Obama Is on the Brink of a Settlement With the Big Banks—and Progressives Are Furious

[boppers]

90. What on earth would make a person think a credit rating agency, appraisal agency...

or any other "valuation" kind of organization is in any way legitimate? It's fungible, and prone to massive corruption. "Oh, the car salesman said it was worth X, and Kelly blue book agreed"? Hilarious. Do people still really believe that game? Sad.

If you got an appraisal from the bank, and a bank recommended "independent" appraisal, you've just shot yourself in the foot twice.

"By creating a bubble in real estate" is an interesting idea... did the bank create it, by being willing to give out un-payable loans, or did consumers create it, by taking on said loans, based on a imaginary property value? Or is the bigger problem a bubble in banks trusting "ranking agencies", which totally obscured the per-property repayment, issues, keeping the game going?

The answer, I think, is all of the above, and the argument is now *who* gets to play for the con game they all played a hand in, hoping they weren't the ones who would be caught.

The absolute value of a house (like all other gambled investments) is $0. The *speculative* value of a house ranges wildly, but it's just a building on land. If the land loses speculative value, or the building loses speculative value, it's worth nothing, or becomes a liability. Anybody who tells you a house is actually worth more is lying, or telling you about speculative (i.e. gambling) values.

It's almost as if millions of people bought stock called "MYOWNHOME", watched the stock crash, and then demanded refunds, because, well.... I guess they feel defrauded, because they though a home has an intrinsic value that wouldn't decrease?