What are you saying? That folks who took out loans they couldn't afford are traitors? I will tell you this. Many of them didn't know they couldn't afford those homes. Should they have known? Many yes, but most were told what the payment was going to be at the onset and never told what they would be 2-3 years down the road. I've been involved in the real estate industry for almost 25 years. I've always been conservative with mortgages. I never liked adjustable loans, so to say I was horrified at interest only loans is an understatement. Everyone was selling them, obtaining them and telling old timers like me everything would be fine. Who is responsible for all this, just about everyone. Folks are losing homes they've owned for so long it doesn't show up in the tax records (they go back about 20 years). They refinanced older loans. That's very sad. Would I call this treason? Absolutely not.

Miss Helen, I was being sarcastic about that hateful viewpoint of the arrogant dental hygenist who made that comment about 'buying more than they can afford' as the reason for the 32% increase in foreclosures.

I had exaggerated the wrongness of her viewpoint by the suggestion that we are obligated to have foreknowledge of the future and all the things that unexpectantly went wrong at the same time.

How many people would have bought a house for $1m, if they knew that actual monthly income would drop down to $5,000 a month, or if they knew that an unexpected bout with cancer wipes out their savings, or if they suddenly were made responsible for elderly or adult children returning home?

I'm glad tp see that others besides me find the dental hygenist's comment so offensive.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

About the treason--that remark was pointed at the businesses that are raping the American public after begging and receiving free funds.

You made me aware that I must present my views more concisely.

I'm happy to hear you were being sarcastic. I work for a company that buys residential real estate and we purchase many bank properties (forelosed). In my research as to what these properties are worth, I have to look at tax records in the multiple listing service and many many of them show no transfer information. I realize many people refinanced and took on more debt than they could afford, but it's the lenders that made bad loans. We all have areas of expertise and some is in real estate, some are healthcare people etc. The doctor or nurse are intelligent and can save lives, but might not have any idea about mortgages. I worked for a real estate company during the real estate bubble and they started a mortgage company. While I had been in real estate for 20+ years I didn't completely understand the "front end" and "back end" of a loan. So like any older person can get away with, I asked one of the young mortgage loan officers what that meant. You know he couldn't avoid showing me how smart he was. They were charging folks one point(1% of loan) upfront and charged them like 8% interest on the loan. These were borrowers with high credit scores. The mortgage rates were at 5% at that point. So they sold those loans and they made another 3% when they were sold. I had a young agent come to ask me why her client with a credit score of 800+ was getting an 8% loan. I told her what I had found out. I also put her in touch with a direct lender. The guy got a 5% loan. I think many folks now realize how they were taken by these guys. The sad part is that most of the time it's way too late.

The bubble psychology is things will keep going up and you'd better get on the bandwagon or you will miss out. Whether dotcom, energy, or housing, all bubbles burst. Essentially what we do here is gamble that the bubble won't burst until we have made back our money. Those whose timing was bad lost their gambles. Unfortunately, unlike big financial institutions, small homeowners are not "too big to fail" and don't get bailed out by the taxpayers. Obama is right, we need to get to a post-bubble economy, maybe on based on real value, real goods and marketable services. I feel your rage, LadyTurtle. There are a lot of things wrong with this country, for sure. I see you mention Carter. If we had listened when he made his "moral equivalent of war" speech with the sweater on, we would have been a lot better off. We still haven't addressed the energy problem, and we will here more damaging news until we do. I subscribe to James Howard Kunstler's blog and his line of reasoning is spot on, if you ask me. Thanks for sharing your hygienist's, as well as your your views with us. The only thing I ever say to a hygienist is "Uh-huh" or "unh-unh"!

You know, the more I read about Goldman Sachs and the Fed and Paulson's phone calls to his former employers before he went to beg for taxpayer indebtedness to help profit the rich, the more outraged I become. This blog is right on the money.