Good morning on this Saturday, the 27th day of September. The effects of Wall Street recklessness and greed are being felt on Main Street. Tighter credit, failing financial institutions, grave concern being expressed by leaders and constituents and continuing feverish negotiations between members of the administration and members of Congress over a bailout plan, are all part of the big picture of the degree of the mess we're in. How did it happen. It happened in several key steps over the last decade.
(1) There was a push to loosen the mortgage requirements so more people could afford more homes. Mortgages were issued with no money down, without adequately checking people's ability to afford the purchase and even, in some cases, failing to verify the accuracy of the financial information provided by borrowers.
(2) Wall Street investment banks such as Lehmen Brothers and Bear Stearns (not to be confused with commercial banks such as our neighborhood banks which operate under a different set of regulations) were allowed to leverage loans at a rate of 35 or 40 to 1 and package mortgages they purchased from lenders into mortgage backed security instruments and sold them to various investors such as pension funds and other buyer groups.
(3) The Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly referred to as Fannie Mae and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, commonly known as Freddie Mac, two huge backers of mortgages which together are responsible for more than half of this country's 12 trillion dollars in mortgages guarantee that the principal and interest will be paid even if the mortgage holder defaults fell under increasing pressure as more and more of the mortgages, especially high risk mortgages, went into foreclosure.
(4) Insurers of those instruments such as insurance giant AIG maintained only $.03 on the dollar to cover the risk.
All of these factors combined became a perfect storm when home prices which had inflated into a bubble in many markets precipitously declined in depreciation and people defaulted on their mortgages.
It became a downward spiral which has taken down everything and everyone in its path.
There is plenty of blame to go around and if all involved would have followed Biblical principles regarding money and finances, we would not have this financial mess. The Bible warns we should never be slothful in business (Romans 12:11). Next week in my blog, I'll share some of the relevant Biblical principles which could have helped prevent this chaos.
Tomorrow's sermon is entitled, The Most Valuable Thing In Your Life. Remember in is Friend Day. I hope to see you and your friends tomorrow.
Pastor Brown.