[StBernard] From a blog I read

[Westley Annis]

Westley, unless the Bloomberg writer and the blogger were meaning a general
tightening of credit would affect the middle class ?  Or, the middle class
played by the rules and some others did not.  

I think Chris did have a valid point in that this is a bail-out for the big
investment banks.  The sub-primes were offered to people who really would
have never qualified to begin with.  Then, those mortgages were put together
into investment packages (from what I've read on CNBC) and offered as
securities.  Hence, all these write-downs being taken by Citi, Bank of
America and others.  It reminds me of when all the banks were almost
mass-mailing credit cards to anyone and everyone and then bitching about
folks who were defaulting on the cards.  The banks should have been more
prudent to begin with.

And yes, you're right about buying too much house with too little money.
But that's the American dream isn't it?  Buy, buy, buy, not save, save,
save.

Jim




	-----------------------------------------------------
	Jim,
	
	I don't understand this guy's reasoning. How would the middle-class
be hurt
	by this? I think it is mainly the middle-class that is being hurt by
the
	sub-prime mortgage mess.
	
	Most of it is probably their own fault, for living beyond their
means.
	
	I won't leave the mortgage companies out of this, since they were
willing
	participants in the whole scheme.
	
	The simple reality is that too many bought too much house for too
much money
	with too many dreams of easy money by flipping real estate. Every
industry
	has a boom and bust, the real estate and mortgage industries are now
in a
	bust cycle.
	
	Westley