Another crisis! The current Wall Street situation is not a crisis! It is a "market correction" that is as natural in the world of finance as passing gas after you eat beans! We are seeing what happens when the government meddles too much with the intuitive process of capitalism. So we ask...why is Wall Street in the situation it finds itself in? The answer is...politics. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac...both institutions set up by government and run by government appointed boards and subject to government regulation failed. Why...because they were required to adhere to government regulations! What government regulations? If you listen to the current congressional leadership...it is the fault of President Bush!
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when asked Tuesday whether Democrats bear some of the responsibility regarding the current crisis on Wall Street, had a one-word answer: “No.”Pelosi (D-Calif.) ripped President Bush’s “mismanagement” of the economy and a lack of regulation that led to the current situation.“I think the American people have had it with this situation where the middle-income people in our country are not protected from the ramifications of the risk-taking and the greed of these financial institutions,” Pelosi told MSNBC.When asked whether the Democrats “deserve some responsibility” regarding the economic crisis, Pelosi responded: “No.” (Source: The Hill Online: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/pelosi-dems-bear-no-responsibility-for-economic-crisis-2008-09-16.html)
Well...I don't think so and to help me with my argument lets hear what Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under President Clinton says about the current situation...(taken from MSNBC news transcripts on Monday September 15)...
"In the latter years of the Clinton administration -- when I was not there any longer, I should add -- there was an attempt by Alan Greenspan and Bob Rubin and a few others to deregulate financial markets, and they did. They split commercial banking off from investment banking. And many people say, "Well, that was the beginning of the problem," and then, of course, in 2003-2004, Alan Greenspan reduced short-term interest rates to the point where every single bank wanted to lend money. I mean, if you could stand up straight you could get a bank loan because there was so much pressure to get that money out the door. Money was so cheap. So, yes, there is some responsibility on Democrats, some responsibility on Alan Greenspan and the Fed. Barack Obama and Democrats blame the historic financial turmoil on the market. But if it's dysfunctional, Democrats during the Clinton years are a prime reason for it. The Clinton Administration was obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street's most revered institutions. Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making." "It was either that or face stiff government penalties. The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but 'predatory'".
So folks...there it is in a nutshell! Wall Street is going through some tough times and will for the next year or so. Now the Democrats are calling for MORE regulation of these markets. What we really need is more ACCOUNABILITY and less regulation (read meddling by the government) in this situation. Certainly we don't need the congress, who benefited most from the Freddie's and Fannie's existenance, to be investigating themselves. What we need is a special proscutor to investigate the government and it's REGULATION of the finance industry.
Mr. McCain is calling for accountability...Mr. Obama is calling for more regulation!
You decide...
***** UPDATE *****
The old saying goes that "You are judged by the company you keep"! Well folks much has been said about certain individuals Mr. Obama has associated with in the past...and that is what most folks will tell you, that those associations are in the past (Robert Ailes, Rev. Jerimiaha Wright, etc.) so OK. But what about those folks who Mr. Obama is choosing to associate with now? As we have been talking about the economy and financial worlds guess who are the economic advisors to Mr.Obama? Well...none other than Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines who just happen to be the recently dismissed heads of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae! That's right! This is what Mr. Obama calls CHANGE. Bring in the leaders of the oldest and largest financial institutions in the country whose collapse has been the major driver of our current economic situation!
How's that for leadership, judgement, experience and change?
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