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That would be the same Barney Frank whose immortal 'I want to roll the dice on this housing situation' remarkwill live on forever in the annals of stupid polcies initiated by clueless politicians, just like Carter, FDR, Nixon & Hoover did in years gone by.
Absolutely pointless to argue whether dems or republicans, or Bush or Obama, or any other single group is "responsible" for the financial slowdown. President Bush can do no more to destroy an entire economic system in 8 years than President Obama can do to resurrect it in 2. Fiscal policy and other BS political tools that these toolbags have at their disposal can only reduce the severity of the crisis or deepen it further at the margins. It took decades to build the infrastructure that allowed for the collapse. Much larger forces are responsible for the situation- forces that are very difficult, if not impossible, to legislate. Corruption comes to mind- the privileged few deciding the masses' fate with financial tools so complex even they didn't understand them. Made-up assets traded over and over and over with no risk, high reward, and no substance at all. Shady suits in backrooms gambling with pensions, mortgages, and currency prices. Raise a tax rate here, lower a tax rate there- give a guy a makework job, bailout a failed corporation or two...none of it matters until the CULTURE changes. None of it matters until WE THE PEOPLE care about transparency and demand honesty. None of it matters until POLITICS is replaced with REPRESENTATION. The premise of the OP's question IS the problem...that a political party or single individual from a political party is the cause of collapse of entire system of economics. Politics is bull****. Go out and make a difference in your community and quit taking us further into the cultural and educational abyss by bantering back and forth about political parties and the corrupt hacks they employ.
To understand the economic meltdown, you need to have a grasp of how congress operates.
So, I'll be glad to explain. In 2005, the GOP controlled both the house and the senate. This means that the GOP chaired and held majorities on every house and senate committee. Which means in turn that nothing comes out of those committees without the approval of the majority membership.
Seems you don't quite grasp it yourself. Bill Clinton knows better than you. The Dems did indeed block Republicans' attempts to set stricter standards for Fannie and Freddie...
Absolutely pointless to argue whether dems or republicans, or Bush or Obama, or any other single group is "responsible" for the financial slowdown. President Bush can do no more to destroy an entire economic system in 8 years than President Obama can do to resurrect it in 2. Fiscal policy and other BS political tools that these toolbags have at their disposal can only reduce the severity of the crisis or deepen it further at the margins. It took decades to build the infrastructure that allowed for the collapse. Much larger forces are responsible for the situation- forces that are very difficult, if not impossible, to legislate. Corruption comes to mind- the privileged few deciding the masses' fate with financial tools so complex even they didn't understand them. Made-up assets traded over and over and over with no risk, high reward, and no substance at all. Shady suits in backrooms gambling with pensions, mortgages, and currency prices. Raise a tax rate here, lower a tax rate there- give a guy a makework job, bailout a failed corporation or two...none of it matters until the CULTURE changes. None of it matters until WE THE PEOPLE care about transparency and demand honesty. None of it matters until POLITICS is replaced with REPRESENTATION. The premise of the OP's question IS the problem...that a political party or single individual from a political party is the cause of collapse of entire system of economics. Politics is bull****. Go out and make a difference in your community and quit taking us further into the cultural and educational abyss by bantering back and forth about political parties and the corrupt hacks they employ.
Yep- I just quoted myself... to further illustrate how, right after posting this, we got a YouTube of not even a present day political hack, but a political hack from yesteryear, bantering on about something or other. Bill Clinton speaking about what political party did or did not do something about some regulation does absolutely nothing to move us toward coming up with a solution. It only serves to deepen the political abyss.
Yep- I just quoted myself... to further illustrate how, right after posting this, we got a YouTube of not even a present day political hack, but a political hack from yesteryear, bantering on about something or other. Bill Clinton speaking about what political party did or did not do something about some regulation does absolutely nothing to move us toward coming up with a solution. It only serves to deepen the political abyss.
You can't solve a problem if you don't know what caused it. That should be obvious, captain.
You can't solve a problem if you don't know what caused it. That should be obvious, captain.
I agree wholeheartedly which is why I explained it in detail just 2 posts ago. What's obvious (thanks, by the way, for being poster number 3,403 to make the joke) is that I indeed do "know what caused it".
I agree wholeheartedly which is why I explained it in detail just 2 posts ago. What's obvious (thanks, by the way, for being poster number 3,403 to make the joke) is that I indeed do "know what caused it".
right back atcha.
If you do indeed know what caused it, why are you balking at someone pointing out that a particular political party admittedly (acknowledged by Bill Clinton) stood in the way of making the changes needed to put stricter controls on the GSEs, which control a majority of our country's mortgage market, pioneered and implemented risky lending practices, thereby causing the housing bubble, and committed several trillion dollars worth of securities fraud with their misrepresented mortgage backed securities?
We can't fix the problem if one of our political parties lets behavior like that continue unchecked by blocking any attempts at reform.
that must be why the bush administration ordered the OCC to prevent states from enforcing state mortgage loan laws... AND THEN... they implemented new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks.
all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, fought the Bush administration's rules. And y'all act like the Democrats are the only "Big Government" act in town... both parties are crooked as hell, so let's not pretend otherwise.
A law like that, would have to be formed and voted on in the House. Again voted on in the Senate, before it hit Bush's desk. Where did it originate, again?
Who was his financial adviser at that time? Something seems to look the same? What is the common denominator?
If you can't figure it out, there is no hope for you, or your part of it.
If you do indeed know what caused it, why are you balking at someone pointing out that a particular political party admittedly (acknowledged by Bill Clinton) stood in the way of making the changes needed to put stricter controls on the GSEs, which control a majority of our country's mortgage market, pioneered and implemented risky lending practices, thereby causing the housing bubble, and committed several trillion dollars worth of securities fraud with their misrepresented mortgage backed securities?
We can't fix the problem if one of our political parties lets behavior like that continue unchecked by blocking any attempts at reform.
We're closer to one another to agreeing to the point at hand than you think. My original post was to point out that true reform can only come from transparency and honestly, and will not come from political bodies bickering. GSEs implementing risky lending practices (at the direction of political hacks, by the way) is but a symptom of the disease. The fact that WE THE PEOPLE allowed our representatives to decade after decade act in the best interest of the greedy instead of act in the best interest of ME, is the problem. POLITICS is the problem.
We're closer to one another to agreeing to the point at hand than you think. My original post was to point out that true reform can only come from transparency and honestly, and will not come from political bodies bickering. GSEs implementing risky lending practices (at the direction of political hacks, by the way) is but a symptom of the disease. The fact that WE THE PEOPLE allowed our representatives to decade after decade act in the best interest of the greedy instead of act in the best interest of ME, is the problem. POLITICS is the problem.
In the case of the GSEs, it wasn't so much driven by greed as it was the belief that even those who don't qualify (and have slim to no hope of being able to manage such a financial commitment) should be given a mortgage anyway out of social justice 'fairness.'
Listen to what the Dems said in defending the GSEs' practices:
That social engineering ideology blew up in everyone's face.
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