@GamTrak 177969 wrote:
I left the US in late 2006 and then decided to come back and make the best of it so Hubby and I decided to buy a home and we were offered like $100k MORE than we wanted and I remember thinking that it was very odd that they would do that, but we settled on a $250K home, which was in our budget, instead of going for the max. like the banks WANTED us to do.
The lender was reckless and the borrowers that took more than they knew they could afford was just as reckless.
that is just my point, the bank/lender knew by looking at your financial data exactly how much you qualified for and to tell you something other than what the data revealed was completely irresponsible, a lie actually. However you were sharp enough to know better, but there were many people that were not. I don’t fault people for being ignorant but I do fault banking people for deliberately presenting data inaccurately in an effort to mislead someone.
Although like stupid said, some got over extended. I happened to catch a little of c-span and an expert said it was due more to bigger homes and vacation homes. He said the sub-prime loans were just a small part of it.
Amcan you’re analysis is spot on actually.
Although I’m not so concered with pork barrel spending, it’s such a small part of the budget it’s hardly going to make a dent and most of that money is spent on infrastructure which in turn creates jobs which in turn supports local economies and so on.
Many of us saw our income significantly declining thanks to 30%-40% increase in gas prices alone. Can you imagine what we would make if the unemployment rate doubles or triples???
I have a small retail site so I know exactly what fuel costs have done to profits. It ain’t pretty. 
All the shipping services are quite expensive now.