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Despite the ideological driven claims of the right wing, the truth is that the sub prime phenomenon was driven by the pure unadulterated greed of the lenders. The mortgage meltdown itself was the result of the Goldman Sachs driven rise of oil (and gasoline) prices from Jan 2007 through Sept-October 2008 combined with ARM upward adjustments throughout 2008. The perfect storm.
Of course government had no choice but to bail out their buddies, their big campaign contributors.
STILL waiting for the perp walks, the indictments, the trials, convictions, and long jail sentences. Turning blue again.
Despite the ideological driven claims of the right wing, the truth is that the sub prime phenomenon was driven by the pure unadulterated greed of the lenders. The mortgage meltdown itself was the result of the Goldman Sachs driven rise of oil (and gasoline) prices from Jan 2007 through Sept-October 2008 combined with ARM upward adjustments throughout 2008. The perfect storm.
Of course government had no choice but to bail out their buddies, their big campaign contributors.
STILL waiting for the perp walks, the indictments, the trials, convictions, and long jail sentences. Turning blue again.
....and yet if each borrower had merely lived up to his or her written, contractual promise to repay, there would have been no crisis.
The mass delusion that "you can't lose money in real estate" that infected the brains of 300 million Americans was the biggest factor in the crisis--just as a different mass delusion resulted in the tech bubble, and some new mass delusion will be at the heart of the next bubble. Human nature.
Has it ever occurred to you that those Big Banks never needed the money? They paid themselves big bonuses to their senior people, laid off 10's of thousands or workers, and STILL had enough left over to repay the "loans" .... with TAXPAYER money!!!!!!
I'm mad at the OP for creating an overly simplistic poll. The reality of our situation is a lot more complex than the two choices we were given. I did not vote in the poll for that reason.
I blame the government for understanding that there is a problem and not doing anything about it.
Be careful of what you wish for there, the government riding in to the resuce is usually the absolute WORST thing that can happen. (See below)
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the truth is that the sub prime phenomenon was driven by the pure unadulterated greed of the lenders.
Yes, it was driven by Wall Street greed, but it was ENABLED by politians who forced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to loosen their strict lending standards so that these subprime loans could be made in the first place. Barney Frank and Maxine Waters, among others, forced them to back sub prime loans for lower income "voters" who had no chance of surviving in these loans, and they did so over the protest of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives. Instead of running the mortgage GSE's as the profit driven businesses that they were (with strict lending standards that generated plenty of profit already), they used them as instruments of social policy, which led to disaster, and serves as the biggest single example of what usually results from government intervention in the private sector.
THIS is what led to the subprime mortgage bubble, and when it burst, leaving Fannie and Freddie in a meltdown, guess who rode in to fix them - Barney Frank and crew! The absurdity of what really happened here boggles the mind! In fairness, Bush signed the changes in the law into effect, so both sides of the aisle are equally to blame here, but make no mistake, the VAST majority of the blame belongs squarely on Washington DC. Wall Steet merely acted as the drunks that the politicians left in charge of the liquor store.
I'm mad at the OP for creating an overly simplistic poll. The reality of our situation is a lot more complex than the two choices we were given. I did not vote in the poll for that reason.
I agree with you! I posted the poll as a sentiment indicator rather than a complete discussion of the topic.
would you drink bleach if advertising said it could make your teeth whiter?
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