[I don't trust liberal policy]

...that govt now controls ONE HALF of the housing mortgages? WOW! If you still think that the Fannie and Freddie mac scandal wasn't a Set up by the radical Left- your in Lah lah land! Im thinking govt wants all the property they can get their dirty hands on! They will use people to get it- give them HOPE and SMASH THEIR DREAM on purpose to own their property!

[End Libtardation]

That is rather frightening.

[scott b]

Fannie and Freddie have ALWAYS been government sponsored agencies. The fact that you are just hearing about this doesn't make it anything new.And, in fact, the reason the government bailed them out was so that people WOULDN'T lose their properties. You really need to stop living in hatred and fear and get some facts.

[fatboy]

November cannot get here soon enough....We must VOTE ALL INCUMBENTS OUT!!

[Blue Haired Old Lady]

None of the above. The gov has always controlled a large part of the housing mortgage market. The people being foreclosed on and losing their homes now did this to themselves. If you can't afford something - you shouldn't buy it. And you shouldn't sign contracts without reading and understanding them. People were so stupid they didn't understand the payments on a ARM could go UP? That is their own fault.

[loanmodsoftware]

We all need to accept responsibility for this mess. Its too easy to blame this administration or that agency or that policy. We did this to ourselves. Suck it up, own it and then we can begin to recover.

From 2000 - 2005 everybody was making money and lots of it. Our houses tripled in value, business was good, our 401K increased 10x, credit was easy, and those of us who took risks got HUGE rewards almost overnight. Nobody was complaining then because we were all making money.

Yes the government should have been regulating it better but thats hindsight which is always 20/20. If they had tried to lock it down in 2002 there would have been just as man cries of tyranny or how the government is disrupting the free markets, etc. Face it, we all rode the wave, we all benefitted and we all ate the fruit. Admitting this helps eliminate the blame thing and the politics that is polarizing our country.

The problem we need to address is this: Our country has embraced an attitude of "I gotta get mine" first. After I get mine THEN I'll worry about doing the right thing for my country, my employer, economy, environment, my neighbor. But I gotta get mine first. By adpoting this attitude you can justify almost any behavior. You see this selfish mentality repeated in our leaders, wall street, big business, and all the way down to you and me. If you cant include yourself as part of the problem that got us here then I doubt you have the self awareness or insight to offer any type of serious advice on how to get us out.

The solution imo...We need to get back to the mind of set of the Greatest Generation. This is where we do things not because they benefit us personally but simply because they are the right thing to do. Unfortunately what will probably be required for all of us to surrender our way of thinking (its pretty well engrained by now) is a huge catastrophic event to cause us to unite together. Maybe a world war or massive financial collapse. Not really optimistic but lets be honest, people generally wont change unless the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Thats just how we are. Right now there is not enough pain to cause a massive change in how we think. However, give it a year or two.