Davidmm1971

Five Common-Sense Confidence Builders

I very much agree this is crisis of confidence. And, one that has highlighted the worst in our "leaders". Real leaders admit mistakes, don't offer excuses and are humble enough to know what they don't know, and put people who do know in position to succeed. Pointing fingers as to who to blame is ridiculous and worse than childish. I have heard the term "Wall Street Greed" to often to let it slide. The greed was on Main Street (the local mortgage broker to make more loans and generate more refinancing fees, your neighbor buying real estate to flip for a profit and the developers building on spec) and fueled by the policies of Fannie and Freddie and supplemented by the stupidity of the bond rating agencies. Subprime loans went from 2% of total loans to 30%. Why? Thank Fannie and Freddie. Bear Stearns, Lehman, Morgan and Goldman didn't make those loans, they bought them; Rated AAA by Moody's and Fitch, too!

I am very disheartened by our "leaders" - all of them, Republican and Democrat. Bush is an easy target, but it is much deeper than him. Whoever broke laws should go to jail, but I don't think public lynchings is the answer to restoring confidence. We need leaders who aren't afraid to cross political boundaries to make the difficult, yet ethical, decisions. I'm afraid that neither Obama nor McCain is much of a leader.

This link to a C-span clip is "a bit" right leaning, but it should anger EVERYONE that our leaders failed us, not regulators. www.youtube.com/watch?... .