Check with Chip: Remember the Wise Virgins
Remember the Wise Virgins
Even Jesus said we must be prudent in managing our resources.Remember the foolish virgins who squandered their lamp oil and then didn't have any when they needed it? They weren't saved by a bailout. They suffered the consequences.That occurs to me as terms such as "mean" and "racist" and "elitist" surface in response to the charge that certain Democrats took the lead in promoting and protecting the corrupt home loan mortgage program that caused the financial crisis.Left-leaning politically correct pressure is the root cause of the crisis. Lenders were bullied into approving home loans for people who were bad risks. These ticking-time-bomb loans were repackaged and sold into the larger financial system, where they exploded and blew holes in the system.When Republicans raised questions in recent years about the dangers of these high-risk mortgages, Democrats dismissed them and said the program was fine. Former Clinton administration official and Barack Obama campaign advisor Franklin Raines, who ran one of the government sponsored home loan mortgage agencies at the heart of the mess, told a congressional hearing that concerns were unfounded because the loans at issue were "riskless." Of course, Raines' millions of dollars in bonuses were based on how many such loans were approved.The architects of that disaster now want to reach into the pockets of taxpayers, many of whose retirement funds are jeopardized by the crisis, to bail out the financial system.It's not un-Christian, or against whatever your moral code may be, to say it is wrong to defy the laws of economics and try to force the wrong people into home ownership. It's OK to apply common sense and fairness to matters of home finance.If you try to defy the law of gravity in the physical world, you will suffer the consequences. If you try to defy the law of credit management in the economic world, you might be able to duck and dodge for a while, but eventually you will suffer the consequences.It's the same failed ideology of the Great Society -- well-intentioned, but ultimately a disaster for the individuals who were supposed to benefit from it, and for the society that has to deal with the consequences.
Check with Chip: Remember the Wise Virgins
Remember the Wise Virgins
Even Jesus said we must be prudent in managing our resources.Remember the foolish virgins who squandered their lamp oil and then didn't have any when they needed it? They weren't saved by a bailout. They suffered the consequences.That occurs to me as terms such as "mean" and "racist" and "elitist" surface in response to the charge that certain Democrats took the lead in promoting and protecting the corrupt home loan mortgage program that caused the financial crisis.Left-leaning politically correct pressure is the root cause of the crisis. Lenders were bullied into approving home loans for people who were bad risks. These ticking-time-bomb loans were repackaged and sold into the larger financial system, where they exploded and blew holes in the system.When Republicans raised questions in recent years about the dangers of these high-risk mortgages, Democrats dismissed them and said the program was fine. Former Clinton administration official and Barack Obama campaign advisor Franklin Raines, who ran one of the government sponsored home loan mortgag
e agencies at the heart of the mess, told a congressional hearing that concerns were unfounded because the loans at issue were "riskless." Of course, Raines' millions of dollars in bonuses were based on how many such loans were approved.The architects of that disaster now want to reach into the pockets of taxpayers, many of whose retirement funds are jeopardized by the crisis, to bail out the financial system.It's not un-Christian, or against whatever your moral code may be, to say it is wrong to defy the laws of economics and try to force the wrong people into home ownership. It's OK to apply common sense and fairness to matters of home finance.If you try to defy the law of gravity in the physical world, you will suffer the consequences. If you try to defy the law of credit management in the economic world, you might be able to duck and dodge for a while, but eventually you will suffer the consequences.It's the same failed ideology of the Great Society -- well-intentioned, but ultimately a disaster for the individuals who were supposed to benefit from it, and for the society that has to deal with the consequences.