[Azure]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Of course lending standards played a role. But if you really think that deregulation of credit markets didn't play a role in the eventual widespread financial collapse, you're not looking at the whole situation. There was literally no regulatory scrutiny after 2000 (Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000). I'm not going to waste time discussing about which party/President is more to blame. The political structure was at the hands of Greenspan and the rest of the FED. Both Presidents Clinton and Bush were misguided on the dangers of the FEDs actions during those years.

Bush and Clinton had a relatively strong economy while they were in office. Washington doesn't change things when everything is running fine.

But yes, you absolutely have a point. I just think it goes back further. All the way to Carter and the Community Reinvestment Act.

And then some blatant lying by people like Franks made it worse.

Frank doesn't. But his fingerprints are all over this fiasco. Time and time again, Frank insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good shape. Five years ago, for example, when the Bush administration proposed much tighter regulation of the two companies, Frank was adamant that "these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis." When the White House warned of "systemic risk for our financial system" unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.


Now that the bubble has burst and the "systemic risk" is apparent to all, Frank blithely declares: "The private sector got us into this mess." Well, give the congressman points for gall. Wall Street and private lenders have plenty to answer for, but it was Washington and the political class that derailed this train. If Frank is looking for a culprit to blame, he can find one suspect in the nearest mirror.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ed...ancial_fiasco/

As for why Pelosi is an idiot, its pretty simple.

During the week of September 14, 2008, the Speaker of the House was asked whether “Democrats bear some of the responsibility regarding the current crisis on Wall Street.” Her one-word answer: “No.” We’re not sure what’s more discomfiting here: If Madame Speaker truly believed that Democrats played no role in this—despite the congressional record, the news clips, the torrent of cash from financial-industry lobbyists, and what Bill Clinton himself called the Democrats’ resistance to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—then she was either curiously unengaged or woefully misinformed. But if Ms. Pelosi was merely being disingenuous—aware that both parties were culpable, yet so caught up in partisanship that she was unwilling to even entertain the possibility that some of the Democrats’ most compassionate legislation may have had unintended consequences—this represents an equally dispiriting alternative. Looking forward, neither explanation augers well for any of us.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/dai...conomists.html

Not exactly the person you want in charge of the Democrats going forward.