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Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Keith. It is true that times are changing.

10/2/08 at 11:25 AM

Miranda, you were quite right. Times are changing fast! Since you wrote this article, gold has gone way up and then fallen a little. Kind of shows how fragile our economy is. Eventually, our economy will bounce back, and the price of gold will drop. I never really thought I would ever be in the position where I would need to sell gold jewelry, but I did. Luckily times have change, because I never would have gone to a pawn shop. There are many good sites online, but DO YOUR HOMEWORK! The site I used was http://www.GoldPawnShop.com but everyone needs to do your own homework. This site is credible and backs it up with insurance. Anyways, good luck everyone and God Bless the USA!

Keith ...

10/2/08 at 11:21 AM

"It is important to remember that loan officers and mortgage brokers are not objective financial advisers; they are sales people compensated based on what they sell. Lenders push products they expect to generate the highest profits for the institution. And your loan officer is paid more to sell them -- sometimes two or three times as much as a safe, fixed rate product, which may be better for you."
I take offense to the fact that you categorize all loan officers and mortgage brokers together as if we are some type of monster. Let's face it; there are evil doers out there in every profession. I know that there are many out there that did take advantage of naïve home buyers and they got screwed. It sounds like the one that is the subject of your post clearly had a bad loan officer.
However, there are those of us out there who pride ourselves on helping families and individuals, and doing it the right way. For any loan officer to recommend an interest only loan in their situation was horrible, and I feel bad for these people. I help clients every day get out of these situations.
I have done all types of loans, fixed rate, ARM loans, and interest only to name a few, but I can tell you that each situation is different and depending upon the person and what they wish to do, each of these loans can work for them. I?ve never recommend an interest only loan to anyone and although I have done them, my clients literally had to talk me into doing it! They had to prove to me that they understood that they would be gaining no ground by doing this and that they would literally start at the beginning of the mortgage after the interest only period. The ARM loans were once again, for people in a certain situation. I can gladly say that I stay in touch with quite a few of my clients and those in ARM?s have been re-financed into fixed rate mortgages at the end of their term. I have never put a homebuyer into an ARM loan without many conversations and counseling sessions to tell them how they work and what they have to accomplish in the two to five year fixed period.
I cannot speak for everyone, but I can tell you there are many of us out there who have our client?s best interest at heart. I help people with bad credit work on fixing their credit in order to buy a home one day, and I do this for free. I do not charge my clients anything to advise them on what to do to help their situation. I can give you a long list of people in this category, who are now successful homeowners and are grateful that someone took the time to listen to them and help them.
So before you throw us all to the wolves, you should remember that there are some good ones out there.
...

9/30/08 at 11:18 PM

I agree that a recession would be a good thing. But there are some things that need to be put into perspective. While credit is certainly needed to get things a house and car, and to get some other things, it is a bit dangerous to have so much of it available to just about anyone -- and to have investment bankers investing in the riskiest of it.

I don't necessarily agree that a depression is what is needed, but it was an argument I found interesting. I agree that the effects would be devastating to many innocent people who have just tried to do their best.

But at the same time, we do need something to wake us up collectively to the hugely unstable economy we have created, and to try and make some changes.

9/29/08 at 10:12 AM

I understand where you may be coming from on this and I do agree that we need to get back to basics. I have been a proponent of that for quite some time, but seriously, a big depression??
I shudder at the thought. Of course, all we have to go by is what happened during the last one, the Great Depression, and I personally would not look forward to any part of that. If this country were to go into a big depression, who knows where it would stop? We are not in the same type of situation that we were back then. Our economy, although some may not like it, runs on credit. No average American can afford to buy a car and pay cash, or a house, or any other major purchase. I speak with couples on a weekly basis that tell me they end up using their credit cards generally once or twice a month to get by. These are not people who live higher than their means, they have a simple house, both have good jobs, always pay their bills on time, but they are raising 3 or 4 kids and their money is just squeezed tightly. We can say that people shouldn't do that, and we can tell them to cut up the cards, but then they run the risk of bigger problems. The credit situation is a story in itself, but the main problems of a big depression??
Let's see...what about all the jobs that would be lost? First on the list we would lose development and manufacturing and factories - you're talking hundreds of thousands of families out of work from that alone. Then you have all the expendable jobs that are out there...people paying others to do basic maintenance on pools, lawn care, and personal assistants. Those in these fields can make a very comfortable living, but not in the times of a big depression.
You think the foreclosure rate is high now? They wouldn't be able to keep up with the numbers. Many families would end up on the street with no place to go.
People that rely on medicines would swarm the hospitals for help because they can no longer get them and death would be inevitable. Hospitals would be overcrowded with people looking for medicine and food or shelter.
The rest of the Mom and Pop shops would be gone. Federal Bailout would not even be an option. The stock market would crash and people would lose their savings, not to mention the 401K?s and retirement plans that would cease due to banks failing. Crime would rise so dramatically they wouldn't be able to keep up with it. It would be total and utter chaos.
I know that these are extreme instances, but a big depression is an extreme circumstance. A recession that puts people back in check on the basics and what's important in life is one thing, but I'll pass on the big depression.

9/29/08 at 12:11 AM