Did Democrats Have Something to Do with the Economic Troubles?

FoxNews.com ^ | November 25, 2008 | Mike Baker

[Joiseydude]

Remember during the campaign how this whole economic mess, according to the Obama camp, was the fault of the Bush administration and the past 8 years? They had all those excellent slogans… we can’t afford four more years of the same… remember? I don’t want to say that a lot of people bought that crap, but anytime you tried to talk about actual economic history and how this mess evolved, most people glazed over and muttered “past 8 years… more of same… must change.”

Well, just this Sunday while enjoying a piping hot cup of joe and a danish, I was reading through the Sunday papers. Being desirous of news from all sides, I always start with the New York Times. Eventually I finish up with Guns & Ammo. The Times had a story on the front page entitled Citigroup Pays for a Rush to Risk.

[Happy Rain]

If the Wall Street Journal editorial board does not study this thread they are derelict in their stated duties. They claim to be fiscal conservatives and one would think,after 2006 and 2008,that they could use some gravitas.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Rocklobster: "What does she [Maxine Waters] know about anything?"

ETL: Waters is way out on the commie left.

Well, I meant besides being a communist.

ETL: I suspect she and many of the demonRat leadership knew full well that Fannie Mae was failing. They played dumb to deliberately sabotage the U.S. economy.

Of course they did, in fact, they did such a good job that they tanked the "global" economy.

We need to thank them for accidentally bringing down the price of oil just in time for heating season.

Like they say, liberalism always gets the exact opposite result of its intentions.

[woofie]

Imtrying to remember what that White water stuff with Clinton was all about..something to do with a shady bank in Arkansas?

[AmericanVictory]

Thanks for the links.

[AmericanVictory]

Quite often, however, those that orchestrate the crisis then lose control of it and all does not go as planned when they decided to orchestrate.

[y6162]

Yup...Schumer started the panic.

I think he’s vulnerable releasing inside information. His criminality needs to be exposed.

[dajeeps]

“The politically connected house “flippers” are also in the bad paper mix.When the housing bubble burst they simply walked out on their obligations and their debts were also absorbed by GSEs Fannie and Fred.

The real estate speculaters with lobbyists made out like bandits as much as the poverty pimp subprime activists.

How else did certain liberal Democrats recieve such sweetheart personal real estate deals?”

Agreed. My post wasn’t focused on any one group, however, but more on the regulatory angle because it really doesn’t matter who was getting loans that they shouldn’t have had. My main point is that the whole notion that deregulation caused the financial crisis is a myth. In economic terms, the functioning of the housing/mortgage market did not equal market failure. It was the securities market that was rife with it.

[dajeeps]

And... if you ask me, not so much a macro economist as I am a corporate economist, Democrats share the majoirty of the blame in shaping the atmosphere where all the contributing factors could come together; the modifications to the CRA to essentially force banks to make bad loans, resisting regulation of Fannie and Freddie, and all the other kinds of corruption revolving around this issue that was taking place. The largest blunder of them all was, under Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, when they finally put Fannie and Freddie under the banking acts and implemented a special regulator for them, they did not provide the funding needed to back the bad paper Fannie and Freddie had been floating around.

Republicans also share in it, however. They had the house when the CRA was modified. They chaired the committies when Alan Greenspan and others sat in front of them telling them that there was too much risk in the system from the GSEs and they needed to be reined in or serious issues could result. Bush obviously knew about the possible trouble and also did nothing. When they stick their heads in the sand after hearing the Fed chair and the Treasury Secretary say these things and/or compromise to get their earmarks for the year and let that garbage stand, they are just as guilty as if they had done it themselves.