McCain offers tough love on housing woes - Boston.com
In this Boston.com article (link above) Republican Nominee Sen. John McCain speaks to the responsibility lenders and borrowers have when participating in the housing market. Many times housing industry insiders talk about the benefits of home ownership and lenders advertise the wonderful "opportunities" out there for consumers. Nobody seems to want to stand up and remind people that any time you borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars there is a promise that you will pay back not only every penny of that borrowed amount but also every penny of the interest needed to borrow that sum of money.
I have to say that it seems like all sides of this discussion seem to follow "traditional party lines." The one possible exception is Sen. McCain seems to be taking a pretty strong conservative line in this article. It will interesting to see how far we have to let things "self-correct." The President and many Republicans are subscribing to the belief that the free market will continue to balance itself and any interference will only put us in danger of increased damage. The Democrats and both candidates for the nomination advocate for immediate government intervention to help stabilize the housing and mortgage markets.
One thing we've seen this week is J.P. Morgan Chase's quick move to rescue Bear Stearns is a prime example of the free marketplace moving into self-correction mode. It is in the best interest of all parties for both of these firms to remain as strong as possible. Similar efforts between Bank of America and Countrywide seemed to shore up Countrywide's position as a major future player in the marketplace. Again, both examples are extreme cases of marketplace self-correction and we hope that no major financial institutions get to this point ever again. That being said, the marketplace is showing a willingness to support itself and maybe allowing it to go, with government supervision and observation, is the way to go? Thoughts?
In this Boston.com article (link above) Republican Nominee Sen. John McCain speaks to the responsibility lenders and borrowers have when participating in the housing market. Many times housing industry insiders talk about the benefits of home ownership and lenders advertise the wonderful "opportunities" out there for consumers. Nobody seems to want to stand up and remind people that any time you borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars there is a promise that you will pay back not only every penny of that borrowed amount but also every penny of the interest needed to borrow that sum of money.
I have to say that it seems like all sides of this discussion seem to follow "traditional party lines." The one possible exception is Sen. McCain seems to be taking a pretty strong conservative line in this article. It will interesting to see how far we have to let things "self-correct." The President and many Republicans are subscribing to the belief that the free market will continue to balance itself and any interference will only put us in danger of increased damage. The Democrats and both candidates for the nomination advocate for immediate government intervention to help stabilize the housing and mortgage markets.
One thing we've seen this week is J.P. Morgan Chase's quick move to rescue Bear Stearns is a prime example of the free marketplace moving into self-correction mode. It is in the best interest of all parties for both of these firms to remain as strong as possible. Similar efforts between Bank of America and Countrywide seemed to shore up Countrywide's position as a major future player in the marketplace. Again, both examples are extreme cases of marketplace self-correction and we hope that no major financial institutions get to this point ever again. That being said, the marketplace is showing a willingness to support itself and maybe allowing it to go, with government supervision and observation, is the way to go? Thoughts?
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