Occupy Orman

Paul Krugman points his readers to this column by Suze Orman, in which the personal finance guru endorses the Occupy Wall Street protesters, and rails against the unfairness of the events that have transpired over the past few years, with major banks and other financial institutions seeing massive bailouts while ordinary Americans have been left out to dry.

One point Orman makes is to note the unfairness of a system in which our youth are graduating from college loaded up with student loan debt, and few if any job prospects to help them repay it. Furthermore, recent legislation makes this debt nearly impossible to discharge in bankruptcy court. It’s no wonder the kids have taken to the streets.

By manner of comment, I would like to repeat something I have said in other venues: when future historians look back at the wreckage that is becoming of the American economy, they will note with sadness our skewed priorities. And they will wonder how it is we ever got to a point where a propective homeowner considerng the purchase of his next McMansion can rest secure in the knowledge that should things go wrong, he can simply turn in his key and walk away from the mortgage suffering no legal ramifications. Whereas, by contrast, a young person looking over a stack of college prospectuses and trying to decide where she wants to pursue higher education faces the very real risk that the massive loans she takes out to pay for college will haunt her for the rest of her life.

7 Comments

It should come as no surprise that the 2005 bankruptcy law “update” was championed by Tom De Lay (as someone who will probably need need to walk away from his 2nd McMansion) and Chuck Grassley (fizkal konseratard.)

I’d be more inclined to applaud Suze Orman if I didn’t already know that she was shilling for the banksters not too long ago (according to the documentary Maxed Out).

I really don’t understand the idea of student debt. I thought the children were our future? Don’t we need to make sure the buggers are educated? Isn’t that our duty? And such as?

Sue is very fucking late to the fucking game. Old timers in the mortgage brokerage industry have been complaining about the debt burden on college graduates since the 1980s. Out of the whole crowd of financial crimes professionals, these characters actually see how the ratios can make or break a transaction as crucial as buying a home. The honest ones advised as best they could but too many let it slide and then Fannie and Freddie started relaxing their standards on notes they’d vest, starting the long slow descent into Cannibal Anarchy. A large part of the erosion in underwriting quality in the mortgage market starting in the 1980s was a response to the increasing debt burden and debt ratios of new homebuyers and a country living in complete denial about the loss of financial wherewithal of the middle class from the 1980s onward. The mortgage industry was left to say no, find a flimsier and more expensive instrument – or cheat. The declining wages and increased burdens on the middle class to acquire basic health care. pension benefits and college education for the kids was the single largest factor in the decline in underwriting quality, a monstrous fucking deal in a $22 trillion marketplace and no one breathed a word except for a handful of old timers living in the basements of the FDIC and OTS. Fuck you, Sue! Fuck you, everyone! You all saw this coming and let the kids fucking eat it and now the age of Cannibal Anarchy is upon us and the kids have nothing left to lose and, soon, nothing left to fucking eat – but fucking YOU!

@Benedick: Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! You fucking twit! The children are hosts for the fucking financial crimes industry! Enslave them at 18 for six figures that will balloon to seven! Enslave them at 26 for seven figures to buy a home that will balloon to three times the banksters’ investments! Take what’s left over and churn it for commissions and leave the sorry bastards to freeze to death to the fucking sidewalks in the dark! Hahhahahahahahahahaha! Hopefully, not in front of the restaurants they favor. Hahahahahahahahahaha!

@FlyingChainSaw: I’m trying to make a loan for a surgical assistant right now making $98,000/year with 4 dept of ed loans, 4 sallie maes, and 4 state loans. he may not qualify.

made a loan to two pilots who each had $100,000 in student loan debts. one liquidated a trust fund to pay off one of the 100k loans just to barely qualify. if you knew how little pilots are making now, you wouldn’t get on the plane. especially if the flight path went over a student loan servicing center.

Not all mortgage loan officers are out to fuck you. We couldn’t now if we wanted to. Commissions are now heavily regulated and closing costs are down quite a bit now accordingly. Take advantage of that, the low rates, and low home prices. Many are. And more than half of my borrowers are only doing so because I got their credit scores up. This is not a pitch. If you want some advice, ask. You can buy a nice home in Tennessee and Kentucky for $80,000. i know in California that same home may be $300,000. So a small but obvious solution to what you truly post is for many folks to move from the population centers to places like here.

I fight the right wing Obama and Dodd-Frank Haters in my business everyday and I am always outnumbered. This shit has fucked me up too.

@jwmcsame: JW, hey, you don’t have to tell me. I’ve turned friends in jams to old timers who have saved their asses, both times making almost no money on the deals. There are pros and there are assholes who’ve gone pro. I know the difference. The professional who looked over my note has gone on the Congressional record twice in hearings since 1990.

The psychopaths in the financial crimes industry have no idea what they’re asking for. Right, loosen up everything again and pump the bubble and then what happens, Mr Science? Cannibal anarchy, that’s what. These fucktards never had a real job in their lives that wasn’t paid for by reichwing throw-money-from-the-train economy policy. Punch them in the face and tell them where they’d be if Greenspan didn’t eat Ayn Rand’s crusted panties and blew the housing bubble.

Add a Comment
Please log in to post a comment