Rumors of rooming houses
Editor,
Within the last year, my house, a 6 bedroom, 3 bath, not in the Historic District and way too big for just me home, got broken into. When the police came out to make a report, they started asking questions about me having roommates. They insisted on calling my house a "rooming house" and filed it on the report that way.
A friend at church who worked with the police department told me to "watch out" and not call the police again because they were planning to "go after" so called rooming houses. I went to zoning, as well as asking for legal advice from an attorney friend of mine. Because it is my residence, and the fact that my roommates rent by the month, I'm in the green.
Then just a few days later my roommate said two guys walked up the driveway and into the fenced-in backyard, poking around and looking in the windows. When approached, the plainclothes men said they were the police, and that they were there because it was an "illegal rooming house" and they were there because of zoning.
So I guess I live in a city were I can no longer call the police to my home. I'm glad I'm paying for their services, so they can give jaywalking tickets and buzz around in their helicopter.
By the way, this is the kind of thing that motivates me into action! It would not take too much work for a group of us to start targeting people's jobs. Are you listening Michael Brown?
Name Withheld by Request
The Fed's role in America's collapse
Editor,
I recently watched Sean Hannity's interview with Michael Moore on Fox News and I wish I was there to ask the questions that truly matter to the American people. One of the issues brought up was the collapse of the economy and I was surprised that none of them had the complete picture.
Sean was focusing on the people that bought homes and were irresponsible in handling their finances, thus resulting in them defaulting on mortgages. He also mentioned the fact that the government forced lenders to lower their guidelines thus resulting in mortgages being granted to those who should have never been accepted for a home loan.
Correct, but that wasn't all. Michael focused on the greed of Wall Street. Again, correct but not a complete picture. I might add to this that if I were Sean and heard Michael talk about the Wall Street I would have immediately asked:
1. WHY isn't President Obama allowing an independent investigation of the financial institutions representing Wall Street?
2. WHY is he still allowing bad behavior from CEO's and CFO's that are getting nice fat bonuses?
3. WHY did he agree to bail them out with the taxpayers' money? Yes, both him and Bush did the same thing.
4. And finally WHY does Congress and the president have such a big problem with HR 1207 to audit the Federal Reserve? This bill, if passed, will reveal the truth. But our corrupt "chosen ones" in Capitol Hill would be bleeding bad if the truth is out.
OK, here is a complete picture of how this topic should have been described. There were two major causes that occurred, and if I say that they were deliberately done it would sound like a conspiracy. But I'll take my chance here because I am a firm believer that it was done to destabilize the last free nation in the world.
The two major causes were:
1. The Federal Reserve artificially lowered the rates. Mr. Greenspan had become the nation's hero. The demand for housing had gone up because many people were able to buy more of a house for a lower mortgage payment AND...there was another group of people that entered the home-buying market and that was...
2. The marginal ones, also known as high risk borrowers, the folks our government convinced that it was their right to own a home. So, the second major cause was the government forcing banks to drop their credit standards and give mortgages to these people.
One of the stupidest things I heard Michael Moore say was that the marginal people defaulting on their loans represented only 10 percent of the reason our economy collapsed. Then what represented the other 90 percent?
It started out with risky borrowers defaulting, then affected the rest of the population because foreclosures and short sales brought down the value of the rest of the people's homes, even those who were making their payments.
At the same time, the market experienced what I call a "paralytic time" because Fannie and Freddie - which just got adopted by the government - instantly raised lending guidelines.
So, to recap:
1. The Federal Reserve Bank - which by the way, is NOT a government agency but a separate entity owned by a few huge banks such as Goldman Sachs and a few others - are artificially lowering the interest rates.
2. The risky people are buying homes they cannot afford.
3. A huge demand for housing is created. What happens when demand is high and the supply is low? Of course, it now becomes a commodity with a higher priced tag.
4. The temporary effect is a false sense of prosperity for everyone.
5. Risky folks start defaulting. The foreclosures bring down the value of neighborhoods throughout America.
6. Fannie and Freddie raise lending criteria. The rest of us are affected because we can't sell their homes and can't refinance. Some of us must sell because of job transfers or other issues, so we have to rent, and guess who we end up renting to? Remember the risky ones who just lost their homes not long ago?
The sad part is that our government is not willing to admit their fault, not willing to allow HR 1207 Bill (to audit the Federal Reserve) to pass, and certainly not willing to change their habit called CORRUPTION.
Carmen Alexe
