I think the thing that ticks me off the most is all of the obvious missed oppurtunities.
Let's talk about this whole banking issue. (1) I'm not convinced it's a crisis. (2) Stop bringing up the great depression. We're so far away from that--people are just 100% historically ignorant. (3) People can't even (properly) define a 'recession', which is 2+ quarters of negative growth. (We've yet to have even a single quarter of negative growth!)
A little more time on the "banking crisis"... "Greed" on Wallstreet isn't the cause. The cause is governmental tamping with the market. Beginning in the Carter admin, and later in the Clinton admin, there was a big push for "affordable housing" and "equal opportunity of home ownership". In essence, there was a forced reduction of standards on home loans. What business, in their right mind, would make loans to people that can't afford to pay them back? None. Thus, the whole industry of underwriting came into being--which is investigating the applicants to see if they're a safe bet. However, regulations were put into the underwriting process; in essence, elected officials undermined the underwriting process. Let's increase minority home-ownership. Sounds great--let's do it...regardless of reality.
I'm not seeing so much of a Wall Street problem, but a value problem. That somehow, renting wasn't good. Renting wasn't right. That it's "throwing money away". And it's just more complex than that. A 15 or 30 year committment is absolutely categorically the wrong choice for an unstable income. The banking industry was pushed into that, and the feeding frenzy began.
Why isn't the conservative ticket *snickers* touting this? Why aren't they pointing their fingers at economically stupid elected officials that created this mess, rather than trying to blame Wall Street that simply executed it? Palin (as does McCain) fails to make this point.
I could go on, but I don't want to be a blog-hog.
Let's talk about this whole banking issue. (1) I'm not convinced it's a crisis. (2) Stop bringing up the great depression. We're so far away from that--people are just 100% historically ignorant. (3) People can't even (properly) define a 'recession', which is 2+ quarters of negative growth. (We've yet to have even a single quarter of negative growth!)
A little more time on the "banking crisis"... "Greed" on Wallstreet isn't the cause. The cause is governmental tamping with the market. Beginning in the Carter admin, and later in the Clinton admin, there was a big push for "affordable housing" and "equal opportunity of home ownership". In essence, there was a forced reduction of standards on home loans. What business, in their right mind, would make loans to people that can't afford to pay them back? None. Thus, the whole industry of underwriting came into being--which is investigating the applicants to see if they're a safe bet. However, regulations were put into the underwriting process; in essence, elected officials undermined the underwriting process. Let's increase minority home-ownership. Sounds great--let's do it...regardless of reality.
I'm not seeing so much of a Wall Street problem, but a value problem. That somehow, renting wasn't good. Renting wasn't right. That it's "throwing money away". And it's just more complex than that. A 15 or 30 year committment is absolutely categorically the wrong choice for an unstable income. The banking industry was pushed into that, and the feeding frenzy began.
Why isn't the conservative ticket *snickers* touting this? Why aren't they pointing their fingers at economically stupid elected officials that created this mess, rather than trying to blame Wall Street that simply executed it? Palin (as does McCain) fails to make this point.
I could go on, but I don't want to be a blog-hog.
posted by Greg | 10:10 AM
1 Comments:
Palin's populism does bother me. "The little guy" is not as helpless as we're meant to think. Okay, predatory lenders bad, but that's not THE cause of the problem.
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