You know why we're in this financial crisis? Ask any conservative talk-show host or crazy wingnut youtube instapundit. Why, it's the very people that have the least amount of power in this system: poor and minority families. If only these people had exercised "personal responsibility" then none of this would have happened. And of course they aren't the only ones to blame, there's also the liberals in congress who advocate for these irresponsible people, trying to give them something for nothing. They forced these poor banks to make loans they didn't want to make in order to support their socialist ideals. It's Bill Clinton's fault because financial matters take years in order to affect the system, but it's also the liberal congresses fault because they were presiding when the crisis hit.
WHAT??? Does this actually make sense to anyone with half a brain cell?
Let's inject some facts into this. How about this incredible article by David Goldstein and Kevin G. Hall. No time to read it? Here are some highlights:
"More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions."
Yeah, but they were also pressured to loan to the less fortunate, right? Certainly that scary CRA I keep hearing about had something to do with it.
"only commercial banks and thrifts must follow CRA rules. The investment banks don't, nor did the now-bankrupt non-bank lenders such as New Century Financial Corp. and Ameriquest that underwrote most of the subprime loans. These private non-bank lenders enjoyed a regulatory gap, allowing them to be regulated by 50 different state banking supervisors instead of the federal government. And mortgage brokers, who also weren't subject to federal regulation or the CRA, originated most of the subprime loans."
But why? Why did they make these loans if they weren't forced to by the evil, do-gooder liberals?
" In 2005 and 2006, the private sector securitized almost two thirds of all U.S. mortgages, supplanting Fannie and Freddie, according to a number of specialty publications that track this data....
Fueled by low interest rates and cheap credit, home prices between 2001 and 2007 galloped beyond anything ever seen, and that fueled demand for mortgage-backed securities, the technical term for mortgages that are sold to a company, usually an investment bank, which then pools and sells them into the secondary mortgage market."
It's simple, if people can throw around more fake money, then the housing prices become inflated, which the Bush Administration was happy to put as a feather in their cap for quite some time. And these companies had no reason not to lend the money, they could turn around and bundle the mortgages and sell them to other companies while lying about their true value. It helps their bottom line, and that's all their obligated to worry about. That's the free market baby. Law of the Jungle, Kill or Be Killed, Greed is Good.
So whose responsibility was it to make sure things of this nature don't happen? Why were they allowed to lie to the companies to whom they sold the mortgage backed securities? Because there was no oversight. The comprehensive deregulation, pushed by conservatives, but backed by quite a few democrats as well, made this possible.
The republican line on this issue is beyond false, beyond tortured logic, it is a rehashing of the same old crap. This is welfare queens and affirmitive action repackaged in a new box, but it's still the same old product inside: socially acceptable racism.
It's very comfortable to believe that one group of people are responsible for all the problems in your life. Look at the blind, incoherent rage displayed by Billo and that screaming moron in the cookie monster shirt (from the links above). Clinton, Liberals, the poor, minorities: These are the people conservatives are used to hating. Give them a link from their misery to any of these groups, no matter how vague, and they'll take it with as little proof as possible. Because all this was caused by these underclass, these people who "aren't really Americans." How dare they aspire to the American Dream? How dare they take what they can and hope for the best? They should know their place!
The saddest thing is, this will hit the poor the hardest. With the minimum wage just recently upped, those dollars will unfortunately be worth less. Why? Because the federal government is going to have to make more money out of thin air just to give the banks the cash they need to loan and keep our economy flowing. It'll probably work, but more bills in the system means only one thing: the dollar will be weaker. How good will that $7.25 an hour look when a box of tictacs costs $7.25?
Blame the poor and then stick it to them. Forget it Jake, It's Wall Street.
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