Don't blame me I voted for Bus....oh wait. Shit.

I'm not really surprised given the administration's track record of protecting big business at the expense of the public -- just look at its evisceration of the CPSC...

Don't blame me, I can read contracts, and know not to barrow more than I can afford. I also know the value of delayed gratification...

I can be personally responsible. Maybe we could try that instead of blaming others for us being stupid.
We do not need to be protected by the big bad government.

and what about the predatory borrowers that, of their own free will, signed the paperwork, took the "free cash" and lived the high life?

This whole fiasco is about personal accountability and consequences to actions.

If we summarily executed corrupt poiticians, we'd have few corrupt politicians.

@MDSasquatch: EXACTLY! I applaud you!

The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

Obscure? Maybe its just me, but I'm quite familiar with the OCC. I've had several interactions with them to work out some shenanigans that my former bank tried to pull.

Everything Spitzer is saying about this is true though. The state legislature here in GA passed anti-predatory lending laws years ago, and then the Federal gov't stepped in and killed it.

That, along with the new Bankruptcy laws they rushed through, have lead to the meltdown. When its more advantageous to your credit history to pay your credit card bills, than it is to keep your house.... well, we're all seeing the results.

@MDSasquatch:

I agree with you wholeheartedly, but as W.C. Fields said "There's a sucker born every minute". and unfortunately, there's someone to take advantage of that sucker also.

State's know this, and they try their best to protect these idiots from themselves, but the Administration wouldn't allow it.

Now we all are going to have to pay for the bailout.

Personally, I'd love it if the world were just a bit more Randian, but its not. The taxpayers ALWAYS end up paying to clean up problems like these. The state legislatures were just trying to be a bit proactive for once....

Unfortunately, despite the wonderful personal responsibility shown by us, we're all being screwed by the irresponsible borrowers, the greedy banks who loaned them money, and the government's inability/unwillingness to put a stop to the situation.
Personal responsibility is nice, but when the lack of it hurts others, isn't it in everybody's best interest to try and prevent it?

Um... I think there are a few other mistakes that rank a lot higher than looking away when morons with no money borrowed money from his buddys who should have known better there Eliot....

Now overlay on top of all of this the various speeches Bush did about all time highs in home ownership. He was touting these as a success of his and proof the economy was great. This was right about the time these questionable loans became really common.

Yeah, "history" will find it easier to list (and spell) "Bush" than to list the millions of people who did not read ,and made no effort to understand ,what they were agreeing to in writing.
I just heard another ad on the radio from one of these mortgage companies trying to take another bite out of these borrowers asses:

"Is that ARM about to skyrocket "? ( The ad asks)
"If so , you need to call NOW before this loan buries you !" (The ad answered itself)

This company flogged those toxic "Option ARM" loans like all hell just up until last fall. Now, the very same assholes that helped you cut your own throat are tring to scare you back into their office for another round of fees and charges and another loan that you probably won't understand. This is better than owning a whorehouse in Bangkok...

We are supposed to be country FOR THE PEOPLE, by the people. It seems less and less is done for the people, as this "democracy" spins on. Making/implementing laws that deliberately usurp the rights of those that the gov't is supposed to be acting as servants of is exactly how we have gotten to where we are today.

An artificially buttressed (bail outs, tax abatements, monopolies, etc) "free" market has made us all captives.

Uh, this becomes the problem of those who borrow wisely or don't jump into questionable loans when the entire industry starts panicking.

When good customers have their credit card interest upped because a bank is in trouble, or banks start adding new fees to cover their problems we all pay.

I would think the mortgage meltdown is the least of the Bush Administrations' problems...erosion of civil rights, ignoring world law, no foreign policy, torture camps, in-bed with big business (RIAA anyone?), and a failure of a war which shouldn't have happened in the first place. But yeah...funny he took credit on more people owning houses during his admin. than any other time in history, and now thousands of those people are losing their homes, and we are trying to fight off a recession.

@Snarkysnake: Thank you. At least there are a few people who have sense in this world.

The Bush White House is as responsible for the mortgage issues as it was for causing Hurricane Katrina.

Regardless of whether borrowres should have been more creful (and they should have, no question), the point here is that the Bush administration actively sought to prevent states from halting predatory lending. In essence, the administration wanted to preserve the brisk business banks were doing, and prevented states from putting a stop to underhanded and shady tactics on the part of these banks.

It's damn cold outside...lousy Bush administration!

