so, we should go ahead and do awful things which will likely lead to more awful things in order to avoid some other awful things that will probably teach us not to be stupid, thereby preventing more awful things.

great logic

7/15/2008 5:43:23 PM

Quote :

"Economists have speculated that allowing Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to die would touch off a global financial crisis, sending the world into a pretty nasty recession."

I think the relevant question here is, "Is there any other way?" Is there any other way to head of the catastrophic consequences of the failures of large institutions like Freddie Mac / Fannie May without a direct bailout? Or, as it were, capital infusion/buy-up by the Fed? Is there any alternative out there that would allow us to avoid the moral hazard involved in this course of action but spare us from a financial panic?

7/15/2008 6:06:03 PM

Quote :

"As with the S&L fiasco from years ago, the case of the housing bust followed by the trillions in taxpayer liabilities for the disaster will again be cited as a case of "the shock doctrine" and "disaster capitalism" in which the elites make fantastic amounts of money at the expense of the little guy. The critique will be mostly solid but for the one most important point: this kind of fiasco would not happen in a free market. It happens because government, through credit creation and guarantees, makes it possible. Government intervention is like a vial of mutating poison in the water supply. We can get by for a long time and no one seems really worse off. One day we wake up and everyone is desperately ill, and blaming not the poison but the water itself. So it is with the housing crisis. Lenders are being blamed for the entire fiasco, and capitalism is going to be subjected to a beating as usual, since Freddie and Fannie are traded in public markets. But the fact remains that there is only one reason that this went on as long as it did and became as bad as it is. It was that vial of government poison. -- Lew Rockwell"

7/15/2008 6:52:05 PM

"That Good Luck"..I agree with your post 200% man!!" Dont get a loan for a $300,000 home when your yearly income is $20,000!! Atleast, id like to hope that all of us who graduated from NCSU no matter what your degree that we all left with more common sense then what we came in with!

7/15/2008 10:07:27 PM