It’s Not Easy Bein’ Blue

Comment: Comment: People on these bogs are fond of saying that the current economic meltdown was caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting bad mortgages. While Fannie and Freddie obviously are guilty of writing bad mortgages, and worse, guilty of lobbying Congress to allow them to do so with impunity, their actions are just a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to determining who (or what) caused the financial crisis we face today.

In 1929 the stock market crash caused the banks to fail, because the banks were in bed with the stock market. Back then, banks owned investment houses, so when the stock market fell, the banks fell too. This triggered the Great Depression. So in 1933 the Congress wrote laws that regulated banking, making it illegal for banks to own investment companies, mortgage guaranty companies or insurance companies. The idea was to keep key industries separated by a fire wall, so that if one industry failed the whole economy would not go down in flames.

But the Republicans under Bush deregulated the banking industry. Senator Phil Gramm wrote legislation (the Gramm Rudman Act, the Gramm Leach Biley Act, etc.) that stripped away the regulations in the financial and insurance industies. He pushed them through the Republican Congress and they were signed into law by Geo. W. Bush. John McCain voted in favor. Everybody said how great it is to deregulate and create free markets.

Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch each gave over a million dollars to Senator Gramm's re-election campaign.

The economic collapse that happened later was a direct result of the deregulation, and here's how: the banks wrote bad mortgages, then bundled the mortgages into investment vehicles that they sold all over the world, and they even got firms like AIG to insure the investments. It was all a house of cards.

If there had been no deregulation, sure we would have had a bunch of bad mortgages, and the mortgage guaranty and real estate industries would have suffered, but there would not have been a global financial meltdown, since the problem would have been contained in one sector of the economy. You can thank Geo W. Bush, Sen. Phil Gramm and Sen John McCain for the meltdown, since they were strong proponents of deregulation.

Furthermore, although Fannie and Freddie are now holding the bulk of these bad mortgages, Fannie and Freddie did not originally write most of these mortgages. They bought them after the fact, bundled by banks/investment companies. Fannie and Freddie got screwed by the Wall Street fat cats. And so did you, if you pay taxes.

What is Phil Gramm doing today? He works as a lobbyist in Washington, trying to make it legal for the Swiss bank he represents to sell Death Bonds in the United States. Nice guy, Phil Gramm. Incidentally, John McCain has said that he wants to appoint Phil Gramm as Treasury Secretary. Some people just can't learn from their mistakes.

Maybe its just that America likes to THINK of itself as a center-right nation. But when the road hits the rubber, most Americans can't get enough of that metaphorical "government cheese". Each fake conservative out there who likes to puff himself up as a great independent individual has gained or taken advantage of, in some way shape or form, government largess. And when you go down the list of specific policies, American citizens overwhelmingly support "liberal" policies.

You are a smart, smart man, Mr. Meacham. Newsweek is much improved thanks to your intellect and leadership. I like discussion pieces like this one. They help the reader figure out what they actually think rather than what they should think according to the author. I find this refreshing.

by the way, Osama & Michelle finished at the top of their classes at Harvard, Yale, Princeton - you name it!

I think the author of this article is poorly informed. A majority of Americans want to preserve Roe v Wade and want Wall St executives to be held accountable for their excessive greed. Most Americans want clean air, clean water and safe food. They want regulations to protect their quality of life. I don't know who Jon Meacham is speaking to, but it is not me, my family, my neighbors or co-workers. We also want better and less expensive health care. This article does not cite examples of center-right policies that Americans desire. This is one of the most poorly written articles to grace the pages of this magazine. His appearance on Meet the Press with other center-right pundits such as David Brooks, Newt Gingrich and Tom Brokaw suggests that he was speaking to them and to the American public at large.

You make a good point. But here is the problem. I have to chose between a guy that finished 894 out of 899 in his college class who was a bad pilot got shoot twice, married and divorce he's wife because she had health issues??? Re married a drug addict, and hang around with a Communist (he has a close relation ship with a Vietnamese that tortured him during the war and he friend still a communist) remember those guys that kill Americans. Also he's choice of VP is not the most brilliant start!! She attended 5 colleges in 6 years, (Colleges??????..you know the place were people learn how to put a sentence together???.YES "THAT ONE" Or I can vote for a guy that is not Mr. clean but graduate on top of he's class from a prestige university is eloquent and have a VP that provide the knowledge and background in defense, is also been supported by Colin Powel and he's financial advisor is the riches man alive?????? hummmmmm not sure but your arguments falls short for the majority of Americans (including some members of the GOP)

Lets talk about some assumptions (or fallacies) which greatly undermine the credibility of this article...

