Suze Orman Misguides Oprah Viewers on Foreclosure Meltdown
Suze Orman and Ali Velshi (CNN financial reporter) appeared on Oprah this week to explain what caused the foreclosure crisis, and how individuals can best respond to the financial meltdown. While I agree with Ms. Orman’s suggestions (if not the order of those suggestions), her explanation of the cause of the foreclosure crisis was overly simplistic and conveniently omitted ….
Here is what she said:
“It was the banks and their greed and their deceit of them wanting to make money and giving loans to people when they should have said, ‘I’m so sorry,’ like they did years ago. … But instead they said, ‘Here you go, little one, take a mortgage.’”
And why did they write that mortgage… was it simply greed?
No. It was also govermental influence.
The “regulation” and “oversight” that everyone seems to be clamoring for, insisting that it be “an important part of any foreclosure bailout package,” was already in place. The problem is, it was corrupted by our so-called “leaders.”
The federal government- both Congress and the Clinton and Bush administrations- have been pressuring Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the large banks to expand homeownership and loosen their criteria for lending.
This forced them to make loans to people who shouldn’t have qualified.
Sure, it’s popular to trot out the populist rhetoric and blame this all on Wall Street.
At least Mr. Velshi was willing to point out that nobody really has clean hands in this mess, but that thorny issue was watered down quite a bit.
There are a number of other forces that contributed, but with the influence that the Oprah show has, it’s very important that they strive for an accurate and thorough explanation of what caused this mess.
Ms. Orman’s characterization was far from accurate.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen Suze Orman offer opinions that were at best misguided. I commented earlier that some of the the Suze Orman advice to avoid foreclosure is flat-out wrong.
She’s certainly a dynamic speaker and it seems as though she really does care about the people who call in to her show. If only she (or her staff) would do their homework, the people who call her for help would be better served.
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