The Cellar - 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis

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25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis

Full List
* Angelo Mozilo
* Phil Gramm
* Alan Greenspan
* Chris Cox
* American Consumers
* Hank Paulson
* Joe Cassano
* Ian McCarthy
* Frank Raines
* Kathleen Corbet
* Dick Fuld
* Marion and Herb Sandler
* Bill Clinton
* George W. Bush
* Stan O'Neal
* Wen Jiabao
* David Lereah
* John Devaney
* Bernie Madoff
* Lew Ranieri
* Burton Jablin
* Fred Goodwin
* Sandy Weill
* David Oddsson
* Jimmy Cayne

more here

An interesting account of some people you know and many you probably don't.

There are about 307,000,000 American consumers. Wouldn't that kind of inflate the original number of 25? Not to be picky or anything.

Bill Clinton. Yeah, sure.

I blame you. Does that help?

Jebus.

lol - You're in rare form today Samyouare ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamIam (Post 671385)

There are about 307,000,000 American consumers. Wouldn't that kind of inflate the original number of 25?

Wow. Classicman has a hate list. How do I get on it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tw (Post 671580)

Wow. Classicman has a hate list. How do I get on it?

psssst, my friend, you're already there. Not that there's anything wrong with that. ;)

Here's why they say we should blame Clinton:

Quote:

President Clinton's tenure was characterized by economic prosperity and financial deregulation, which in many ways set the stage for the excesses of recent years. Among his biggest strokes of free-wheeling capitalism was the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, a cornerstone of Depression-era regulation. He also signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which exempted credit-default swaps from regulation. In 1995 Clinton loosened housing rules by rewriting the Community Reinvestment Act, which put added pressure on banks to lend in low-income neighborhoods. It is the subject of heated political and scholarly debate whether any of these moves are to blame for our troubles, but they certainly played a role in creating a permissive lending environment.

Oh, OK. Fucker set us up for failure! How could we win, with all that prosperity? :unsure:

Shaw, you do have to admit, Clinton made a bunch of shady financial things legal, that used to be illegal. They are the very things that Congress is now working to make illegal again. He didn't personally misuse the financial system, but he helped make it possible for others to do so. (Which is funny, because rampant free-market deregulation is typically supposed to be the Republicans' battle cry, but in this case Clinton did it.)

True. So they get to blame him doubly less. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clodfobble (Post 671607)

Yeah, he didn't veto that or NAFTA, and I don't like either decision. The repeal of Glass-Steagall was a republican initiative, according to Wikipedia

Quote:

The bill that ultimately repealed the Act was introduced in the Senate by Phil Gramm (Republican of Texas) and in the House of Representatives by Jim Leach (R-Iowa) in 1999. The bills were passed by a Republican majority, basically following party lines by a 54–44 vote in the Senate[13] and by a bi-partisan 343–86 vote in the House of Representatives.[14] After passing both the Senate and House the bill was moved to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions. The final bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90–8 (one not voting) and in the House: 362–57 (15 not voting). The legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 12, 1999.[15]

He should have vetoed it.

Blatantly absent from the Time Magazine list are the expediters of our financial crisis, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. They are more to blame than either Bill Clinton or George Bush.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spudcon (Post 671618)

Blatantly absent from the Time Magazine list are the expediters of our financial crisis, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. They are more to blame than either Bill Clinton or George Bush.

How so?

I blame James Dobson of Focus on the Family imfamy. His apocalyptic vision causes his followers to believe the world could end any second now. If there's no tomorrow, by golly, let's spend that way! :eek:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spexxvet (Post 671624)

How so?

By continuing to promote unviable mortgages by Fanny and Freddy, when it was obvious to everyone that the whole scam was causing the economy to teeter. GW tried to stop it early in his presidency, but Frank and Dodd were claiming they were sound, and Frank and my senator, Chucky Schumer, were extoling the virtue of those programs just day before the crash. No one can tell me these guys were ignorant of the crisis. Their actions were criminal, but Time Magazine, in their usual irrelavancy, didn't include them on their wishful thinking list.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63siCHvuGFg

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamIam (Post 671625)

Yup, and global warming was caused by astronauts drinking Tang on the moon.