Comments on: Unrepentant, Intransigent Lenders: Overplaying Their Hand?

By: zak822

zak822 — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:26:00 +0000

All the insults in the world won't matter. These people, at all levels, are getting paid big time, and for them, that's the object of the exercise. "So what if the financial structure of the nation collapses, I got mine!" is the attitude of the day.

Yes, "the Fed and members of Congress appear unwilling to alienate the powerful financial services industry." They intend to get paid, in one form or another.

We won't see rate caps or anything else that might truly be effective. All we will see is some meaningless tinkering at the edges, and that will happen so Congress can say it did something.

Y'all are asking for people to behave in a morally responsible fashion, and to sacrifice big bonus check while doing so. Ain't gonna happen voluntarily.

By: DMD

DMD — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:05:00 +0000

Seriously, the best thing for everyone OTHER than lenders is to just give them their head.

Yep.

Let them do whatever they want.

Because they can't make me borrow.

They can't make roughly 50% of my friends borrow either. The other 50% are starting to feel this way too. My crowd ranges from top-tier PhD people to working class (I'm egalitarian in my acquaintances). We're all disgusted.

At some point very quickly, the lenders will simply run out of people who are either
1. Willing to borrow,
2. Capable of repaying.

Personally, if I buy a home in peninsular San Francisco, it may well be for cash, or fully collaterized money (which eliminates my risk while preserving my cash flow).

I am a significant part of the way there. Amazing how much a person can save when not having to pay interest, taxes, maintenance, etc etc etc.

Strangely enough, it's not even the purchase price that is going to influence my decision the most. It will be my ability to handle the tax and maintenance load.

Let the lenders have their way. It will result in massive deflation in housing, fast, as people move to very high down payments or cash. I don't think they really understand that a very slight adjustment in consumer belief could result in a massive change of behavior. Or, they are contemptuous of the possibility.

By: Francois

Francois — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:18:00 +0000

The predatory retail lending sector: brought to a location near you, courtesy of the Supreme Court of the US of A, who in its infinite wisdom, thought it was egregious to cap the God-given right of the financial industry to infinite profits.

Somehow, I have the feeling my breakfast will be acting out for a while.

By: Richard Kline

Richard Kline — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:30:00 +0000

All parties working in the predatory retail lending sector give leeches a bad name: the latter little buggers at least release anticoagulants which improve circulation. The pred cred lot by contrast stick in an IV needle and simply drain their hosts 15 cc at a time. The saddest fact of all about the cliets of legal loansharking is that they are in fact mostly desperate folks with almost no money on the nether margins of the cash economy; they know they’re being hosed but they have very few many burdens and very few options.