Reason Writers on TV: Matt Welch Talks Government Housing Intervention and Privatizing the Post Office on Freedom Watch With Judge Napolitano

On Tuesday, Nov. 16, Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch appeared on Judge Andrew Napolitano's newly daily Freedom Watch program, to discuss housing policy and the (de)merits of having the government provide monopolized commercial services. Approximately 11 minutes:

Comments

[Max has made his last post]

Max|6.24.10 @ 3:29PM|#

Go suck ron puals dick, morons. You peeple are fucking retarded. I`m done coming to this wingnut sight. this is my last post.

[Spiny Norman]

Are you Real Max or Parody Max? I can't tell anymore.

[cApitalist]

Quite a heady critique.

[Slap the Enlightened!]

Actually, the Post Office has very distinct advantages over FedEx, UPS and DHL for international shipping, largely due to treaties with other nations. Having shipped a number of items to China using all of the above, I guarantee you're going to get your package to China faster, cheaper and more reliably using the P.O. than any of the private alternatives.

Of course, for domestic shipping, all of that goes out of the window.

[heller]

Cheaper? You mean Fedex also charges everyone else in the country for your packages?

[SugarFree]

Bulk mailing mimeographed neo-Nazi tracts ain't cheap, heller. There's 1,000,000,000 Chinese over there that can learn to hate spics and Jews if Slappy can just get through to them. I mean, Asians are almost white.

[Zeb]

Well, you're paying for it whether you use it or FedEx. Neo-Nazi fuckstick is right about this. The PO is enormously cheaper for international shipping than the commercial carriers.

[Mango Punch]

Unrelated: I found one good thing that Obama has done so far in office!! He vetoed HR3808 (and the veto was upheld today).

For those who don't know, HR3808 would have made a bunch of previously fraudulent foreclosure practices legal.

[Mango Punch]

Haha, I didn't even realize that the video was actually on this... it is related. But in all seriousness, HR 3808 flew in the face of contract law. Libertarians and libertarians should be supportive of it being vetoed. That doesn't change the fact that lady in the video is an idiot.

[Steven Smith]

What an idiotic segment. Is it Napolitano's position that any bank should be allowed to foreclose on a home, regardless of whether it has a proper claim, simply because the homeowner has fallen behind? If the Fox Business Channel were to call itself a "bank", could it start foreclosing on randomly selected homes?

[Mango Punch]

I agree, and it sounds like Matt is ok violating the terms of contracts in order to allow the housing market to "correct". A blatant regard of what I understood to be his principles.

[Mango Punch]

CORRECTION: A blatent DISREGARD for what...

[Jeffersonian]

It depends, I'd say. If the mortgage contract says the bank will send you a plate of cookies on your birthday and fails to do so, are you justified in not remitting your house payment?

The bank's violation must be material.

[Mango Punch]

If the mortgage contract says the bank will send you a plate of cookies on your birthday and fails to do so, are you justified in not remitting your house payment?

If it is explicitly in your contract that you can, then yes. And how is ownership transfer not material?

[Steven Smith]

More to the point, if the bank fails to send you birthday cookies, and you then refuse to remit payment, can the Fox Business Network foreclose on your house simply because they claim to own the note.

[heller]

STEVE SMITH RAPE LOGIC. LOGIC NOT COMPLAIN.

Seriously though, Steve, acting like banks are simply claiming to own the note rather than having varied and specific contract problems makes you a dumbass.

[Mango Punch]

There are cases of more than one bank foreclosing on the same home, and homes that had already repaid their mtgs being foreclosed on by banks who didn't own their notes. The issue isn't as pervasive as it seemed at first and all the banks have resumed their foreclosing without much issue.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

I believe that the whole derivatives mess might have more to do with confusion regarding "ownership" of a mortgage in question than intentional fraud.

[Mango Punch]

It has nothing to do with derivatives. A derivative owner has no claim. It has to do with securitizations and with improper and electronic transfers of titles.

[heller]

STEVE SMITH RAPE LOGIC. LOGIC NOT COMPLAIN.

Seriously though, Steve, acting like banks are simply claiming to own the note rather than having varied and specific contract problems makes you a dumbass.

[AlmightyJB]

Matt, not tryin' to dis you man, but you need to update that look. Glasses, hair, suit. Bring it into to this century man. Good job on the interview though.

[johnl]

The Clark Kent look works great for Matt. I miss the vest though.

[Jeffersonian]

ROADS!!

[prolefeed]

Is it Napolitano's position that any bank should be allowed to foreclose on a home, regardless of whether it has a proper claim, simply because the homeowner has fallen behind?

No, he was trying to get the liberal woman to admit that even if the bank followed all the rules, disclosed everything, and the homeowner didn't make her house payments, the liberal woman STILL wouldn't admit that foreclosures were legit -- she claimed even then it would OK for the government to step in and prevent foreclosures if "that would collapse the economy" or some such bullshit.

Basically, no matter what, she seemed to want to keep people in houses they weren't making payments on.

[Mango Punch]

Yes, she is an idiot. But Matt argued that the government should be able to retroactively modify contracts in order to create a specific market outcome.

[Steve]

Not interested in her brain; I always thought that she was kinda hot (and a liberal woman who's not a jerk -- they are hard to find these days.)

[Joe M]

Yet another quote that sounds straight out of Atlas Shrugged.

[Joe M]

Matt, is your last name pronounced WelSH or WelCH??? The judge seemed unable to decide.

[sage]

Bitch brought up roads. It never fucking fails. They always resort to talking about ROADS...ROADS. ROOOOOOOAAAAADS!

[heller]

At least she didn't mention Somalia. Maybe she hasn't seen that meme yet.

[Andrew Jackson]

If I knew Yatesville would have come to this... [shakes head]

[John C. Randolph]

Jesus Haploid Christ, that woman is a moron.

-jcr

[West Coaster]

I always wondered what the "H" in Jesus H. Christ stood for...

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Hayzoos