I wish the economy were better, and I wish I could restore my home’s value. If only wishing could make it so, if only wishing could restore our economy. If just by thinking a few happy thoughts and ignoring the realities of the most serious recession in decades, we could bring the housing market back, bring financial stability to the markets, stop the declines in employment; we could all live happily ever after. But remaking our economy isn’t as easy as wishful or positive thinking.
And while we like to point fingers at our government, to irresponsible homeowners, to those nasty banks, to all those entities that collaborated in collapsing our economy; our problems are due to the collective actions of a nation addicted to debt and blinded to the consequences. With few exceptions, we’re all responsible and for obvious reasons. Few of us called our congressmen and demanded they bring sanity to the housing market when prices were exploding beyond reason; and few questioned the logic of offering mortgages to anyone, regardless of their ability to repay. We gratefully accepted the help in making our home more valuable, our businesses more prosperous; and we turned a blind eye to problems we hoped wouldn’t affect us individually.
Today many are still unwilling to admit culpability and continue to ignore their responsibility to fully understand what has happened. Few seek to analyze the steps that must be taken to correct our problems, and attempt to ignore the pain of overindulgence.
During the past decade our complacency and intemperance weakened our economy, opening the door to a virus that wiped out much of our nation’s wealth; now we must take our medicine. However, the doctor (our government) cannot come in and give us a pill (print trillions of dollars) that will make things better in the morning. Just as with serious illness, this problem will take time to repair; and we will have to spend a period in painful, but necessary therapy. In the end we may recover, but it won’t happen just because we wished it so. It will come because we acknowledged both our problems and the measures necessary to bring about a lasting recovery; only then will our economy gain the stability that has been eroding for decades.
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Honest, to the point and well put. It will take time if we stop putting up the band aids.
Dawn - Exactly! Band Aids only hide a festering wound.
John - Perhaps the Age of Entitlement in America is coming to an end...
Norma - Only time will tell, but I hope so. We can't afford the current path.
Sadly, unlike Madoff, who is paying for his crimes, the perpetrators of the rape of the American Housing Industry will not pay for their perfidy and in many cases are being rewarded and protected by the authorities that enabled their crimes against the American populace by legislation and collusion.
Madoff built a pyramid that ate about $50,000,000,000. He'll spend his life in prison.
The U.S. Congress along with the Wall Street Gangs built a house of cards that ate about $3,500,000,000,000. They'll retire with their $Millions or $Billions.
Most American home owners will never recover. We were not complacent. We had no way of knowing the facts. The very perpetrators are the entities that carried out the crimes are the same entities that were and are in a position to protect themselves and each other.
Put the blame where it belongs or we will never be able to pull the curtain back and keep them under the spotlight.
I do remember watching C-Span and the discussion of the mortgages, especially when there was a slight hiccup on things, the tale of things to come. I remember Barney saying how important these programs are, etc.. etc. I think the writing was on the wall, but no one in government wanted to be the one calling Emperor's New Clothes. Too many "powerful" men were making too much money.
The thing to watch is what the banksters will do to spin this into a PR media blitz. Just watch.
Wow, "opening the door to a virus" just about is as perfectly said as possible. I think the people of Germany were thinking the same thing at some point!
How can our Nation ever return to greatness, when those responsible for these kind of actions are never held accountable?
Lenn - I regularly focus the blame on Wall Street, Government bureaucrats, politicians, bankers and others, but I do believe we "should" have known that the dramatic rises in home prices could not be sustained. And I also believe we "should" have known better than to create prosperity built upon debt. Common sense says that it doesn't work.
I realize that we were encouraged into our actions by all of the above, but I also know that we are the only ones who can bring about change; and that is through the political process by demanding accountability and prudent actions from our elected officials. Regardless of how it happened, it will never be corrected by those who perpetrated the offenses; and without constant action on our part, nothing will change.
Carla - All the guilty are still "spinning" their tales.
Jay - It's amazing how people can be blinded to the realities they face.
Jon - Exactly!
John,
Happy New Year. I have enjoyed your posts and your comments in 2010. So, keep up the good work and all the best for 2011.
Brian
Brian - I appreciate your support, and send best wishes for a prosperous 2011!
The really bad thing about viruses is they often evolve.. makes it extremely difficult to stop the damage. :)
John,
Agree. Some of the basic rules that had served the country so well for a long time were ignored or mishandled and this is the end result. Hopefully we all learned from it.