Towards A new October 29, 1929?

[AllanY2525]

I think that the banks who made all those bad loans - especially adjustable-rate (ARM) loans, should look at the
possibility of allowing mortgagees the option to re-negotiate the terms of their loan, at a better interest rate,
to allow them to keep their homes - and NOT default on their mortgages.

It boils down to nothing more than GREED on the part of loan brokers and lending institutions, who loaned money to
people who never should have qualified for the loans in the first place - whether because their income did not
provide the means to afford the loan payments, or because their credit rating was not up to snuff for the loans.

Wouldn't it be better for the banks to KEEP the homeowners business, albeit at a lower interest rate, than to lose
it altogether because the borrower defaulted on their loan, forcing the bank to foreclose on it and thereby become
the un-willing owner of that same home?

I have been trying to re-finance my home for the past eight months, and the interest rates I have been offered are
absolutely rediculous!   I have PERFECT credit, and have never, EVER been late on a single loan payment (on multiple
mortages, multiple properties that I either own, or have owned) in over fourteen years.

I think that those of us who have proven ourselves to the banks should be given a break on the ludicrous interest rates.

Anyways, just my $0.02, for what it's worth - at 6.75% interest, of course...

[Towntalk]

While the stock market rallied today, some very sobering news came out of Washington.
After a closed door meeting:

New York Times 9/19/08
"It was a room full of people who rarely hold their tongues. But as the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first."

Senator Christopher Dodd
"I've been here 28 years in the United States Senate," Dodd said. I've never been in a more sobering moment in my 28 years with the language that was used, careful language used, by the financial leaders of this administration and the country."

Senator Dodd
" ... we're literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally."

Sen. Charles Schumer
"When you listened to him describe it you gulped."

Senator Dodd
"What you heard last evening, is one of those rare moments, certainly rare in my experience here, is Democrats and Republicans deciding we need to work together quickly."

Senator Dodd
"We have got to deal with the foreclosure issue." Mr. Dodd said. "You have got to stop that hemorrhaging .. If you don't, the problem doesn't go away. Ben Bernanke has said it over and over again. Hank Paulson recognizes it. This problem began with bad lending practices. Those are his words, not mine, and so this plan must address that or I'll be back here in front of a bank of microphones at some point explaining the next failure."