Spitzer's editorial uses broad terms like "predatory lending" without really going into detail about what it was or what he was suing over. It's hard to judge his argument on it's merits when I'm not really sure what he was arguing.

He also mentions that he was ticked because they blocked lawsuits about discriminatory lending. So he's annoyed that lenders didn't make enough loans, and that they made too many.

I think it's a no-win situation for government regulation - too many restrictions, and people complain because not enough people can buy houses. Not enough, and some people buy houses they can't afford and can't pay for them.

It's easy for Spitzer to blame the Bush administration (heck, I blame them for just about everything, too), but this one does not have legs. Most of the subprime and predatory lending took place outside of the national banking system (the OCC's dominion) and, for that matter, outside of state banks. Blame lies with state governments for not regulating loan and finance companies, Governor. National banks were/are big participants in the secondary market for this stuff, so you might be able to blame them indirectly at best.

Wow. Spitzer, a Democrat, blames Bush for something. Why is this news? Funny that Clinton doesn't get blamed for the tech bubble of the 90s...

@TC2COOL: Excellent comparison! Bush only caused the evisceration of FEMA, exacerbated the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to maintain the levies, and fought for the oil companies who dredged the delta and intensified Katrina's destructive impact.

Bush didn't "cause" the subprime debacle any more than he "caused" abuse and torture in Iraq and Afghanistan by untrained reservists and unaccountable contractors. It just somehow happened.

My breath smells like a very prosperous rainforest; why can't Bush do something about it?

@kpfeif: Al Gore blamed himself for the internet so no further action was needed.

When the books are written with appropriate historical perspective, the Geo. W. Bush administration is going to be considered the worst of the previous 100 years. By a good margin. Never have so many been so screwed for so few.

Ask not how you can screw your country, ask what your country can do next to screw you.

@Wimpkins: Looking at his approval ratings, I'd say a whole lot of people who voted for him now regret their decision.

@flamincheney: Don't forget my favorite. It's a government OF the people. Aside from civil servants like yours truly, the millionaires in charge aren't really people, certainly not people OF the people. Not even Edwards.

People need to take off the blinders of "personal responsibility" and read the article. In the opening paragraph, Spitzer gives examples of what he's talking about:

"Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers' ability to repay, making loans with deceptive "teaser" rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers."

I think everything there is bad, but the "personal responsibility drones" don't care about the rest.

However, no one can deny that the highlighted practices go beyond "personal responsibility" as they are clearly deceptive and, in fact, prevent people from exercising "personal responsibility."

@madanthony:
"Spitzer's editorial uses broad terms like "predatory lending" without really going into detail about what it was or what he was suing over."
See above.

"So he's annoyed that lenders didn't make enough loans ..." He didn't say that.

@Devildontknow:

"National banks were/are big participants in the secondary market for this stuff, so you might be able to blame them indirectly at best."

So efforts by the Administration to block State AG's attempts "to blame them" at all doesn't concern you? Regardless of the degree you wish to minimize the impact of the National Banks on the situation, you cannot ignore the fact that the OCC intervened against the State AGs in their efforts to stop these practices.

And for the record, "National banks represent about 23 percent of all insured commercial banks in the United States, holding 68 percent of the total assets of the banking system."
[www.occ.treas.gov]

The Bush administration had nothing to do with slimy mortgage lendors and dumbass lendees. Why won't you people ever put responsibility on the individual!? Despite what you think, the government is not a nanny service.

@bohemian: I agree with the using home ownership as a barometer of good times. Used to annoy me. People clearly were buying things they couldn't afford. Was just a matter of time before this caught up with them. In terms of predatory lending, there was certainly some of that BUT the vast majority are people living WAY BEYOND THEIR MEANS. Personal responsibility can be a bitch sometimes.

Hmm, I see a lot of people crapping on the borrower, and I agree that people should be responsible for their actions, but some people are just ignorant. They have no idea how a loan works, hell they probably don't even know how to figure out percentages for that matter, I don't want to pull a number out of my ass, but I have a feeling that a high percentage of predatory lending victims are poorly educated workers that can pick up your trash on Mondays but can't do math past the basics. (God help me if there is some PHD garbage man reading this it's just an example ok) There are a lot of uneducated yet skilled people making a really good living; the laws are there to protect people who can't understand a complicated process.

