No place like home even with a balloon mortgage.

Its nice to know we have someone in the Obama administration who is a huge believer in mortgages of all types and subprime lending.

Seems like Goolsbee has a lot of supporters in his defense of poorly underwritten mortgages from the Fed, Bear Stearns and Bloomberg. He's clearly from the Greenspan school..

Embracing the Goolsbee point of view does not require one to believe that every nook and cranny of the mortgage market was, or even is, operating on safe and sound principles. But -- sorry to sound like a Real Economist™ -- curious moves, big mistakes, and bad behavior are sometimes just part of the game. On this, Free exchange, the blog from the Economist, adds some good sense its own:

There seem to be some cases of abuse in the subprime market... But it's not clear that this has been very widespread. Even in a very bad subprime market, the overwhelming majority of homeowners will continue to make their payments, benefitting (one presumes) from the ability to own a home and build some equity.

And elsewhere, keith at Housing Panic links (not approvingly) to comforting comments from Bloomberg:

"The contagion isn't that big a problem,'' [head of Bears Stearns' mortgage business Tom] Marano said. "I don't see the risk as being that significant at this point.''

http://macroblog.typepad.com/macroblog/2007/03/in_praise_of_th.html

Getting advice from Rubin who basically lied about his knowledge of citi-subprime(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-09/prince-rubin-knew-assets-at-focus-of-sec-claim-fueled-losses-agency-says.html), having Geither who lied about AIG(http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/geithner-to-deny-all-role-in-aig-redactions) and Larry Summers(no link necessary)...

and now promoting Goolsbee(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29scene.html?_r=1) who wasa cheer leader for subprime even though it preyed on minorities and was irresponsible lending...I think it's fair to say Obama now owns the mortgage problem.

Elizabeth Warren is probably puking her guts out in the bathroom at this very moment.

wow congrtulations Riversider. You have betaen your record for the most back to back posts ever. Do you like talking to yourself?