Dear Lord, NOW He Admits It?
March 14, 2008
– Comments (6)
Just noticed this via housingpanic. Nice to see Ben finally got some religion, but he's a couple years too late, and he neglects to mention that it was his job to oversee lending. So, essentially, he's coming close to admitting that he shirked his duty.
Some of us have been screaming for months (and no one more loudly or entertainingly than HousingPanic) that this isn't a subprime problem, its a problem with the entire lousy mortgage industry, the crooked National Association of Realtors, greedy Americans, and a giant slug of negligently complacent new media.
Nice, but not quite there, and way too late.
Discussing the current housing crisis, the Fed chairman pointed out that, contrary to popular opinion, 'the current high rate of delinquencies and foreclosures is not confined to the subprime market.'
Last year, about 45 pct of foreclosures were on higher-rated prime, near-prime or government-backed loans.
'Across market segments, delinquencies are rising fastest on the more complex loans originated in the past few years,' Bernanke said. Many of those went to borrowers in weaker financial conditions or who may hot have fully understood what they were undertaking.
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