<blockquote>'As a country, however, we don’t want to write down mortgages, in fact we barely want to modify them, because we’ve still got a sizable percentage of our population that blames homeowners for the economic collapse and therefore believes they must be punished. And by punishing them through foreclosure, we will punish everyone else as well.
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And to the homeowners who feel ashamed… who have suffered the indignity of losing a home in silence… this wasn’t your fault. You didn’t break the bond market and send housing prices into a free fall. You didn’t fail to address the problem, or fall asleep at the switch as a regulator. You didn’t securitize every payment stream in the country, or leverage untold billions of investments or create untold trillions in synthetic derivatives. It wasn’t your belief that real estate would continue to go up that caused the problem, it was Wall Street’s belief that it would continue to do so that brought the financial markets to the brink of destruction.
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So, don’t be ashamed and afraid to speak about what happened here. Your neighbor may seem to know what he’s talking about, but he more than likely doesn’t know any more than he heard on television or read in some Newsweek article. Besides, he’s going to be drowning soon enough anyway. The economic situation we’re in as this New Year begins doesn’t discriminate… everyone will feel its powerful bite as this year continues to see our economy spiral downward.
Unless you’re a banker, of course. In which case… stop judging others, you jackass. You want to have a debate someone about how it was borrowers who caused the meltdown, or pick on someone for being an irresponsible… have the debate with me… pick on me. Go ahead… it’s easy… I’m at
mandelman@mac.com. And I respond to even the most idiotic of opinions. Bring it.
In fact, next week I’ll be in Park City, Utah, debating this very issue with a bunch of lawyers that represent bankers at a conference of the American Bar Association. I’ll let you know how it goes, but I think you have some idea already.
For everyone else reading this… let’s stop the madness and tell our politicians we want solutions for the homeowners in trouble, not punishment. Because at this point, we’re only punishing ourselves… because it’s the right thing to do… because we smarter now and see the situation more clearly… because there, but for the grace of God, go us all.'
- Martin Andelman,
HO, HO, HOmeless… A Sobering View of the Crisis Affecting Us All, jan 1 2010</blockquote>