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Never believe bankers, corporate CEOs or politicians who claim they never saw it coming. That's just an excuse to absolve themselves of responsibility. This goes for both sides of the aisle.
As a liberal myself, I'm not afraid to admit that Barney Frank, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke and Larry Summers are just as responsible as Alan Greenspan, Newt Gingrich and Hank Paulson. They (and countless others) are ALL provably guilty.
Barry Ritholtz & The Washington Blog have yet another insightful post about the further corruption that screwed all of us. Kinda makes you want to join the 99%...
Essentially it boils down to the fact that those who plead ignorance are always the most culpable. That goes for almost every man-made crisis.
If you want to know who actually predicted this mess, here's a partial list:
Paul Volcker, Nouriel Roubini, John Paulson, Bill Ackman, Mark Faber, Jim Chanos, Peter Schiff, Nassim Taleb, Robert Shiller, Steve Roach, Niall Ferguson, Meredith Whitney
This recession had the same in common with all recent recessions.
High energy costs
An overinflated housing market
the irresponsable spending habits of 35% of Americans.
The economy runs in 10 yr cycles with the low point ( recession) coming at the turn of the decade.
Anyone over the age of 35 who didnt see this coming wasnt paying attn.
Never believe bankers, corporate CEOs or politicians who claim they never saw it coming. That's just an excuse to absolve themselves of responsibility. This goes for both sides of the aisle.
As a liberal myself, I'm not afraid to admit that Barney Frank, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke and Larry Summers are just as responsible as Alan Greenspan, Newt Gingrich and Hank Paulson. They (and countless others) are ALL provably guilty.
Barry Ritholtz & The Washington Blog have yet another insightful post about the further corruption that screwed all of us. Kinda makes you want to join the 99%...
Essentially it boils down to the fact that those who plead ignorance are always the most culpable. That goes for almost every man-made crisis.
If you want to know who actually predicted this mess, here's a partial list:
Paul Volcker, Nouriel Roubini, John Paulson, Bill Ackman, Mark Faber, Jim Chanos, Peter Schiff, Nassim Taleb, Robert Shiller, Steve Roach, Niall Ferguson, Meredith Whitney
great post.
The line that "Nobody could've seen this coming," is obviously wrong. Many people saw this coming. You really didn't have to be some sort of visionary to see something was seriously wrong, starting in the late 90's with the tech bubble, and culminating in 2007 with the peak in malinvested housing.
what really makes my blood boil is when someone pulls out this line, that: "We are ALL at fault!"
This recession had the same in common with all recent recessions.
High energy costs
An overinflated housing market
the irresponsable spending habits of 35% of Americans.
The economy runs in 10 yr cycles with the low point ( recession) coming at the turn of the decade.
Anyone over the age of 35 who didnt see this coming wasnt paying attn.
Actually, your theory is incorrect. This recession (2008 to current since I consider this one long recession that never truly ended no matter what the NBER says) is actually quite different from other recent recessions in that it's a debt-driven recession caught in a liquidity trap. Printing money no longer has any effect. The Fed is stuck at 0% with NEGATIVE real interest rates. It also happens to be global. here are other important differences:
1) High energy costs were not a problem in the 2001 recession. Only the 2008-to-current recession has high energy prices. Here's proof: Crude oil, avg, spot price chart, 2000-2011
2) Unemployment was in the 4% range in 2001. We're more than double that now.
3) There was no housing bubble in 2001's recession. Interest rates were higher then and a 30-year mortgage was 6.5%. It's now below 4%.
4) Recessions do NOT come in 10-year cycles with the low point coming at the end of each decade. How do you explain 2008 or 1983 or 1975?
Never believe bankers, corporate CEOs or politicians who claim they never saw it coming. That's just an excuse to absolve themselves of responsibility. This goes for both sides of the aisle.
As a liberal myself, I'm not afraid to admit that Barney Frank, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke and Larry Summers are just as responsible as Alan Greenspan, Newt Gingrich and Hank Paulson. They (and countless others) are ALL provably guilty.
Barry Ritholtz & The Washington Blog have yet another insightful post about the further corruption that screwed all of us. Kinda makes you want to join the 99%...
Essentially it boils down to the fact that those who plead ignorance are always the most culpable. That goes for almost every man-made crisis.
If you want to know who actually predicted this mess, here's a partial list:
Paul Volcker, Nouriel Roubini, John Paulson, Bill Ackman, Mark Faber, Jim Chanos, Peter Schiff, Nassim Taleb, Robert Shiller, Steve Roach, Niall Ferguson, Meredith Whitney
i fully agree with your post. this recession could have been avoided many times since the mid 90s. for instance congress should have not gutted the glass-steagal act. bush tried twice to get congress to reign in fannie and freddie. even as late as 2007 or early 2008 the crash could have been avoided, and it could have been blunted in 2009, but the government continued to make all the wrong moves. for instance rather than spend the huge amounts of money to prop up the housing market, the government should have let it crash. had they done that, we would be in a recovery now rather than in our current situation.
Actually the fed is responsible with all the money printed in thin air and all those who bought homes they could not afford added to the problem.
The builders tacked on another $50,000 to the price of the same house when the interest rate went down. Media hype added to it plus everyone was jumping in to buy a home they could not afford. Some bought two or three homes with no job thinking they could flip it and make money.
And now the banks are in big trouble with huge numbers of foreclosures that are not worth near the mortgage money they lent out on each home.. the losses are huge!!
This happened in Europe also.. we are in the same boat and we act as if we can help Europe.. the banks are all tied together and the only safety net here is the FDIC when banks go belly up and guess who has to fund FDIC... the taxpayer.. we are in deep deep deep crisis.
Of course they saw it coming. They were just finished dealing with the LTCM meltdown from exactly almost 10 years earlier that was just finished being wound down. They were exposed to it with Enron. They were exposed to it w/ the dot.com bubble implosion.
For anyone to say they couldn't see it coming, should NEVER, EVER be allowed to have any position within a corporation that deals with money.
Oh I am sure someone is in the know... There is noway in a land of know it all's know one knew anything. My concern is how do we get beyond it as a nation and not a political party.
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