Many of you may notice that I don’t talk much about the economy on this blog. Truth of that matter is that I am mostly an economic moderate. I want to agree with something that George W. Bush said a little while back at a private fundraiser. Bush said that “Wall Street got Drunk.” Well, Bear Sterns fell in March. Countrywide was bought by Bank of America. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government. This week, even bigger chips hit the fan, as Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. This is a firm that is over 100 years old that survived the Great Depression. It fell on Monday. AIG, one of the largest insurers in the country, is basically being taken over by the government. I have not even touched Merrill Lynch, who was begging to be bought out and Bank of America made an offer that the street still don’t believe.
Why did this happen? Well, there are many reasons. Still, the biggest one is the lassie-faire attitude taken by the Bush administration and Economic Conservatives. Conservatives, those who fear the gov’t taking over their lives ought to fear Big-business as well. Business is a great thing. But to allow business to do whatever they want is a horrible mix. They were making money hand over fist, but when things went sour, they went real sour.
The rest of the Republican Party can not allow this economic extremist to take over our party. We may very lose this election due to these people. I, for one, don’t blame the American people if they make that judgment. Sure, there were other problems too. Things such as the Teaser rate that Greenspan offered. The Democrats in the 1990s getting people into homes they ought to never have. (Not that it was just them, but Clinton takes credit for the 90s, the blame comes too). So to put it all on these types is stupid.
Still, the economic conservative wing is where I put most of the blame here. Hopefully we learn and get some decent regulation.
