Gogarty wrote:

It wasn't socialism that crashed but capitalism. Ironically, the gummint now
has to resort to socialism to try to fill the hole in the dike.


Actually, it was socialism, in the form of pressuring lenders to make
loans to those unfit to pay them, that brought down capitalism. And
when did this program start? 1996 under the "Community Reinvestment
Act" under Clinton. Fannie and Fredie helped fuel the fire when the CEO
compensation package bonus program was tied to the total amount of loans
these organizations bought. So the CEOs just bought everything in sight
regardless of its value of level of risk. Then they bailed, got the
boot or were pressured into resigning.

Bush came into office and didn't address the problem, didn't tighten
regulation. Congress wasn't interested in fixing the problem because
they had their hands in the pockets of Fannie and Freddie.

We're in a credit freeze because the mortgage-based assets don't have
the value they did when the loans were made.

Now we're in a "rescue program" mentality. The promised profits from
the sale of these toxic assets will NOT be returned to the taxpayers
that funded the bailout, but will go to new spending projects. Read the
rescue bill that Bush signed. Its very enlightening.

Banker Bill