Tuesday, September 11, 2007


Americans Paying More for Less and Losing Anyway
by Carl Golden

Until recently, the feds kept interest rates low on mortgages for approximately 20 years in order to promote homeownership and economic growth -- a smart decision. Unfortunately, our national and state leadership neglected to develop and enact appropriate regulatory policies to keep banking and real estate institutions' greed in check -- a stupid decision -- which gave rise to high-risk, predatory loans and absurdly inflated housing costs that neither bore relation to the real value of a given house nor to the local average of individual and family incomes. Now, we are faced with the predictable aftermath of this unbridled greed: a housing slump characterized by rampant bankruptcies, a plague of foreclosures, increasing loss of faith in banking and real estate institutions, as well as unnecessary misery for hundreds of thousands of Americans trying to make a life and raise families.

This slump is bad news, but it will eventually turn as regulatory policies that should have been in place all along are finally set in place; unfortunately, it reveals a sinister trend in American society, which is an increasing lack of regard for ethical practice in the marketplace that doesn't show any sign of abating anytime soon. In fact, this trend is increasingly becoming the norm, exposing a dangerous lack of moral integrity in American character, a low regard of one's fellow citizens, and the rise of greed as a cultural icon. This is bad news for everybody.

Although greed is part of the human condition and is a driving force within economies, it is neither desirable nor wise to allow it to govern our lives and our country, but this is exactly what is occurring. Unbridled greed, especially in the guise of corporate profitteering, is unraveling the philosophical and moral foundations of our country, and it is undermining the strength of the family and our civic culture. The United States of America -- the home of the free -- is quickly devolving into the United Corporations of America -- the home of indentured servitude. This disasterous trend must be checked and corrected, or we will suffer more than just a housing slump.