Reply #23: You have Reagone and the First Bewsh to thank for that.

[HughBeaumont]

They pretty much got the ball rolling with relaxing thrift regulation, via the Garn-St. Germain Bill (when Saint Ronnie signed it, he said something like "All in all, I think we've hit the jackpot") in the early 80s that led to a little thing called "The S&L Debacle" years later. And just as everything that deteriorates under presidential rule to the tune of the middle/working class getting it up the tailpipe, a Bewsh was of course involved in it somehow.

Same bullshit happened back then - this bill lifted FDR-era restrictions on thrifts, more or less allowing Wall Street speculators and corporate pirates to use S & L's as their own personal mints and swindled billions in retiree dollars. They took these billions and placed them in the riskiest investments possible - to the taxpayers. Congressmen and Senators (like some guy named John McCain, for instance) were paid with this thrift cash to back off looking into it. The resulting bailout totalled something like 1.2 trillion when all was said and investigated.

The relaxing of these regulations, along with the financial piracy of dickheads like Mike Milken and Ivan Boesky, ushered in the era of rampant white collar crime the Reagan years were known for, and set the precedent and rule for both Bewsh administrations. We'll be paying for that shit for the rest of our lives, all thanks to Teflon Ron and his allowance for unbridled capitalism.

Really, when you think about it, there were only two parties that got punished in that fiasco: Chuck Keating (deservedly) and the taxpayers (undeservedly). Everyone else (mainly those with wealth and influence) got off scot-free, as the issue was too complicated for the average American and press idiot to make it into a cause celebre.

Jump to 2008 and pretty much the same crap is happening, only this time it's with mortgages (the one area of this house of cards economy always thought of as a bubble waiting to pop). Risky investments. Ruined lives. The rich and the corporations they run get off with nary a handslap. Wealth privatized. Risk and loss socialized.

Second verse, just as bad as the first . . .

And there are still some that parade this myth about Republicans being "The Party of Fiscal Responsibility"??

"S & L" would be the one and only argument needed against privatizing social security.