The Housing Bubble

How appropriate to call the housing boom a 'bubble'. The housing bubble affected everybody. The tentacles of the housing boom are long and dug into just about every sector of our economy. First, let's look at some of obvious benefactors of the 'bubble'.

Construction workers by the thousands were able to have gainful employment. The carpenters, plumbers, electricians, drywall hangers, roofers, painters, bricklayers, tile setters, and concrete workers all enjoyed the fruits of the housing boom. These are the obvious winners in such a market, but consequentially, the first to bear the consequences when the bubble bursts.

Second tier benefactors include the lumber companies, appliance dealers, paint suppliers, landscapers, tool vendors, carpet vendors, pipe vendors, street pavers, plant nurseries, swimming pool contractors, and new tax revenues for the city, county, and state.

The third tier benefactors are the manufacturers of the building products and their employees that turned raw material into building materials. That would include the timber industry, sawmills, plywood factories, drywall manufacturers, pipe manufacturers, steel industries, tool manufacturers, truckers, cement plants, paint manufacturers, railroads, petroleum industries, plastics industry, and the farmers.

All of the millions of workers of the various entities used their wages to purchase products for necessity and frills. Some of which include the theme parks, groceries, pleasure boats, electronic gadgets, the phone bill, television service bill, fuel, lawnmowers, and so on. Their spending supported a variety of other products and those employees of the vendors of those products.

Yep, it was a wild ride but the piper was out there and he was about to send us his bill.

The money to finance the boom from housing had to come from someplace and I call that someplace the finance and mortgage industry. Normally the moneylenders are a bunch of stuffed shirts that scrutinize every dollar that they loan. So what happened? How did we get on such a wild ride? The simple answer is an unprecedented demand for housing. That surge in demand came from people who normally would not qualify to borrow from the moneylenders.

Democrats leaned on the moneylenders to loan to the poor and minorities. The implication from the Democrats to the moneylenders was that the U.S. Government, via Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, would stand behind such loans. And when the bill came in, that is exactly what happened. The Government saddled the taxpayers with various bailout plans to pay for the massive housing boom. A boom brought about by Liberal Democratic policy.

The Democrats knew that the Government would have no choice but to wade in and rescue the economy. And it is not a given that those bailouts will even work. The tentacles were into the economy so deep that the Government had to either act, or send the economy down in flames. (Which still may happen) The nation's savings in 401K's were tanking, businesses bankrupting at an unprecedented rate, and the jobless count skyrocketing, the Government had to take action to prevent further chaos. The pressure put upon the financial markets threatened to bring not only our economy but also the world's economy to its knees; we are still reeling from the folly of the Democrats.

By now, everybody knows that Bush and the Republicans tried to reign in the out of control lending that threatened us all in 2005 and earlier, but the Democrats would have none of it. The Democrats blocked every initiative to regulate the mortgage industry. After all, their constituents were benefitting from the extravagance. Now, the Democrats are pulling the slickest move of all, and that is to make sure those poor-risk homebuyers get to keep their homes at the taxpayer's expense. This monumental transfer of wealth is happening right under every body's nose. The folly of what the Democrats did and are doing to this economy is hurting everybody.

To add insult to injury, this nation is about to reward Democrats with a Democratic President and a filibuster proof majority in the Congress. The Democrats will be able to pass their far leftist agenda without any opposition if they win by the margins forecast by the polls. Should the Congress reach the point that renders the filibuster moot, then we are in real trouble.

I encourage the readers of this post to think hard about for whom they want to vote. Our work force is shrinking because of the Democrat's failed socialist policies.

Support the McCain-Palin ticket with both your personal effort and your money. (Provided you still have some)

Cheers,

-Robert-