Ask Herbert Hoover how well leaving the banks alone worked out.
There is a reason why banks have several extra layers of protection that other areas of the economy don't. People flip out when they feel like their money isn't safe. Why do you think you saw a several thousand point drop in the stock market in the days that followed the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy? If you truly believe the market could have handled 5-10 simultaneous bankruptcies on that scale in the financial sector, you need to have your head examined. Lehman Brothers was the largest bankruptcy in this country's history and single-handedly brought the market down to its knees.
Even Bush and Cheney knew that letting things play themselves out was unacceptable in terms of how catastrophic the consequences would be otherwise.
And I find it ironic that you guys blame the government for causing this crisis but then blame the government for stepping in to fix it. You say that the government is responsible for these banks making these loans but then turn around and say that the banks should take responsibility for what they have done.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