-Conservative DOES NOT equal Neo-Conservative. This is an important distinction. While many citizens of the United

States hold Conservative values, those are not the politicians they have been voting for over the last thirty years.

Which leads me to...

-The invocation of Eisenhower and Nixon. Eisenhower was always a central and unifying political figure, and a public

supporter of the New Deal, as "the necessary domestic front against evil to couple our great efforts abroad."

Nixon led domestically in a fairly liberal manner, at least for a conservative. This is overshawdowed in history due

to his hawkish politics and Vietnam debacles.

-Individual liberties continually expanding? Please. This was true, up to roughly 1970. Once the New-Con motor was

ignited, individual liberties have been shed like hair. Individual liberties stand for information, freedom and

personal control- all blockades to the Neo-Conservative movement.

News Flash: This country is actually more LIBERAL than it seems. The populace at large has been duped by geniuses,

from Goldwater to Reagan to Rove. And now our stock market, armed forces, elderly and youngsters are feeling the

pain. The Baby Boomers selfishly rode the Greatest Generation's train right into a wall. Obama is left of center. In

fact, I would say he is just plain left. He is simply an incredibly deft and gifted politician. He is part of the

new generation; my generation. The Greatest Generation X. The ones that will save the world, for a second time. The

ones that will stop these wars; bring about true universal health care; value diplomacy; understand the intrinsic

importance of our natural habitat; understand the patriotism of paying a tax dollar; understand sometimes it is

about a human life, and not the bottom line. Thanks Karl, Ron, Mom and Dad for driving Lady Liberty to the brink of

destruction. We're here to save her, with Barack at the helm.

Just in time to pay your fat social security checks (which you responsibly lit on fire and threw in the trash).

Lets talk about some assumptions (or fallacies) which greatly undermine the credibility of this article...

-Conservative DOES NOT equal Neo Conservative. This is an important distinction. While many citizens of the United States hold Conservative values, those are the politicians they have been voting for over the last thirty years. Which leads me to...

-The invocation of Eisenhower and Nixon. Eisenhower was always a central and unifying political figure, and a public supporter of the New Deal, as "the necessary domestic front against evil to couple with our great efforts abroad."

Nixon led domestically fairly liberal, at least for a conservative. This is overshawdowed in history due to his hawkish politics and Vietnam debacles.

-Individual liberties continually expanding? Please. This was true, up to roughly 1970. Once the New-Con motor was ignited, individual liberties have been shed like hair. Individual liberties stand for information, freedom and personal control- all blockades to the Neo-Conservative movement.

News Flash: This country is actually more LIBERAL than it seems. The populace at large has been duped by geniuses, from Goldwater to Reagan to Rove. And now our stock market, armed forces, elderly and youngsters are feeling the pain. The Baby Boomers selfishly rode the Greatest Generation's train right into a wall. Obama is left of center. In fact, I would say he is just plain left. He is simply an incredibly deft and gifted politician. He is part of the new generation; my generation. The Greatest Generation X. The ones that save the world. The ones that stop these wars; bring about true universal health care; value diplomacy; understand the intrinsic importance of our natural habitat; understand the patriotism of paying a tax dollar; understand sometimes its about a human life, and not the bottom line. Thanks Karl, Ron, Mom and Dad for driving Lady Liberty to the brink of destruction. Were here to save her, with Barack at the helm.

Just in time to pay your fat social security checks (which you responsibly lit on fire and threw in the trash).

To everybody reading this: lets inspire everyone to vote, share one of your million reason to do it in this site: http://www.amillionreasonstovote.com

People on these bogs are fond of saying that the current economic meltdown was caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting bad mortgages. While Fannie and Freddie obviously are guilty of writing bad mortgages, and worse, guilty of lobbying Congress to allow them to do so with impunity, their actions are just a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to determining who (or what) caused the financial crisis we face today.

In 1929 the stock market crash caused the banks to fail, because the banks were in bed with the stock market. Back then, banks owned investment houses, so when the stock market fell, the banks fell too. This triggered the Great Depression. So in 1933 the Congress wrote laws that regulated banking, making it illegal for banks to own investment companies, mortgage guaranty companies or insurance companies. The idea was to keep key industries separated by a fire wall, so that if one industry failed the whole economy would not go down in flames.

But the Republicans under Bush deregulated the banking industry. Senator Phil Gramm wrote legislation (the Gramm Rudman Act, the Gramm Leach Biley Act, etc.) that stripped away the regulations in the financial and insurance industies. He pushed them through the Republican Congress and they were signed into law by Geo. W. Bush. John McCain voted in favor. Everybody said how great it is to deregulate and create free markets.

Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch each gave over a million dollars to Senator Gramm's re-election campaign.

