Trickle down? It was a gush up. Corporate America (the banks and oil companies) are what caused this whole mess.
For the past ten years the banks went from making safe common sense loans to lending half a million to people who couldn't even afford the interest only loans on the house they were buying... let alone the hundreds of thousands of dollars cash out they were getting with the refinance of that huge loan six months or a year later.
Then a year or so later they would make them another loan to buy a second house they could afford before they went into foreclosure on the house and monster size loan they couldn't afford.
So while people like me who are staying within our means keep making house payments other people who bought mansions on interest only loans just let the banks take back a house that is now worth half of what they bought it for. And skate away from hundreds of thousands in debt. But get this... most are still living there in those same houses they can't afford. Living there free of the mortgage payment. Just paying the utilities because the bank would rather you keep up the house and yard then to let it fall apart and cause them more of a loss. And since there are no buyers there is no reason to force them out.
I know it sounds crazy but everyone I know here in Cali knows at least a couple people doing the things I just described to you.
So who gets left holding the bag? Surely not all those you're expecting a trickle down onto. And is it any wonder why the economy went nutts over the past few years? My house was going up an average of five thousand dollars a month for a couple years. I kept telling my wife we need to sell and rent an apartment until the bottom drops out. She wouldn't listen.
This comment was edited on Nov 5, 2008, 01:05.