You mean ending government regulation, raising spending, cutting taxes, and helping the rich doesn’t make the economy strong? Wow. Who would have thought?
You do realize that $700 billion is more than $2,000 for every man woman and child in the United States. That is, as they say, “real money.”
I’m no economist. And I don’t understand what’s really going on any better than you do. But something is very obvious: companies should not be allowed to get too big to fail. Duh! That’s why we regulate.
And while I generally prefer my socialism for the poor and working class rather than the rich, I’d feel better if we could get as much of this $700 billion as possible to come from people who profited from this mess.
Now I wonder how Republicans are going to blame Democrats for all this. Oh, that’s right. Now we have to rise “above politics.” Easy to say when you’re the ones that f*cked everything up. Fine mess you rich bastards have gotten us into. If only capital gain taxes were lower, I’m sure everything would be better.
Of course a lot of Republicans are also pissed because they don’t like Republican fiscal mismanagement either. Why, I’m old enough to remember when fiscal mismanagement was a Democratic issue. Those were the days!
Meanwhile, poor Americans are being kicked out of their crappy formaldehyde-infested trailers in New Orleans. Years after the flood. It’s just not right. It just don’t make sense.
I accidentally disallowed comments. DJK posted this elsewhere. Here's how Republicans will try and blame the Democrats: bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0
Who says they’re too big to fail besides the companies themselves, and the government entities dependent on their tax revenue? We need a mortgage and credit system, not any of the particular companies that are currently providing those services.
IMHO – prescriptive (I’m not sure I’m using the word correctly) regulation like what people say will prevent problems like this won’t work because the regulators aren’t any smarter than the people they’re regulating.
Which Government regulations were ended and how did they cause this? No sorry, I don't buy a knee jerk response to this. We've been in the making of this one for a long time and both parties have a lot of blame.
Here's some interesting reading on it. This is only a scratch on the surface.
Tyler Cowen on Bush administration regulation in the Weekend Times
nytimes.com/2008/09/14/business/14view.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin
Tyler Cowen on Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/09/did-the-gramm-l.html
Meagan McArdle on who's to blame and Why they probably couldn't do
anything about it
meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/what_should_bush_have_done.php
and here
meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/obama_goes_for_the_jungular.php
and here
meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/hindsight_regulation.php
and here she examines current Regulation theory
meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/rethinking_regulation.php
The Overview by Steven Levitt
freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/diamond-and-kashyap-on-the-recent-financial-upheavals/
Of course, don't forget "mark to market" Which was caused by SarbOx
meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/even_the_easy_answers_arent_ea.php
Forgot about the housing bubble. Good one by Russ Roberts and the incentive shift by the Cap Gains waiver on home sales
cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2008/09/some-bubble.html
And on subprime loans from Don Boudreaux.
cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2008/09/genetically-eng.html
Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite bloggers:
Moving out of the FEMA trailer in time for the next hurricane
Was chatting with a gal today about Hurricane Gustav. She said “One of my relatives is still living in a FEMA trailer.” Three years after Katrina? “He’s a drunk. He’s milking the system.”