Hub Blog links to a Slate article that attempts tries to decipher the devilish derivitives -- something called a martindale -- behind the current financial crisis. (The Hub Blog's Technorati Authority: 30.)
Elsewhere, on Tuesday, Kevin at the Pundit Review laid his blame at Wall Street speculators, the Democrats, and, to a lesser extent, at the GOP.
He pointed to Democrats like Barney Frank who a few years ago when Bush called for more regulation deferred.
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
In the end, Kevin at the Pundit Review (Technorati Authority: 69) conludes "Everyone is to blame, but some more than others." Oh, boy.
To offset his conservative agenda there we're going to link to the Massachusetts Liberal, who rants and raves about who believes are the culprits: the Gingrich Kamikazes of the Clinton years and the "many in the clique of Minority Leader John Boehner threw the monkey wrenches into the works in the name of John McCain, whose last-second parachuting into the deal caused almost as much havoc"
The Massachusetts Liberal, published at baystateliberal.blogspot.com, has a Technorati authority of 30.
Apparently, there's been a lot of racism going around town on Twitter in regards to the reasons for this financial crisis I guess we're going through. margalit fills us in on the details:
I'm really disappointed to be reading some of the remarks I've seen on Twitter regarding the bailout. I don't quite understand how the bailout became a way to make racist remarks about how "they shouldn't have lied on their loan applications" and "they shouldn't have been allowed to borrow money they can't pay back" and "they couldn't ever have gotten a real mortgage without lying to the banks."
Of course we know who "they" are. It's apparent by reading these comments that the twits are referring to minorities that were caught up in the predatory lending schemes. But the facts are that the predatory lenders went after minority applicants who were TOTALLY prepared to get conventional loans and talked them into getting into the subprime market. And it's also a fact that the vast majority of people caught up in the foreclosure situation are white, middle-class Americans who were lied to by Countrywide Finance and other predatory lenders. They were people who thought they could handle the loans they took out, and then when the payments ballooned unfairly after a couple of years, were unable to meet their mortgages which had doubled or tripled seemingly overnight.
There is no "they". There is us. All of us.
(margalit's "What was I THINKING" blog's Technorati authority: 48).
Lewis Forman says 'Let the Companies Fold.' Forman had pointed to an AP report of a fraud investigation surrounding Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, insurer American International Group Inc., and said, "So our $700 Billion life jacket to the markets would just be a convenient cover up for the way that these companies screwed themselves and the country. Is the government going to come and rescue a little [emphasis mine]company that folded due to poor management? I don't think so... "
Forman (whose blog Webster Street Minutes has a very low Technorati authority of 5) believes that regardless there is an economic recession that the U.S. is going to have to deal with. But he looks to the bailout plan as unsettling and is "sure we'll hear in 6 months that the executives at these companies were given a $10 million severance package while all the lower level people got nothing. Just a box for their belongings and a "good luck" on the way out the door."
I agree that we should let the companies take a hit and reinvest that $700 billion in something positive, like community development or infrastructure rejuvenation.
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