Reading between the lines a little bit...

Well, now that our lovely recession is really in full-swing and countless dollars are being whipped at the criminals at various institutions, lets take a moment to simplify things a little bit:

First and foremost, why are we in this mess to begin with? You can look at it a few different ways, but ultimately you can break it all down to the simple fact of human nature. Yes, human nature. The inherent greed of humanity has ultimately prevailed and allowed for all of this to come to the surface. Although simple, the bigger picture here is not so much, because what you have is one long, vicious cycle of shit that ultimately floated to the top as soon as one of major factors of the 'game' changed.

You see, when business was booming they had tons and tons of money to just throw around in order to make more profit, which is why most of the major players today are in the situation they are in now. Much of the current situation has to do with quite plainly: bad investments. What bad investments? Well, the truth is there are a plethora of them, but what my focus here is high-risk mortgages, otherwise known as Subprime Mortgages. Now, it is a little perplexing as to why these institutions would go and risk millions upon millions of dollars on such high-risk, low-success investments, but quite like credit cards, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the bank(s), but not so much for the borrowers.

In this instance the lenders are almost counting on the failure of the borrowers, because before the market shifted drastically, it was a seller's market: demand was high, prices were high and business was booming. But as this all began to materialize it shifted into a buyers market, things were not selling as well and the values depreciated at a staggering rate. So instead of being able to seize foreclosed properties and re-sell them to salvage some profit and still keeping a debt to the failed borrower it essentially became a profitable practice.

Admittedly this type of thing isn't my forte, but that's the gist of it.

Now, a lot of people like to sit back and point the finger at those who borrowed the money, despite not being fiscally stable enough to sustain, but this again goes back to the human nature aspect and moreover the capitalistic climate in the United States of "buy now worry about it later" evidenced by the concept of credit cards. I mean what is the ultimate point of a credit card? You don't have the cash right now and you want to purchase things in order to repay them later.

Although a home is a lot more serious than splurging on a new laptop, clothes, movies, etc. It doesn't change the fact that, the same mentality can be had in this instance as well, ESPECIALLY when it comes to people who may be, in some ways, desperate to own a home. Credit reports and their overall standing have a great importance when it comes to these things and generally speaking, a lot of people screw up their credit and it hurts them down the line. So in swoops in the swift, fast-talking, always smiling, enthusiastic mortgage broker who ear fucks you with the dream of owning and living in that house. They can make it happen, your poor credit score: No problem, they have just the thing for people like you. And oh, did we tell you that this will help your credit score and give you the opportunity to refinance at a lower rate after a few years?

When people look at this situation on the macro level and foot some of the blame on those who recklessly borrowed, it's not that they're wrong either, but they simply cannot account for the swindling that occurs to a lot of people and the more uncertain you are, the more wavering you do, the more they pitch a sale to you in order to get you on board. We're talking about a commission business here, they want money and as much of it as possible and they don't really give a shit if you sink or swim because they're getting paid up front just like the property owner is (assuming it's not already the same bank). Maybe the weakness of people is to blame, but the system itself is still more to blame. It has created this atmosphere of consumerism and buying beyond your means to fulfill the Freudian ID. They don't tell you about the balloon payment in 7 months where your already high mortgage suddenly has a payment of twice it's typical amount or more, but it's in the fine print on the paperwork they rush you through so that you can go ahead and move your entire life into their perfectly constructed path to failure.

Some question why there aren't regulations in place to thwart this kind of thing. Well, there are, in some ways, but mostly "big brother" both federally and locally often concede to the concept that "We don't have the right to tell banks how to invest their money." It is a very slippery slope, without a doubt.

So the housing market inevitably tanks, banks are left with countless bad investments and no income because houses aren't selling almost at all anymore and they're losing millions and in some cases billions. The effects reverberate throughout almost all markets and it all goes downhill from there.

In the end what happens? The exact people out to fuck you just to make a buck now want your money AGAIN, are basically putting you and future generations in debt for them, because they failed. Saddest of all is, the reason it's so imperative that we keep these major banks afloat is the simple fact that if they completely tank, so does everything and quite frankly I think they knew that all along, too.

But hey, capitalism and the good ol' US of A is great. Speaking of which, next I think I'll take on Globalism - the proverbial bullet in the foot of the United States.