I’m not making excuses for people who have gotten themselves screwed on the subprime or adjustable rate mortgages - pay your bills, dammit - but I do have a bit of sympathy for those who have seen their monthly payments balloon to 50 or 100 percent more than what they formerly paid. Only a bit, though, because it's nothing but hubris if you thought the good times and good interest rates were going to last forever, and you really do need to read the fine print when buying a carton of eggs or a $200,000 house.
But it seems to me that the crisis, in a nutshell, can be traced to the fact that if you’re paying $100 a week to put gas in your car (or more), whereas previously, you were paying only $30 or $40, then that sure as hell is going to eat into your house payment.
I'm just saying.
Maybe it’s a bit too simplistic, because overreliance on easy credit is surely a culprit, but I think that there’s way too much brainpower being devoted to overanalysis of the situation when the answer is right there.
Bring down fuel prices – open up more drilling in the West or down in the Gulf or up in Alaska, to the point where OPEC sees we’re serious about being less dependent on their oil – and it seems like there would be more money available for people to make their house payments.
We don't need a bailout, we need to get gas back down below $3 a gallon.
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