Sep 8, 2008 10:51 pm US/Central
In The Know: Crushed Dreams, Rich Fat Cats
(WCCO)
On Sunday, the U.S. government announced that the two biggest home mortgage programs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will become a ward of the Treasury Department. Don Shelby said this is a bailout and all taxpaying Americans have been handed a pail.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson sent a message to the markets that things were about to change. Such good news that the New York Stock Exchange surged 300 points.
It doesn't mean the housing crisis will disappear overnight, but it does mean that money will suddenly be infused into a broken housing economy. That means that loans, real loans -- not sub-prime prisons -- will be available soon. That means people might be able to buy houses and thereby reduce the historically high stock of houses for sale that won't sell.
It won't happen tomorrow, but maybe one day we will be able to look back at this housing nightmare and maybe we will have learned from it. Learned that something as important to the American way of life as a home cannot be motivated by the greedy, looking for a quick buck in the market.
The sad part is this, while millions of Americans' home dreams have been crushed, and left bankrupt, thousands of fat cats got rich off their misery.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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