We know how banks were intimidated into giving mortgages to individuals that couldn't afford them, and where that led.
Yes, during the Clinton and Bush years, and it was hardly through intimidation. The banks sought a quick buck, and that backfired on the entire economy. Oops!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act
So the financial panic of 2008-09 wasn't caused by lax regulation of the derivatives market and traders playing fast and loose, but but a legislation that had been in effect for over 30 years??
How much are conservatives and Republicitarians willing to spin reality to make this a case against increased regulation of Wall Street?
Conservatives defending lassiz-faire economics as the cure rather than cause for the crash are kind of like the parent of a teenager who wrecks the car. Instead of grounding junior and more closely monitoring when and where he drives, though, conservatives would by him a new car and sign the title over to him. After all, its the parent's partial oversight that obviously caused the wreck in the first place. If they'd placed fewer restrictions on junior in the first place then natural market forces would clearly make him a more cautious driver.
Speaking of lassiz-faire economics, I hear the Kasichy future I foretold is looking more and more like a reality. I shall hope you don't react to drastically and take the path you said you would in the Budget committee thread in the Fanasty Gov't Board.
How did I miss this ridiculous debate about the financial crisis.
Really there were atleast three separate problems that combined to form the crisis.
1. Growth of shadow banking and trading of CDS and MBS and the dependence of economic growth upon the capital created in that market (around $1 Trillion in 2007 after the tightening of the credit markets had begund, only $155 Billion in 2009).
2. Unsustainable worldwide surge in Real-estate prices. Probably the best explanation of the cause of this that I have seen, so far, was given by Alan Greenspan. A graph, posted by Beet, I beleive shows the lack of correlation between deviance from the Taylor Rule and the size of the surge in prices, which takes Greenspan and the Fed off the hook to a degree, and confirms Greenspan's explanation of why it occured.
3. Use of homes and home equity as just another credit card.
I hear a independent Watchdog group is calling for criminal investigation into Christine O'Donnell. Can anyone confirm this?
