The Real Face of This American Tragedy
Once again, I had to go to France to get a fabulous video about the U.S. mortgage crisis.
You must watch this piece. You will not see it anywhere else. It was made by a Frenchman, but the dialogue is in English.
[Thanks to Philippe Grangereau, libelabo.fr for this image from his video.]
He is a blogger with the Liberation newspaper in France. Here's his blog post. The story takes place in Cleveland.
Folks, this is 1929 with a difference. This time, the damages are being wreaked to specific targets and not to the general population--at least not yet.
I know there is blame all around, that people shouldn't be so stupid as to get themselves into these mortgages and debt overload. That is definitely true.
But the main point I take from this video is that we all knew this was coming. It's just like Katrina, and almost as violent. The BIS (Bank of International Settlements) knew it, the Federal Reserve Board knew it, the government knew it, the semi-government lenders like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae knew it, the financial companies knew it (or should have, although they were blinded by the inebriation of speculative excess), all the mortgage companies and banks knew it, the mortgage brokers knew it ... and no one did anything.
An American disgrace. I am ashamed. I'm not laughing tonight.
The most pointed comment on this video/blog post says this (my translation):
"Slowly but surely the world population gets poorer, with more precarious employment and reduced purchasing power, while a minute part lives in increasingly showy opulence. The damned of this earth will end up rebelling sooner or later; and then, watch out for the damages !!"
Even though this commentator sounds like a "bleeding-heart liberal" (liberal in the American leftist sense), I can't help but note the truth of his sentiment. Whether or not the world population is really getting poorer is immaterial. The majority of onlookers to this fiasco believe it to be true. And just as the terrorists use fear to achieve their goals, so the leftists will use our empathy about this outrageous moment in history to win the battle between freedom and centralism, just as Franklin Roosevelt did back in the 1930s.
Federal Reserve Governors: Watch this video, and then find the courage to tell us that you've been doing your job. Where have you been for the last six to eight years? You go to those BIS meetings where you have been discussing these problems. And what about the loose monetary policy that has certainly encouraged this housing bubble in the first place? Shame on you.
You must watch this piece. You will not see it anywhere else. It was made by a Frenchman, but the dialogue is in English.
[Thanks to Philippe Grangereau, libelabo.fr for this image from his video.]
He is a blogger with the Liberation newspaper in France. Here's his blog post. The story takes place in Cleveland.
Folks, this is 1929 with a difference. This time, the damages are being wreaked to specific targets and not to the general population--at least not yet.
I know there is blame all around, that people shouldn't be so stupid as to get themselves into these mortgages and debt overload. That is definitely true.
But the main point I take from this video is that we all knew this was coming. It's just like Katrina, and almost as violent. The BIS (Bank of International Settlements) knew it, the Federal Reserve Board knew it, the government knew it, the semi-government lenders like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae knew it, the financial companies knew it (or should have, although they were blinded by the inebriation of speculative excess), all the mortgage companies and banks knew it, the mortgage brokers knew it ... and no one did anything.
An American disgrace. I am ashamed. I'm not laughing tonight.
The most pointed comment on this video/blog post says this (my translation):
"Slowly but surely the world population gets poorer, with more precarious employment and reduced purchasing power, while a minute part lives in increasingly showy opulence. The damned of this earth will end up rebelling sooner or later; and then, watch out for the damages !!"
Even though this commentator sounds like a "bleeding-heart liberal" (liberal in the American leftist sense), I can't help but note the truth of his sentiment. Whether or not the world population is really getting poorer is immaterial. The majority of onlookers to this fiasco believe it to be true. And just as the terrorists use fear to achieve their goals, so the leftists will use our empathy about this outrageous moment in history to win the battle between freedom and centralism, just as Franklin Roosevelt did back in the 1930s.
Federal Reserve Governors: Watch this video, and then find the courage to tell us that you've been doing your job. Where have you been for the last six to eight years? You go to those BIS meetings where you have been discussing these problems. And what about the loose monetary policy that has certainly encouraged this housing bubble in the first place? Shame on you.
Labels: economics, excess credit, Federal Reserve, monetary policy, mortgage crisis
posted by Katy Delay at 12:57 AM
1 Comments:
Thanks for picking this up. One interesting point that didn't come out was that this occurred on a mortgage from 1983 with a balance of around $20,000; another was that we gave them $13,000 in cash that they couldn't, and still can't, account for; another was that the action went on for over 5 and a half years.
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