All I hear on the news is that the bailout plan is being called a bailout of Wall Street bankers and that people are really mad about it. It is absolutely true that some banks and mortgage lenders came up with exotic mortgages that some people didn't understand and/or shouldn't have taken out. These 100% loans (or even higher), no down payment, balloon payment, etc. type of instruments should never have been allowed by the regulators to exist. It is also true that the Republicans, in order to kowtow to big business as they always have, have been deregulating like crazy in order to "let the market work."
But who took these loans out? And who wrung every dollar of equity out of their homes in the last few years? Who bought houses that were too expensive, that they couldn't afford, putting nothing down and using these kinds of loans, causing this mess to happen in the first place?
Main Street needs to fess up that this is just as much a bailout of them as it is of Wall Street. For those of who bought affordable homes and got traditional mortgages, we will be taking the blow with them even though we did everything right. I think the knee-jerk reaction that it's only Wall Street that's to blame (and yes, they deserve plenty), are missing half the problem. Let's just hope they're not doomed to repeat their mistakes because they never understood that.
