[Timesink]

As far as the catalyst for the market implosion -- it is clear that Alan Greenspan's tight monetary policy of late 1999 and early 2000 was responsible for pricking the market bubble.

Perhaps, though most Freepers - to my virulent disagreement - like to pin the prick (no Willard pun intended) on the 'Toon Justice Department's lawsuit against Microsoft, mainly because it allowed them to both worship at the Altar of Gates and ream Clinton at the same time (and that it "coincided with the start of the crash", even though the prosecution news didn't break until a good month after the Big Drop had already begun; too many people are unwilling to accept that correlation does not equal causastion, especially when it doesn't even really correlate). In any case, that bubble had to be pricked, and the pricking was inevitable. The date that it finally happened, or the supposed impetus, is almost beside the point.

[ennui]

Excellent thread.

Completely agree that blaming Bush is ludicrous, and anyone with a modicum of savvy about the markets would know this was due, which isn't to let the corporate crooks off the hook.

Having said all that, I'm no fan of Bush, and anyone who resorts to the Clinton-lack-of-moral-tone line of argument hasn't been paying attention.

Bush and Harken were doing an Enron before Clinton ever got the presidential gleam in his eye. So by all means let's make the rational case about the situation in the stock market, but let's not go off the deep end on Clinton, when he was only part of a more deep-seated problem.