LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Where are the adults in Washington, D.C.?

It is now 12:05 p.m., Saturday afternoon, Nov. 7, 2009. For the past two hours, I have been watching a rerun of the CNBC investigative program, “House of Cards,” which went into as much detail as possible, within the time allowed, how the financial collapse we are now in came about.

California lending companies looking to gain access to new capital. Wall Street banks and investment firms looking for new markets. A marriage of convenience and no one asking questions or providing oversight. A recent scandal at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had left the once prestigious institutions with no credibility and not the major influence they had been at one time. Government pressure to relax lending rules and requirements were being put on lenders and they were only too happy to comply. Everyone feasted at the trough of greed and lack of accountability, lenders and borrowers alike.
There were several firsthand interviews with victims of the credit mania that swept the country and how they were affected. Interviews with bankers, lenders, Alan Greenspan, and others who gave insight into the attitude and unparalleled greed pervasive throughout Wall Street and Main Street. Uninformed investors and borrowers who did not understand what a CDO was or how it was formulated were interviewed. The originator of the CDO formula was interviewed and it became obvious that the old adage, “statistics can be manipulated to produce any result you desire,” had been used to come up with this extreme version of bundled investment packages. A conglomeration bits and pieces of several mortgages and then given AAA ratings by the three rating companies who were supposed to be looking out for investors and the public.

It was once again, an eye-opening, informative program. One every person should watch, learn and heed from the lessons it contained.

Then, at the end of the program, a commercial for Quicken Loans aired. It contained the same hook used by the fast loan companies who were in part, originators of the deep recession we are in now. Low interest rates, no appraisal options, FHA Streamline option, and a plethora of other enticing options to get customers in the door. The failure rate of refinanced homes is just as high as first time failures. What gives? Did we not learn anything? Will it ever end?

We, the taxpayers, who will be given the check to pay for the idiocy of Wall Street, bankers and lenders, along with subprime Main Street, will have to pass it on to our children and grandchildren and at the rate it is going now, our great-grandchildren and on down the line. And, all the while, our government is continuing to add more and more to an already unreasonable burden. At some point, the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back” will be put in the mix. If the jobless recovery doesn’t end soon and a recovery with actual jobs started, it may be too late already. In fact, if the coming commercial real estate market downturn is as bad as predicted, it may be decades before America recovers. By then, America will be no more than a third-rate world power, ineffective and subject to the whims and wishes of anyone with a few dollars in their treasury.

Where are the adults in Washington, D.C.? Or are there any at all?

W.B. Rogers
Timmonsville