Obama to Make Changes to Financial Regulatory System

[Pepsi]

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Obama to Make Changes to Financial Regulatory System

Officials say they will make wide-ranging changes, including stricter federal rules for hedge funds, credit rating agencies and mortgage brokers, and greater oversight of the complex financial instruments that contributed to the economic crisis.
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Officials said they want rules to eliminate conflicts of interest at credit rating agencies ...

Aides said they would propose new federal standards for mortgage brokers ... They are considering proposals to have the S.E.C. become more involved in supervising the underwriting standards of securities that are backed by mortgages.
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The administration is also preparing to require that derivatives like credit default swaps ... be traded through a central clearinghouse and possibly on one or more exchanges.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/us/politics/25regulate.html

Seems like Obama is taking fast action on regulatory changes which would prevent this sort of thing from happening in the first place.   

[ivanm]

I am not sure what a mortgage broker does other than sell paper to investors but the tighter regulation needs to be right up front at retail level.  People should not be misled to think they can handle a loan when they can't.  I think this was being done for a number of reasons, but the big one was to unload a lot of overpriced houses that were not moving.

[ivanm]

Well, doesn't everyone "deserve to live in a nice house?"  According to some Liberals, yes, they do.

That's what got us into this crap.  THAT liberal thinking that everyone "deserves" everything.  The "unfortunate" and the "down trodden" who couldn't afford to pay the rent on their cheap-assed apartment were "given" enormous loans because some politicians bought into the idea that "everyone deserves to live in a nice house."

Too bad the politicians didn't think that those "deservers" had to repay those loans on those nice houses.  And why couldn't they repay them?  Well, because they don't make enough money to qualify for a loan of that magnitude and they were living on "borrowed time" during the five years they were "existing" in this overpriced homes hoping the bubble wouldn't burst before they yanked their "equity" out of their homes (that they weren't paying for) and making a killing.

Guess what?  Oops.  The bubble burst.

That is my sentiments too but I have no facts to back it up.  I know that in the case of some young couples I know they aren't very good about meeting their obligations.  They piss away their checks and have high credit card balances, then when one of them gets sick or fired they are really hurting.  Poor planning and poor judgment I'd say. 

I once lived on a shoestring from one payday to the next, and sometimes had plenty of payments to meet, but I was in a hot career field and luckily did not lose my job until I was about ready to retire and was very well fixed.  I took my severance package and said saya nora muthas.