I know this one ought to tweak a few noses
Reparations proponents take note. That much of the Black community has no housing value to mitigate their debt with is directly traceable to local, state and federal government policies.
Greenspan Says Personal Debt Is Mitigated by Housing Value
The Associated Press
The finances of American households are in generally good shape even though consumers have increased their debt and bankruptcy filings have surged, the Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, said yesterday.
In a speech to the Credit Union National Association in Washington, Mr. Greenspan said that an extended period of low interest rates and extra cash from mortgage refinancing had given borrowers flexibility to better manage their debts.
Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of economic activity in the United States, and a widespread deterioration in households' balance sheets could significantly cut spending. Consumer debt reached a record $2 trillion in December, according to the most recent figures from the Federal Reserve. That includes credit cards and car loans, but not mortgages.
More than 1.6 million people filed for bankruptcy protection in the 2003 fiscal year, ended Sept. 30. Continuing the record-setting pace of recent years, personal bankruptcies rose 7.8 percent, according to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
Mr. Greenspan said that while elevated bankruptcy filing rates in the last few years were troubling because they underlined the difficulties that some households experience during economic slowdowns, "bankruptcy rates are not a reliable measure of the overall health of the household sector because they do not tend to forecast general economic conditions and they can be significantly influenced over time by changes in laws and lender practices."
He said that American households own more than $14 trillion in real estate assets and that mortgage refinancing and the rise in home values have helped to bolster consumer spending in economic hard times as well as better periods.
"Over the past two years, " he said, "significant increases in the value of real estate assets have, for some households, mitigated stock market losses and supported consumption."
