Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Two dim bulbs on full display
Last night on David Letterman's show, President B. Hussein Obama said the 2008 economic meltdown was a result of, ahem, insufficient governmental regulation.
To borrow a line from President Bill Clinton, I've read a book or two - and hundreds and hundreds of newspapers and magazines - in my life, and I know what Obama said is complete bunk.
What caused last year's economic calamity can be summed up in two words: housing bubble. The housing bubble in question was caused by the Federal Reserve's too-easy monetary policy (if you've read a book or two, you'll know what I mean by "too-easy"), and governmental policies that encouraged banks to take on too much housing-related debt ... which brings us to: government-sponsored/market-distorting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of which rolled in Fed-provided easy money, and attempted to put folks into homes for which they couldn't pay. Nutshell. So there. [Please forgive my grammatical derring-do.
As much as folks liked to claim that President George W. Bush was a dumbass, he never made public claims that strained absolute credulity. Our current president, however, does just that on a daily basis -- and sometimes he goes on late-night talk shows (!) to do it!
If I could get paid to do so, I could make a living doing nothing but refuting Obama's daily bullshit statements (especially when he dares open his mouth 'bout political economy). That ain't no shit, neither.
To borrow a line from President Bill Clinton, I've read a book or two - and hundreds and hundreds of newspapers and magazines - in my life, and I know what Obama said is complete bunk.
What caused last year's economic calamity can be summed up in two words: housing bubble. The housing bubble in question was caused by the Federal Reserve's too-easy monetary policy (if you've read a book or two, you'll know what I mean by "too-easy"), and governmental policies that encouraged banks to take on too much housing-related debt ... which brings us to: government-sponsored/market-distorting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of which rolled in Fed-provided easy money, and attempted to put folks into homes for which they couldn't pay. Nutshell. So there. [Please forgive my grammatical derring-do.
As much as folks liked to claim that President George W. Bush was a dumbass, he never made public claims that strained absolute credulity. Our current president, however, does just that on a daily basis -- and sometimes he goes on late-night talk shows (!) to do it!
If I could get paid to do so, I could make a living doing nothing but refuting Obama's daily bullshit statements (especially when he dares open his mouth 'bout political economy). That ain't no shit, neither.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Tuesday, September 22, 2009 
