The Cause of the Financial Crisis

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Trailblazer
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The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by Trailblazer »

Everyone in the U.S. should watch this video before election day. It shows the true cause of the subprime mortgage crisis and who was the cause of it and who tried to fix it.

[youtube][/youtube]
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RaZias
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by RaZias »

I am European and for me the American crisis was created by the facilitism how the credit power was given to the people (specially to buy houses...)
The facilitism allowed by the Bush administration.

(Note: I don´t know if you call it credit or something else,ok)

Once a friend told me that in America is against the persons rights to cancel their credit!
It is insane to allow that in Europe.

Where in Portugal we have an "effort tax" to avoid persons with low income to start buying " cars, travels, spas ..." because in the end they couldn´t pay the credit...

I am not kidding, portuguese people earning 600 euros with a 30% tax for social security and a house to pay and then buying new cars and travels with credit...and complaining about the situation they went of not being allowed to pay the credit...get real.

Credit is for what you can pay and for emergency situations.

The credit that it isn´t payed it´s called in Portugal "wrongly sttoped credit" and this had an impact in our economy.

Remember the last Japanese crisis ? Due you know the cause ? Bad credit.
Now they are saving money...so they don´t spend it...and so no one buys...so their economy is stopped.
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Tim Chen
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by Tim Chen »

RaZias wrote:I am European and for me the American crisis was created by the facilitism how the credit power was given to the people (specially to buy houses...)
The facilitism allowed by the Bush administration.

(Note: I don´t know if you call it credit or something else,ok)

Once a friend told me that in America is against the persons rights to cancel their credit!
It is insane to allow that in Europe.

Where in Portugal we have an "effort tax" to avoid persons with low income to start buying " cars, travels, spas ..." because in the end they couldn´t pay the credit...

I am not kidding, portuguese people earning 600 euros with a 30% tax for social security and a house to pay and then buying new cars and travels with credit...and complaining about the situation they went of not being allowed to pay the credit...get real.

Credit is for what you can pay and for emergency situations.

The credit that it isn´t payed it´s called in Portugal "wrongly sttoped credit" and this had an impact in our economy.

Remember the last Japanese crisis ? Due you know the cause ? Bad credit.
Now they are saving money...so they don´t spend it...and so no one buys...so their economy is stopped.
Can you explain what the "effort tax" does?

I think our problem in the USA is that programs were started to help lower income people to be able to get credit to buy a house and then greedy people from all over found ways to exploit the generosity of these programs. People bought houses to try and "flip" (resell at a profit) and banks found ways to sell the bad loans to other banks and make profits, and politicians got contributions from the banks to pretend that there were no problems with these programs. Politicians also defended the programs because they were getting the benefit of "buying votes" from the people who were using them as well as from the poor people who thought the politicians were fighting to help them (when they were just using the system to get money and votes and didn't care about the people at all).
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RaZias
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by RaZias »

I think the "Effort tax" it´s related to the income from the husband and wife.

The credit given to the person depends from their monthly income.
So nobodies gives high credits to someone with a very low income.
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Trailblazer
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by Trailblazer »

The problem is that we have one political party trying to "buy" votes by getting as many people as possible "enrolled" in "social programs". "Vote for me and your government check will get bigger" is the SOP of this party. They get themselves "in" and then rip off the "system" and build their personal fortunes all on the backs of the most vulnerable citizens.

Here is the latest video which "name's names"

[youtube][/youtube]
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by Cloud Dancers »

I agree people should learn to "help themselves" instead of relying on the government to"fix it for you". Remember that a government big enough to give you everything is also big enough to TAKE everything you have.
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by thomson2008 »

First, the mortgage-originating banks quickly sold mortgages (especially subprime) to investment banks to get rid of the risks, responsibilities, and made a quick buck. Second, the investment banks took $1 of mortgages, leveraged it 30 to 40 times and invested in complex high-risk derivatives. In addition, they repackaged hundreds of mortgages, slice and dice them and came up with a strange security product of questionable value but bride rating agencies to give them fantastic AAA ratings. This way $1 of high risk subprime were resold as $10 of prime quality bonds. These incredible multiplying effects allowed the investment banks to rack in huge profits, and paid $35B of bonus to its executives and traders over the past 5 years.
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by sleepililgirl »

^That person knows that he/she is talking about..

This dubious feat was made possible due to how Bush decided to release all restrictions in the market.

