We Need a New Road Map

Michael, you are misled.

Countrywide's CEO Angelo Murillo called Fannie's CEO in 2005 to lambast him: "you are becoming irrelevant" and "you need us more than we need you". Why? Wall Street's dicey slicing and dicing had given
Countrywide an outlet for its junk. Wall Street created this. Fannie followed, but we'd have a mess even if Fannie hadn't. The average house price in CA was $550,000 (now $330,000). You want to blame the poor for that? Wow, the poor are suddenly very powerful.

Did the government create the dotcom bubble in 2000? The Cabbage Patch doll bubble one Christmas?

Fannie had been there for 40 years. What was new was Wall Street's magical slicing and dicing. And there is your primary culprit. Everyone else played along, but they called the bubble tune. And we are bailing them out -- just as Fannie and Freddie. There's no difference between Fannie and Freddie's government guarantees, and the end guarantee that Too-Big-To-Fail 'private' banks enjoy. To avoid depressions, large scale banking has a public backstop. They aren't wholly private. Listen to Dick Fuld whine that Lehman was allowed to fail. Look at the damage that failure caused.

Give your ideology a rest. Open your eyes to what's happening, not what just to what you want to happen. We'll all be the better for it.

Robert Rubin is a part of the problem. I never once heard him criticize Citibank's positions in the market nor did we here him take issue with fannie mae and freddie mac. He supported those government run agencies that got us in the mess we are in right now. If you want some helpful advice try telling the fed to stop charging for its payments systems check and electronic transactions.