> but pretty much anyone with any educated perspective on this current crisis (and I dont necessarily consider myself an expert) would tell you that this crisis is based on the bursting of a housing market, that was inflated to a ridiculous degree by Clinton and Greenspan.
that statement simply is incorrect. the current crisis was precipitated by an explosion in the market for a largely unregulated, completely intransparent, and entirely misunderstood hybrid security that included derivatives tied to high-risk mortgages.
the trend you cite in the housing market certainly existed, but it did not create the melt-down of the financial services industry. big old bundles of sh*t called "CMOs bundled with credit default swaps" did.
these instruments were marketed with no government oversight under george bush's watch; his toothless SEC has been asleep at the helm for eight years while pigs got fat and, inevitably, hogs got slaughtered.
and greenspan went from hero to dog not because of over-inflated housing prices, but because he went before congress last month and basically said, "yeah, i guess my faith in the market to regulate itself was misplaced."
irrational inflation in home values didn't cause this ... too many people defaulting on risky mortgages didn't even cause this ... financial services firms trading in exotic hybrid securities whose components they neither understood nor adequately disclosed caused this.
and REAL regulation (which we simply have not received from bush's SEC) is the only way to prevent it from happening again.
"You, sir, are a moron." (PlayItAgain)
