[KCDave]

Great article.

Will youngest boomers go broke? - MSN Money

[Choux]

Very good article.

Most Americans don't realize that the failure of Bear Stearns was a serious crisis because there was real trouble in our banking system as far as banks failing ala 1929. The situation has stabilized.

The packaging of the sub prime mortgage securities that have caused havoc on our money markets and in the homes of many Americans due to foreclosures was RECKLESS GREED and a scheme for brokerage houses and brokers and mortgage lenders to make COMMISSIONS on an easy sale of securities with a high return and a gloss of low risk when in fact they were very high risk financial products. Properly regulated financial markets would have prevented this OUTRAGE, but Republicans and their rich pals wanted easy money from suckers.

We have to straighten out the REpublican mess caused by greed...

[George_1950]

The sky's falling, the sky's falling,. Folks make investments and take the risks. You want to drive from the East Coast to the West, and your car breaks down on Kansas. That darn George Bush!!

[BABRAM]

Excellent article. Most of the middle class and all the lower class is in a bind. Vacations have become "staycations." That's when you can't afford to go anywhere. 401K's have dwindled and an overwhelming amount of politicians, both Republican and Democrat, are out of touch. Retiring to a third world country is looking better every day. Thanks for sharing the article.

[tomder55]

I was a relatively young worker ;not making much money in the 1980s saving everything I could so I could put together a down payment on my first home. This was during a realestate bubble where prices were rising faster than I could put money away .I finally was able to purchase one after I had liquidated my IRA taking the penalty and tax hit... basically throwing all my eggs into one basket . I put the minimum down that I could knowing that I would pay a high PMI .But the house was mine. That was 1987. One year later the bubble burst and I was in the position of owing more mortgage than my home was worth.
I rode it out until 1996.During that time I continued to save everything I could so I could move to a different community that I had my eye on for some time. The community itself is not affluent .But it had the advantage of being at the edge of civilization in proximity to State park land where I can indulge in the outdoor activities that I think contribute to my quality of life. Let's face it... hiking is a great activity and a good bang for the buck.

Then knowing that I could not sell the home I was living in I decided to become a landlord. The housing market had not recovered .but rental prices had pretty much stayed the same. I could not recover all my expenses but at least I did not have to foreclose or stay in a home I had out grown.

That lasted for 4 miserable years. I found I did not have what it takes to be a landlord. For one thing ,smart landlords do not operate their business at negative income and my conscience would not allow me to raise the rent. Also I did not like the late night calls for things like utilities that were not working properly . I decided not to rent it when the tenant moved.
The problem was that if I sold the home I would still owe more than I could get in the sale. I reasoned however that the bank would prefer to take a slight hit rather than be left holding onto a vacant property . So I retained a lawyer and together we negotiated a settlement where I would do all the work to get the home sold ,and at the end of the day ,the balance of my debt would be forgiven.

Well that worked and of course as soon as the house was sold the next real estate bubble began. Now ;even with the recent crisis the home would sell at more than twice the price I purchased it . The lesson to me was that I should probably not try getting rich in real estate.

That long winded story I told because the article posted looks very similar to ones I was reading in the 1980s . I survived then and I suspect most of the youth today will also.

[tomder55]

The packaging of the sub prime mortgage securities that have caused havoc on our money markets and in the homes of many Americans due to foreclosures was RECKLESS GREED and a scheme for brokerage houses and brokers and mortgage lenders to make COMMISSIONS on an easy sale of securities with a high return and a gloss of low risk when in fact they were very high risk financial products. Properly regulated financial markets would have prevented this OUTRAGE, but Republicans and their rich pals wanted easy money from suckers.

That is a clear distortion of what happened . Why don't you talk about the Community Reinvestment Act and groups like ACORN and community activists like Tony Rezko and Barack Obama pressuring politicians and lending institutions to ease up on their loan requirements ? Why not talk of politicians like Chris Dodd ;head of the Senate Banking committee ;friend of Angelo Mozilo ,getting favorable loan rates from Countrywide even as he introduces bailouts for the bank... and other Democrats like Jim Johnson (recently thrown under the Obama bus) that treat Fannie Mae as their personal piggy bank ?