JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/09/subprime-crisis-in-959.html (15 comments)

  Tentative mapping of comments to original article, corrections solicited.

jsid-1222563932-597120  DJ at Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:05:32 +0000

Hmmm ...

The Community Reinvestment Act, its supporters, its opposition, those who tried to fix it, those who opposed those who tried to fix it, and those who said, very recently, that there ain't nuthin' to worry 'bout.

Golly.

WHERE have I read about such things before?


jsid-1222567714-597122  Kevin Baker at Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:08:34 +0000

But we're just idealogues who don't understand how things really work in evil KKKorporate-kkkcontrolled Amerikkka.


jsid-1222573800-597124  Howard Popowski at Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:50:00 +0000

Of course we can no longer call a spade a spade, can we. Duh...
I seem to recall the name Dodd popping up in 1968--yes it was a different Dodd, but same family, same state, nearly breaking his fracking leg runnin' down the aisle of the US Senate to get his gun control act (1968 ) into the hopper so it could be SB1.
That was after the Mooselimb murder of Bobby (The littlest Nazi) Kennedy. Anyone remember Sirhan Sirhan's reason for popping Der Bubbe


jsid-1222577589-597125  Stormy Dragon at Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:53:09 +0000

While I'm sure Republicans would prefer the easy "It's all the Democrats' fault" version presented in the video, there is plenty of blame for this mess to go around. Clinton's changes to the CRA occurred in 1995, yet the housing bubble is generally not considered to have started until 1997. If the CRA was the primary cause, why the lag?

Well in 1997, the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 was passed. That law included a provision that excluded the first $500,000 of capital gains on the sale of your home from tax. Not suprisingly, this resulted in people transferring huge amounts of money they'd otherwise have invested elsewhere into real estate due to the favorible tax treatment.

Combine that with the Bush administrations ridiculously loose monetary policy, I'd say the GOP is just as responsible for this as the Dems are.


jsid-1222579052-597126  Kevin Baker at Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:17:32 +0000

Oh, there's plenty of blame to slather around, but the fact remains that the root cause is the idea that low-income people weren't buying houses because the banks were arbitrarily declining to lend them money. So legislation was passed to force them to lend poor credit risks money, and to dictate what percentage of home loans had to be to poor credit risks, and then the Law of Unintended Consequences once again raised its ugly head. Like almost all accidents, a long chain of failures led to where we are today.

But, as this video points out, the Dems are trying to blame it all on the Republicans, and that ain't so either.


jsid-1222610739-597129  DJ at Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:05:39 +0000

"But, as this video points out, the Dems are trying to blame it all on the Republicans, and that ain't so either."

Yup, hence my quiz challenge to the resident troll, i.e. identify those who favored it and those who opposed it, by name and party affiliation, and then analyze the results on balance.


jsid-1222631243-597133  perlhaqr at Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:47:23 +0000

Someone I was arguing this with elseweb says (but did not provide a cite) that most of the subprime mortgages were being generated by institutions not subject to the CRA.

If that's the case, how is the CRA to blame? (And if it's not the case, I'd love a cite to stuff back down this guy's throat.)


jsid-1222646866-597136  no bailout EVER at Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:07:46 +0000

Good giref, how on earth can "Stormy Dragon" conclude that ELIMINATING income tax on capital gain from sale of your primary residence caused anyone to purchase a more expensive home?

The previous tax on this gain pushed folks into ever more expensive homes to AVOID paying taxes on the gain.

Without the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, it is propable that very few would have cashed out to a much smaller house, simply because they would owe tax on previous gains.


jsid-1222656859-597140  Kevin Baker at Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:54:19 +0000

...most of the subprime mortgages were being generated by institutions not subject to the CRA.

If that's the case, how is the CRA to blame?


By setting up the conditions for CRA-qualifying loans: Zero-down. Interest-only. 105% loan-to-value.

CRA was just the "first step." Surely you understand what the .gov does when one of its brilliant plans doesn't do what it was supposed to do.

It does it again, only HARDER!


jsid-1222719431-597159  DJ at Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:17:11 +0000

Speaker Pelosi to House (paraphrasing, of course): "(frowning, typically) Y'all Republicans are idiots! It's all your fault! (smiling, gruesomely) Now, um, vote AYE, okay?"

House to Speaker Pelosi (paraphrasing, of course): "Not just no, but hell no, bitch!"


jsid-1222802334-597192  Stormy Dragon at Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:18:54 +0000

>Good giref, how on earth can "Stormy
>Dragon" conclude that ELIMINATING
>income tax on capital gain from sale
>of your primary residence caused
>anyone to purchase a more expensive
>home?

Suppose that I can get a house that has everything I want for $200,000, and I'm trying to decide how to invest $100,000. I can live in my $200,000 home and invest the $100,000 in the stock market or I can buy a $300,000 home.

If the stock market investment has a 15% capital gains tax and the house investment doesn't, it's not hard to see that a lot of money that would have been better off invested elsewhere is going to end up in real estate.

Please, note my complaint is not lowering capital gains taxes--it's lowering them selectively, which distorts the market by favoring certain investments over others, which often leads to bubbles when you end up with too much demand chasing a limited supply.


jsid-1222807620-597197  Stephen R at Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:47:00 +0000

Curses, Yanked Again!

The author of that vid needs to release a no-music version. Let somebody with l33t GarageBand Skilz throw together a no-copyrighted-music remix.

Time-Warner (one of Obama's biggest supporters) keeps demanding that YouTube pull the video, and YouTube (a.k.a. Google, one of Obama's biggest supporters) happily obliges.

It's all in the name of free speech, don't cha know....

Search for "Burning Down the House" -- there are other version out there, including one where someone stripped the sound and replaced it with Folger's Crys... er... classical music.


jsid-1222807663-597198  Stephen R at Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:47:43 +0000

... And of course I downloaded the YouTube version last night. :)


jsid-1222827778-597210  Kevin Baker at Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:22:58 +0000

Send me a copy. I can host it.


jsid-1222829058-597212  Stephen R at Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:44:18 +0000

Check you email...


 Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
 If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>