It is time, as it’s happened before, to play the Blame Game.
Was it the President? Congress? Wall Street? Main Street? Banks? Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac? Lobbyists, hobbyists, or us?
This topic has been beaten to death in the media; because each group blames the other group, so on and so forth. I can tell you from personal experience…I had a student loan in the 1980’s, held by Fannie Mae. Over the course of the next 4-5 years, as I was paying off the loan, the loan itself was “sold” to other “entities” at least twice. Someone was making money somewhere. The big deal here heavily involved sub-prime mortgage loans…basically, giving loans to people who couldn’t afford the loan, then “sell” the loan to another entity…again and again. The line gets fuzzy….and as crude as the cartoon South Park is, they make some valid points in their shows regarding the economy. I am hoping to add a link to a video that explains it a little.
Banks: They were partially at fault…someone had to approve the loans didn’t they? I would have advised folks that had their money deposited in those banks were defaulting, withdraw your funds now. I would have afforded the individuals time to accomplish this, then let the bank fold. I would also have the government buy back the Federal Reserve Banks.
Lobbyists: I have never liked lobbyists. Anyone else seen the movie “Casino Jack”? It revolves around super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who made so much money by steering Congress…manipulating Congress and anyone he tried to “help”. It ends in murder and Jack going to jail. If it were my call, lobbyists would be banned from Washington D.C. ! I hope to get lobbyists out of politics. Other presidents have tried and failed, others with some success. Another problem is that Senators will file a 1,600 page Bill, for whatever…and in small print, somewhere among the 1,600 pages, is “pork”, extra items where the funds from the Bill will be distributed, and usually has nothing to do with the original Bill. Besides being a waste of trees, they often sneak pork into bills. I would like to “condense” bills to necessary language and taking them from 1,600 pages to maybe less than 200 pages. Regardless of that, I am a speed reader and can read 1,600 pages in about 2 days….so I say…let them try to sneak pork into a bill…I will call them on it.
Main Street: OK, the economy is my fault….I accept it. I should have demanded, as far back as 2008, that the government should let the banks fail, let the automakers fail…provide NO BAIL OUTS. That wasn’t entirely my fault…I didn’t hear too many other people yelling at the government.
The worst part of this mess, was the insane amount of money that some bosses and CEO’s continued to get as they laid off employees. Don’t get me wrong…there were several CEO’s that accepted an annual salary of $1…but that didn’t stop them from getting mega millions in stock options or as owners, collecting royalties off their products…i.e. Steve Jobs and Apple.
All is not lost. Sure, the housing market is still bad and unemployment is still high…but folks are getting by…for those out of work, tomorrow’s post will be regarding jobs.
I would provide the most transparent government in the history of America…a government of the people and for the people. With your help, we can tame this beast. Thank you…see you tomorrow!!
Trevor M Dodge
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