Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Republicans And Democrats Agree With Our Corporate State King To Shut Democracy Out Of The Housing Market

It’s a ruse when you hear politicians state that they can’t get anything done because they don’t agree on anything.  They agree on plenty.  Unconstitutional war, spying, torture, corporatism, lower taxes for corporations, killing democracy, stifling dissent, etc, etc, etc.   Now they agree that the government, or the voice of democracy, should abandon home ownership and turn it back over to private interests. 

As noted on here many times, George Bush was right.  The ownership society is exactly what Thomas Jefferson envisioned.  Each person would be given their own land by the government.  Free.  Given.  Wake up people!  In a democracy, everyone has access to society’s capital if they show a willing intent to be personally-responsible and participate in our economic future.   It should not be predicated on some arbitrary ability to find a living wage job in an economy with a real unemployment rate of 25% and an underemployment rate of more than 50%. 

Every person should be guaranteed a living wage job if they want one.  Every person can then participate in a democratic ownership society.  And you give according to your ability.  If you don’t want to participate, go live under a bridge if that’s more appealing.   Actually, I say that tongue in cheek.  There are nonviolent methods of dealing with people as worthy human beings that are in an emotional state unable to participate, be that temporary or permanent.   As a democratic society, we need to provide the services to help people get their emotional act together so they can contribute and define their own lives as worthy.  Today we generally define that as Social Security disability or a few other similar mechanisms.  These need reformed too.  They often don’t  empower people but instead institutionalize people and become sponges for gaming the system when people give up or can’t find a living wage job. 

We are marginalizing too many people that have too much to share with the world.  Instead, in a disposable corporate capitalist society, we do just the opposite.  The disposable and violent nature of our economic system convinces people they have nothing to share.  If we had an economy with guaranteed living wage jobs, any disability should be temporary for all but the most extreme cases.  Everyone has something to give.  Everyone.  Get the help you need, get your act together and get back out and be responsible in creating a life that defines your own worthiness.  Emotional unwellness, physical illness, emotionally-handicapped, physically-handicapped, we all have something to give that is worthy of a living wage in a society based on compassion, community, human dignity and empowerment.  

The problem in today’s world is that there is no mechanism to create an ownership society.  And Obama is now making that even more difficult by pulling democracy out of the mortgage business.   We aren’t a democracy but instead a capitalism.  Giving Wall Street or private capital the keys to the castle and asking them to administer an ownership society is a fool’s game.   The misconception continues to be perpetuated by liars and thieves that Fannie and Freddie caused this crisis.  Actually, Fannie and Freddie were the dumping grounds for Wall Street’s toxic trash.  And that happened because of government corruption created by Wall Street bribery.  The same bribery that is now taking democracy out of the home ownership business under Obama’s plans. 

As noted on here many times, we should have mortgages funded by a public banking system.  That could be state-based, locally-based or national.  I could really care less.  No mortgage interest and never kick anyone out of their home because they can’t find a living wage job or because of medical bankruptcy or countless other life tragedies that are so common.   Robert Shiller has been one of the few voices in the economics community who has asked many of the questions why we don’t already have these mechanisms in place.  He’s right.  Where the hell is everyone else in the economics and public service community?  Bought and paid for is where they are.  We had something akin to a national public mortgage bank with HOLC, a Roosevelt invention I supported on here as a method for dealing with this crisis back in  2008.   But Obama chose to deny Americans any real relief or to re-administer this very successful Roosevelt program.  Why?  Because he is our corporate state king. 

If the government aka democracy owned our mortgages, they could easily re-assess mortgage values and bail homeowners out of this private capital-created bubble.  The solution would be simple.  All that needs to happen is to re-assess any new lower value of a home and make the adjustment to the mortgage down.  Umm, the government can print money or take losses at will via moving decimal places on a computer screen.  The Federal Reserve does it every single day.  The government can do the same thing with mortgages.  And it would not clog up our banking system with toxic loans that cause bank runs and higher lending standards that defeat the purpose of democratic banking and an ownership society.   There is no such thing as a loss in a properly designed public bank.  It’s an accounting entry on a computer screen!!!  It’s funny money.  There is ZERO taxpayer liability.   Does anyone not get this after witnessing the last five years?

Now, Obama has obliterated democracy’s involvement in home ownership and given it back to private interests on behalf of our corporate masters.   We are going the wrong direction.  Where is democracy?  The impoverished are getting screwed again.  If you are an average American with a marginal wage, you just got screwed again by Obama and he didn’t even kiss you.  Kiss your chances of buying a home good bye.  They are dropping as I type this.

By the way, I find it interesting that Obama made this speech in Phoenix whose home market has been literally gobbled up by hedge funds and private investors to the tune of tens and tens of thousands of units.    I also find it interesting that he has made this speech during the same period that two massive IPOs came public where banks and financial firms are now renting out homes to those they kicked out over the last few years.  And during a time when mortgage originations are dropping to two year lows. 

With housing on the mend Obama proposes we ditch democracy’s involvement in the mortgage business and turn it all over to private interests.   More free market bullshit courtesy of our corporate state king.

posted by TimingLogic at 6:00 PM