If the DSA controlled a majority in Congress ..... (appraisal related)

[Airstream]

And we are too interconnected & interdependent to do simply stand by while other people fail. Society pays for its failures one way or the other. Poor people will do something about it, at the expense of their neighbors if they have to. Much cheaper to do something about that problem on the front end. People with health problems should not have to go bankrupt. You were obviously underinsured for a long time, and only luck kept you from experiencing a medical bankruptcy. We can do better for society as a whole than that.

I can make the same argument then about why have appraisals? I mean no one should be homeless if they can't pay for their mortgage. Right? Just as healthcare is a right isn't housing even more so? So then let's just give free housing away?

 

[Charles West]

Yes, deregulation was bad. Next, would you like to discuss the deregulation of California energy market which allowed Enron to rape you people while they laughed about it?

The 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act allowed commercial banks to merge with investment banks and insurance companies. This created financial "supermarkets" that could underwrite securities and offer broad services. While it allowed companies to grow massive and compete globally, it increased risks for everyday depositors.
SSRN eLibrary +4

The practical effects of the repeal include:

• • Birth of Financial Giants: Banks merged to create large conglomerates. For example, the 1998 merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group created Citigroup, one of the first major test cases for these new mega-banks.
  • The 2008 Financial Crisis: These mega-banks combined safe commercial deposits with risky investments (like subprime mortgages). When the housing market collapsed, the fallout spread from Wall Street into everyday banking.
  • Conflicts of Interest: Banks faced divided loyalties. They sometimes sold complex financial products to their own clients to clear space on their own balance sheets, even if the investments were bad.
  • "Too Big to Fail": Banks became so large and deeply connected that the U.S. government had to bail them out to prevent the entire economy from crashing.
    Investopedia +1
  • Higher Fees and Consolidation: As banks grew, smaller competitors were bought out or shut down, resulting in less choices and higher fees for consumers.

You are making my point for me. All of this is government-driven, the private industry merely followed the government's lead. And why you bring up Enron is anybody's guess. That company vaporized because it couldn't cover the losses without falsifying documents. Has nothing to do with the discussion at hand.

 

[Surf Cat]

Absolutely. The wisdom or foolishment of the use of less-than-1004 valuations will eventually come to light.

Problem is.... the lenders know that no matter how bad their risk-taking is.... the taxpayers will bail them out. No wonder it's no problem for non-licensed, non-insured personnel to assist in the valuation of Real Estate.

 

[George Hatch]

And we are too interconnected & interdependent to do simply stand by while other people fail. Society pays for its failures one way or the other. Poor people will do something about it, at the expense of their neighbors if they have to. Much cheaper to do something about that problem on the front end. People with health problems should not have to go bankrupt. You were obviously underinsured for a long time, and only luck kept you from experiencing a medical bankruptcy. We can do better for society as a whole than that.

Insofar as structuring society

"We are better than that" ​

will lead to very different expectations from govt than​

"We are that" ​

​

​

 

[Mike Ault]

So where do you stop? Free housing, free food, free clothes, free..... Where does it end? And where does this "free" stuff come from? Nothing is free.

Elon musk doesn't agree with you. We should have a national discussion on the necessities of life, and who's going to pay for them. According to most of the architects of the new AI economy, it won't be possible for people to earn a living within this decade, and doctors and lawyers and any other person that depends on using brainpower will wind up unemployed. AI will have effectively devalued humankind's contributions. I'm for the free market when it works, and government intervention when it doesn't.

 

[Charles West]

And don't forget who is promoting lax appraisal standards, it isn't the banks, it's the GSEs and the banking regulators.

 

[Essexfenwick]

I can make the same argument then about why have appraisals? I mean no one should be homeless if they can't pay for their mortgage. Right? Just as healthcare is a right isn't housing even more so? So then let's just give free housing away?

Isn't free food, water and flushing devices even more importantly free,?

 

[Mike Ault]

You are making my point for me. All of this is government-driven, the private industry merely followed the government's lead. And why you bring up Enron is anybody's guess. That company vaporized because it couldn't cover the losses without falsifying documents. Has nothing to do with the discussion at hand.

Charles and I were discussing deregulation. Enron flourished when the California energy market was deregulated. You folks quickly found out that that was a bad idea, didn't you?

AI

Enron abused the deregulated California energy market in 2000–2001 by intentionally creating artificial power shortages to force up electricity prices. Traders used creative schemes with fictional names to exploit loopholes in the state's power grid, Enron - FBI.

Key manipulation strategies included:

• • Death Star: Scheduling power on transmission lines that did not actually have energy moving across them. Enron collected fees for "relieving congestion" that they deliberately caused.
    Wikipedia +3
  • Fat Boy: Falsely overscheduling the amount of energy a subsidiary needed. When the power was not used, the state's grid operator was forced to buy the excess power back at highly inflated rates.
    Washington State | Office of the Attorney General (.gov)
  • Ricochet: Buying electricity in California at low, capped prices, sending it out of state, and selling it back at vastly inflated premium prices.
    YouTube·Audiopedia +2
  • Get Shorty: Gaming the standby power market. Enron promised to keep standby power ready for the state, but let it sit idle, driving up panic and spot-market prices.
    The New York Times +1
  • Physical Withholding: Intentionally taking power plants offline for "maintenance" during the hottest summer days. This created real-world blackouts to force the state to pay premium prices.
    

These illegal tactics cost the state's economy over $40 billion. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) eventually revoked Enron's energy trading licenses and investigated these market-gaming practices. You can explore the full extent of the manipulation through FERC Enforcement records

 

[Mike Ault]

Insofar as structuring society

"We are better than that" ​

will lead to very different expectations from govt than​

"We are that" ​

​

​

Reagan did a great disservice to this nation. Kennedy had much better ideas.

 

[Mike Ault]

And don't forget who is promoting lax appraisal standards, it isn't the banks, it's the GSEs and the banking regulators.

The people in charge of the GSE's have been consolidating their power over the entire mortgage market for some reason. Pretty sure that the motivation to do so boils down to "profit". I personally don't believe it has much to do with efficiency, they just don't want any independent actors playing in their sandbox and challenging the primacy of their AVMs.