When Populist Rage Attacks

... aka the punch most of the country wishes they could throw:

click to enlarge

All that being said: while the bankers and MBAs deserve a lot of the anger that is being directed at them, let's not forget that this crisis is truly a perfect storm of bad decision making on the part of corporations, bankers, politicians and consumers. One of the things that continues to concern me is that so many people view this crisis as something that the bankers "did to the country", and are ignoring the role that other actors played in the crisis.

I say this because we're not going to prevent future crises if we only focus on one aspect of it.

Comments

[PastTense:]

Really? I don't have any anger at corporations, bankers, and consumers--it's their life to do as they wish, and to suffer from their own bad decisions.

No. All my anger is directed toward politicians (Obama, Congress, the Fed). They are the ones who decided NOT to regulate the banks. They are the ones who decided to bail out companies and homeowners who instead should be suffering the consequences of their own bad decisions.

May 25 01:28 PM

[ron_paulite:]

You are right.
The main culprits are the politicians; the regulators especially.
The bankers did what it is in their nature to do -- make as much short term profit as possible as long as no laws are broken.
They have to be regulated. But those stupid political ideologues, including Sir Greenspan, thought the bankers would act rationally and the free markets would take care of everything.


On May 25 01:28 PM PastTense wrote:

> Really? I don't have any anger at corporations, bankers, and consumers--it's
> their life to do as they wish, and to suffer from their own bad decisions.
>
>
> No. All my anger is directed toward politicians (Obama, Congress,
> the Fed). They are the ones who decided NOT to regulate the banks.
> They are the ones who decided to bail out companies and homeowners
> who instead should be suffering the consequences of their own bad
> decisions.

May 25 01:56 PM

[Alan Young:]

Huh? When did Obama decide not to regulate the banks? No wonder people have so much trouble with history, if they can't remember who was president last year!

For the record, the decisions that removed key protections against bank over-leveraging occurred in 1999, when Clinton (not Obama) was president—http://en.wi... — and in 2004, when Bush (not Obama) was president. buffalobeast.com/136/C...


On May 25 01:28 PM PastTense wrote:

> No. All my anger is directed toward politicians (Obama, Congress,
> the Fed). They are the ones who decided NOT to regulate the banks.
> They are the ones who decided to bail out companies and homeowners
> who instead should be suffering the consequences of their own bad
> decisions.

May 25 08:09 PM

[Alan Young:]

A link in the above post was corrupted in transit, so I'm reposting to provide an active link.

On May 25 08:09 PM Alan Young wrote:

> Huh? When did Obama decide not to regulate the banks? No wonder people
> have so much trouble with history, if they can't remember who was
> president last year!
>
> For the record, the decisions that removed key protections against
> bank over-leveraging occurred in 1999, when Clinton (not Obama) was
> president— en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... — and in 2004, when Bush (not Obama) was
> president. buffalobeast.com/136/C...
>

May 25 08:11 PM

[Windsun33:]

Pogo was right, you know.

"We have met the enemy, and he is us"

May 26 12:38 AM