Kerry to Shareholders: Drop Dead

There’s a lot of chatter about John Kerry’s free-wheeling interview in the South Coast Today  paper. Of interest is this off the cuff remark about the foreclosure crisis:

“Charge them 4 percent or 5 percent, whatever, forgo a little profit.”

The roots of the foreclosure crisis are the result of those who sought to purchase a home but lacked the resources to pay for them.  In some respects, folks were speculating that the value of the house would increase and that it could be resold at a profit.  Whether it’s tulips, dot-coms, or the housing industry — what goes up must come down. As tragic as this difficulty may be, there is no provision in the Constitution that declares that home-ownership is a right.

Now think of those who invested in mortgage companies and banks.  They put their money in with the thought that their investment would reap a dividend that could help finance a college education, retirement, or a rainy day.

Now, according to John Kerry, that investor should be punished by reducing his return on the investment because the borrower at the other end of the equation made a commitment that he could not keep.

You would think that a Yale education and 24 years of being a Senator would make Kerry aware of, well, the dynamics of a market economy.

I don’t think another six years in the Senate will make him any smarter.