Examine events of 2005 to see where the financial crisis came from

[darrelx]

There's a lot of finger-pointing and what-if scenarios floating around about how and why today's financial problems came about, but everyone agrees that it started with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac imploding.

[Kudos to mauser for the link to this article

Comments

[lizetta]

I'd have to say that I think our current economy, let alone the economic problems, are so amazingly vast and complicated that any action or character could hardly logically be assigned to a single decision, or a single action/inaction.

[darrelx]

...and yet, without assigning any particular act or decision, several high-ranking democratic leaders still cry out that their party was not at fault.

Nancy Pelosi press release: 9/15/2008
"Eight years of weakened regulation of our nation's financial system -- including a failure to regulate risky, and often predatory, lending practices -- by the Bush Administration and Republicans in Congress have led us to this point, and could further erode our nation's economic health."

She was obviously lying purely for political reasons. Weakened regulation was the result of HER party objecting to S.190, not the Republicans who were trying to push it to a vote.

[badjahsensei]

...would these be the same Republicans and Bushies who had a total lock on all three houses from 2004 to 2006, and even flaunted the so-called "nuclear option" in the face of Democratic challenges?

Please, try and tell me that they were paralyzed again. :)

[darrelx]

Wasn't that the period of time with one Democratic filibuster after another preventing just about ANYTHING from being done in either the Senate or the House?

[badjahsensei]

The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets.

So then....John McCain was for regulation, before he was against it in the primaries and convention, and is now for it again?

I can't keep up with his position on regulation. He seems to change it with every poll... Jesus, talk about your flip floppers. :)

[darrelx]

Can you cite where he was against it?

[edited to amend the following]

More specifically, can you cite where he was against regulation of Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac?

Because being against regulation of private businesses is a whole different matter. Freddie/Fannie were Congressionally sanctioned entities, not private businesses.

[badjahsensei]

*laughs at the edit*

Jesus, Darrel, you're grasping here. Didn't the Republicans go against this kind of word lawyering when they were trying to pin Bill Clnton back in 1998? So the right is now for nitpicking before they were against it? :)

McCain's candidate position (again, not counting pre-candidate flip flops)...until this past week...has always been for no regulation and smaller government. He can't run around (and if you really want, I'll root around and find the video montage of him repeating this over the last year) saying "no regulation! No regulation!" then decry an exception when his Q rating drops. It's that same situation of rules for some people and rules for others that put us in this situation in the first place--and playing Clintonesque word games don't help address the issue. :)

[darrelx]

I'm not grasping. I'm being VERY specific.

McCain has been VERY FIRM in his positions, yet you claim to call him a flip-flopper without citing any evidence of it.

McCain has been for less regulation of businesses, but has been for tighter regulation of Freddie/Fannie. This is not a Flip-flop, it is a CONSISTENT position on specific issues.

Specific cases need specific attention, and history proves that THIS position (authoring S.190) was in fact the right one that would have avoided this entire mess we're in now... but S.190 was defeated not by a vote in the Senate, but by a democratic push to PREVENT IT FROM BEING VOTED ON at all.

My edit was to clarify what I was asking, so that you wouldn't confuse the two issues. I'm laughing back at you for trying to muddy the issue and avoid answering the challenge.

I'm not playing lawyerese or clintonesque word games... I am citing historial FACTS. Do you care to do the same without resorting to name-calling?

[ericlight]

It surprises me that McCain did not throw his support behind current bill S.1100, which incorporates all of the provisions and language of S.190, and was introduced by most of the original sponsors of S.190.

Also, McCain did not sign on to S.190 May of 2006, 16 months after the bill was introduced. He did so to try and urge more of his fellows to get behind S.190 and enact its provisions before it would be tabled by the end of the 109th Congress.

You can find more info on both bills, with summaries and related information, here:
S.190 -
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190

Sen. McCain's co-sponsorship speech:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-s20060525-16&bill=s109-190

S.1100 -http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=

[esprix]