I agree that this problem has been incubating through past administrations, including Clintons, as you had Paul Volker, so worried about deflation, lowering interest rates to the point of creating the Great Credit Society.

ExiledI; One can’t help but wonder how differently the world would’ve been if the last 8 years were under different leadership – let’s say Pres. Gore. Ex-Pres. Clinton talk about this recently and said what you had was all this credit available at super low rates and nowhere to better put it to use than in the Housing market. Too much for too long made for ‘creative’ marketing techniques to allow greater numbers of people to get first mortgages that they never could’ve gotten before. What we should’ve been investing in is the Energy alternatives we so badly need now.

I know, hindsight is 20/20, but who could argue that Gore wouldn’t have pushed in this direction. Certainly more than this current Admins. I know, it’s crazy to lament for an Al Gore administration- Wow, I’m losin it !!

Why us? Why, after the Wall St. Investment banks have reaped huge profits on writing these Mortgage Securities, should we now have to take on the huge responsibility of trying to create a market for them now that they’re all but worthless.

I know this is cynical, but because that is what the big money people have been striving to achieve for years.

Privatize profit, socialized risk.

Reagan, Bush 1, yes Clinton as well, and certainly Bush II, but also the vast majority of congress, both Repubs and Dems, have been in the back pockets of the megawealthy for 30+ years. It’s not that there are no good Dems or Republicans or good Democrats, and I am not saying there is no difference between the two, but the cost of getting elected and the power structure that supports these people has made the system unworkable.

The insanity of the last 8 years is not that this wasn’t always going on, but that the breaks were taken completely off and the greed so unchecked that the system can no longer support the avaraice of the megawealthy.

At one time, when the middle class was prosperous and large enough, the megawalthy could skim the money off the top and it was hardly noticed, but the insane policies of the past 8 years as accelerated the skimming and drained the pool, resulting in the disaster we now have before us.

I have no idea what he’s referring to when he says; “This crisis is a lack of knowledge, including the inability to know who owes what to whom, and where the risk resides.” That statement is ridiculous. The only knowledge they lack is of the future – how do you price these securities no one wants to own, ie; what are they worth?

As to where the risk lies, that’s simple – wherever these currently worthless securities reside. The Gov, or we the people, are on the precipice of taking on the full weight of that risk. If this rescue plan goes through we’ll know exactly where the risk lies – in everybody’s back pocket!

I agree with the rest of this quote, and I would add a sentiment that I’ve heard recently – Why us? Why, after the Wall St. Investment banks have reaped huge profits on writing these Mortgage Securities, should we now have to take on the huge responsibility of trying to create a market for them now that they’re all but worthless. They gotta lot of explainin to do!