[fintstone]

Originally Posted by KC911

Everything was going along very well with the early stages of the Fed reducing their balance sheet imo....while continuing to get the still ultra low rates back to normal. It's a HUGE task...they were able to jack them up much rapidly just a few years earlier...after 9/11....but in unknown territory....they couldn't raise rates from 0, when stimuli like the QE that ended in '13 (I think) was buying (borrowing) ...then '14 produced a couple of high gdp qtrs....deflation was over....time to dig out. So they began....
Early Dec, "I'm a tariff man" tweeted/spoke, and the markets immediately dropped like a rock...past long overdue correction territory...

Then the Fed turned from what I considered a very fiscally conservative, but somewhat aggressive "payback"..... it WAS working except for those hitched to historically low variable interest rates. The conservative in me says....(within reason)...I don't care...live within your means and don't depend on cheap credit...it's the opium of our society....worse than ever.

fint's a credit junkie

...

Actually, stupidity by the Administration with the massive bailout of bad loans (HARP, etc.) and pushing short sales which were massively fraudulent drove the property values so low in some places that there was no exit. Particularly with strategic foreclosures and bankruptcies. Those of us that paid our bills and didn't borrow from the government were screwed. Although I did buy the house with a conventional adjustable rate mortgage, I did so temporarily so I could close quickly. I fully intended to refinance into a VA or conventional fixed rate in a few months. Then the market crashed and I really had no viable way to refinance as the $700K home was valued at $280K. I would have had to bring $400K to closing as a down payment on a $280K house. Considering all my other investments also crashed...and both my wife and I lost our "secure govt jobs" at the same time...it really was not an option.

While I have fully recovered and then some...I am still paying on that mortgage (hose is worth about $500K now). It is not a problem for me to waste a few thousand a month...but apparently it is for other folks (as the foreclosures are ramping up again). I thought my example was pretty clear that was the case.