In tomorrow's (9/28) edition of the Chicago Tribune, (link posted when it becomes available,) the paper's editors weigh in on our nation's financial meltdown
It is, as might be expected, a pastiche of standard "conservative" talking points. You know, the type of conservatism that wants to get the government out of the way, except when big corporations need a huge steaming pile of taxpayer provided welfare.
But even I was surprised to see the Trib's editors veer so far into wingnutia. The reason for our economic disaster? Well, it's those pesky dark-skinned people!
The editorial is titled "Scapegoating markets," and I will excerpt a small, fair-use portion here. Bold faced emphasis is mine.
Focusing on greed is a mistake...Wall Street traders are not more or less avaricious today than they were 10, 20 or 50 years ago....Nor is lack of regulation the root of the problem.
No, no, of course not!
But if insufficient regulation was not the culprit, what was? One, noted by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, has nothing to do with regulation: a "speculative surge" sparked by low inflation and low interest rates worldwide. That led to a global housing boom, which regrettably couldn't last forever; and whose end inevitably produced casualties.
Oh yes, inevitably. Obviously nobody could have foreseen such a thing happening, least of all Alan "just a little froth" Greenspan.
Another factor was something deregulation critics omit: a push to expand home ownership to borrowers who were once considered too risky. Economist Stan Liebowitz of the University of Texas at Dallas writes that "in an attempt to increase homeownership, particularly by minorities and the less affluent, an attack on underwriting standards was undertaken by virtually every branch of the government."
That's right, we'll just ignore the fact that the vast majority of sub-prime mortgages were refinances to existing homeowners, not mortgages written to first time home buyers of any particular race. And we'll ignore that when Greenspan was asked by Congress about the wisdom of NINA (No Income No Asset) loans and other such practices (created not by any government branch but by our beloved private sector) he responded that they were marvelous new tools the market had created to expand homeownership to more Americans. And we'll just conveniently overlook that sub-prime mortgages aren't nearly the problem that derivative and credit swaps are. Obviously it was the fault of those dark-skinned people!
When this crisis has settled down, Congress and the president are welcome to consider if the experience indicates the need for some precise and prudent changes in the law governing financial institutions. But it's more likely a careful examination will prove that the biggest failures were ones of too much government, not too little
Ahhhhh......too much government, not too little! So, obviously the Trib is against the bailout, right? Oh no, of course not. They're all for it. These are rich people we're talking about here! Many of these companies drop boatloads of cash for advertising in the Tribune company's print and broadcast properties (Whoo Hooo Wamu!)
Government involvement is to be avoided only when the grifters' con is working. But as soon as it starts to fall apart it's time to run to Uncle Sam.