Who's to blame for economic crisis?

[BluePatriot21]

Listening to Cheney only blame Chris Dodd and Barney Frank he repeats the same mantra I've heard over and over. But who is to blame for all of this? Right wingers never mention anyone other than the usual ACORN, CRA and Frank and Dodd like they are programmed with this mantra. But who else on either side of the aisle holds a piece of the guilt pie?

If you had to do a percentage of guilt, what would be the top 3 of the ones listed below, feel free to add any names I may have omitted.

CRA?
Fannie and Freddie?
Barney Frank?
Chris Dodd?
Lindsey Graham?
Clinton?
Bush and Cheney?
Wall Street firms? Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers etc
AIG?
Media Outlets?
Mortgage Banking lenders?
The war in Iraq?
Defense Spending?

Does anyone know, is the Dodd and Frank argument really valid at all? In defense of CRA and Fannie and Freddie are they at fault to the extent that they are blamed? From what I understand about them, they are there to protect against racial lending practices of the white man, and they are not FORCED to wrote loans to people.

Let's say the total in bad assets is 100 trillion, what is the amount that the CRA and Fannie and Freddie have in that total, 1 trillion?

[ananda]

1. my top three culprits

deregulation
privatization
selfish greed

[Burma Jones]

3. Yep.......

[trotsky]

8. And of those, the first is most important.

Regulation can serve to keep the other two in check.

[leftstreet]

16. I'd add a fourth: gutting social services

Which they've been at basically since the New Deal

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. I thought it was 100 gagillion?

Phil Gramm is your answer.

[Winterblues]

4. Republican ideology

The last time Republicans had complete control of both Houses and the Administration was during the "roaring twenties" Anyone remember what happened to the economy then?

[The2ndWheel]

5. The cumulative history, momentum, and complexity of a few thousand years

[CJCRANE]

6. The conspiracy theorists

predicted years ago that evil masterminds Chris Dodd and Barney Frank would crash the global economy and drain the US Treasury.

[BluePatriot21]

7. lol

good one, I'll use that as my excuse too.

[Deep13]

9. Let me take a shot in the dark here.

[dysfunctional press]

10. actually, you'd be wrong on that one...

this shitstorm was in the making long before he came along.

[Deep13]

11. I don't agree.

Even if some of the damage can be traced back to the actions of the Clinton admin. or the Congress during that time or earlier actions, those problems could have been greatly mitigated by competent management during the Dumbass years. Every policy has unintended consequences and no policy can be throught to be the final word on a subject. Bush's failure to see the obvious and make necessary corrections is what really sunk us.

[dysfunctional press]

12. you seem to think that bush was actually in charge the past 8 years...

:rofl:

[Deep13]

15. Let's put it this way.

Allowing others to be in charge does not let him off the hook. It was his job to be in charge. If he couldn't handle it (big surprise there!) he should not have run for office. Al Gore would not have allowed this to happen.

[slackmaster]

13. Irrational exuberance

:nuke:

[anonymous171]

14. Ronald Reagan and his shitty Reaganomics.

The whole "whatever is in the shareholders' best interest is in our best interest" business model turned out to be one big scam.

[tonysam]

17. Our Elected Officials

None of this mess would have ever happened if our politicians weren't so much on the take from the financial and corporate elites. THEY are ultimately responsible for this mess because too many of them are not just on the take but actually believe in the Friedmanite horse manure of "free markets" and privatization.

[leftstreet]

19. You're so polite!

Friedmanite horse manure of "free markets" and privatization

It's horse SHIT

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Deep13]

20. And the voters who didn't want to hear any bad news. nt

[CJCRANE]

18. Where do you think the buck stops? n/t

[w4rma]

21. Anyone who lobbied for, or voted for, financial deregulation. (nt)

[lpbk2713]

22. BushCo and their co-conspirators owned all levels of govt for eight years, MOL.

They could have taken measures long ago to avert an economic catastrophe.

It was their greed and ineptitude that brought us to where we are today.

They turned a record budget surplus into a record budget deficit with ease.