Economic Outrage – Real Estate, Property Taxes and the Bailout

All financial leaders have proven themselves to be a ship of fools. The leadership offered is a socialist vs. a watered down free market solution embedded with heavy lobby money. Lobby financial interests have befuddled clear thinking.

Unqualified buyers were encouraged into mortgages, the root cause for the financial meltdown. Our financial subprime woes started with Jimmy Carter who, though well meaning, dumb-headedly enacted legislation to encourage loans to people who were bad credit risks. Purchasing a home and paying property taxes was supposed to be the cure all for financial happiness and getting ahead. His administration began distancing itself from conservative lending and accounting principles.

Along came Bill Clinton who put extra teeth in the law by punishing mortgage and investment companies that did not extend credit to people who were bad credit risks. He put them into residences they couldn’t afford let alone deal with the property taxes. A further deregulating and credit risk was encouraged by mortgage companies; those that didn’t comply to lose lending practices were hampered from expanding their footprint in the community.

Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac bought these loans, repackaged these loans and sold them on the open market. They sent hundreds of millions of dollars by their lobbies to politicians that in order to continue this masquerade.

Insurance companies insured these bogus loans. AIG and others evaluated this risk. Their leverage was originally set at 12 to one. They too threw million in lobby money at Congress, then the asked for a 30 to 1 leverage and further increased risk. This pumped up and largely increased their profits by large proportions while the real estate market was going up.

This fraud was given the stamp of approval by chief economists Greenspan and Bernanke and the ship of fool’s balloon took off. Socialist organizations such as Acorn (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and other similar groups pressured banks into giving even more misguided loans.

The House Finance Chief, SEC Chairman, Banking Committee Chairman and any Congressman or public official accepting lobby money were shills for this cancer. Prison and banishment from public office should be their reward for violating the public trust! Politicians accepting lobby money need prison and banished from public office. Lobby money is nothing more than a bribe. If you bribe a cop for not giving you a speeding ticket you go to prison. If a public official accepts a bribe, shouldn’t they be put in prison as well?

When the hot air balloon runs out of fuel used to create the hot air, the balloon crashes. When the easy credit real estate market turned and foreclosures soared, the balloon was punctured and stopped climbing; it crashed. Humpty Dumpty and the 700 billion dollar bailout that was weighed down with pork project bought and paid for by additional lobby money show how corrupt these weasels are. Where is the ethical outrage?

Across the nation, real estate prices have fallen and municipal and state governments have raised their tax rates to compensate for the shortfall. If, when you get your real estate assessment value bill, you need to compare your home to the assessments of similar sold homes, you may find that you are overtaxed and could profit from a property tax appeal. It’s worth another look.

Before you accept your property tax assessments as gospel, look into a property tax abatement guidebook and learn how to spot comparable a sold homes figures so you can lower your property tax. When you do, you have a case that you can be confident in to win and lower your real estate taxes.

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