Financial crisis blame
Monday, September 29, 2008
IBD has an interesting series on the cause of the loan crisis. They place the majority of the blame on government interventions and Clinton policies in the 1990's:
They hold the opinion that since Clinton put the CRA "on steroids," a well-intentioned Carter initiative meant to encourage minority homeownership went awry.
IBD's arguments make more sense to me than either Obama or McCain. Whom do you blame for the financial crisis?
Yes, the market was fueled by greed and overleveraging in the secondary market for subprimes, vis-a-vis mortgaged-backed securities traded on Wall Street. But the seed was planted in the '90s by Clinton and his social engineers. They were the political catalyst behind this slow-motion financial train wreck. (more)
They hold the opinion that since Clinton put the CRA "on steroids," a well-intentioned Carter initiative meant to encourage minority homeownership went awry.
IBD's arguments make more sense to me than either Obama or McCain. Whom do you blame for the financial crisis?
The arguments in the article definitely make the most sense out of everything I've heard thus far, however the article felt like a bit like an entree and I'm still hungry for a little more depth. Sure, Clinton might have pushed and Carter came up with the idea, but still how was it allowed to happen? Was there legislation passed anywhere forcing banks to provide these high-risk loans, and if so who controlled Congress when such legislation was written up and in turn passed? Nonetheless, a brilliant article and if you find any more that are as clear as this one please throw them my way.
Anyhow, I have said before and I will say again that modern-day materialism/unbridled consumerism and the credit culture has a lot to do with this as well. People not living within their means. I know someone who is on $140,000 a year and claims they cannot afford to buy their own place, well maybe if they stopped spending money on crap they would be able to. The one thing I learned from living in Lithuania is that you don't need a bunch of "things" to be happy, people are obsessed with having everything these days and they are willing to abuse credit cards to do so. That being said, credit card companies and banks are not providing credit and lines out of the goodness of their heart.
I meant credit and "loans", not lines...
"The one thing I learned from living in Lithuania is that you don't need a bunch of 'things' to be happy"
Exactly. All you need is vodka!
That's right! But seriously, what is more fun? The day you blogged about going 'shrooming with your wife, daughter and friends in Varena, or having the latest television, phone, fancy clothes etc?