Borrowers Beware

This day, Tuesday, March 6, 2007, the Wall Street Journal question of the day is:

Who is most to blame for rising mortgage defaults?

The responses allowed by the Journal: Borrowers, for taking on too much debt; Lenders, for offering risky mortgages; Regulators, for not reining in lending; Someone else

It's far more all of the above and more as far as my answer is concerned.

I have noted, with great disfavor, seductive ads bordering on the lurid to seduce consumers into mortgaging their homes to pay off other loans, thus enticing these consumers into going even further into debt.

Unfortunately, most consumers are poorly educated as far as financial affairs go and lack the discernment necessary to avoid overindebtedness. We also have a fiscally irresponsible national norm to guide us--a federal government hell-bent on one of the wildest spending sprees in our nation's history.

Also, government regulation has been severely cut back and there is little governance over the ethics and interest rates and terms offered by lenders and they (the lenders) have, as one could always be assured that they would do, monstrously abused their newfound freedoms and license.

The current situation is a fine kettle of fish, said fish allowed to spoil and moult in the sun before tossed into the pot--and the whole thing stinks to high heaven.

Oh, I also forgot to add that many a solid American job has been outsourced onto foreign soil and many American consumers have found themselves suddenly jobless and unable to meet their credit obligations, another stinking fish in the pot.