I agree. I have a brother-in-law who bought a $500,000.00 home several years ago, and hasn't had a regular job in 10 years (he's an ARTIST, don't you know). He went to Countrywide and had an accountants statement prepared saying he had a Trust Fund of millions of dollars. I manage a family revocable trust, and he is entitled to an inheritance, but only when his father passes away. He kept asking for copies of the trust documents, and his brother-in-law is an accountant.

Now, he's calling monthly begging for loans out of the trust, and the trust, which is heavily invested in regional bank stocks, has loast several millions in value. That means that he won't get enough to pay off his mortgage, and he's over 60 yerars old. On top of that, the value of his house has gone down and he is "upside down" as are many of the sub-prime people.

I have three large financial institutions as clients, and what we are seeing is people who have good credit, but are just walking away from their mortgage...throwing the keys at the bank and sometimes destroying the home inside, because they owe more than the home is worth. One institution is paying a cash bonus to homeowners undergoing foreclosure or planning to "walk" if they don't do damage to the home.

You're right. Whatever happened to living within your budget and paying your bills?

But, the complaints against the institutions loaning money...in some cases, a total of 125% of the cost of the home to buyers like my brother-in-law are valid. These guys should be shot. Now, hundreds of thousands of retirees who were living on dividends from stock in financial institutions have seen their income stop and their entire life savings disappear. The paper loss to individuals is in the trillions.

And, the current bail-out proposal will mean that the executives in the financial sector and the polititians who facilitated their crooked dealings are going to get bailed out, and individuals are going to pay, either through the taxes needed to fund the bail-out, or through losses on financial stock holdings.


What a mess!


Russ



[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 10-02-2008).]