GW can keep preaching about the 'progress' we are making in Iraq but the real truth is the terrorists have succeeded in what they set out to do: Take out the American economy.
After 9-11(so tired of this by the way), stocks plummeted and we were in a recession. The aftermath was disguised and the public were led to believe that it was just a 6-12 month recession. But the truth is the government knew just how bad it was gonna get if they
didn't act fast. So we got tax cuts which did very little to stimulate the economy. Kinda hard to do when that piddly 500-800 dollars you get back goes right to the oil man.
So the feds came up with this great idea of allowing lenders to issue these home and home equity loans to people who could not afford such loans. This was how the feds were gonna 'boost' the economy. They rewrote the rules on lending.
With the rules skewed, lower income applicants were able to qualify for homes that were way out of their price range. Applicants signed on to these Adjustable Rate Mortgages and Interest Only loans to be able to afford a home worth 400,000 for only 1,200 a month. Meanwhile the home that was being sold for 400,000 was really only worth 150,000 in a properly operated market. Also, people were able to get home equity loans much easier because their home was now worth 3times what it should be. So with this push on the housing sector the economy was able to ride a steady rise back to what it was before 9-11.
One problem, the feds never told anyone that this would catch up with us. Foreclosures are through the roof because the payment has finally started to balloon to its correct amount. Credit has simply dried up due to the poor lending practices. But these practices were pushed heavily to stimulate the economy. It worked. . .almost. It was never designed to work
permanently.
Our economy is in too deep for repair and quick fixes by lowering the interest rate. The dollar is falling at record pace with no end in sight.
No longer are we looking at a recession but a more feared and not so talked about depression. Bear
Stearns is just one bank to go down. The dominoes will soon fall and we will be left with nothing.
Our government set us up for this. By trying to stimulate the economy in 2001, they lead us like cows to the meat shredder. . .blindly. This current economy was built with sand and pebbles and now the rain has come to tear it down.
Hate to say it, but we haven't even seen the beginning of this. It WILL get much worse.
Remember the terrorists said they set out to topple the American economy? Well, where are we now?? It is clear to me that they succeeded on the 11th of September, the year two thousand and one.