I have to agree here that a lot of what was done had nothing to do with personal responsibility. I work as a Bankruptcy paralegal in Idaho. I get people in my office every day who have no idea why their ARM's are going up. I think that we are going to have to accept that some people were defrauded, or misrepresented to. That doesn't mean that that happened to everyone, but, if you have enough money to get a mortgage, you have to be at least a high school graduate.

@dotorg greg: Actually, all the corrupt pols in Louisiana were dipping into the levies fund to use the money for other pork. Wasn't Bush's fault. It also wasn't Bush's fault that your dinner was cold last night or that you didn't like the last episode of Lost.

@Saboth: Erosion of civil rights under Bush??? What??? He had one of the most diverse (actually the most diverse) cabinet in the history. He stocked the government with people from all races. But, maybe they were just not black enough or Asian enough for you???? Oh yea, I forgot about all those people he wouldn't let vote. For someone so incompetent, he somehow excels at doing bad things to people.

@A_B:

I don't consider myself a "personal responsibility drone" , but I do have a mortgage. (30 Yrs fixed 5 1/4) I do know that I specifically told the company that loaned me the money for my house, "I want a fixed rate,so you'll be stuck with me for 30 years,and I'll refi if rates tank" Closed quote. Want to know what they said ?
"Congratulations, we'll close when you're ready"

A lot of these people that are in way over their head tried to outsmart the market by taking one of these toxic ARMs because they saw a low payment .They could have more "stuff" to stuff in that new home because the payment was going to be low. They could have picked up any newspaper in America and saw that mortgage rates were near (or at) generational lows.THEY COULD HAVE LOCKED UP LONG TERM MONEY AT LOW RATES. If they would turn off 'Entertainment Tonight' for 5 minutes and do the math, they would realize that with inflation at about 3-4 % and the mortgage interest deduction, their effective cost of funds over 30 years would be zero (or less) They took a (stupid) gamble and now the fun's over and they are running to the government to bail them out.I't's my damn fault that I took a fixed 30. But it's their damn fault if they took a mortgage rigged to explode if rates spiked.

I am confused were there ever positive things to say about Bush?

@Saboth: You probably mean erosion of "civil liberties" ?

@donnie5: If a grenade showed up in everyone's mailbox, you and I might be smart enough not to screw with it. But what's to keep those idiots across the street from blowing themselves up and taking a good chunk of us or our property with them?

The gov's role is not just protecting idiots from themselves, but it is to keep them from blowing up their neighbors shit too.

@Snarkysnake:

But you are smart enough to understand all that. I am not saying bail them out, i am just thinking the laws that protected the dumb asses should have been in place.
And if the Gov isnt my nanny, why can't i smoke crack then go use a suicide machine?

"...ride the wave of the bubble, and eventually one may break upon the rocks".
I still didn't read any section of any secondary mortgage writers or lenders holding guns to the head of the buyers. Hey, face it, a good number of buyers very-eagerly bought into the hype the market was bringing and bearing upon itself.

There is EQUAL blame to go around.

(But I agree that the OCC is a entity out-of-touch with its original goals)

@woodenturkey: " laws that protected the dumb asses should have been in place. "

Laws should be in place to protect consumers "in general". Dumb asses have just as much an equal right to make (or walk-away from) a bad decision as do you or I.

@MDSasquatch: Predatory borrowers were simply milking a system without protection. Same goes to the lenders which would lead to the same conclusion on the whole practice.

@NoWin:

ummm i think we agree with each other.I was just saying asses need some one helping more than you and i

@Flame: I have to agree here that a lot of what was done had nothing to do with personal responsibility....if you have enough money to get a mortgage, you have to be at least a high school graduate.

Huh? If you don't know why your ARM is going up, then that is a personal responsibility problem. There are obviously two issues at hand. Some people were blatantly defrauded. But still more pulled the pin on their grenade of a mortgage and hoped it wouldn't blow. Well, it did.

If you don't understand what you're signing, it's your responsibility to seek out guidance and counsel. That has nothing to do with fraud or predatory lending.

If there is a bigger douche bag in government than Eliot Spitzer I have yet to read about him/her.

Maybe if he hadn't spent his years as AG scheming and intimidating others, and threatening to sue everyone under the sun, then maybe he would have some credibility on issues. It probably looked like he was out to find another group to harrass and sue.

If Spitzer had any shred of morals he would resign for using his position as governor to try and smear a political opponent, and then lying about it.

Like many have already said, if you are stupid enough to sign something you don't understand, you deserve whatever happens.