There have been multiple threads about this program - too bad they can’t just be condensed into one and kept at the top of the list!
Also, I saw this article / thread last night, which adds some more useful info.:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2097802/posts
It appears from that article that fraud @ AIG was the powder in the keg, and the Dems through Fannie and Freddie provided the fuse and match.
But, I still have many questions. Among them: AIG was apparently insuring the high risk loans, but did not actually have the collateral to cover them. Did the 2004 Republican proposals, or Bush’s attempted reforms, or McCain’s tries, address this? Did ANYONE’s? If someone did, who opposed it?
It appears to me that worldwide banking regulations were skirted. Would U.S. regulations alone have really helped, and would the rest of the world gone along with them?
In a similar light, has anyone previously attempted to limit or regulate mark-to-market accounting? Who opposed such moves? That’s a big part of all this too.
The answers to those questions would go a long way, in my mind, toward answering the question of whether Bush or “the Republicans” were asleep at the wheel. (I don’t think they can really be faulted if NOBODY saw the details of what was coming.) A general attack from Obama of “Bush’s opposition to regulations caused this” doesn’t hold water if he (Obama) wasn’t making or supporting specific proposals that would have helped. To the contrary, Obama and the Dems clearly made things worse, from everything I have seen so far.
From the article referenced above, I have come away with a somewhat different view of the bailout than I had even a day ago. I guess I would compare it to dealing with a plug in the toilet when there is no plunger or Draino around. You sure as heck don’t want to reach in there, but...
The author is quite dubious about the bailout doing anything but preventing complete disaster: “First, you must understand that without the government’s actions, the collapse of AIG could have caused every major bank in the world to fail.”
As far as I’m concerned, “Heads need to roll” is putting it mildly.