The blogosphere is fighting battle royal over who the "goat" is in the housing crisis. As David Brooks puts it the sides are "talking past each other," with one side blaming the debtors for making bad spending decisions, and the other side blaming predatory lending institutions.
Well, one does not preclude the other. Maybe we have a pair of "goats" here. Just because the predatory lending institutions are in the wrong does not mean that it was okay for someone to claim income that they did not actually have in order to obtain a loan that they could not repay. The fact that the lender did not care about repayment is irrelevant; the foreclosure is still foreseeable and deserved.
There is plenty of blame to go around, and has been for several years. All levels, from consumer, to real estate agent to morgage people to investors...
ReplyDeleteRegulation is ne step, but personal financial education is pretty important, too in my book. Like starting at kindergarten.