I found this article and thought it I'd share it.

"Option" Mortgages to Explode, Officals Warn

This type of "Adjustable Rate, Option Payment" mortgage has long been a tool of the wealthy and financial savvy, but from 2004-2006 the mortgage "professionals" were pushing them as a solution to any problem.

No down payment? Just finance the whole thing! Actually, we'll get you 105% financing and you'll have some extra money in your pocket!

Can't afford the payments? No worries! Just put them off for a few years while your home appreciates, then refinance or sell!

Don't have a job? What do we care?!? We get paid for getting you a loan, not for making ethical decisions! Besides, the economy is due for a boom!

What if the market crashes? That's never going to happen! This appreciation rate is permanent!

Just some more gloom and doom to spoil everyone's weekend.

Thanks for sharing that. . .I think
Actually, can't say there's much there that surprises. If anyone is buying into the Fed's announcement this past week that "the recession is over", they need to have their head examined. Whatever good the media is touting about the "economic recovery" is nothing more than towing the company line. The various government bailouts are doing exactly what they were intended to do. That is, give a short term boost to the economy so the monthly reports begin to look better. This, in turn, leads to the glowing and optimistic headlines, and the praise and adulation to Obama for saving the world.
The long term outlook for the US economy is, by most unbiased opinions, a looming disaster. But if present actions can get the politicians through the next election cycle, then the bailouts wil have succeeded at what they were truly meant to do.
Color me cynical.

First, for all the Obama bashers out there, let us not forget that this economy was tanking long before Obama was even a candidate. It was the Bush administration and their Goldman-Sachs buddies (Paulson and Geithner), the "fiscal conservatives", who created the bailouts that everyone now loathes. I know it's hard for some to understand, but not everything is Obama's fault.

Of course the recession is over! Of course the economy is booming again! Didn't you see the massive profits all those banks are making after we saved their a$$e$? This recession is over for the people who Washington really cares about, the ones who really matter. After all, it's hard to write out fat donation checks when you're bankrupt...

Sorry, I've just seen a lot of Obama hate on this forum lately and needed to provide a liberal counterpoint.

Well if you really want to jump into politics about the economy, what I believe what we are seeing is what is the downfall since Regan. I am currently reading an old book by William Nickerson on How I turned $1,000 into $5,000,000.00 in real estate. It is interesting, on what people were doing on the early 60's for buying and selling real estate. Housing demographics have changed so much.

Did you know a little over 100 years ago that more than 50% of the population was self employed? Think about it. They were self reliant.

Yeah I did not vote for Obama. But he is in Office. Some of the mess he is creating. Some of the mess Clinton, Bush 1, Bush 2 also created.

I have been hearing that recession is over. That tells me one thing. The FED RATE is going to HIKE and we are probably heading into Hyper inflation.

Just an idea.

I'll say! It's hard to believe for we post-Gen Xers, but in the 60's women and minorities were largely prohibited from owning property, and in some states it was outright illegal. It wasn't until the 70's that a woman could go into a bank and get a credit account, or a bank account, or a loan without her husband's signature. If she was a single woman, well, there must be something wrong with her if she can't find a man to take care of her. Minorities were routinely denied financing and steered towards certain neighborhoods, although that's not altogether different from today. Did it happen all the time? No. But it was common practice.

I think some people have this delusion that our society and culture during the 50's and 60's were accurately represented through June Cleaver and Donna Reed, and that we need to get back to that fictional "real America". That period was a powderkeg of civil and social unrest for a reason.

That would be the pre-Depression era, when 40% of the total population were farmers. That number has dropped continuously since the 1930's, and now less than 4% of Americans are farmers because they cannot compete with the large agribusiness corporations. Think about it, when was the last time you met a farmer? I live in one of the densest agricultural areas in the world and I can't remember.

I doubt people are any less self-reliant than 100 years ago. If there had been McDonald's and Wal-Mart and all those other giant corporations back then, how many of those self-employed would have taken the easier job with an established company?

If there's one thing the Fed hates more than regulation, it's raising interest rates. There is intense pressure from Wall Street to keep interest rates low. But, who knows? We're trusting our financial future to the same "experts" who failed to see the largest economic collapse in history.