state of shocked disbelief

He probably bought a new condo in Manhattan, too...

Hey lets blame Greenspan for 8 years of greed, deceit, cooking books, golden parachutes, liars, cheats, thieves, and assorted scumbags.Capitalism is when you can make a buck lets make ten. and if I can make 50,000 on one house wht not buy ten, no one got turned down so lets party. Well when the music stops make sure you have a chair.

I think it is outrageous that the legislators are on a witch hunt to blame somebody -- other than themselves -- as if they have had no hand in any of this. It is pathetic.

Sadly there's plenty of blame to go around.

i tend to not agree with steve but on this I do totally agree. greenspan is shirking his blame.

Of course Greenspan bears much of the responsibility.

But I'm waiting for the moment during one of these congressional hearings when the tables are turned and one of the interrogated starts interrogating the inquisitors. Waxman and Frank deserve to be pilloried as much as any of the Fed, cabinet or other agency officials.

"Congressman Frank, why in 2003 did you insist that Fannie and Freddie were in fine financial shape and needed no overhaul?"

If I ever get enough spare time (i.e., if I get laid off), I will direct my energies to making sure that these hypocrites who sit in our Congress are exposed as such. It makes my blood boil like nothing else to listen to these sanctimonious assholes grandstand day after day. I really wonder who they're fooling.

anyone who does not realize how much blame Greenspan deserves does not understand basic economics (or understand finance in general)and how the federal reserve under Greenspan completely perverted it during his reign. I hope there is a special place in hell reserved for him.

Most people do not realize that the manipulation in short term interest rates (federal funds) was a creation under Greenspan. the effect was to create a bubble so his overseers whould become rich and when the bubble blew up , the plan was to manipulate interest rates to clean up the mess. His entire career he disdained government regulation and thwarted it everyplace he could. He was as recently as 2 years ago revered as a hero...now the truth is surfacing.

Go read the book Greenspan's Bubble if you would like the truth.

"Waxman and Frank deserve to be pilloried as much as any of the Fed, cabinet or other agency officials."

Seem you to forget that the Democrats have not been in control of the House of Representatives but for the last 2 years. Ditto the Senate - even less control. Are they innocent? No. But George W. & Peeps have a way of blaming everybody but themselves: 9.11, Katrina, now this. When will it be their fault?

steve - it's obvious to all but a few that nobody is innocent in this affair. We've already beaten the Fed and SEC to death. Next?

The only people to whom it's not obvious are our current congressional leaders, who not only consistently deny any of their mistakes but insist on sanctimoniously pointing fingers and grandstanding. For example, even in a Republican congress, Frank was instrumental in blocking the administration's efforts to reform Fannie/Freddie. He still resists reforming them. This is well known. Not to absolve the Republican congress or Bush (of course they bear responsibility - nobody disputes that), but our current congressional leadership is at worst dangerously self-serving and at best incompetent.

This is so important because Congress is going to play a huge role in trying to "fix" this mess. Let me ask you, do you feel comfortable with Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Dodd and Schumer calling the shots?

"do you feel comfortable with Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Dodd and Schumer calling the shots?"

Much more comfortable than with McCain, Palin, Stevenson, McConnell in charge, which would be more of the same.

Let me be clear: I'm very middle-of-the-road, vote Republican almost as much as Democratic. Rail against Barney Frank - if it weren't for him they wouldn't have included the provision to allow Treasury to take direct stakes in banks. You might not agree with everything he does, but he's not dumb. Neither is Chuck Shumer, or Chris Dodd or Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid. The question is, it's a balance: who is more likely to continue along the road to deregulation, or who is going to restructure our financial system so this doesn't happen again?

Talking about congress here, not the presidency.

Frank wanted 20% of the profits from the taxpayer's investment in the bailout bill to be siphoned off into the Housing Trust Fund (read ACORN). Expect more of the same. Enough said.

I'd rather it go to the Housing Trust Fund than to religious groups that Bush says can be funded with government money, but hire only people of a certain faith. Or warrantless wiretapping. Or hiring and firing federal prosecutors based on their political affiliation.

If you think that the Housing Trust Fund is ACORN, you're sorely mistaken. The Housing Trust Fund is a government-sponsored program to support rental and low-income housing:

http://www.nlihc.org/template/page.cfm?id=40

ACORN is a community action group:

http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=16899&L=1%2Findex.php%3Fid%3D4201

Beyond your serious misunderstanding of what's what based on having drunk the Joe-the-Plumber Kool-Aid, what is the difference between subsidizing housing for the poor (HTF) and allowing hedge fund managers to pay 15% income tax on "carried trade"?

The former benefits people who actually need it, the latter benefits those who got us where we are today.

Enough said.

"carried trade" = "carried interest." Oops!

ACORN has a housing arm...

And if you think they are just a "community action group", you are mistaken... thats the front.

They are also (with the unions) the Working Families Party.

They also committed voter fraud.

They do some very bad things...

"ACORN has a housing arm..."

A community action group, not a finance arm.

"And if you think they are just a "community action group", you are mistaken... thats the front."

A conspiracy theorist!

"They are also (with the unions) the Working Families Party."

What's wrong with unions? Okay, Working Families is a bit extreme, but what's wrong with unions?

"They also committed voter fraud."

You mean some volunteers may have committed some violations? Fine. Let's see: Enron, Lehman, AIG, Bear Stearns. Compare that to 10 or 15 invalid voter registrations....

"They do some very bad things..."

No they don't.

Oh! I forgot WorldComm and Arthur Andersen!

RESPONSE TO "AL" GREENSPAN:

Say don't you remember?
They called me Al.
It was Al all the time.
Why don't you remember?
I'm your pal.
Say buddy, can you spare a dime?

Steve, not sure what you are worrying about. WE all know this is just a mental recession. Quit whining. :-)

Alanhart: Wow.

You're right, EC. My bad.

ouch, steve, your defense of acorn..... pretty funny.