Oh, I see. The problem was that Clinton didn't exert even MORE government intrusion and control over the economy. This is left-wing propaganda.
Government intrusion and distortion of the massive housing market in this country is the ultimate source of the crisis. Packaging the bad mortgages with other mortgages and slapping a good rating on it magnified the crisis. Credit derivatives shifted the bad risk thus created to other parties, including banks whose capital was thus put at risk.
The massive housing bubble was the root cause, with numerous other contributing and magnifying factors. The housing bubble resulted primarily from the destruction of long-standing credit standards in the mortgage market for political reasons, along with the easy money Fed policy.
Did you read the whole article? In my view, the author assigned blame correctly to every sector responsible for this mess.
Believe me, I was surprised to see such a balanced reading of this issue in the Village Voice. I almost didn't post it because of the source, but after reading the whole thing, I thought it was written with very little political bias.
Unfortunately, we've got an imperfect world because people are imperfect. There's a place for laws and a Sheriff in every town. There needs to be some sort of law and oversight of the banking industry by duly appointed law enforcement officials. Unfortunately, even that can be corrupted, along with whatever industry is being overseen.
I think we're now seeing the results of that.
This article is one man's reading of the issue and its root causes, but I think it sheds valuable insight on what's happened to the world economy.
“Government intrusion and distortion of the massive housing market in this country is the ultimate source of the crisis. Packaging the bad mortgages with other mortgages and slapping a good rating on it magnified the crisis. Credit derivatives shifted the bad risk thus created to other parties, including banks whose capital was thus put at risk.
The massive housing bubble was the root cause, with numerous other contributing and magnifying factors. The housing bubble resulted primarily from the destruction of long-standing credit standards in the mortgage market for political reasons, along with the easy money Fed policy.”
I have no disagreement with those statements.
I’ve been more aware of the housing bubble as the root cause of our economic troubles, than the subsequent packaging of those loans into toxic bombs. Like most Americans, I’m still learning about this, as the story develops.