Personal Finance: Strategic Default; Is It Just a Business Decision?

Personal Finance: Strategic Default; Is It Just a Business Decision? Review

On February 19, 2009, CNBC commentator Rick Santelli expressed his famous rant. This rant essentially expressed the feelings of those who pay their bills, pay their house notes, and stay out of debt. This book discusses Strategic Default, walking away from a mortgage note, in the light of this Tea Party understanding.

With the formation of the Tea Party, admittedly because of the Santelli rant, a movement to return America to her roots of personal responsibility was born. Santelli had said that those who made a bet on the housing ponzi and lost should not be bailed out. Many took his rant to mean that the losers should man up and pay off their mortgages. This book does not make a case for whether the mortgage "deadbeats" should be bailed out.

But there are other issues regarding the actions of those who can afford to pay their mortgages yet walk away from homes that are worth far less than the value of the mortgage. This book looks at what many call a business decision in the light of what is moral, even what is patriotic. But unlike Santelli, this book looks at the role of the Federal Reserve Bank and the role of the financial elite in the formulation of the ponzi housing bubble.

It is impossible to make a moral or patriotic decision regarding walking away from a house you can afford without understanding the nature of the housing bubble and the nature of securitization as a means for handling mortgages in our country, both in the past and in the future. Understanding the nature of the Fed and of securitization will go a long way toward determining morality and patriotism post bubble.