General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The left is so wrong on the Trans-Pacific Partnership [View all]So, that's what the "liberal" version of the right's Community Reinvestment Act myth. Curious, to say the least.
The dotcom crash occurred before W came into office and I've never heard anyone with the slightest bit of sense blame it on NAFTA. The financial crisis of 2008 was a bi-partisan affair, unless you somehow think W forced Clinton to accede to the Rubinites' demands not to regulate derivatives in the 90s. That'd sure as hell put a new spin on the BFEE bit.
Don't read this as a defense of the shrub. His administration ignored over 10k complaints from appraisers who warned that pressure from mortgage originators to fraudulently overstate housing values was systemic. His Secretary of the Treasury also made one of the dumbest decisions in American history when he let Lehman fail. When I call it dumb, it's not an after the fact appraisal. It should have been blindingly apparent to a former Goldman managing director that Lehman's interconnectedness would be a catastrophic danger. Unfortunately for us, we got proof that Goldman puts morons in charge and so did W.