"Just a
minute... just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You're right when
you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever
started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know.
But neither you nor anyone else can say anything against his
character, because his whole life was... why, in the 25 years since
he and his brother, Uncle Billy, started this thing, he never once
thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save
enough money to send Harry away to college, let alone me. But he did
help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what's wrong
with that? Why... here, you're all businessmen here. Doesn't it make
them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers? You...
you said... what'd you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save
their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait?
Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until
they're so old and broken down that they... Do you know how long it
takes a working man to save $5,000? Just remember this, Mr. Potter,
that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working
and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too
much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent
rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were
human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man,
they're cattle." George Bailey "It's a Wonderful
Life"
Bloomberg- "U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F.
Geithner will present Congress with three options for reducing the
government's role in the nation's housing finance system and
shrinking the footprint of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, according to two people familiar with the plan."
The
Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) Fannie Mae was set up as
part of the New Deal. Originally, it was a freestanding publicly
traded company it was changed in 1968 to a government sponsored
enterprise. The purpose of Fannie Mae was to allow banks to issue
mortgage loans, then the lending institution could sell that mortgage
to Fannie Mae and receive new capital to make more loans.
The
purpose, was to help increase the level of home ownership for
America's middle class. Before the New Deal most home mortgages were
only fifteen years with a large down payment and a large payment at
the end of the note. By assisting American's to buy a home, it does
make them better citizens. It makes them taxpayers. It creates jobs,
renters don't spend the money that homeowners will spend on shrubs,
blinds, wallpaper or any of a thousand other sundry items. This is
important to take note of, the Democratic administration of Barack
Obama is actively participating in the dismantling of government
assistance for home mortgage loans.
This is a Republican wet
dream, Federal Reserve toady Tim Geithner can barely hide his
erection. Under the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul enacted
in July, the administration was required to submit to lawmakers a
plan for ending taxpayer support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Geithner will propose the administrations plan in the near future,
three options are seen. The first option, discontinuing government
support all together. Second, to phase out government support
of mortgage backed securities making the government the lender of
last resort. The third option is raising fees, to guarantee repayment
by forcing home-buyer to pay an insurance premiums for lenders.
This
is your government punishing the victim instead of the criminals.
Banks and lending institutions are chartered and licensed and not one
home mortgage was ever given to the public that was not approved of
by the lender. The lender then takes these loans to Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac and says, please give us face value for these loans.
The
administration is privatizing the mortgage market. Now after your
jobs are gone and industries have gone overseas, after they've
privatized your health care they are going to make home ownership so
expensive that most working people will never be able to afford their
own a home. Couple this with the assault on Social Security and
Medicaid and you have the greatest abuse of a Democratic populace in
American history.
The mortgage crisis has rewarded the
criminals at the expense of the victims. Under the terms of the TARP
agreement, banks can present the deed for a foreclosed property and
the Federal Reserve will issue credit in the amount of the loan loss.
The FDIC then auctions off these properties to lenders and investors
for as little as twenty two cents on the dollar. No money down, with
zero percent interest. A $200,000 home for $44,000 no money down!
"Can't you see? Potter's not selling Potter's buying!"
Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac, your only friends in the finance industry, are
about to be done away with. You will then pay the mortgage rates and
fees that the banks feel like charging and where are you going to go?
What option will be left for you when private industry makes all the
decisions.
Renters are less likely to vote than property
owners. Landlords don't pay property taxes tenants do! Rents are
based on a thirteen month year to allow for one month's vacancy. So
renters will pay more for the same than home than property owners.
I've lived in a mid sized town and I've seen the affect two or three
large property owners can have on the Real Estate market. Once Uncle
Sam is out of the picture the mortgage banks and REIT (Real Estate
Investment Trusts) will own it, lock, stock and barrel.
The
government didn't get into the mortgage business because the banks
were doing such a great job of it. The government got into the
mortgage business because the banks had made it nearly impossible for
working people to get a mortgage. Imagine, 20 percent down and then
fifteen years to pay the loan off. A $200,000 loan would mean $40,000
down plus escrow with payments of around $1,200.00 per month. Now
most responsible lenders would want to keep that mortgage payment at
around 25 percent of your income so you would need to earn nearly
$60,000 per year just to qualify for the loan.
Now consider
that the average American family income is around $47,000 and that
most Americans have zero savings. Unless you were a veteran you would
have nowhere to turn, those are the terms take it or leave it. Home
ownership like health care will pass away, priced right out of the
average families reach. Why the FDIC commercial investor buying that
home for $44,000 could afford to rent it to you for around $800 per
month. That will give him room for a sinking fund for upkeep and a
fifteen percent profit amortized over ten years after which time,
it's all gravy.
Keep in mind that the mortgage market is
f*cked right now anyway. Even if we had a good economy there are
years of housing and commercial building oversupply. That is why
there is so little fighting over this, whose going to fight for you?
The only friend you have in the mortgage industry is the government
and under the corporate fascist regime of Barack Obama, that means
that you have no friends.
"The Republican and Democratic
parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party,
represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the
political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as
arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles. With
either of those parties in power one thing is always certain and that
is that the capitalist class is in the saddle and the working class
under the saddle.
Under the administration of both these
parties the means of production are private property, production is
carried forward for capitalist profit purely, markets are glutted and
industry paralyzed, workingmen become tramps and criminals while
injunctions, soldiers and riot guns are brought into action to
preserve "law and order" in the chaotic carnival of capitalistic
anarchy."
Eugene V. Debs 1904!
What Debs was
saying over one hundred years ago has never been more true than
today.
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