Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

Hats off to the Oregonion's Front Porch blog:

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/feat ... rpt-201004

What is very interesting is that he doesn't blame the borrowers for taking advantage of what they thought was a great deal, he blames the lenders for the bubble.

He also doesn't believe that his success is replicable, any more than Boggle's investing is replicable.

I'm immediately suspicious of people who oversimplify macro-economic phenomena, such as the real estate crash of 2007. You can trace roots back to the Community Reinvestment Act, and a particularly strong movement towards the crash with the Clinton-era initiative to promote "homeownership for all Americans" through "creative lending programs," a policy continued with equal ignorance by the Bush Administration.
Then you had greedy lenders, and you had greedy homebuyers, and a host of other problems, but the fact is some people are simply not fit to be homeowners, no matter how many politicians and mortgage brokers wish that weren't the case.
Tenants and landlords will have to get along for a while longer, until our society magically makes everyone responsible enough for homeownership.