And FanFred had one of the top 5 most powerful lobbying/kickback/payoff organizations of all time going – to ensure that the Feds used our tax dollars to eternally increase the funding/backstopping of uneconomic SFH investment.

The housing rot runs deep and has a very long history.

This wasn’t a partisan post, but I guess some people will always see the world through whatever party-colored glasses they’ve got on. For HW readers that care to know, my stance is that there’s enough blame to go around both major political parties many times over when it comes to the current crisis, even if supporters of each party focus just on the half that suits their own world view.

And, Dave, the “facts” are pretty clear: regardless of any larger issues surrounding the role of the GSEs in mortgage banking — that sort of ideological holy war has a much longer history than Greenspan or Bush — Fannie and Freddie did not lead us into this mess.

Let’s stop pretending and let the players fall.

It’s not simple, it’s simplistic.
If you give away money like free candy
to people who don’t understand economics
and rack up huge profits on the front end

At the same time deregulating investment firms who can now
“play” along in the game…

well, you know where it’s headed.

It’s not like this isn’t a dance we
can see in front of us.

Why does everyone keep asking “how it happened?”

It’s simple enough to see.

They jacked up the easy money.
They fed it to everyone to help them ignore
the larger issues no one wants to see anyway…

They leveraged it up until they could all take their front end bonuses…

Then they were “surprised” when the bubble hit its
natural ceiling?

And now there is nothing even close to
“easy money” to be found…

Go figure.

He is good at playing dumb.
It doesn’t matter if he IS dumb or not.
What matters is he plays it well.
and everyone dumb enough will go along with him.

This is a no brainer.

The only real question is
what brains are running it and to what end? (Other than their own, that is obvious)

and the answer to that is to follow the money.
and it’s bigger than you think…

I remember people telling me years ago that the problem with Africa was that it was so corrupt. I thought to myself “only because you don’t realize that Africa is not alone in this regard.” and also:

“The advantage in Africa is that everyone already knows it is this way.”

Last I checked, Bush, McCain and *Greenspan* warned about this YEARS ago, saying that Fannie and Freddie needed reining in, and Barny Frank and Charles Schumer argued against it (and the Democrats subsequently blocked it).

You need to get your facts straight – That is, if you care about them…