wrote:
On Oct 7, 8:06 am, Stephen Trapani wrote:
...
A tiny bit of research about the banking crisis reveals that it was not
the free market that caused it, it was *over* regulation (primarily
fannie and freddie) ...

As I've said before that's a meme current mostly with folks who can't
add. I thought the following was a pretty amusing take:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/162789

From that article:

"Look. There was a culture of stupid, reckless lending, of which Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac and the subprime lenders were an integral part."

Basically Fannie and Freddie regulations created a false market which
was then not subjected to enough oversight and hence abused. That's the
problem with market regulation, it creates the need for ever more
regulating. Calling this a failure of free market principles is asinine.
It's like saying communism would have worked if only the leaders had
been smart enough to be more brutal and squelch more of the citizens'
rights.

Stephen