“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.
—Julia A. Seymour is an assistant editor for the Business & Media Institute.
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Like all markets, the
August 13, 2007 - 15:15 ET by robert108Like all markets, the housing market is not a social welfare program. It isn't there to "provide" anything but opportunity. There is no "right"(entitlement in leftiespeak) to a mortgage. You have to qualify.
I feel like trailer trash
August 13, 2007 - 15:26 ET by Dan The Man 2I feel like trailer trash with my $98K home. Of course I only bought what I could afford at the time. Where do these people get 500K for a house anyways? The market is just a tad high for my tastes.
Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.
Why do people listen to
August 13, 2007 - 15:30 ET by Six String SpiffWhy do people listen to such hypocrisy? Here we have multi millionaires telling US how bad things are... Umm WHAT?
Sick and tired of them all.
The American Revolution Continued
What's wrong with starting
August 13, 2007 - 18:44 ET by misterbee241What's wrong with starting small and working up?
A 250K house and five years equity, you can move into a bigger house.
I built my house in 1972 for $22,000. My mortgage payment was $203 per month. I was making just a little over $2 per hour. I about had a coronary when I saw how much the payment was.
But that same house now is valued at close to $200,000. When my wife and I cant maintain it anymore, we'll sell it, pocket the equity and move into a retirement community.
A house is as good as money in the bank, but you have to start small.
Just wait.
August 13, 2007 - 17:19 ET by Dave in TexasAnd if a report comes out in a few weeks showing that the average sales price of existing homes is falling in the New York area, do you think ABC will be happy about it because it might aid the Ceceres in their attempt to purchase a home? I'm guessing no.
"Universal Housing"?
August 13, 2007 - 17:35 ET by rbchaffeMaybe when they're finished implementing Universal Health Care in this country, the dems can start working on Universal Housing! It is a "right" not a "privilege" to own a $410,000 home, yes?
Talking the market down
August 13, 2007 - 18:23 ET by c5thenAnd also trying to generate fear in the uninformed viewers. The MSM are worse than almost any enemy that this country has faced. They lie, they distort, they exaggerate, all to manufacture negative sentiment toward the country, the economy or whatever else they decide they don't like.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic
I love the crack about the
August 14, 2007 - 00:48 ET by jdhawkI love the crack about the stock market being legalized gambling. Speaking of legalized gambling most of these United States are involved in just that. Its called the lottery. It prays on the least able to afford to bet by the mathematically challenged.
Meanwhile, non profits like AARP - the outfit that villified our President's Social Security proposal as being too risky - has hundreds of millions invested in the stock market. As does 99% of our universities through their trust funds.