The Responsibility of the Federal Reserve for the Mortgage Meltdown
Posted on April 7, 2009 in the Mortgages category
The only time mortgage confusion was higher that it is right now is back when sub-prime mortgages were not known to be the cesspool that we now know them to be. The global economic system has been collapsed by people who were confused about mortgages and didn’t know it. Whose fault was it? It was the fault of the sub-prime home buyer. It was the fault of the sub-prime mortgage broker. It was the fault of lazy financial advisors who put their client’s money in asset backed paper that turned out to be worth whatever recycled paper goes for and no more. Of these, the most dangerous and most responsible party, the Federal Reserve Bank, is also the malefactor fingered the least.
The Federal Reserve increased the amount a bank could loan relative to the amount the bank holds in deposits. It is hard to argue that the increase to a 30-1 ratio was simple idiocy. Jon Stewart repeatedly hammered this point home when demolishing Mad Money host Jim Cramer on March 12th. Why is Republican Congressman Ron Paul the only politician in Washington pointing at the Federal Reserve Bank? Why are heads not rolling and careers ending at Treasury?. And they should pay. Congress must rescind the Bank’s charter and replace it with a central bank controlled by the Treasury Department.
Mortgage brokers tried selling a subprime mortgage to any prospect that had a pulse. With interest rates at historic lows (until now, and God help us), mortgages were made to people that mortgage brokers knew could not afford the payments if interest rates were to return to their historic averages.
When the FRB raised the ratio it flooded the market with more money, which went out in loans to unqualified buyers which were then bundled as the infamous ‘asset backed paper.’. An other word for a so called toxic asses is a liability. And that’s what the governement is buying. Your tax money is being used to the American government.
What will happen going forward? People who can’t afford things will not buy them. And people who can afford something will save to buy it instead of putting it on the credit card. I know that’s harsh, but it is the truth. These people should never have been allowed to purchase a home, and they certainly shouldn’t be rescued from foreclosure.
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