It Wasn't My Fault

The last 2 + years have been brutal economically. It is the worst that I have personally experienced since the recession of the early 1980s and actually it's worse because we were digging out of that recession by now. Chuck Colson's Breakpoint column today says that a new report by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission states that it was all "avoidable" and the cast of characters to blame is large and wide. Consider.

First, there's government. The Federal Reserve could have adopted prudent mortgage loan rules and didn't. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowed $75 for every $1 in equity and jumped into the sub-prime mortgage market with both feet. Of course, they were egged on in the by Barney Frank in the House and Chris Dodd in the Senate.

Wall Street gets a big share of the blame. Selling sub-prime mortgage-backed securities without enough information to inform its investors was one charge. Merrill Lynch didn't disclose how shaky its internal finances were to potential customers and investors.

Banks jumped into the sub-prime mess too and borrowers lined up for the loans hoping to "flip" a property and pocket a bucketload of cash. I remember one person who cashed out their retirement account to do this with condos in Portland. Couldn't miss. Did. Ouch.

The bottom line - character still counts, and in all sectors of life. We cannot laugh at morality and then be surprised when people act immorally. They did here on a massive scale and we are now paying the price. I hope we have learned, but the jury is still out.


www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/16341