Sheila Bair recently warned that America hasn't changed course and now Andrew Sorkin, author of "Too Big To Fail" is warning the same. If anyone takes any lesson from the recession it is this: You're on your own. There are few safety nets in America, despite Obama's efforts, and there will be fewer in the future, so save, save, save.
If people don't see housing prices going up, they're not going to buy, so says Mort Zuckerman, billionaire. Aside from loan modifications to allow people to stay in their homes, Congress should leave housing alone. Home prices should rise organically.
People bought homes they couldn't afford, homes that were way over valued, and plunged us into a recession, thanks to the financial industry that so kindly enabled our stupidity and exploited it for quick profits. Wall Street is still rich. Mort Zuckerman is still rich. Some mortgage bankers never have to work again. But people ought to stop shaking their fists at Wall Street because Americans were just as culpable.
Americans plunged themselves further into debt using their home equity to buy goodies, leaving themselves without six months emergency savings, without any savings at all. People believed the value of their home was good enough until it wasn't valuable anymore. When the downturn hit, they had nothing.
Unfortunately, a lot of responsible people fell in the downturn because we are all connected. Because of irresponsible homebuyers and a greedy financial industry, responsible home buyers lost their homes because they lost their jobs. Savers lost their high savings interest rates, anyone who owned an IRA or 401k saw their portfolios shrink 40% and more. Bad behavior by one group can lead to the devastation of all.
The full show including Tim Pawlenty, the irrelevant one. The fact: The recession happened on republican watch. The recovery, as slow as it is, happened on Obama's watch. It's galling to watch republicans blame Obama, who's been fixing one mess after another. Pawlenty was pathetic and cowardly in his remarks about whether people are born gay:
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