I get frustrated, bordering on disgusted, with irresponsible personal finance. I mean really, how hard is it to only buy what you can afford? Credit card debt – is this what mankind was supposed to be wrestling with in the 21st century? Sub-prime mortgages – let me get this straight; someone buys a house they can’t afford under terms they don’t understand by borrowing the money from a lender who doesn’t clearly disclose the terms who really doesn’t expect to get paid back who sells that loan to someone else who doesn’t really know how much it’s worth but is willing to take the risk for a potentially high return who then gets stuck with a loss when the borrower inevitably defaults on his unexpectedly high payments. To top it off, Congress, which got upset in the 1990’s when lenders wouldn’t loan enough to people with less than ideal credit ratings, now jumps all over those same lenders for being “predatory” for lending too much to people with less than ideal credit ratings, while federal regulators stood by and watched under the oversight of, you guessed it, the Congress.
Roger Merryfield
Midwest Voices 2008
