The mortgage crisis, in cartoon form (has cursing, maybe NSFW?) | Hacker News Reader

The mortgage crisis, in cartoon form (has cursing, maybe NSFW?)

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127 pointsyummyfajitas25 comments

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A pretty good explanation (according to my limited understanding anyway). Can anyone who knows more about this confirm that it is as accurate as an amusing stick figure cartoon can be?

It is very accurate. The problem occurred with the "division of labor" that is clearly outlined in the presentation.

Many people took out loans that they couldn't pay for. They failed to understand the terms of their mortgage. It didn't help that the mortgage brokers had lowered their lending standards so low that almost anyone could walk in and get a mortgage.

It is true that most mortgage companies were simply in the business of brokering as many deals as possible. They didn't care because they just brokered the deal.

So the next logical group to place the blame on would be the banks. The banks, and their legions of loan officers, should not have allowed the loans to take place. Unfortunately, banks do take their mortgages and sell them on the open market to investment banks who end up wrapping them up in some derivative product.

A good reference work concerning the creation of the mortgage derivatives is a book by Michael Lewis titled Liars Poker. In the book Lewis describes how the mortgage derivatives industry came to be and how they founders of the industry went about valuing these products. It's not a rigorous review at all. That's why many people didn't even know what types of mortgages were in these products.

Like my other comment. The article is very accurate. I would like to see legislation to fix the industry as well as some civil and criminal cases because crimes were indeed committed.

Finance is tough job market. You don't have much job security and the risks go up as your position does. Most financial officers are one major fuckup away from a ruined career. All types of engineers are in the best position right now because everyone is desperate for more good engineers. Not just from the explosion of software engineering but also from all the baby boomer mechanical, chemical, and civil engineers on the verge of retirement.

What the hell is going on with comments on this topic?

I have no idea. If it was my submission that caused it, I apologize to all YC readers out there.

PG, a feature suggestion: create a "Hide this user from me" button. By default, the list of hidden users could contain all users matching .* reddit.* (but without a space after the first * , that's only there due to YC markup rules).

I don't think you submission has anything to do with them. I suppose it's a simple case of being in the wrong side in the wrong moment.

Maybe because this has been up here several times that I've seen, and I'm new. It was too much for someone to handle?

They should probably calm down a little.

(In case someone is late to the party, most of the crazy downvoting and weird crap has since been edited out)

maybe i'm just reading more comment threads than usual, but doesn't it look like we're under troll attack here?

i see an account that got to -40 karma an hour after being created. after you get a certain amount in the hole, shouldn't your ability to comment be disabled?

I figured the software did it, I guess PG is just normally quick with the dead button.

Incredibly cool and effectively told :-)

Bingo!

I included the comment because I thought the presentation was dead on. It certainly did capture the essence of the how the mortgage system works in this country.

It is because of the mortgage crisis and its spread to the general credit markets that I can't find a job in finance at this time. That's why I have made the decision to pursue a second undergraduate degree. I'm done with finance after supporting for three years the house of cards Wall Street built.

Well good luck with the studies - probably a good time.

I admit that pursuing the finance degree was probably the biggest mistake of my life. I originally wanted to study mathematics and physics but greed for money got the best of me. The only good result that came out of the finance degree was a healthy understanding of C++ as a large amount of financial modeling is done in the language. It was after graduation that I really became interested in computer programming.

That's interesting. I'm a postdoc in physics, and a few months ago I was feeling bored and poor, and seriously considering switching to finance.

Three months later though, and staying in academia is looking pretty attractive. I might not be making the huge money, but at least I know my job isn't going anywhere.

Thats encouraging to hear. Some would say too many smart people go "fuck it" and move into finance/IBanking for the money (not that I could say I would do any differently if riches were assured). But it seems a worry when minds could be put to other productive uses.

you got voted down for the "bingo!" comment because it was substance-less. your followup comment, however, was very good. that's the one you should have written in the first place.

What are you going to get a degree in? I might suggest just jumping into a master's program to skip a lot of the cruft that comes with undergraduate programs. They might make you take some undergraduate courses, but only the really important ones - And the graduate courses you take will be hard, but you'll learn a lot from them. I'm doing something similar but in applied math. (i have a degree in engineering). I have a friend who studied physics as an undergrad and is now getting a masters in CS. They made him take a few undergraduate courses, putting him back a semester, but he doesn't have to wade through the full undergraduate curriculum.

Oh. And only take 3 courses/semester as a grad. student. You actually have a chance to learn it all thoroughly.

The degree is going to be in CS. I chose to do a second undergraduate degree because I didn't want to do a PhD in finance or economics. I found myself more and more wanting to write code. I can get lost in a good problem for hours and not even realize it. I've always been fascinated with computers, but I have only started to see what is truly possible when one is able to create a service rather than just consume one.

So get a masters in CS. It's not a Ph.D. in finance/economics, and also avoids the BS required to get a BS.

Based on my location and cost constraints BGSU was the only option I have available, and I did not meet the requirements for the masters program.

Did you actually talk to the profs? Just ask them and be like: I wanna learn CS. I know how to code already, but I wanna learn all the fun stuff. They'll probably be very sympathetic and let you in anyway.

brent, why not an MBA? With your finance background and (I presume) a bunch of undergraduate business courses under your belt it should be quick and easy. There's no degree requirement for hackers--"MBA coder with financial sector experience" sounds pretty good, and you can keep working on your HNd here among like-minded comrades. You could also try to use the program as a platform to launch your startup: business plan competitions, networking, possible co-founders or employees among your fellow students, etc.

I'm sure you've considered this--I'm just surprised you (or anybody else) didn't mention it.

I would label this with the "Not NSWF" marker.

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