and we spiral deeper

"With the credit crisis cutting off access to short-term financing California officials said the state may be forced to ask the United States government to lend it $7 billion, warning that the state could run out of money in a few weeks without it."
Running out of money!? The countries most populated state, and supposedly the sixth largest economy (at one point in the past few years anyway) in THE WORLD, and it's running out of money!? That's just pathetic. To a lesser extent Gray Davis found himself in a similar situation 5- years ago and he was impeached because of it. It is just pathetic!
You know, the wife and I had a real estate agent show us houses about a year and a half ago here in northern California. The average home he showed us was $470k and roughly 1100 sq.ft. (yeah, that's right, $427 per square foot!) Our fixed rate interest only loan would have brought our monthly payments to $3k /month (that's $3,000 per month solely to pay the interest on the loan!). The agent was actually sort of pressuring us to sign on a house, but we decided to pass, as it was both not worth it and prices (we figured) were sure to come down.
Here we are 18-months later and the same average house is running $350-$400 (still WAY over-priced). Now, you can say the mortgage brokers are part to blame for all this "sub-prime" mess, but it amazes me that there's zero accountability for people making up their own minds and taking responsibility for their financial decisions. At some point these people that have since foreclosed on their homes (or are hanging on by the skin of their teeth) had to sit down with a mortgage broker and get a bottom line quote for their monthly mortgage payments. They then decided it was "worth it" and they could afford it (because, hey home prices only appreciate!), so they signed on the dotted line. Now, they're being coddled and commiserated with for the decisions they made. We also have presidential candidates shooting off talking points blaming "Wall Street" for the woes on "Main Street."
Zero accountability. It's just pathetic is all I wanted to say.