Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or holed away in a dark cave, you know that the US is facing a real estate crisis. House prices are falling faster than the dollar and people are getting hurt. When this happens, everybody looks for someone to blame. Me too.I’m getting killed as my investments decline in value. Who knew that bank shares would one day be as worthless as my pets.com investment? I didn’t. And I’m mad. I too want to blame somebody for this mess—and I’m still looking for that somebody.
MSN Money has gone for the obvious and chosen Alan Greenspan as their target saying he pushed “subprime lending like a shady mortgage broker.” I say “cheap shot.” This man is as innocent as OJ Simpson.
Mr. Greenspan is simply a figurehead—much like George Bush—who simply presents the information given to him by his staff. If you want to blame Greenspan, blame the people who work for him. They do the research. They crunch the numbers. They’re the ones who are at least partly responsible for this mess.
Unlike most of the media, the International Herald Tribune has taken a different tack by claiming that the banks are innocent. Instead of blaming them for the mess, the paper says they “should be lauded for introducing the joys of homeownership to those who had not yet achieved that part of the American dream.”
If you're surprised by this, so am I. Even though these “affordability products” generated big commissions up front and needed to be refinanced in the future—generating yet another round of luscious fees for the lenders, they enabled tens-of-thousands of Americans to own their own homes. You can’t blame the banks if their employees let money to deadbeats!
Allen Hardester, director of business development for mortgage broker Guaranteed Rate, told CNN Money that greedy brokers caused the subprime mess when they stopped looking after their employer’s interest and just started handing out money wily nilly to anybody who had a pulse.
“Clients started to get harder to come by and the brokers started shaking the trees a little harder. Some very poor risks who would have been blown off during better times, got loans,” said Hardester.
Democratic presidential candidate, Christopher Dodd, is also blaming employees for causing this mess. He said regulators (who are employed by the federal government) were “asleep at the switch” and should have taken action to prevent the meltdown from occurring.”
There you have it, the answer to the question: “Who’s To Blame for the Real Estate Mess? While nobody can agree on the specifics, everybody agrees that the workers are responsible. I say fire them all and start again. But this time, hire good people who put their employers first.
To stay one step in front of the competition, check out my latest book: Dr. Young’s Guide to Demotivating Employees at Dolyttle & Seamore.
While I don’t really have any interest in hearing what you have to say about anything, if you have a burning desire to get something off your chest, email me: dryoung@demotivationist.com.
