Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 149 posts

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#101

Post by Someguywhatever »

Marazan wrote: post #65
Someguywhatever wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the government forcing banks to lend to people who would normally not qualify for mortgage loans that caused the crisis in the first place. The people who the banks accurately predicted couldn't pay and were normally denied loans were instead actually given loans, subsequently couldn't pay, aaaand everything collapsed. I think that the securitization and sell off of these mortgage backed securities were the ba…

Absolutely false. The subprime crisis was not caused by 'government mandated' lending to traditionally undeserved parts of the population. Anyone pushing that narrative is trying to pushing a implicitly racist 'reason' for the financial crisis: "it was all them loans to the black people that did it" .

Ok well I'm out to lunch then, I read that somewhere but can no longer remember where.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#102

Post by Someguywhatever »

icebraining wrote: post #52
Someguywhatever wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the government forcing banks to lend to people who would normally not qualify for mortgage loans that caused the crisis in the first place. The people who the banks accurately predicted couldn't pay and were normally denied loans were instead actually given loans, subsequently couldn't pay, aaaand everything collapsed. I think that the securitization and sell off of these mortgage backed securities were the ba…

"Several candidates made the argument at the debate that the government forced mortgage lenders to make bad loans. But in reality, most subprime loans were made by companies that were not subject to any kind of federal regulation." "No executive of a major mortgage company said at the time that the government was forcing them to make subprime loans. They said they did it because they thought they would make money. An…

Was there some incentive from government then, was there some kind of deregulation or some other kind of regulatory change? Why would this subprime lending begin in the first place do we know?

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#103

Post by Someguywhatever »

barbecue_sauce wrote: post #73
Someguywhatever wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the government forcing banks to lend to people who would normally not qualify for mortgage loans that caused the crisis in the first place. The people who the banks accurately predicted couldn't pay and were normally denied loans were instead actually given loans, subsequently couldn't pay, aaaand everything collapsed. I think that the securitization and sell off of these mortgage backed securities were the ba…

The government? It was demand for mortgage-backed securities (viewed as traditionally safe assets for investment) from investment funds that led to more and more lenient mortgage qualifications to increase supply, weakening the previous strength of those securities overall that, through layers of financial indirection (see tranches), were not valued correctly until too late (with the subsequent credit default swap re…

ah ok, so demand for MBS --> led to some kind of lobbying for deregulation---> which led to the deregulation actually happening ---> which led to unscrupulous individuals subprime lending so they could package it up as MBS and sell those off to make money

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#104

Post by jimmaswell »

BonesJustice wrote: post #93
T-hawk wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is correct; I knew it but didn't try to illustrate it for simplicity.

i.e., highways in Jersey are a quagmire of poor planning. Actually, that applies to pretty much all roads—not just highways.

At least a lot of our roads, including city roads, got to be planned at all - still better than the mazes of very narrow, disorganized roads established hundreds of years ago you get in very old locations in Europe, particularly old cities. At least this is the impression I've gotten reading some accounts on the subject online - can't vouch for it 100%.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#105

Post by closeparen »

mikeash wrote: post #21
dcole2929 wrote: post #9

Stuff like this is why I have exactly zero faith in the US ever building the type of high speed rail systems that other countries have and we clearly need. These projects are simply to expensive for private entities to undertake alone and federal and local governments can't stay aligned long enough to see anything that last longer than an election period through to it's finish. Unless someone invents teleportation, w…

Somehow this stuff got built before. There must be a way to get back into that state.

The defining factor of that state is a willingness to disenfranchise neighbors and obliterate communities for the sake of convenience. Politics are now far too sensitive to local constituents’ rights and opinions to permit the construction of infrastructure nearly as good as the interstate highway system. A system optimized for utility will be less useful than one balancing utility and social justice.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#106

Post by jimmaswell »

dcole2929 wrote: post #9

Stuff like this is why I have exactly zero faith in the US ever building the type of high speed rail systems that other countries have and we clearly need. These projects are simply to expensive for private entities to undertake alone and federal and local governments can't stay aligned long enough to see anything that last longer than an election period through to it's finish. Unless someone invents teleportation, w…

I have hopes for The Boring Company.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#107

Post by mikeash »

teddyh wrote: post #68
mikeash wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds more like a cost of bigotry and intolerance.

It’s actually the combination of both which is a problem. As you say, diversity wouldn’t be a problem if there were no bigots and intolerant people, but conversely, bigots and intolerant people weren’t as much of a problem when there was less diversity.

Sure, in the same way that a shooting murder requires someone to be in the path of the bullet, not just someone to pull the trigger.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#109

Post by pm90 »

jcranmer wrote: post #55
dcole2929 wrote: post #9

Stuff like this is why I have exactly zero faith in the US ever building the type of high speed rail systems that other countries have and we clearly need. These projects are simply to expensive for private entities to undertake alone and federal and local governments can't stay aligned long enough to see anything that last longer than an election period through to it's finish. Unless someone invents teleportation, w…

In the US, true HSR (by which I mean 220mph/350km/h service) is not viable outside of the Northeast (where Acela already exists), California, and maybe Texas. Medium-speed rail, running around 125mph, could probably be viable in a Midwest network centered on Chicago, but the needs of Chicago's commuter rail and freight rail networks likely preclude mixing higher speed intercity trains with generally slower local and…

Texas is an interesting case: it would benefit enormously from high speed rail connecting the major Metros (DFW, Austin, San Antonio and Houston) but the State Government is run by boneheads who keep suing the feds over DACA and working on inane bathroom bills.

Seriously this would transform the state. Make all the tech talent in Austin available to energy companies in Houston. Integrate the tech talent market for Austin and DFW. And the land over which the rail would be built is pretty flat as well.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#110

Post by mikeash »

Someguywhatever wrote: post #102
icebraining wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Several candidates made the argument at the debate that the government forced mortgage lenders to make bad loans. But in reality, most subprime loans were made by companies that were not subject to any kind of federal regulation." "No executive of a major mortgage company said at the time that the government was forcing them to make subprime loans. They said they did it because they thought they would make money. An…

Was there some incentive from government then, was there some kind of deregulation or some other kind of regulatory change? Why would this subprime lending begin in the first place do we know?

Subprime is a great way to make money if you can manage the risk.

Before the crisis, people figured out that if you bundled a lot of them together and sliced up the bundle in clever ways, you could shuffle the risk around and manage it better. People who wanted riskier assets could get them, and people who wanted safer assets with lower returns could get them too.

Except this only works if you actually evaluate the risk correctly. If you underestimate the potential for large-scale default due to, say, a sudden drop in house prices, then everything gets screwed up, and people who bought “safe” assets suddenly find themselves losing their investment.

Post reply on HN