The Republicans (with Clinton's support) are primarily responsible for the loosening of financial market regulations.

The Democrats took advantage of the new rules and implemented and pushed for Affirmative Action Mortgages along side the fact Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has long been a parking place for Democrat Cronies.

Libs: Ask yourself this question. Why are Barney Frank and Chris Dodd (Dem Financial and Banking Committee Chairmen) NOT clamoring for investigations to get to the bottom of all this?

It's that they had to do it within the framework that Repubs insisted on. That any affirmative action loans had to make the rich richer. Those were the terms they had to agree to.

It's Repubs who have taught that the market is the solution to all social problems. The Democrats, if anything, were dumb to fall for it.

We get crises like these after people think that the markets have found a solution to the markets' inherent problems. This time, insured, swapped, mortgage backed bonds were supposed to make the markets safer. What everybody didn't count on was that the perception of safety and high yield caused institutions to load up on them and overextend themselves until it reached or exceeded the level of risk in the Great Depression. In other words, they overused the "safe" investment until it wasn't safe anymore.

It's greed that drives that. You cannot get a "safe" high yield instrument in an unregulated market and not expect greed to over-extend. I'm to say a certain thing. If risk is spread out, people will still tend to push safety to the brink out of greed. Just as they did buying on mortgage in the stock market in 1929.

Greed cannot fix greed. Another reason why you can't leave markets unregulated.

The market actively promoted the practice.  Bankers and mortgage companies actively took advantage of the "American Dream" of home ownership to line their pockets.  Exotic loans became a standard practice and a lot of folks in the banking and mortgage industry made a lot of money over inflating the housing market.  While I agree that the consumer has ultimate responsibility, they were lead like lambs to slaughter.

In the end..desire to make money outweighed sound business decisions and the lack of effective regulation multiplied the problem.

You clearly didn't even watch the video. Pay close attention to the part where Franklin Raines tells everyone that mortgage backed securities are 'riskless'. Or the part where Maxine Waters states that the 0% down mortgages to people that can't afford them is working great. Or the part where the Dems swear that there are no problems with FM and FM.

Then hang all of the middlemen from it. Then take all of the speculators and hang them from it. Charge congress with treason and have a trial, then hang the those convicted from the gallows. Those actions should clear up all this economic bullshit.

-- Modified on 9/30/2008 9:54:52 AM