Wall Street: CLINTON's Fault, says NYT Creature

[panzerfaust]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/20/business/prexy.php

The "International Herald Tribune" - i.e. the European edition of the New York Times - tries hard to blame the Wall Street mess (and subsequent enrichment of financiers) on Bill Clinton.

"... plenty of culprits: Democrats and Republicans in Congress, the Federal Reserve, an overzealous home-lending industry, banks, and also Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton..."

Though they "...do agree that the Bush administration bears part of the blame"

"...Bush was simply following a deregulatory pattern set by Clinton" < Without blushing, they say this: Damn Liberal Press >

"...The landmark act that allowed commercial banks to expand into other financial activities, like investment banking and insurance - was signed into law by Clinton..."

RayGun-RayGun-Bush (or, more truthfully, Bush-Bush-Bush) apparently had nothing to do with dismantling the regulatory safety constraints on the financial world - it was the Evil Democrat's own Supreme Satan - Clinton - who has brought this all to pass.

Let's see, since Ronnie RayGun was acting as president, the Republicans have been roaring from MORE Deregulation. "Let The Market Decide", said they. Now that it has, it is all Clinton's fault.

They are just robbing us folks ...

[lligrd]

1. But McCain Said It Was Obama's Fault

Can't They make up their mind? All I know is Bin Laden is laughing his ass off (most likely in his grave) because this is exactly what he said would happen.

[McCamy Taylor]

2. The economy was fine under Clinton, because the feds kept their eye on scum.

You can pass a deregulation law and still not have Wallstreet business types and bankers committing grand theft if the DOJ and the SEC and the executive branch is all over them keeping them honest.

That is the difference between Clinton and Bush. And will be the difference between Bush and Obama.

The next Republitard that says "Bill Clinton did" or "the Dems did it" tell them "No, the Republicans aided and abetted it. The Dems have been the ones trying to stop it."

[elifino]

3. The Real Scandal: How Feds Invited the Mortgage Mess

Perhaps the greatest scandal of the mortgage crisis is that it is a direct result of an intentional loosening of underwriting standards—done in the name of ending discrimination, despite warnings that it could lead to wide-scale defaults.

At the crisis’ core are loans that were made with virtually nonexistent underwriting standards—no verification of income or assets; little consideration of the applicant’s ability to make payments; no down payment.

Most people instinctively understand that such loans are likely to be unsound. But how did the heavily-regulated banking industry end up able to engage in such foolishness?

From the current hand-wringing, you’d think that the banks came up with the idea of looser underwriting standards on their own, with regulators just asleep on the job. In fact, it was the regulators who relaxed these standards—at the behest of community groups and “progressive” political forces.

Link to commentary: http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2114


I fault the House and Senate for allowing the relaxation of loan requirements with no controls in place to assure that the asset value did not equal the amount of the loan.

[old mark]

4. Right - All that surplus Clinton left

was too much for the Government to handle.

I begin to see the Republican logic....(joke)

mark