenders to accept smaller principle, nor can I imagine any case where this type of thing is right.

Nader Jomaa said...

You have some outstanding point and I completely agree that there are some people and institutional lenders who were greedy and clearly made a decision with only their immediate selfishness in mind.

I tend to get defensive when I smell someone pointing the finger of blame on the mortgage brokers because we're the "little guys" and we don't get the glory at the end of the day but almost 70% of all home loans originated in the past 5 years were done so by mortgage brokers, not banks!!

Pleasure discussing - love your blog!