Letter: Mortgage brokers were gov't pawns
A foreclosure sign sits atop a for sale sign in front of a single-family home tops the for sale sign in Denver in this file photo. (April 4, 2010) Credit: AP
While I can agree with some of your letter writer's comments ["Many got away with mortgage fraud," Letters, Aug. 14], he is not including many of the relevant facts that led to our financial disaster.
Our culture has a propensity to want it now and deal with it later. No one will ever convince me that many of these borrowers didn't realize if they were earning "y" and were going to have to pay back "w," they couldn't determine the numbers wouldn't work.
The best analogy to explain this mindset is to look at our population's credit card debt. No "Main Street brokers" are soliciting unsuspecting charge card holders to run up limits above their means.
Banks offer mortgage programs designed for one major purpose: to win market share. If a broker failed to offer programs that were made available by banks regulated by the government -- which had the mindset that everyone deserves to own a home -- the broker would face sanctions and prosecution for discrimination. Many government officials, at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, were the architects of the NINJA loans, which were a major part of the disaster that we taxpayers will be suffering for years to come.
Daniel A. Hesse, East Islip
Editor's note: The writer is a former mortgage banker.
