W’s gift to us all , the Bush Boom
After taking the weekend off to relax at a few Yankees games we are back, Impatient Sufferers. What better way to return than with news of another example of the trendiest economic phenomenon of them all, the Bush Boom?
Today we look at how contractors are benefiting from the collapse in the housing market. Fuel costs are rising, bringing up the cost of food and other essentials at the same time as many variable rate mortgages have seen skyrocketing rates. The result has been a glut of foreclosures and families suddenly left to figure out where to raise their families.
The problem of vacant homes is all the more striking when considered against predictions by economists that a couple of million more homes will enter foreclosure in the next two years, said Cheryl Lang, president of Integrated Mortgage Solutions, a company based in Houston that contracts with Mr. McCallister and Mr. Law on behalf of mortgage companies.“We still have two million more people that need to go through this process,” she said. “That’s like the entire town of Tampa going through foreclosure.”
Nearly 3 percent of homes that were once occupied by their owners in the country were vacant in March. That is up from less than 2 percent three years ago and is the highest since the Census Bureau began publishing the number in 1956.
For people like Mr. McCallister and Mr. Law, the surge in foreclosure has been good for business. Tim Doehner, executive director of the National Association of Mortgage Field Services, a trade association based in Ohio, estimates that most of his members have doubled their revenue in the last year. Individual contractors can bill as much as $5,000 every two weeks, said Jimmy Lyons, one of the partners in the firm, Landwise Inspection Services of Lake City, Fla., that Mr. McCallister and Mr. Law work for.
This is a classic example of a Bush Boom. We are seeing a few select individuals profiting from what is a crisis for most. There’s something reassuring about seeing that life goes on but to me this still has the feeling of celebrating that the funeral business is doing much better after a massacre. What have we come to when this is our good news on the economic front?
3 Responses to “W’s gift to us all , the Bush Boom”
Another Bush boomlet has emerged…incessant informercials on cable and broadcast TV promise instant wealth by purchasing foreclosed properties at auction. It’s positively ghoulish: vultures on the wire just waiting for the next wave of foreclosures.
Comment made on May 29th, 2008 at 12:02 pmGlad I’m not the only one who finds that deeply disturbing.
Comment made on May 29th, 2008 at 12:19 pmAs has happened before (see: GIANT pastiche), GoogleAds has generated in-site advertising on the Imp which confirm these critical observations. At right, I am enjoying a banner which declares ‘FIND FORECLOSURES, SAVE BIG! 30-50% Savings!’ Similar to the other industries enabled by the Bush administration (like weapons manufacturers and private military providers), these companies are little deterred by the ethical and humane ramifications of their single-minded profit pursuits. Just as disturbing is the idea that consumers, overlooking these same considerations, are encouraged (by the so-called amoral rules of our self-serving capitalist system) to purchase these properties rather than take an active and consolidated stand against predatory lending.
Compassionate Conservativism indeed.
Comment made on May 29th, 2008 at 1:43 pmLeave a Comment