----- Original Message ----- From: "Nick Arnett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 1:25 PM Subject: Re: How Government Stoked the Mania
> On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 9:39 AM, John Williams > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > >> In case you missed it, hear is an article from last month. >> >> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122298982558700341.html >> >> How Government Stoked the Mania >> Housing prices would never have risen so high without multiple >> Washington mistakes > > > > This does not make your case for the idea that *regulation* is to blame. > In > fact, the whole story there is about the government loosening regulations > and lowering taxes, not tightening regulations or tax-and-spend politics. > > No matter what, even this author, a strong advocate of deregulation, > couldn't quite bring himself to blame the CRA and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. > His strongest statement is that they stoked the fire, as the headline > reads, > not that they lit it. In other words, this adds nothing to what has > already > been said here. > > You want to talk about choices and forecasting -- investment bankers and > mortgage brokers, who should be as knowledgeable as anyone about these > matters, chose, long before the CRA and the government actions, to make > these loans, go crazy with leverage and generally bet that housing prices > would undergo no major downward adjustments for the next few years. Talk > about stupid choices and bad forecasting... > The other problem, one that is often overlooked over here, is that this situation is basically occurring worldwide. Since there is not a worldwide government and the rules vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, a more likely place to look for the origin of this disaster is multinationals. xponent Reach Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
