The debacle that became the housing bubble was brought on by everyone. The government passed laws that made it easier for people who did not have the resources to get loans they couldn’t afford. The government then forced quotas onto banks to give those loans out knowing that they wouldn’t get repaid, and that the people would then blame the banks and rely even more on the government. The banks took on a false philosophy of grouping bad debts into securities that could be traded, knowing that they were junk, but making their books look better (which, by the way, is still currently happening with auto loans!). The banks gave loans out to those who they knew could not afford them both because the government said they had to, but also because it made their bottom line look better and they were getting paid for it. The people who took these loans knew full and well that they could never pay them back, and falsified their own documents. Everyone in this process, from the government, to the banks, to the people taking these loans are at fault. The ONLY victims are the taxpayers.
Another reason for this “boom”, and probably why there was blinders on for everyone, was because the country was trying to re-live the good old days of the internet boom, also false money. What is ridiculous is that we knew it was false then, we really knew it was false again, and we did it anyways. We are all ridiculous in this game.
The only true recovery from all of this is to let the natural cycle of the free markets to happen. There needed to be a low, probably even another big depression, in order to correct the mistakes that were happening. Hard times are not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing that would have made us come out much stronger in the recovery. The problem now is that both Bush and Obama have tried (are still trying?) to short-circuit the natural market cycles with stimulus money that just puts money into the companies that should be failing. Solyndra, GM, the banks, etc. Naturally, these companies would have folded, their assets and employees moving to companies who knew better how to make the companies and products work. It’s EXTREMELY short-sided and detrimental to the companies, the employees, and the economy to do what has been done.
Who gave these people the right to ruin our lives and our futures? That is exactly what they’re doing by messing up the natural cycles of the markets, and our lives. The reason there are tough times is so that we as people, companies, nations, and a world can become innovative, more intelligent, understanding, and compassionate. Our government right now, on both sides, is destroying all of this…
Troy Tabor
