Steve Liesman is a Statist Hack

A follow up to the previous post. Rick Santelli is being challenged by his co-worker from CNBC about the proper path to take. Through this little debate, it become more and more obvious that Steve Liesman is a Statist hack.

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He claims the market can't fix this problem and Santelli rightly calls him out saying that the 'market' is in fact 'people' working through non-coerced cooperation. If people can't fix this problem, who can? Obama? Geithner? Stalin? Mao? Gimme a break. The Market Ticker makes a great point about viewing your house as an speculative investment or a shelter:

Another fact: For every American that has a house they can't afford there is another American that wants to own a house, but can't because prices are still too high. For those of us who look at our homes as shelter, not a speculative investment, we don't care what the price is on our abode - we want a place to live, not something to use as a means of "levering up" as some grand ATM that we can tap to pay off our credit cards (which we then charge up once more!) My residence more than tripled in price from 2000 to 2007, and now it has lost most of that appreciation - being worth somewhat more than it was when I bought it. So what? My home is not a speculative investment - if it was, I would have sold it when the Realtors came knocking on my door in 2005.

Listen, I understand that some people were lied to and some people legitimately are getting screwed by predatory lending and what not. But the whole of the 9 million being foreclosed upon do NOT fall into this category. A small percentage does. Sometimes shit hits the fan and you deal with it. I'm sorry you were lied to, I'm sorry your can't afford your house because you were lied to. But if you bought a home at $400,000 and it's worth $300,000 now, and you are underwater because you didn't put anything down, but you can still afford to make your payments, you shouldn't be getting bailed out. No principle reduction, no rate reductions unless the lender thinks it is in the best interest of both parties. If you buy stock at $40 and it goes down to $30, you don't get a redo. At least with your house, you can continue to live in it. You can't live in a stock. So be thankful that this investment is still giving you a roof over your head.

I don't want to come off as bitter and unwilling to help those in need. But to legislate every other American to FORCEFULLY bail you out sets a very dangerous precedent. And don't even get me started on the precedent of allowing judicial cramdowns. If you want, go after the banks and mortgage companies and ratings agencies that perpetuated this fraud. Do not go after your neighbors and fellow tax payers (and everyone's children). If anything, go after Canada. Stupid Canadians.