Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a front-page article about Countrywide Financial Corp. and its loan delinquencies that got me thinking. The beginning of the article quoted all the problems with sub-prime loans and the delinquency rates. (Old news...but bad news sells papers.) However, buried in the article was the fact that "fast and easy" loans (no income verification/no documentation loans) through Countrywide currently have a lower percentage of delinquencies than do traditional full-documentation loans. This was attributed to the fact that, in order to qualify for "fast and easy" loans, borrowers need higher credit scores than they would for full-documentation loans. (Source: WSJ)
This leads me to my query: Assuming that the above is indicative of the industry as a whole, why are "fast and easy loans" disappearing along with sub-prime loans, thus penalizing small business owners who try to minimize their income through legitimate tax planning means?
Sounds to me like throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Posts