AIG insured a lot of bad loans from several companies. One of the companies went bankrupt, pulling down more companies with them since they're all insured by the same person. As a result, we have tis financial crisis.
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by Andrewlee »

The problem in America falls down to education, action, and intervention on the citizens part. Americans today, and for the past almost 75 years, have been willing to give up freedoms, rights, and liberties in order to feel "safe" and "secure" while also getting their "fair share" of the dream that is America.
The truth is, if people were educated, and understood their rights, understood their Constitution, their wouldn't be the problem of this corruption. Why, because people would fight it, and would speak out against the atrocities.
The fault falls on us all, both parties. True, the result of this economic crisis may fall in the hands of Democrats, but at the same time, why didn't the Republicans disband a lot of this when they had control of the house. And better yet, why is it that tax paying Americans don't march on Washington, and repel this. It's because we as humans are innately lazy, and choose not to.
If anything is to change, we the people must be the ones to change it. And the change we need, isn't a step forward, it's a step back, back to what this nations founding ideals are. No matter how much people want to deny it, this nation was founded on ideals that transcend time. We only need to choose to listen to them and understand them.
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by sleepililgirl »

So did you know this AIG was happening before it happened?

I mean, everything you're saying is great and agreeable and all, but a problem is that a lot of people didn't know this was happening or the repercussions of such actions. We just didn't know about these things.

Education can solve a vast amount of problems, but it is not a solution to everything. An education won't mean that we'd know what would happen.
Now, I still don't clearly understand what being educated or understanding my rights and my Constitution would do for me. I know it, but how does that really lead to action?

I applaud your patriotism and your demand for education, but I still remain unconvinced that it would be the end all solution to our problems.
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by Andrewlee »

Im not just saying education, that is only a step in the right direction, the next thing is growing a back bone, learning when it is time to tell our government, to back down, and to take the time and discomfort to understand what is happening, and doing what is necessary to stop it.
That means, making an educated vote, not just voting for a rock star or an old guy. That means voicing your opinion, take example from the past, look at how our founding fathers acted. Have of what has happened has been allowed to happen because people either don't understand it, don't care as long as they are getting fat and happy some how, or are to afraid to speak out.
Understanding your rights and where they come from, can be a mighty weapon when choosing to fight corruption within government.
And as far as what is going on now, it could have all been stopped, and it has all been predicted before. In one form or another....the fault falls down into the hands of the American people for being lazy, stubborn, and ignorant enough to elect idiots who are also looking out for number 1. Hence Bill Clinton's fun in the House, and the American acceptance of him still. But that's right, he embodies the average American dream. Am I right?
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Tim Chen
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by Tim Chen »

You're right about one thing. People don't put any effort into picking the people that are going to decide their fate.

I wish I had the link but I recently read a survey and about half of the people didn't know who the V.P. is and didn't know who the last V.P. was. Something like 70% of them didn't know the 3 branches of government either.

They make you take a test to do a lot of things but not one to be able to vote!
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by Andrewlee »

That says how many Americans dont even have an 8th grade education
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Trailblazer
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Re: The Cause of the Financial Crisis

Post by Trailblazer »

Tim Chen wrote:You're right about one thing. People don't put any effort into picking the people that are going to decide their fate.

I wish I had the link but I recently read a survey and about half of the people didn't know who the V.P. is and didn't know who the last V.P. was. Something like 70% of them didn't know the 3 branches of government either.

They make you take a test to do a lot of things but not one to be able to vote!

The main problem here is that the only way to fix this would be to disqualify anyone recieving a government check (government employees and benifit recipients are now the voting majority in this country) from voting in the next elections. That way we could get someone in there who will cut, cut and cut all of this wasteful government spending. Would you vote for someone that promised to cut your fat cushy, high paying do nothing government job...I don't think so!!!! This is path that this administration is taking is to create more of these to ensure that a voting majority will keep them in power. Look at New York and California as examples of this on a smaller scale. The governers there have to cater to the state worker unions in order to get enough votes to get elected. This country needs to get back t producing goods and services and not more government workers. Don't get me wrong here I am not saying that we elimiante all government workers. Some are necessary like the military, police and firefighters. How many "paper pushers" could we eliminate if we went to a "flat tax" for our income taxes where everyone paid a percentage (rich AND poor) of our incomes in taxes. No more "April 15th" deadline (taxes would be deducted automatically.) Come to think of it nor more tax lawyers either! The whole thing boils down to the fact that our economy has been heading this way for decades as we shifted from producing goods to an economy based on "moving money around". We need to return to the days where someone inventing a "better mouse trap" can make it big time without worrying about someone suing them if they stick their finger in it and get hurt.
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