Hmm... just from reading that snippet, it seems that this guy has a bias against Bush to start with - and the 'left wing' thing seems to indicate the same thing. Does that automatically disqualify what he has to say? Of course not, but it could easily color his research - not the research itself or the conclusion he reaches, but rather WHEN he researches. Does he look at the 90's as well to see if there's anything there that could have helped lead to all this? And it was only in the last couple years that there were no Clinton appointees on the Fed Res Board and all this started long before that.
For instance - even if you desire to stay out of the Palin thread - Roger posted about this very thing
here . I don't know his sources, I'm sure he could tell you, but it's in line with other things I've heard elsewhere [but not online and no time right now to find online sources].
One of the other things that jumps out at me... sure, credit was [and still is] easy to get. I know mortgages are more difficult, but I get more credit card offers than I can use all winter for kindling [and that's about all they're good for]. Does that mean that there's no personal responsibility? Shouldn't people have been smart enough not to spend beyond their means? We could have gotten a mortgage for significantly more than we did but we knew we couldn't afford it and went with a fixed rate on the mortgage we did get because when rates are at historical or near historical lows do you really think they're going to go down? Do I really need to point out the mathematical stupidity of an interest only mortgage? One that will, by definition, NEVER go away. Do I want people to end up bankrupt or in foreclosure? Of course not, but at some point it's not MY responsibility [as a taxpayer] to help bail them out because they made bad choices and got in over their heads.
Should the govt have bailed out Fannie/Freddie/AIG? Heck if I know, but they shouldn't have been in the mess in the first place if government had been doing its job to start with.
Just my .02.
Carol
