Why Aren’t Any Bankers in Prison for Causing the Financial Crisis? (2016)

Re:Why Aren’t Any Bankers in Prison for Causing the Financia... by viraptor on Sunday December 17, 2017 @06:12AM (#15945276)

So what about whataboutism? They're not a part of the risky buyer / scammy lender scenario. There are loads of issues with the properties market, but this situation didn't apply to all of them. As long as the solution doesn't make the property prices raise even more, renters should not be affected.

Also, I specifically mentioned that some of the blame is on the buyers, so instead of free houses, they could be given the opportunity to continue paying off at the original terms, or a similar form of help. Remember that if the buyers don't get the houses in the end, the banks do instead. And why would we want that to happen?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why Aren’t Any Bankers in Prison for Causing the Financia... by richardknop on Sunday December 17, 2017 @06:18AM (#15945288)

The way I understood you is that all mortgages should have been paid off by the government. So if people keep the houses and their mortgages are paid off by a gov bailout that is essentially like giving free houses to half of population while the other half that is renting gets nothing.

That is a huge moral hazard. It is essentially same as giving 300k cheque to a selected part of population based on arbitrary logic. How can that be fair to do that? The only fair way to do it would be to just write a cheque for everybody. So all people get the same handout. Any other way is super discriminatory.

I understand that it's appealing for people with mortgages but you have to see how massively discriminatory and unfair that would be.

[ Parent | on HN ]