Biden announces retirement (savings program)

Vice President Joe Biden announces retirement (savings program).

If only we were so lucky. (In reality, it doesn’t matter. As he recently said, “It’s easy being vice president—you don’t have to do anything.”)

Biden, with the White House, revealed a new consumer financial protection program today. The new proposal, while still light on details, includes new regulations protecting consumers from financial products, additional consumer protection in the mortgage industry, and additional protections for retirement security.

The irony is overwhelming. The proposal writes: “In the wake of the Madoff scandal, it is clear that all investors need better protection from fraud and unscrupulous actors.” Is that the same scandal that was reported to the SEC multiple times and ignored? Surely throwing more money at the organization will fix the problem. The unfortunate truth is that many investors likely assumed that such a large scale investment operation must have been vetted by the SEC and was legitimate.

It goes on to say: “Too many mortgage brokers pushed families into loans that were not suitable for them and with terms that they did not understand.” I wonder why they did that. Don’t those mortgage lenders know that lending money to people who can’t afford to pay you back is a bad idea? (Hint – when you know the government is behind you with an unlimited supply of monopoly money, it becomes a good idea.)

Between tax credits for housing, interest deduction on your taxes, government sponsored Fannie and Freddie, low interest rates, et cetera, I was under the impression that the government wanted you in a home no matter the cost. Too bad there isn’t a mechanism that can figure out the efficient number of home owners versus renters in America. Until someone can figure that out, I guess we’re left with Uncle Sam.