I have nothing to do with this

[cema]

As I am not an expert in finances or economics, I defer any judgment on the bailout and its failure.

But we are all experts in politics, aren't we. Do I understand it correctly that the basic driving force behind the current financial troubles is a failure of a socialist experiment in the housing market? Or is it only part of the problem?

And the politicians, as usual, will blame someone else. (And everybody else will blame politicians.)

It is interesting to note, too, that more Americans are reported to trust Obama's team on economics than McCains' team. Whereas one would think that it would be the other way.

Update. A bit heated in the comments. Chill out, the world is not going to end right now.

Comments

[gera.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was, in fact, me, who picked the quotes and despite all the harsh words, the only fault you have found with them, actually, with just one of them, is the fact that you believe that failing to quote the part about the utility bills as an alternative "distorts the meaning to almost the opposite of the intended one". You seem to think not only that this is generally considered a valid alternative, but that it is a common practice to request such information and that it can be easily furnished.
I am afraid that this misconception has to do with the lack of familiarity with the realities of this country, and once you understand them a little better, you'll see that this argument doesn't hold any water (and with that the whole cherry-picking accusation as an excuse to dismiss the whole document).

I am not sure if you know what credit history is beyond what can be deduced from the actual words, because there is no such thing in Israel. Credit history is, basically, a record (or a report based on the record) of all the financial transactions of a particular individual related to loans and consumer credit (credit cards). In other words, anyone, who has ever had a credit card, has a credit history. Actually, a more important and related notion is credit score, which is calculated, as far as this information is disclosed, based, more or less, on such factors:
* 35% — punctuality of payment in the past (only includes payments later than 30 days past due)
* 30% — the amount of debt, expressed as the ratio of current revolving debt (credit card balances, etc.) to total available revolving credit (credit limits)
* 15% — length of credit history
* 10% — types of credit used (installment, revolving, consumer finance)
* 10% — recent search for credit and/or amount of credit obtained recently

Also, note, that the credit history is tied to a federally unique ID (social security number) and is checked by bank computers within a minute.
Now, despite what you might think, there is no such standard document, that says: "This consumer has paid all his utility bills" and even if there was, it would be impossible to determine if he paid them on time. Nor would this system take into consideration any other risk factors, which credit score is designed to assess. The only thing that a consumer can bring to prove his timely payments of his utility bills, are the actual bills, and only in the case and to the extent that he kept them (and only if they mention the last payment). Most people don't keep them, so besides them not being very useful, the applicant will either have to be excused to cherry-pick them, or this is not going to help him. And imagine which bills he will bring if he cherry picks them, those that show his delinquencies or those that show his timely payments? In fact, if people could choose what gets into their credit history this way, it would become utterly useless too. But it gets better. They also mention medical bills, which, as you may imagine, everyone owes to different doctors. Even if someone brings signed statements from ten doctors, that testify that he owes them nothing, that in no way proves that there aren't ten other doctors to whom he does owe some amounts and hasn't paid them for quite some time. How useful is that? Don't you see that this makes a joke out of the verification process?