blame main street?
There's been a tonne of talk about the idea of letting a big chunk of the investment institutions fail. These are the firms that were making money in almost a fictitious sense with the repackaging of bad debt. The main problem being that since they were selling it off they didn't care about the viability of the debts. It's all their fault anyhow they got fat and greedy.
Wall Street is primarily to blame but the rest of us on Main Street do have some blood on our hands as well. Many people agreed to ridiculous mortgages. I'm sure there was some encouragement by banks and such, but in the end we're responsible for our own financial well-being. Did you sell your house in the last few years? Did you help inflate the market? Did you get excited on the idea of the extra long amortization? Did you get the biggest house you could possibly afford without regard to the idea of interest rates rising? A lack of financial literacy and common sense is a big part of the problem.
Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/opinion/03mclean.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1845209,00.html
Wall Street is primarily to blame but the rest of us on Main Street do have some blood on our hands as well. Many people agreed to ridiculous mortgages. I'm sure there was some encouragement by banks and such, but in the end we're responsible for our own financial well-being. Did you sell your house in the last few years? Did you help inflate the market? Did you get excited on the idea of the extra long amortization? Did you get the biggest house you could possibly afford without regard to the idea of interest rates rising? A lack of financial literacy and common sense is a big part of the problem.
Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/opinion/03mclean.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1845209,00.html
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