Re: [RC] Who do you blame??

[David R. Block]

Title: ORourke1 Signature

It does leave out the derivatives mess. (But not in the article at IBD, 3rd paragraph from the end) Why?? If there were no problems with the underlying mortgages backed and approved by the federal agencies, there would not have been problems with said derivatives. It is the bad mortgages that served as the basis for the derivatives and credit default swaps that blew up in everyone's faces, with the corresponding ripple effect. The derivatives did not make the mortgages bad. The mortgages made the derivatives bad. That is NOT saying that derivatives are holy and "perfect." They probably should not have been used in the mortgage market. But all of the watchdogs did not bark (SEC, FDIC, Treasury, Federal Reserve) until after it all turned to shit. NOBODY stopped to think what mortgage derivatives would do and how they would behave in the market. Should the SEC have slapped folks around for this? Maybe. Derivatives are used and still sold on commodities. Some idiot decided that they would treat houses as commodities. BAD MOVE. I suppose (guessing here) that the good functioning and well behaved commodities derivatives gave regulators undue confidence with mortgage derivatives.  Do you want your chicken or your egg first?? And the government should have given the AIG clients haircuts like they gave the bondholders of the car companies haircuts when they were bailed out. The AIG bailouts were practically dollar-for-dollar, not punishing the risky behavior at all. What message does that send? And who is sending it? David "Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine."--P. J. O’Rourke On 10/22/2011 12:10 AM, bil...@aol.com wrote: Uhhh, this leaves out the whole derivatives mess. Or did Uncle Sam force Goldman, Lehman, Bear Stearns, etc, and the banks, to create these halls of mirrors ?   The derivatives markets created multiples of Trillions of Dollars in bad paper. All done with no help from Washington DC.  Wall Street did it all by its sweet little self, no help from anyone.   Any idea why critiques from the Right leave out this itty-bitty fact ?   Anything to do with it bursting the "capitalism is perfect" balloon ? Ya think ?   We have a dysfunctional system, not just a dysfunctional half of a system.   What the Right says is approximately just as full of poop as what the Left says. Each wants all the blame to devolve on the other. That is more poop. It comes down to who you prefer getting screwed by. But either way you get screwed  --the equivalent of violent rape :  of your savings, home equity, and everything else. All for the sake of economic theories that are approximately just as false on the Left as on  the Right To buy into either one of these theories is suicidal..   Billy         10/21/2011 7:45:45 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, david.r.bl...@verizon.net writes: INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: “If Republicans are to take back the White House and Senate, they need to do a better job tying Democrats and Washington to the subprime crisis. It’s not hard, yet even their front-runner struggles to make the case.” Here’s a handy graphic: Posted at 10:44 am by Glenn Reynolds   http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/130125/ Maybe "Occupy Washington" would be more in order. David -- "Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine."--P. J. O’Rourke -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org   -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org