fkusumot said:
Yes. I'm very familiar with that. We could go back to the Keating Five (it wasn't the Keating Four). But the problem we are talking about here manifested itself in the last year. The repeal of Glass-Steagall almost a decade ago was passed with a veto proof majority. Paulson, and Snow before him, did nothing for the last four years when it was becoming obvious to many that there was a real problem in the sub-prime market. In the view of many, including Phil Gramm, the invisible hand would take care of the market excesses without market intervention. According to John McCain's financial advisor at the time (Gramm), just a few month ago, America wasn't in a financial recession but just a "mental recession" and we were all a bunch of whiners. The same cast of characters that have shaped Bush's approach to the economy are the ones shaping McCain's approach. McCain himself has admitted he doesn't know much about economics. That's why I pointed out Bush's approach to the economy and contend that McCain's approach would just be more of the same. It's an important issue. Unfortunately the McCain campaign has said this election isn't about the issues. It seems apparent to me that issues are going to be what the election is about. Which issues, and which candidate the people think has a better plan to deal with them, will hopefully be what gets people out to vote. |
I don't know what John McCain's explaination for his stance a couple of months ago is, but a recession has a very clear definition and I'm not certain it has been met yet; and John McCain has many (political) reasons why he would want people to remain very optimistic about the ecconomy.
Beyond that, pointing out the origins of the problems in the housing and mortgage markets is more about trying to get people to think of this as being a much older and larger problem than most people think it is; it is not a problem that George Bush Created, and both parties were involved in its creation and had opportunities to prevent the fall far before it happened.