The economic collapse that happened later was a direct result of the deregulation, and here's how: the banks wrote bad mortgages, then bundled the mortgages into investment vehicles that they sold all over the world, and they even got firms like AIG to insure the investments. It was all a house of cards.

If there had been no deregulation, sure we would have had a bunch of bad mortgages, and the mortgage guaranty and real estate industries would have suffered, but there would not have been a global financial meltdown, since the problem would have been contained in one sector of the economy. You can thank Geo W. Bush, Sen. Phil Gramm and Sen John McCain for the meltdown, since they were strong proponents of deregulation.

Furthermore, although Fannie and Freddie are now holding the bulk of these bad mortgages, Fannie and Freddie did not originally write most of these mortgages. They bought them after the fact, bundled by banks/investment companies. Fannie and Freddie got screwed by the Wall Street fat cats. And so did you, if you pay taxes.

What is Phil Gramm doing today? He works as a lobbyist in Washington, trying to make it legal for the Swiss bank he represents to sell Death Bonds in the United States. Nice guy, Phil Gramm. Incidentally, John McCain has said that he wants to appoint Phil Gramm as Treasury Secretary. Some people just can't learn from their mistakes.

Since these McCain supporters want to say Obama is wants to run a socialist country, then I think we should do this........Lets tell every senior not to use their Medicare. Since that is a Government program, that is a sign of socialism. Lets stop having the Government give money to schools. That is a sign of socialism. How dare McCain say that the Government will buy up all those bad loans....300 billion worth. Wait McCain, that is socialism. I guess McCain will stop all of this since this is socialism. Oh yeah, since Bush came into power, socialism is at an all time high. I think they need to come up with something else.

People on these bogs are fond of saying that the current economic meltdown was caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting bad mortgages. While Fannie and Freddie obviously are guilty of writing bad mortgages, and worse, guilty of lobbying Congress to allow them to do so with impunity, their actions are just a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to determining who (or what) caused the financial crisis we face today.

In 1929 the stock market crash caused the banks to fail, because the banks were in bed with the stock market. Back then, banks owned investment houses, so when the stock market fell, the banks fell too. This triggered the Great Depression. So in 1933 the Congress wrote laws that regulated banking, making it illegal for banks to own investment companies, mortgage guaranty companies or insurance companies. The idea was to keep key industries separated by a fire wall, so that if one industry failed the whole economy would not go down in flames.

But the Republicans under Bush deregulated the banking industry. Senator Phil Gramm wrote legislation (the Gramm Rudman Act, the Gramm Leach Biley Act, etc.) that stripped away the regulations in the financial and insurance industies. He pushed them through the Republican Congress and they were signed into law by Geo. W. Bush. John McCain voted in favor. Everybody said how great it is to deregulate and create free markets.

Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch each gave over a million dollars to Senator Gramm's re-election campaign.

The economic collapse that happened later was a direct result of the deregulation, and here's how: the banks wrote bad mortgages, then bundled the mortgages into investment vehicles that they sold all over the world, and they even got firms like AIG to insure the investments. It was all a house of cards.

If there had been no deregulation, sure we would have had a bunch of bad mortgages, and the mortgage guaranty and real estate industries would have suffered, but there would not have been a global financial meltdown, since the problem would have been contained in one sector of the economy. You can thank Geo W. Bush, Sen. Phil Gramm and Sen John McCain for the meltdown, since they were strong proponents of deregulation.

Furthermore, although Fannie and Freddie are now holding the bulk of these bad mortgages, Fannie and Freddie did not originally write most of these mortgages. They bought them after the fact, bundled by banks/investment companies. Fannie and Freddie got screwed by the Wall Street fat cats. And so did you, if you pay taxes.

What is Phil Gramm doing today? He works as a lobbyist in Washington, trying to make it legal for the Swiss bank he represents to sell Death Bonds in the United States. Nice guy, Phil Gramm. Incidentally, John McCain has said that he wants to appoint Phil Gramm as Treasury Secretary. Some people just can't learn from their mistakes.

Hey, where have you guys been? "America is conservative" is a meme that Rove created and repeated endlessly until everyone believed it. Wake up and smell the upcoming election!

Obama will create a new system of governance, not on his own principles but based on sound relationships within the U.S. and abroad with world leaders opening the doors to better trade agreements and bringing wayward nations back to the table for a stronger structured agreement. There is much that can happen for the positive once Obama has established his Cabinet positions. It's a guarantee that incomes will rebound in the first two years once he takes office. Oil prices will remain steady until renewables are in full production. Trade will be an improvement. Dictators will become more susceptible to reasoning with how they treat their people. It's going to be an interesting year, 2009.

This Election is all about... YOU

You can be Honest with Yourself OR You can Keeps Lying about Yourself.