| When I was State FFA President in Indiana a lifetime | | | | means that, whether you like it or not, your house |
| ago, I was presenting a program on agriculture to an | | | | and the others on your street is quite probably |
| elementary school class in inner-city Indianapolis as | | | | financed by Wall Street no matter where you live. |
| part of a photo opportunity for Farm-City Week. | | | | I hate what has happened to our economy. Yet, just |
| Hoping to teach the kids the importance of farmers, | | | | like everyone else, I didn't want to put any more |
| I confidently started my presentation by asking if | | | | down on a house than anyone else. I wanted my |
| they knew "where hamburger comes from?" And, | | | | payments to be as low as possible so I could afford |
| just as confidently, a third grader announced his | | | | an even bigger house. Being self-employed, I wanted |
| answer: "Hamburger comes from McDonald's." | | | | as little hassle as possible in proving my income |
| I was thinking of that story today when watching a | | | | because I wanted the deal to be painless. I've made |
| recent news story updating the federal bailout of bad | | | | my payments every time, and on time, but I'm as |
| mortgages and Wall Street. | | | | guilty as about anyone else because I, too, wanted |
| As the son of a butcher and grocery store owner, I | | | | the sweetest deal I could get. |
| think it's important to reveal to you (if you didn't | | | | We've got to fix this. And, it's possible that some of |
| already know) that the hamburger you purchase | | | | the bad guys won't get what is coming to them as a |
| probably didn't come a local farm. More likely than | | | | result. Yet, if credit continues drying up and the |
| not, it's the product of a huge feedlot a thousand | | | | economy continues to struggle, you won't be able to |
| miles away. Perhaps it's even from an enormous | | | | sell your house because no purchaser will get the |
| ranch half a world away in Australia. That's really | | | | mortgage they need to buy it. Your employer won't |
| where hamburger comes from. | | | | be able to fund your paycheck and you won't be |
| Your mortgage is similar. You probably think of it just | | | | able to finance your kids' college education. |
| like a burger - it's a local product. When I was | | | | I want the bad guys and gals from the world of |
| growing up, your mortgage came from the single | | | | shady finance to get sent to the big house. |
| bank in our home town. You paid your house | | | | However, I just don't think enough of us realize that |
| payment when you cashed your paycheck. And - at | | | | we may have to risk OUR houses because of the |
| least in our state - banks couldn't even cross state | | | | challenges that may no longer be on the front page |
| lines...and, for a time as I recall, even county lines. | | | | -- but continue to loom. |
| Now, your mortgage is often sold to you by a | | | | The problem is that we are all involved in this. My |
| broker - who, in turn, sold it to some other entity | | | | mom said often that "Money doesn't grow on trees." |
| located someplace else, who probably packaged it | | | | The problem is that, just like hamburger, it also |
| with other loans and sold it again...and again. That | | | | doesn't come from where you think it does. |