Massive bailouts, foreclosed homes, jaw-dropping gas prices, chaos on Wall Street. These are just a few signs of the U.S.'s struggling economy. As America enters the next chapter of its history, what impact will an Obama administration have on our economic future?
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You are wrong
forclosure phil
I agree one ought to be an informed voter. It has become common knowledge that Phil Graham is at the top of the responsibility list when it comes to our current crisis. He was major deregulator of the 90's and did ir purposly to line the pockets of the ultra rich whats more it worked!
- wanderer
February 28, 2009 1:20PM
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Whats wrong with America
Sorry to use you as an example, Phil, but to me, you represent what is truly wrong with Americans and politics. You take the easy way out, to repeat the garbage without doing a little of your own research or coming up with your own view point. It is so easy to blame a single person rather than step back and look at the system as a whole. So saying Phil Graham is at the top overlooks the problem and ergo, one cannot have solve a problem without understanding the problem.
The key to the financial issue is complex, no doubt, but one can easily point out the biggest contributor to the problem and the issue that started the downfall: the housing market collapse. Within that are a number of factors starting with Fannie and Freddie. They are hybrid organizations. They are neither private company nor are they a government agency. There are something in between and that is a big part of this problem. Had they been a company, they would have had to behave in a more responsible fashion. Had they been a government agency, they would have been subjected to more oversight. Add to that, the goal of the Clinton administration to put more lower income people into home ownership (under a Republican congress so blame is equal). Now you have a recipe for disaster. Mortgage companies sell mortgages to home buyers then in turn sell those mortgages to Fanny and Freddy. Fanny and Freddy has restrictions on which mortgages they would buy so mortgage companies sold the ones they knew they could resell. Prior to Bill's home ownership initiative, Fanny and Freddy would not buy risky mortgages like Interest only, etc. but after Bill's initiative, they started buying up risky loans which in turn had mortgage companies drooling because now they had a whole new HUGE market to sell to that was not available to them before. For interest only or adjustable ARMS, everything was peachy for awhile until the adjustment period when lower income, credit risky folks found themselves unable to afford the adjusted payments. Needless to say, 1) this crisis has been brewing for a long time and 2) as homes foreclosures started to increase nothing was done and 3) as homes foreclosed, people spent less thus slowly putting an undertow on our whole economy.
The point is, blaming Phil Graham or any single individual in this mess is dangerous as it does not address or even reveal the full scope of the problem. So when you point to deregulation, yet in the video clip I linked to above which I don;t think you watched, you have lawmakers literally saying that there is no problem and that a government appointed auditor is wrong. How do you watch that and think the government should have been more involved when it clearly shows that our government is incapable?
- Pliskin
February 28, 2009 2:50PM
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Part II
In cases of regulation or government bailouts, here is what happens: businesses do not need to be financially sound. This is very much like the kid you knew in school was was small but friends with the bully. That guy would flap his lip endlessly because he knew the bully had his back. Take the bully away, and this guy thinks a little more before he speaks. If a business like a bank knows the government will be there to save them, they can take greater risks and this is exactly what happened with Fanny and Freddy.
But the biggest issue to me is I feel, long ago, we lost our concept of government. It is no longer by the people, for the people as every decision made has underlying motives. Things like campaign contributions, PAC money, lobbyists...not to mention political spin because Lord knows, no one want to be holding the bag. In the video clip above, you can see Democrats arguing with the auditor, saying Fanny and Freddy were financially sound yet listen to them this past fall and they sing a different tune. It wasn't their fault, it was the republicans and deregulation. Find someone else to blame so people won't think it was you and never mind that those senators in the video all got money from Fanny and Freddy.
Everyone is to blame and everyone had their hands in the cookie jar and I have gotten to a point where I don't believe a one of them, republicans or democrats.
So please take a step back and really look at this. It is so easy to blame Bush for the war, for example, when Al Gore virtually guaranteed in 2000 that he would invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam if elected. If Gore had won, we'd be in the exact same place we are now. It doesn't matter who is in office, or what little letter is shown after their names (R or D), its our whole government. I voted for Obama only because I hope and pray he really is someone different. Only time will tell...
GORE'S CAMPAIGN SPEECH TO AIPAC, May, 2000: His own words...
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/Gore.html
"We have made it clear that it is our policy to see Saddam Hussein gone."
"We have used force when necessary, and that has been frequently. And we will not let up in our efforts to free Iraq from Saddam's rule. Should he think of challenging us, I would strongly advise against it. As a senator, I voted for the use of force, as vice president I supported the use of force. If entrusted with the presidency, my resolve will never waiver. Never waiver."
A politician is a politician. Don't blame them as individuals, blame the collective mess that our government has become.
- Pliskin
February 28, 2009 2:51PM
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phil
I do agree that many are to blame. However, it would appear you take the "its the system" approach; which is to say no one is to blame. Therefore, there is no such thing as personal responsibility. Moreover, to point to Al Gore and claim he "would have" done the same thing as Bush in Iraq seems to me a bit of a logical leap. The problems we face is not "the system". The problem is a philosophy that rewards greed and embraces the maintenance of inequality of opportunity.
And lets be honest here. Bush's war had nothing to do with ridding the world of a vicious tyrant, nor did it have anything to do with the now infamous weapons of mass destruction. It had everything to do with no bid contracts, using 9/11 an excuse to invade Iraq and gain control of its oil.
Of course, there is no one to blame because it the "system". Tens of thousands of people have died and no one is to take responsibility. We can only blame the "collective mess" then?
- wanderer
March 1, 2009 6:32AM
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Side: Barack Obama
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