HELOCs an Endangered Species

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2009/12/25/20091225-home-equity-lending.html

"A quarter of all homeowners are ineligible for home equity loans because they owe more on their mortgage than what the house is worth."

Note the twisted American psychology of calling people homeowners who didn't put any money down on the homes they occupy.

"'The home as ATM is yesterday,' says Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH Associates Financial Publishers, which publishes consumer loan information.

Millions of homeowners borrowed from the house to improve their standard of living. Now, unable to count on rising home values to absorb more borrowing, indebted homeowners are feeling anything but wealthy."

Note the language: "feeling ... wealthy" was what many Americans were doing in the bubble as they spent money they didn't own. We have a parallel problem now as the gov't spends money it doesn't have, addicted to OPM (other people's money) in the form of sovereign wealth funds of other countries like China & Saudi Arabia and of taxpayers' money. Their solution to the economic problems is to steal more money from the taxpayers, who will in turn hire fewer & fire more people, creating less demand in the retail sector, home & auto sales, etc. This fortuitous cycle forces more people into dependence on gov't handouts so the Washington oligarchs can perform hostile takeovers of vast swaths of what was formerly known as the most successful economy in the world.