The Other Firestorm
While catastrophic, the California fires will not have nearly the destructive impact as the other firestorm still in progress: the subprime meltdown.
"In all 1800 homes were destroyed in California as of Friday. A half a million acres had been consumed. Those responsible for containing the damage blamed the weather in the short term and climate change in the longer term as well as earlier fire-fighting techniques. This disaster is expected to cost $1 billion dollars.
Yet, [the] pervasive subprime mortgage fraud...threatens to lead to far more homes lost, not 1800, but an estimated two and a half million. (The LA Times says foreclosures in California are at a record high. The third quarter's total surpasses 24,000, which is a record.) More homes are at risk in the fires that have yet to be contained.
Its hard to predict how many of these people will get sick or die because of psychological disorientation and homelessness. Many of them are poor, while those scarred by the fire lived largely in affluent communities.
Senator Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee characterized the subprime crisis as a "50 State Katrina."
...So by all means let's be supportive towards the fire victims who have lost their homes in California's "natural" disaster -- and those that may in fires that may soon have Texas burning -- but we should so so without forgetting the millions of Americans who will soon lose their homes and their economic stability in Wall Street's man-made storm."
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Never enough media coverage
I guess I shouldn't be surprised at how different events are linked to make a political point since this is the Huff n' Puff Post.
There was plenty of coverage of the subprime lending debacle, foreclosures, and the potential ripple effect in the economy long before the fires in California and there will be more long after the last fire is extinguished.
The fires are far more dramatic than yet another story about someone who lost their home due to not understanding what an ARM is or that the value of homes don't always rise at astronomical rates over the long term. Other the hand, a lot of homes were second homes owned by speculators who got burned. Now there's a pun. Homes can recover their value but burned down homes don't rebuild themselves.
"These same deeper causes led to the runaway subprime scandal that has already caused losses in the TRILLIONS, and the clear complicity of leading banks who are seeking bailouts to cover up (and seek compensation) for their role in crimes that have triggered a global financial meltdown and a developing recession, and perhaps something worse to come."
The banks who lost money probably won't get bailed out and the author doesn't prove anything by calling legal loans "crimes". "Global financial meltdown", if hyperbole was a crime, this guy would get at least a 5 year sentence.