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September 22, 2008
BREAKING NEWS: Dem Congress ends hard day of work on the Finance and Oil crises with the following accomplishments:
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*And because of the above, by the most ethical Congress evah, the Market closed 372 pts down and Oil spiked up $25/barrel. Good job, guys! Obama is sending over a fruitbasket.
Posted by Darleen at September 22, 2008 05:28 PM
Comments
really incredible of you Darleen, to suggest that the Dems are somehow responsible for all this. 8 years of Bush and (until 2 years ago) 12 straight years of Republican rule and yet there is no finger pointed at that Party. Conservative philosophy is bankrupt. Sad to say, they've made the nation bankrupt too.
Posted by: brad at September 22, 2008 07:26 PM
Oh, sorry the Dems haven't cleaned up the Republican's mess on the schedule you'd prefer.
Posted by: Josh at September 22, 2008 07:49 PM
Hey guys -- A significant part of the financial problems were caused by the collapse of the mortgage market. That, in turn was the result of so many banks making loans to people with no credit, no down payments, etc.
...Which was the direct result of pressure from Democrats in Congress on banks to make such loans, because said Dems thought it wasn't "fair" that more poor people didn't own houses.
Hmmm. "It's not fair that people don't own things they can't afford." There's a good basis for policy.
Posted by: Stephen R at September 24, 2008 07:41 AM
Not true, Stephen R. The attempt to blame it on the CRA has already been debunked. Are you talking about some other kind of "pressure" that Congress was able impose on banks? What actually happened was that there was an irrational housing market and an irrational derivatives market in mortgage-backed-securities.
Posted by: Josh at September 24, 2008 09:17 AM
you can trace the mortgage crisis back to dismantling of regulations that began in the FDR era, like the Glass-Steagall Act. That started under Reagan, got accelerated under Clinton, but with Republican encouragement, especially guys like Phil Gramm.
But ask yourself this question before blaming the poor: if you loan a guy with little income a bunch of money and then pass on the loan in a package of other loans, so it's hidden...who is more irresponsible-- the guy who got the loan or the one who designed the loan?
Posted by: Brad at September 24, 2008 01:39 PM