Lenders blame poor home buyers

A Senior View

By Ed Lyons

(Updated: Friday, March 21, 2008, 12:00 AM)

More and more often, after I've read the morning paper, I find myself asking, "Just what is going on?"

I count myself as a reasonably informed citizen with normal curiosity and interest in what's happening in the world.

But lately I'm ending up more confused than informed. I feel like I've missed something that I shouldn't or, more often, that someone has put something over on me.

Let's compare notes ... maybe you're in the same boat.

Just what and who and why is a super delegate?

It sounds like someone who has a vote worth more than mine. It's a way to get around an unsatisfactory voting result. It's kind of like a kid who flips a coin and when he loses says, "best two out of three!"

I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm being herded, rounded up and misdirected.

It's like this so-called housing foreclosure fiasco. As I see it, it's a situation totally fabricated by the banks.

First, they loan money to someone they're almost sure won't be able to repay it, in order to buy a home at an inflated price he cannot afford, at an interest rate that is tantamount to luring some poor soul who wants to have his own home and share in the American Dream.

But the interest rate is variable and, after the first year, begins to climb. Pretty soon the buyer can't make the payments. All of which was perfectly predictable.

Foreclosure is next and the market is glutted with cheaper homes which, in turn, causes a major slump in the housing industry. Everybody loses as the property values swirl downward.

Everybody, but the banks. They want the government (our money) to bail them out. And considering who is really in control, they'll probably get it.

But wait, someone has to shoulder the blame. Let's make it the poor soul who makes $50,000 a year and thought he could afford the $500,000 home because the money lenders told him he could.

Now we're being told by the people who we elected to watch our backs in this area because the average American homeowner is at fault for overvaluing his home.

Oh yeah ... mea culpa.

Desperate for a legacy other than a continuing supply of fodder for comedians, our present administration has decided to bribe us (with our own money!) with the announced provision that the gamble will not work unless we run out and spend the $600 (each) right away.

As a hint to how successful this ploy will be in bettering our financial crisis, we get the news that it will cost us $42 million just to send out the notice.

I'm afraid this administration's legacy will more correctly get what is referred to as the blame.

Grandpa sez, "Remember now - if everybody spends a lot of money at the same time, it'll cause inflation! Shame on us. Mea culpa."