Did high gas prices trigger a global recession?

[Smallc]

Your mode to provide 'betterment' is in itself a detriment in my opinion.

You don't agree that if people could all have what they needed and wanted, if everyone could share in the prosperity, if everyone could work simply to make things better for everyone rather than as a result of greed that things would be better?

The world isn't ready for that yet, but hopefully some day, it will be.

[blueblood]

You don't agree that if people could all have what they needed and wanted, if everyone could share in the prosperity, if everyone could work simply to make things better for everyone rather than as a result of greed that things would be better?

The world isn't ready for that yet, but hopefully some day, it will be.

The fact you have a computer and access to the internet is an indirect result of greed. Without "greed" there would have been no incentive to invent that computer and internet.

[Smallc]

The fact you have a computer and access to the internet is an indirect result of greed. Without "greed" there would have been no incentive to invent that computer and internet.

No incentive....except that its made the lives of so many people better. Now, money has made things go faster right now, but I'm hoping that some day it won't be necessary.

[White Doors]

You don't agree that if people could all have what they needed and wanted, if everyone could share in the prosperity, if everyone could work simply to make things better for everyone rather than as a result of greed that things would be better?

The world isn't ready for that yet, but hopefully some day, it will be.

I don't believe that people should have an equality of outcome without an equality of input.

I believe in an equality of opportunity not outcome.

Communists believe in an equality of outcome.

To believe otherwise is to fight against the human condition.

[White Doors]

No incentive....except that its made the lives of so many people better. Now, money has made things go faster right now, but I'm hoping that some day it won't be necessary.

Why?? What is wrong with money? Other than presumably you don't have very much and you see that others do? envy is not a sound political ideaology.

[msj]

US Ignored Warning to Tighten Lending Rules

You & Wild Bill are plain out to lunch.

They sure are:

The Community Reinvestment Act and the Recent Mortgage Crisis

The research focused on two basic questions. First, we asked what share of originations for subprime loans is related to the CRA. The potential role of the CRA in the subprime crisis could either be large or small, depending on the answer to this question. We found that the loans that are the focus of the CRA represent a very small portion of the subprime lending market, casting considerable doubt on the potential contribution that the law could have made to the subprime mortgage crisis.

Second, we asked how CRA-related subprime loans performed relative to other loans. Once again, the potential role of the CRA could be large or small, depending on the answer to this question. We found that delinquency rates were high in all neighborhood income groups, and that CRA-related subprime loans performed in a comparable manner to other subprime loans; as such, differences in performance between CRA-related subprime lending and other subprime lending cannot lie at the root of recent market turmoil.

In analyzing the available data, we focused on two distinct metrics: loan origination activity and loan performance. With respect to the first question concerning loan originations, we wanted to know which types of lending institutions made higher-priced loans, to whom those loans were made, and in what types of neighborhoods the loans were extended.5 This analysis allowed us to determine what fraction of subprime lending could be related to the CRA.

Our analysis of the loan data found that about 60 percent of higher-priced loan originations went to middle- or higher-income borrowers or neighborhoods. Such borrowers are not the populations targeted by the CRA. In addition, more than 20 percent of the higher-priced loans were extended to lower-income borrowers or borrowers in lower-income areas by independent nonbank institutions--that is, institutions not covered by the CRA.6

Putting together these facts provides a striking result: Only 6 percent of all the higher-priced loans were extended by CRA-covered lenders to lower-income borrowers or neighborhoods in their CRA assessment areas, the local geographies that are the primary focus for CRA evaluation purposes. This result undermines the assertion by critics of the potential for a substantial role for the CRA in the subprime crisis. In other words, the very small share of all higher-priced loan originations that can reasonably be attributed to the CRA makes it hard to imagine how this law could have contributed in any meaningful way to the current subprime crisis.