Whether We Will Admit it or Not, most Americans don’t know which side is really most-responsible for the current economic meltdown. And most Americans—whether Republican or Democrat—gladly blame the other side—whichever party we each consider “the other side” to be.
But From a Distance, It’s Not Really Possible for the independent voter to tell who is telling more of which truth. Is it the Democrats? The Republicans? Does either really know how it got this way?
The Open-Eyed Voter™ Does Not. But here is our best effort at figuring it out, as objectively as we can manage:
In the First Place, the Democrats insisted that the opportunity of home-ownership be opened up to all Americans, even to those who couldn’t afford it.
Then, the Republicans Took this Mandate of universal home-ownership, and decided that they’d show the Democrats how foolish this idea was. They created mortgages, which almost anybody could qualify for, that were step-up adjustable-rate mortgages. These mortgages would start low to qualify lower-income buyers, but then jump up to high rates that the borrowers could not realistically manage.
The Combined Result: Too Many People bought houses that they couldn’t afford—at interest rates that they couldn’t afford—while lacking the money-management skills necessary to keep up with their payments.
Next, the Glass-Steagall Act Was Removed. This Depression-era provision kept commercial banks and investment banks separate. Into the breach, mortgages brokers set themselves up in the new territory between commercial banks and investment banks. No one noticed that the gap existed. Too many risky mortgages got written. These risky mortgages were then resold as if they were the old-fashioned kind: solid and dependable. And the rest, as they say, is the current economic crisis.
In the De-Regulatory Economic Climate that has prevailed in America over the past 28 years, the path to this disaster was inevitable. Between the Democratic effort to mandate equality of opportunity and the Republican effort to profit from the presumed equality of individual responsibility, the whole financial system was brought to the brink.
It Would Be Constructive to Hear Barack Obama and John McCain each respond to a narrative such as that preceding, and to hear each identify what genuine blame lies within their respective parties. Now, that would be putting “Country First.”
Right Now, No Matter Who Is to Blame, we are ready for the “Hope” and the “Change” necessary to really get us out of this mess
But From a Distance, It’s Not Really Possible for the independent voter to tell who is telling more of which truth. Is it the Democrats? The Republicans? Does either really know how it got this way?
The Open-Eyed Voter™ Does Not. But here is our best effort at figuring it out, as objectively as we can manage:
In the First Place, the Democrats insisted that the opportunity of home-ownership be opened up to all Americans, even to those who couldn’t afford it.
Then, the Republicans Took this Mandate of universal home-ownership, and decided that they’d show the Democrats how foolish this idea was. They created mortgages, which almost anybody could qualify for, that were step-up adjustable-rate mortgages. These mortgages would start low to qualify lower-income buyers, but then jump up to high rates that the borrowers could not realistically manage.
The Combined Result: Too Many People bought houses that they couldn’t afford—at interest rates that they couldn’t afford—while lacking the money-management skills necessary to keep up with their payments.
Next, the Glass-Steagall Act Was Removed. This Depression-era provision kept commercial banks and investment banks separate. Into the breach, mortgages brokers set themselves up in the new territory between commercial banks and investment banks. No one noticed that the gap existed. Too many risky mortgages got written. These risky mortgages were then resold as if they were the old-fashioned kind: solid and dependable. And the rest, as they say, is the current economic crisis.
In the De-Regulatory Economic Climate that has prevailed in America over the past 28 years, the path to this disaster was inevitable. Between the Democratic effort to mandate equality of opportunity and the Republican effort to profit from the presumed equality of individual responsibility, the whole financial system was brought to the brink.
It Would Be Constructive to Hear Barack Obama and John McCain each respond to a narrative such as that preceding, and to hear each identify what genuine blame lies within their respective parties. Now, that would be putting “Country First.”
Right Now, No Matter Who Is to Blame, we are ready for the “Hope” and the “Change” necessary to really get us out of this mess
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