The coming financial crisis

[Cerevant]

No such thing as objective conclusions, but it would be nice to have the data all in one place so you could have something to base that critical thinking on...

[MadMarchHare]

Hasn't Obama actually proposed such a thing?  A wiki for government votes, so you could get some easy-to-obtain information on who voted for what (why is another issue entirely).

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

But anyway, Bernanke is going to start paying people to borrow money soon.  Should be fun for the value of the dollar.

[Diomedes]

I guess they'd rather use the bailout money to buy up other banks rather than start lending again?

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

It seems that way.  But, hey, rushing one of the most expensive bills in the history of the country through in a matter of days was totally a great idea.

[Diomedes]

It worked so well for the Patriot Act though...what went wrong this time?

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Maybe 3rd time is the charm for Bush.  How awful has it been every time he and Congress have agreed on something?  Christ.

[rjs246]

So, I actually want to explore this one point a little more...

Democrats, and then later George W. Bush, came up with the Fair Housing Act which essentially forced banks to lower their credit criteria for lending so that poor people who couldn't afford houses could now 'buy' houses. Anyone being able to get a mortgage leads to inflated housing prices becuse anyone can now get loans that they can't really afford to pay so why not ask for more when you're selling your house? Right? Right.

So if everyone can agree that this has led (fairly directly) to the housing crisis, then why is everyone blaming Republicans for the financial problems? I have a couple of thoughts on that.
1. A lack of regulations actually made the Fair Housing Act's impact WAY worse. The subprime loan fiasco was something that regulations should have prevented from ever existing. When you combine Subprime loans with the Fair Housing Act you get people who can't afford to buy houses at normal prices in the first place, buying houses that are priced artifically high. Bubble.
2. Republicans should be angry at Republican leaders for allowing it to go this far. Rather than stepping in and saying 'The Fair Housing Act doesn't make sense and should be repealed.' Bush actually expanded it.

Democrats can be blamed for coming up with the idea, but Republicans in power are just as guilty for their lack of action to stem the problem, and are thought of as MORE guilty overall because the lack of economic oversight (a cornerstone of Republican politics) compounded the issue 10 fold.

There's blame to go around, for sure, but I can certainly understand hy the Republicans are taking the brunt of it.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

You're right.  Republicans should have worked harder to quash the Democrats.

[rjs246]

Both sides should work harder to quash bad ideas. But the fact that the Republicans have done nothing about bad Democratic ideas, have proposed bad expensive ideas themselves and continued to shout about deregulation, only to back off and propose a massive government bailout once it was too late, means that the Republican party has absolutely no economic-platform to stand by and fiscal conservatives can no longer trust them to steer the ship. shtein, Democratic Presidents have been more fiscally responsible in recent history.

At this point the only reason to vote Republican is if you believe in their social platform or think that the Second Amendment is the only part of the Constitution that matters.

[Diomedes]

At this point the only reason to vote Republican is if you believe in their social platform or think that the Second Amendment is the only part of the Constitution that matters.

The 2nd Amendment has little to fear from Obama.  He's been at pains to say that he won't be trying to take anyone's guns away, and was quick to agree with the recent Supreme Court decision that D.C.'s gun ban was unconstitutional, that the 2nd Amendment meant the right of individuals to bear arms, not just militias.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Good read for anyone that wants to be smarter than they were a few minutes before.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Ugh.

Just a couple months ago, it was all about driving less.  Now, it's all about saving the American car industry with taxpayer money.

Maybe if the American automakers did business less like jackasses, they would actually sell.  Maybe if every single new car wasn't an utter ripoff, losing 20%+ of its value off the lot, they would actually sell.  Maybe if they actually made some innovations, instead of copying off the Japanese, they would actually sell.

I got news for all of you: the other shoe of this down economy hasn't dropped yet.

[Diomedes]

I got news for all of you: the other shoe of this down economy hasn't dropped yet.

OMG, thanks sooo much!  Without warnings like these, I'd have NO idea.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Ditch diggers need jobs too.