Which is the PRIMARY FUNDAMENTAL ROOT CAUSE of this financial mess?

[El Pinko]

Poll question: Which is the PRIMARY FUNDAMENTAL ROOT CAUSE of this financial mess?

Which is the PRIMARY FUNDAMENTAL ROOT CAUSE of this financial mess?


I put in the third choice because I have actually heard several financial pundits on Cable Nooz say that we need to get HOUSE PRICES back up to fix the economy.



Can someone here tell me if there has ever been a nation that had long-term, broadbased prosperity based merely on extremely high, endlessly rising (decoupled from incomes) HOUSE PRICES???!?!?!

[JDPriestly]

1. The first statement is incomplete.

[Tallison]

2. Way more complex than any of those reasons

although they constitute components, among others.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. 1 & 2 plus some other things.

[gopbuster]

4. Other....the shadow unregulated market that experienced losses by creating

exotic speculative derivatives on the backs of our mortgages.

[snappyturtle]

5. I voted "Other" because I think jobs is the crux of the problem and

along side that, the disparity of income. Now to go back and see what others are saying. Thanks for the poll.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. Other: The continuing class war.

[El Pinko]

13. I kind of considered the first choice to be main manifestations of the class war.

What other manifestations are you thinking of? Or do you just prefer it be simplified into that more concise sentiment?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

23. Choice #2 is part and parcel of those manifestations, too.

It nullifies the poll, no?

[El Pinko]

26. Sort of, but it's the choice for the party faithful.

Personally I don't think you can approach it honestly without first conceding that we have had 28 years of uninterrupted rule and that Clinton's terms were a part of that, because he didn't do a single thing to reverse Reaganomics.

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. Where's deregulation?

In a rational world, government would have stepped in and told the banks that they can't print their own monopoly money using the hypothetical value of shitty mortgages.

[El Pinko]

15. I had considered that to be implied under POS Bush's "fiscal irresponsibility"

But I went ahead and made it explicit.

[johnaries]

21. Deregulation started long before Bush.

It's more of a combination of deregulation and #1. It's Supply-side/Trickle-down economics. Which is responsible for basically All of the Above.

[El Pinko]

22. True, and Clinton did nothing to undo it, but it was Bush's mantra too and he supported it.

NT

[SteppingRazor]

8. Other: How about an unregulated derivatives market...

that dwarfs both the stock and credit markets, and actually has hundreds of trillions of dollars floating around in it, more than all the GDPs of all the countries in the world combined?

Maybe it's just me, but I think that might have something to do with it. The real pisser is that options, futures and swaps are designed to make investment less risky, not more. So much for that.

[Mist]

19. Yes--all that cutting up debt and bundling it with other stuff. I call it "poison pill"

economics. Like musical chairs, you never know when it's your turn to be out. PLUS, of course, deregulation.

[Auggie]

9. Other. Intentional indifference.

I believe this was intentional sabotage of the economy to lay the groundwork for privatization of social security, medicare, and public infrastructure projects at federal and local levels.

[Locrian]

10. fundamental

The FUNDAMENTAL is a belief. A belief that the market will set prices and regulate for the good of society. From that comes the actions to de-regulate. That self interest (greed) is good. That we should privatize, and that there should be no gov control or regulation of anything.

At the heart, these are based on false economic models. Flawed, lazy, simplistic models that have been indoctrinated into the pubic over the last 50+ years.

[rucky]

11. A monetary system based on debt. n/t

[The2ndWheel]

12. Sustaining the unsustainable

because of its unsustainability.

The wealthy have what they have because everyone agrees that what they have is wealth. Why? Answer that, and we might find the root cause.

[MedleyMisty]

14. Humans suck a lot

and are greedy and selfish and completely lack empathy and want to destroy everything for personal gain. There you go.

[gblady]

16. Greed

nt

[stillcool]

17. Money laundering?

Here's what I don't get. I have heard it said that every time a loan is made, money is created. So the loan is an asset. Then the loans get sold time and time again. So isn't it like musical chairs when the music stops whoever is stuck holding the bag is the one that fails, falls, loses? I think we know how the game got going, and how the rules kept changing the longer the music played, but we don't know who already cashed out. Is this bailout just a way to get the music going?

[SoCalDem]

18. Thank Alan Greenspan for that..

Housing and the construction industry was the last "leg of the stool", and he made sure that interest rates stayed ridiculously low so it would stay that way...until he saw it collapsing, and then he bailed before it crashed..

[FSogol]

20. Deregulation. Started by Reagan, continued by Bush, Gingrich, and W.

Favored by McBush.

[adamuu]

24. Other: no one trusts the president because he lied to us too many times

and we don't trust anyone who works for him either.

Congressional Dems need to do their own research and come up with their own plan.

[tjwash]

25. American workers investing life savings in corps whose profitability hinges on fucking the workers?

The Dow threw a temper tantrum yesterday, and we are all supposed to crap our collective drawers, is that it? Lets just say I'm no more freaked out by the "financial mess" than I have already been for the past 8 years. Yesterday the big traders punished everyone for ordering Congress not to pay the 700 billion dollar extortion demand.

And oh...look! The Dow is up 233 right now. WOOHOO!! The robber barons are buying back the stocks they dumped, and at a bargain to boot! Looks like they will profit twice from their seedy manipulation. Don't worry though...they'll provoke plenty of panic and break the resolve of the House and get their bailout ransom, as well. And our Social Security. And every other fucking thing that they want, because to quote one of George Carlin's best rants ever..."they own this fucking place....it's a big club; and YOU aint in it"

.