STOP POINTING FINGERS

As I prepare myself for another brain damage presidential debate tonight, I wonder who is going to blame who for our real estate and financial crisis. What we now know is that Clinton is responsible because he put pressure on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to loosen lending guidelines to allow more lower and middle class families qualify for a house. Greenspan cut rates so low that money was essentially free for banks to lend which encouraged them to lend to just about anyone that could fog a mirror. McCain is guilty for deregulation of the banking industry. Bush is guilty, well do I need to say more. Mortgage brokers are guilty of selling "toxic" mortgages. The homeowner is guilty of not reading the fine print. Instead of pointing fingers, everyone should blame themselves. We as a whole caused this problem. When banks were making a killing lending Alt A and sub prime mortgages, people cheered as there stock and 401(k) accounts soared. We bragged over cocktails about how our home values double in the last 12 months. We showed off our new cars and boats that we purchased with the equity in our homes. No one wanted to believe that the low rates, excessive lending, and rapid appreciation of home values was an anomaly that would not last. Now we find ourselves at a time of correction, and unless we take responsibilities for our own actions, the road to recovery will be a long one. We have reached a dark time in our country's history where people think it is OK to walk away from their house, that they agreed to buy, that they can still make the payment on. A time where people think the bank, and now government should share their pain, because they did not read the fine print. Be mad, get angry, but stop pointing fingers. The sooner we take responsibility, the sooner we can focus on the future. Your home value will go back up. Your 401(k) will survive. The economy will get better. But when it does, lets all be better than we were when our homes doubled in value in less than a year.