FactCheck.org has taken both MoveOn.org and the McCain-Palin campaign to task for each blaming the other side for the current economic crisis. MoveOn says it was Phil Gramm and the Republicans, McCain-Palin says it was Obama and the Democrats. Nope and nope.
But in the process they also made me aware that what I posted as the root of the crisis, the repeal of Glass-Steagall, was incorrect, for which I apologize.
Here's the link to FactCheck. I think you'll find the findings of interest given our current mess: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html
P.S. As I recall, no one called me on this. Not a good sign!
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Comments: 13
To me that says, unregulated business interests.
The interesting question is where do we think these same people have gone?
People want to bail this sucker out without knowing what we are buying, who made what decisions, and with the people that made those decisions still in place ... in fact, I'll bet lots of them are a lot richer and higher up and smarter - meaning they can do this again and again.
Why do we want to set the precedent of paying for this?
When we set the precedent for bailing these people out we do two things:
1) We continue with the model of a society where we accept this as a tax from private interests that saps the value of our tax dollars and will eventually kill our country and finally our ecnonomy.
2) We create a permanent parasite class that gets more and more of a stranglehold on our country as time goes by.
When are they going to get!!!
It's not only the rich who are at risk. Our bank accounts and retirement accounts are at risk, as well. Homes are not selling, people are unemployed and there is no American who has not been or will not be affected by this economic crisis.
If some people think they're being screwed by the legislation, they don't understand the problem.
This problem is not just about small town America, or Main Street, or Wall Street. The whole world stands on the edge of a financial catastrophe. The problem started on Wall Street, and it can only be fixed on Wall Street. It's too late to worry about who caused the problem. We've gone way past that stage. Getting the problem fixed is what's important at this stage of events.
If the Congress doesn't vote to fix the problem, then believe you me, you ain't seen nothing yet.
A couple of things. First, although I got the facts right about Glass-Steagall, my conclusion turned out to be wrong. However, that doesn't change the fact that the regulatory framework has over the years been weakened to the point where these things could come to pass. Not just the framework, but the administration of the regulations. It was an abdication by the Congress, and for that they have to make amends. Both parties...there were plenty of Democrats who were culpable, not just Republicans, but as has been said, it doesn't help trying to distribute blame. We need to act.
There are arguments to be made against specific portions of the bill that just passed the Senate, but the idea that we should put the entire financial system in jeopardy to punish those who got caught up with the rest of us in the housing bubble just doesn't make any sense to me.
I just heard a behavioral psychologist who said that in experiments, it is a common thing for people to take decisions that actually go against their best interests if they perceive unfairness. I think that is evident in this case.
As far as the $700- billion is concerned, remember that these assets we're talking about are not worthless. They have a value, but the market can't put an accurate price on them, so no one wants them because banks don't want to further compromise their balance sheets by having to mark these things to market. They are therefore illiquid, and that illiquidity is choking the system. But the inability to accurately price these assets does not mean that they are worthless. If Treasury is allowed to do its job, and they actually do it properly, this is not money down the rathole. There are pitfalls, as I point out above, but we can manage this without throwing the world economy into chaos. And we must do, righteous indignation and economic theology notwithstanding.
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I just wanted to say I am finally going through what is now under 6,400 pieces of gather new mail that is in my inbox on here. So with that in mind I have finally come to a piece of mail that was addressed to me in regards this article submission you have created to share with the gather community. Thank you for taking the time and sharing your piece with us here at gather. :o)