Ninja

My friend TW was furious recently with some youngsters who asked for government subsides so that they could buy their own house. (See http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/cal-culator/article?mid=249)

I shall not elaborate my opinion on this matter. Just that a story of Bill Clinton came to my mind.

It went like this: Increasing home ownership was one of the major goals of Bill Clinton when he became the president of USA. As you would expect, it was particularly difficult for those new American immigrants who had a low income to afford their own house. Obsessed with multiculturalism, the Democratic president turned his effort to the private banking system. (The major one was the legislative changes in mid-1990s in relation to the Community Reinvestment Act.)

The result was simple. In short, even people with no income, no job or asset (so called "ninja") had a good chance of obtaining a mortgage to buy their own house. Well, it took almost 20 years before the bubble burst and it became obvious that those ninja should not buy something that they could not afford - even if someone lend them the money.

It was, as we all know (and suffered), the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

PS. Of course our local ninja did not want to get support from banks; they prefer to squeeze it from the government's pocket.

I'm sure the crisis would not develop in our banks.