ABC's Cuomo Bemoans 'Crashing' of Stock Market – er, 'Legalized Gambling'

“Crashing” stock market? “Legalized gambling”? ABC’s “Good Morning America” berated the stock market for trampling on a supposed individual right to a mortgage.

Chris Cuomo’s August 13 story on a couple who had their mortgage pulled due the recent “drama on Wall Street” started like this:

“To a certain extent the stock market has always been a form of legalized gambling, where Wall Street tries to cash in on bets made on the right companies. But for many financial institutions, the chips were the mortgages of hard-working American families, in danger of losing their homes, or now never getting a chance to live the American dream.”

Cuomo later added that “A slight increase in a rate can be a burden, or it can mean that they literally can not afford to buy a home, and that will be a tragedy that goes far beyond the crashing of the stock market.”

“Crashing”? Markets aren’t in recession, let alone a crash. Markets are still up for the year thus far. Thursday’s triple-digit drop (213 points) came only a few days after a triple-digit increase (476 points from August 6th – August 8th).

Cuomo focused on the story of Gary and Heidi Cecere, who had their mortgage pulled when attempting to purchase a house. Cuomo made it sound as though a mortgage for a home is a God-given right. Cuomo continued playing on viewers’ emotions with interviews of the Cecere children lamenting how nice it would have been to “come home to my own room, my own bed, and a big yard.” Gary Cecere talked about the grand plans they had for the house:

“We were gonna put a pool … right here … maybe a little front porch.”

The Cecere family was trying to purchase a $410,000 dollar home and then add a pool and a front porch. The average price of a home nationwide is $237,900 as of June 2007. While this isn’t necessarily indicative of the upstate New York housing market, Cuomo didn’t question whether the Cecere family was trying to buy too much house.

Granted this home was a “dream come true,” but we rarely, if ever, get our dream house on the first try.