I've got some nagging questions about the current economy.1. If we declare bankruptcy, or go into foreclosure, the bank will then own a house they can't sell. Our home is currently valued at $359K (that's another story!) but we had it on the market for 6 months and had only 2 showings. A house two doors down in foreclosure has gone from $350K to $170K and still won't sell. So if our bank will be stuck with a house they can only sell for peanuts, why not just renegotiate with us for those peanuts and let us stay in our home? What's the difference? Either way it's the same $ loss for them.
2. Have you been watching the CSPAN coverage of the big three auto makers asking for taxpayer bailouts? All three men flew to DC in private jets, and only one (Chrysler) is willing to consider a CEO paycut and flying commercial. What's wrong with this picture?
13 comments:
Uh, yeah: it's all a huge crock of you know what. Seriously. I have read that same argument (about banks renegotiating to let families stay in their houses rather than go through foreclosure) in various media analyses of the mortgage crisis. Makes sense to me. Also: I would snap up your neighbor's foreclosure home in a heartbeat, if I could sell the townhouse I am currently in. I could actually AFFORD a $170,000 house, but there's no way I'd ever get someone to buy the house I'm currently in!
And yes--those auto company CEOs MAKE ME SICK.
Is that the same auto industry that claims the high wage unions are to blame?
Oh man, I just do not know why. I really do not.
We just dropped over the edge of that razor you mentioned in someone else's comments.
So if Citi won't work with us, they can have the house, we'll go rent somewhere, but still, it might have made sense for them to negotiate. They were unwilling. I keep hearing the stories about lenders who want to work with you, but I've found that none of us are taking the opportunity to do so.
Those are exactly the kind of questions that have been driving me crazy lately! I've got to stay away from the news for awhile or I'll implode. :(
I want to know why they can't take that $700 billion and pay off all our damn mortgages. That'll help the economy when we ain't got to shell out $2 or $3 thousand every month. We can stimulate the economy and shop like Bush advised when we got our stimulus checks to help jump start the economy. But when we got that mortgage weight around our necks, how in the hell are we supposed to help the economy? We can't help ourselves!
Wall Street, banks, auto makers--all of 'em can kiss my grits. Use that money to help us when we are having difficult times. Can we go to Capitol Hill and plead our case to the congressmen and women? Beg 'em to pay our bills and help us get "back on track"? Hell, we can't even get a phone call returned. Don't even get me started!!!!!
Between the ridiculous CEO overpay and perks, and paying line workers over $70 an hour for low-skill labor that is really worth a lot less, no wonder they are going bankrupt. Wasteful spending in both areas is not good business.
Oh. Almost forgot. They still make mostly sub-par cars. So the product is not up to snuff too.
I totally agree with Sheleta here. Why is the money going to people who did not know how to manage huge companies and not back to the taxpayer? I am not delinquent, but they can pay off our mortgage and we will spend like CRAZY.
From how it sounds now Paulson isnt' even taking stake in any of these companies so we have a prayer of getting that money back.
I hate 'em all.
Now is the time for reality to set in to the corporate world. Housing prices were way over-inflated - so now they need to cut their losses, renogiate reasonable home prices and mortgages and move on. Hell, banks will be the first to say they don't want to be in the real estate market, but look really dumb when they won't offer up other options to keep people in their homes.
MN, you nailed it. Those are exactly the questions everyone is asking. Our home is supposedly worth 330,000, but my neighbor had an offer on his house for 129,000--the bank refused to short sell so he's gone into foreclosure and has until April to stay there. His next move was to sell all of his trees. No. Shit. 15 foot pines removed root ball and all. It's so weird now--I can see his house. And who knew it was easier to sell your landscape than your house?
We are two months behind on both mortgages and fucked. We need to combine the two and refinance from the ten years left back out to 30--no word yet on whether either bank will be willing to do this.
Hey DCup, I heard that Citi lost half it's value in the last four days.
I say, let the banks fail, fuckers. Maybe if they close up shop they'll quit calling us.
The auto industry (Yikes) has everyone in MI shaking in their boots. If GM fails they'll take the other two down with them as well as the whole supply chain and probably Blue Cross Blue Shield as well. Not to mention every service industry in the state.
You would think my husband, who sells medical equipment would have a recession proof job. Wrong. Seniors are losing their secondary coverage. No one is paying us their co pays or deductibles--the hospice he does the most business with quit paying him back in August when they were bought by another hospice--at 3000 a month they now owe us over 10 grand. You think we can collect any of that?
I say if a company is too big to fail, it's too big. Whatever happened to anti trust laws? Remember when Ma Bell was broken up into Baby Bells? Why did no one take action against GM when times were good?
The hell of it is, the big 3 were just giving us what we wanted. NOONE wanted to buy the Geo Metro even though it got 58 mpg. We all wanted big, big, big fricken' SUVs.
We are all to blame for this. Let's spread it around.
Looking back at my comment it occurs to me that hubby could just go out and repo his equipment.
Yeah, how would that look? Go to a dying patient on hospice and tell him you need take his bed and wheelchair.
(shakes head) We are so screwed.
Like Lee Greenwood sang, "At least we know we're free." Of course, the cynic in me is more inclined to paraphrase that as, "You're on your own, suckers!"
This 'no questions asked' BS that Paulson, et al are pulling is beyond criminal, and I certainly hope we see some high profile court cases and Congressional hearings. Mack Whittle would be a good start. (Retired early so he could grab his $18 milion parachute.)
I've often wished that BushCo would just put out a list of the people who actually matter in America. It can't be more than a few thousand wingtipped con men, and it would save the rest of us the bother of thinking we might actually get ahead and enjoy Life.
Not only that, but I'm sure you also heard that the automakers weren't even prepared to give a plan for what they intended to do with the money.
What complete asswipes.
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