I keep hearing reasons...

[unixronin]

I keep hearing people trumpet reasons not to vote for McCain, with the unspoken implication that these constitute reasons to vote for Obama.

Well, OK.  Here's a pretty damned good reason not to vote for Obama.  You know this economic trainwreck that's currently happening right in front of us because Congress passed laws to allow (and even encourage) stupidly risky practices in home mortgage lending?

When the Bush administration tried to rein in Freddie and Fannie from continuing to engage in risky practices, guess who stepped in to block their efforts?  Democratic senators Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and -- are you ready? -- Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, guess who were the top four recipients of campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie between 1988 and 2008?

Senators Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and -- still ready? -- Barack Obama.

A coincidence, I tell you -- just a coincidence.

Further down in the same article,

While Barack Obama was getting campaign contributions from Fannie Mae's Franklin Raines, John McCain was sounding the alarm about the crisis to come and trying to do something about it.  On May 25, 2006, McCain spoke on the floor of the Senate on behalf of his proposed Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005:

[subquote elided]

However, McCain's bill was killed in the Senate when Democrats threatened a filibuster.

Yeah.  Now tell me with a straight face that I should vote for Obama and the Democratic Party because they're gonna make it all better.

The simple fact is, both parties have become part of the problem.

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Then someone needs to find the balls to tell the banks, "This is the offer; take it as offered, or leave it and we'll watch you fail."

Honestly, much of the bailout is looking like such a bad idea I'm not certain it'd be a bad thing if they did walk away, on those terms. It throws a sop to homeowners at risk of losing their homes, but its main purpose is to cover the asses of bank executives who had no better sense than to gamble with money they didn't have because it made the quarterly balance sheet look really good on paper. "Privatize the profits, socialize the losses." Bad as the short-term consequences of not bailing the bastards out might be, in the long-term I think a bailout will just teach them that it's OK to do it again because the government will reach into the taxpayers' pockets to cover their losses. A bailout means the bankers get to walk away with no consequences, and probably without losing their executive bonus packages, while the taxpayers get screwed twice.
LET the bastards fail (and rot in jail) as an object lesson to the next bunch.

And as for those homeowners? Yeah, a sizeable chunk of them bought houses anyone who thought about it for five minutes should have known they couldn't afford, on mortgage terms that only a fool or a compulsive gambler would take. But for every one of those who's in trouble now, there's one who was doing the best they could but got screwed by unfair or even actively predatory lending practices, and another who honestly figured they could swing it if they worked their asses off but didn't plan on the economy coming to a grinding halt.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree, let the banks fail. After the S&L debacle in the 1980's, we are setting a firm expectation that the government will bail out financial institutions that do stupid stuff. I have problems with that on many levels. The biggest is from my personal understanding of economics, The tighter the safety net, the lower the opportunity ceiling. We are strangling then next Google or Wallmart in the cradle with this bailout.

The problem I have with the "blame the borrower" reaction, is that most of the borrowers were new to the finance system. (I hear that 18% are minority, with up to 65% first time borrowers.) We know that what matters is what is written down, not what is said. They did not. We understand that a budget is for more than 30 days. They did not. There is a significant chunk of knowledge required to responsibly use the credit system in place. If you don't have that knowledge, and you don't know that you don't have it, where do you get it? From the helpful mortgage broker? (They are being really helpful and nice.) I have a hard time telling someone they are economically screwed for life because they made a mistake trusting someone. I know that it happens, but the result is systematic, and large scale. I think the con men need to disgorge their take. Call me a liberal, but I think tax dollars should be used to help the taxpayers.