...something you'd rather sweep under the rug in the rush to blame
those evil libby-rull Democrats!

Dave wrote:
Nope. I blame the failures of the investment banks on their own stupidity in
over-leveraging their capital and their undue concentration of assets. The
guvmint should have let all of them run to the bankruptcy courts if they
couldn't continue to meet their obligations, instead of bailing them out.

OK, good so far.

The only problem I have is that if we simply let the banks fail in an
economy that has grown increasingly dependent on credit.... addicted
to it, you might say.... then failure will spread quickly thru every
level of the economy. Bank failure was one of the tripwires of the
Great Depression.

But apparently Thunder doesn't know the difference between a bank and an
investment bank. No one who did would mention CRA in the same sentence with
investment bank. That's why I suggested he take a nap while those who know
something about the subject discuss it.

I think I got it.

We have a financial crisis caused by the CRA and commercial banks
giving mortgages to unsuitable lenders. But the investment banks have
nothing at all to do with the CRA and they're the biggest part of this
crisis.

Maybe you can explain just a little further Dave. You may be making a
leap of faith here that I can't follow....

DSK