An expose of bad businesses and their unethical practices

The sub-prime mortgage foreclosure issue is assuming massive proportions as it threatens to join the war in Iraq in sinking the American economy. With an issue of this magnitude, there is always plenty of blame to go around. Just where should that blame be placed? The lenders? The borrowers? Let’s look for a moment at the culpability of our government.

The Treasury Department, currently led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, supposedly has significant oversight over such matter. This oversight is actually spread among many government departments. The problem is very straightforward. Unqualified borrowers were given loans that they would obviously be unable to pay when their variable-rate “feature” kicked in.

This is almost a textbook description of predatory lending practices. Yet no one in government sounded the alarm. They were all looking the other way while the greed of the mortgage lenders propelled this issue to crisis proportions. One can only wonder how much influence the mortgage lending lobbyist had on this inattention to even the largest detail of how business is done in America. Shame on those with oversight in this matter.