Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Bailouts for All! (except the responsible)

My lord what are we coming to.  I'm deeply ashamed to say I was ever a student under Ben Bernanke.  Today, he stood in front of congress and stated that we should forget the problem of moral hazard and bailout even those who took on mortgages they knew they could never afford.  Read that again.  People who took on mortgages they knew they could never afford.

If this does not cause some amount of outrage in people I am not sure what will.  These are people who knowingly knew that they were doing something they should not be doing.  These are the people who essentially lied to get into a house.  It is akin to stealing money.  Yet now the rest of us should pay for it?  The argument goes that there is a time and place to take the moral high ground and this is not the time to take it.  But really, what is morality if people just throw it out the window when times get tough?

This nation became great because its people persevered through the roughest times.  It is that never quit, pull yourself up through your own bootstraps type attitude that we most desperately need now.  This is the exact opposite of that.

3 comments:

  1. Your blog reminds of that story about a burglar who hurt himself while attempting to rob a house. This burglar then sues the homeowners for making their home too dangerous for him to rob. (This story might not be parallel to your blog, but I just thought of it).

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  2. I just read some of Warren Buffet's comments to shareholders. A quote I thought you'd love. The lending arm of his manufacted home business stayed away from subprime mortgages, and therefore has a low default rate and has a AAA rating. This caused him to state the following:

    "Our cost of borrowing is now far higher than competitors with shaky balance sheets but government backing. At the moment, it is much better to be a financial cripple with a government guarantee than a Gibraltar without one,"

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  3. Why not be reckless? The government will come in and save you, right?

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