Barney Frank: "What housing bubble?"

Before the financial crisis, many members of Congress cheered subprime mortgages simply because they aptly served affordable housing goals. In this video, we see Barney Frank running interference for mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae several years before the feds had to step in to save them.

HT: SBVOR

How the housing debacle really happened

HT: Liberty Pen

Ron Paul is a kook, eh?

The taxpayer takes a bath

PBS Newshour explains the 2008 credit bubble.

Here is a video on our current housing troubles and credit issues brilliantly explained by the PBS Newshour.

California unemployment at 6.2%

The unemployment rate here in California is third highest in the country. The current political impasse regarding the state budget will only get uglier and nastier. The state of California has an $8 billion budget deficit.

Update: According to the S.F. Chronicle today (4/20), the budget deficit may actually be at $11-14 billion.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

While the U.S. has experienced a downturn in its housing it seems that Canadians are still riding a real estate wave. The city of Toronto is having itself a condo boom. I say good for them. I hope that they keep it up for as long as possible. One interesting point on Canadian mortgages that the article mentions and that I did not know: “Canadians can’t deduct interest on their mortgages from their income tax like homeowners in the States, [so] people here tend to pay off their mortgage faster.” I’ve always felt that the mortgage interest deduction basically works as a middle-class entitlement. Should the federal government continue to have this tax-break when there are plenty of institutions around to lend (yes, even when times are tough) to qualifying consumers? Is it possible that this incentive is one of many factors that have driven undue speculation in the real estate market? I do believe that it has done so. Of course, abolishing such a popular tax-break would be politically unfeasible in the U.S. Our Canadian neighbors have correctly avoided this entitlement trap.

Americans In Debt

From CNN Money

"I was a mortgage banker for about 20 years and while it had always been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, it also had some added perks in that I set my own schedules. This gave me time for what I really love to do: Surf."

And then Mr. MacQuarrie, like many working in the mortgage industry, was out of a job and deep in debt until finally, at the age of 62, he had to declare bankruptcy.