The Motley Fool is more Foolish Than Ever

Ok, these arch conservative investor types need to go to hell, seriously. Even in my cold addled state, I still bristle when I think about this article.

The article states that it is a mistake to hold the bankers accountable for not doing enough modifications. Leave the banks alone, the author rails! Let them do what they do best and get tear off the scabs that are delinquent mortgage holders by foreclosing on them quickly! Read the article, I've accurately summed up this idiot's words.

First of all, let's start with "leave the banks alone" for a minute. Isn't "leaving the banks alone" what got us into this mess in the first place? Isn't the deregulation that allowed mortgages to be "securitized" and traded on the stock market the main factor in the financial pickle that we're all in? So, yeah...let's continue to leave the banks alone...that's worked out so WELL!

Secondly, let's look at what would happen if foreclosures were allowed to proceed unchecked. Housing values would continue to dive as more and more foreclosures flood the market, and with unemployment continuing to soar, there are very few buyers out there. So, homes would stand vacant and untended. Neighborhoods would deteriorate and the number of homeless would rise sharply. All of this would drive the economy into a deeper depression, which, newsflash! is good for no one, not even fat cat investor types like the author.

The author is big on letting the markets correct themselves, only this problem was not caused by free market forces. This problem was caused by governmental policies that institutionalized greed and facilitated the biggest re-distribution of wealth from the bottom to the top in United States history.

In closing, there needs to be a major economic re-balancing, and those firms that took risks that they never should have taken need to be allowed to fail. Their victims, the homeowners of America, need to have their mortgages reworked to make them sane and affordable, regardless of how they came to be, and regardless of income.