Charles MacKay's ‘Extraordinarily Popular delusion’ (particularly the first chapter on ‘The Mississippi Scheme’) is pretty great for an understanding of the real factors which lead to the current crisis in our economy. Economic ‘bubbles’ are one thing, but flat out mass ‘delusions’ derived from phony goldmines are another matter entirely. The delusion which has led to our latest economic was dependent on the notion that someone -ANYONE- would actually be able to collect interest (the real bread and butter of financial institutions) from folks who should have never been allowed to obtained the loans they got.
Yes there are abuses that need to be investigated and prosecuted. CEO's guilty of cooking their books in order to give the appearance that their businesses were profitable so that they might get their pay outs pushed through, and thereby deceiving and leading to the financial ruin of their stockholders, deserve everything they got coming to them (or at least should have coming to them). But to blame foreclosures merely on Wall St. is to not learn the important lessons we should be taking from this, so as to NEVER repeat them.
A fact that keeps getting lost in the political rhetoric -from both sides- is that even if companies hadn't bought the ‘bad loans’, not only would there have been NO excuses for a bail out (i.e. the supposed ruin of the entire market, which I don’t particularly buy), but homes in or on the verge of foreclosure, would STILL be in or on the verge of foreclosure regardless. Why? Because the people can’t afford the houses they live in. They've bitten off more than they could chew. Their eyes were bigger than there stomachs. Their mouths wrote check that their... oh you get the picture.
How about when everyone has sobered from their populist binging a la ranting against the Wall St. 'system bro', we launch an investigation into the excesses of all the greedy folks with bad credit! But alas, some poor politician would have to fall on his/her sword to do so because we can’t handle the truth…
The Great Depression should be studied as well. I’d hope that in doing so, particular note is taken of the crucial role mass panic played in those economic disasters (for therein lies the folly of the rhetoric of politicians like Obama). IMHO, the ONLY benefit of the Federal Reserve (FDIC) has been to reassure savers that their deposits and savings are secure regardless, thus keeping folks from doing the ONE thing that WILL lead to the financial collapse the socialist left keeps heralding…
Like Obama, I believe we need to go talk to our neighbors, and ‘get in their face’ and say, ‘Jerk, you knew you couldn’t afford that house when you got it. Hell you make $50,000 a year, have a family of 4, with a $400,000 mortgage for crying out loud!!!’ (I have an idiot brother who actually did that one. I dunno about the 50K though).
Thanks Jesse Jackson! Thanks Rev. Al! Thanks Bill Clinton et al!!! Thank to everyone who bought in to that mind fart notion that home ownership is the birthright of all Americans. That is if it's not merely a down payment on reparations for the ‘institutionalized racism’ exhibited in a system that would actually have the ‘audacity’ to tell folks with bad credit (white, black, turquoise, whatever) ‘YOUR NOT APPROVED’, and ‘hope’ they’d have sense enough to understand…
Get it? ‘Audacity of Hope’? Lol!… Ok that’s enough…
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