Why can't the media call it like they see it?

[HappySqurriel]

CrazyHorse said:

HappySqurriel said:

Crashdown77 said:
Shouldn't this thread be titled "Why can't the media call it like I see it?"

Fairly off topic: I have a question for Mafoo and Squirrel, since you are both pretty negative on Obama. Do you think that this is all attributable to him? I mean should this have all swung around in 8 months if his programs were going to work? Can we call him a failure already? I've found that the ecomony swings pretty much up and down almost regardless of who is in charge and the administration can only affect the lengths and depths of the lows and heights of the highs, but those swings are MUCH longer than 8 months long. I need help on what we're thinking he has failed at so far.

The problems we're facing today have little to do with Obama, and he has almost no ability to prevent them or lessen them, they're caused by decades of the government being overly involved in the economy and being unable to understand that a free market that isn't hampered by high taxes, high inflation, rampant corruption and a large debt load will correct itself.

The problems will will face in a couple years will have a lot to do with Obama because few economies can perform well when they're hampered by high taxes, high inflation, rampant corruption and a large debt load which (with the exception of corruption which hasn't changed much) have all been made dramatically worse by Obama.

Really? I don't claim to be an economics expert but I would argue that governemnt hasn't been involved enough over the last few decades. Unregulated banks have been able to gamble with our money in the pursuit of continued high profits resulting in the issue of loans to people who were clearly unable to pay back their debt. This created vast amounts of toxic loans which the taxpayers (in the UK at least) have now had to buy off them. If stricter regulations were in place then maybe we wouldn't be having this debate now. I'm all for a largely free market but I do feel that certain laws should be in place to prevent unregulated greed and risk taking (especially as it us who pays the price). Without any regulations I fear boom and bust economics will forever be associated with capitalism.

I don't think you understand how the toxic assets got created ...

If it wasn't for Fannie-Mae and Freddie-Mac "Reducing the risk", the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates at artificial lows, the government "encouraging" banks to take on unqualified lenders to encourage home ownership, lawyers suing banks that actually declined people who were unqualifed, greedy home buyers and speculators, and rampant mortgage fraud nothing the banks could do would have been able to have put the system into such a crisis point. You can blame the banks for their exotic mortgages all you want (they certainly deserve some of the blame) but the government and individuals have an equal (if not greater) part in this mess.