"wf3h" wrote in message
...
On Mar 21, 6:30 pm, Keith Nuttle wrote:
thunder wrote:
On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:21:18 -0800, Calif Bill wrote:

It started a lot further back than Bush, or Clinton, or Bush 1.

Bush Basher that I am, I can't blame this on Bush. I believe the
government gets too much blame, *and* too much credit, for the economy.
The government might have developed the framework that allowed this to
happen, but they didn't cause it to happen. No one put a gun to the head
of Wall Street's Masters of the Universe and forced them to make
incredibly risky decisions. No one told Lehman Brothers they had to
leverage themselves 33 to 1. Greed and stupidity did that. This is a
free market, after all.

Except the Clinton administration in forcing banks to make loans to
unqualified individuals because it was everyone's right to own a home.

which had nothing to do with the current situation. countrywide
financial was the largest provider of mortgage loans in the US and was
not subject to the type of law (the community reinvestment act) that
you think had a role.

the real problem was credit default swaps. in 2000 the total amount of
credit default swaps was $920 billion. in 2007, the amount of CDS was
$62 TRILLION....or more than the entire output of all economies on the
planet. how did wall street propose to pay $62 trillion in exposure?

that's greed. it's stupidity.

california bill is right: the govt gave wall street a loaded pistol
via deregulation of derivatives.

wall street greed pulled the trigger.


And the Congress people who gave the gun to wall street cashed in huge
bribes, opps campaign contributions. And it was not under Bush's when the
majority of bullets for the gun were manufactured.