Once again the the so called "conservatives are trying to blame Clinton for the failures of their Fearless Flightsuit. Only this time they're really desparate as they see their failed extremist utopian ideology crumbling in front of their eyes.
So Rush "Half-The-Truth-All-The-Time" Limbo and his ilk have concocted a fantasy whereby this financial meltdown is the fault of Bill Clinton all those years ago. And the Kool-aid drinkers are still swallowing hard to defend their rigid but deeply flawed belief system. They are ever-so-slightly right in a way, Bill and his side kick Paul Rubens acting as GOPwanabees went along with McCain Econ advisor Phil "Americans-Are-Whiners" Gram, Mr. Enron himself in dismantaling regulations put in place after the Great Depresson to prevent it's recurrance.
This is in fact the perfect storm with at least 5 converging factors working in concert to cause this crisis as outlined below:
1) There were a lot of people (lenders and borrowers) who were all convinced of the conventional wisdom, that house prices ALWAYS go up. So there was NO risk to either party because selling would always recoup the value (and more). I have to say that I didn't question that much myself, although I would NEVER borrow against most of my equity to finance consumer Shtuff. But you know that isn't so much because I'm smart or virtuous as it is because I'm lucky and had savy parents who had savy parents who taught them that, and who in turn tought me that.
2) A lot of people thought they were getting fixed rate loans only to find out at the last minute or after the fact that they were getting ARMs. You know, fraud (see #3 below) If an ARM scared you, well take comfort, see item #1 above!
3) The people who wrote the loans had ZERO stake in the ability of the borrowers to make the payments because they sold them as fast as they got'em (See the fricken Countrywide CEO who walked with $Ms while his employees and shaeholders gotthe shaft as just one example).
4) The late 1990's repeal of the Roosevelt Era Glass-Steagle Act by GOPderegulators such as such as McCain Economic Advisor Phil "Enron" Gram and GOPwannabees like Paul Rubens and his master Bill "where kin I stick it" Clinton created a conflict of interest between the banks who want to sell the mortgages and the brokerages who want to bundle the mortgages into bonds/securities and sell tham all over the globe because they became one company, which was wisely prohibited since the 1930's. The incentive of the brokerages to check the teeth of what they were buying from the banks and selling to their clients was gone when the banks bought them upafter GOPderegulation.
5) Leveraged Hedge Funds and Deriviatives. Out of my league to explain.It's the perfect storm. ALL FIVE were required to created this crisis. Fixed interest loans and this doesn't happen. A stake in the viability of the borrower by the initial lender and this doesn't happen. Transparency in the process of selling and re-selling these loans and THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN! Leveraging the risk all over the the global economy and THIS . . . !
But what is the root sin? GREED. Greed and the enabled desire of the greedy ones (through moneyed lobbying of OUR government) to pursue their vice through the "conservative" plank of wontan and unbalanced deregulation which was what brought us our last Great Depression.
YOU (not the sinners) are now paying the wages of SIN! What more evidence could anyone need of the need to reform our democracy and make it work for people and not money?
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