My coworkers were discussing the housing bubble and the financial crisis today and I had heard lots of talk about different things causing the crisis, from deregulation to credit default swaps and everything in-between. I found a couple of good articles on the subject:
This article appeals to my democratic sensibilities:
The Real Cause of the Mortgage Crisis: Conservative Opposition to Sensible Financial Standards
It has some compelling arguments about the Bush administration failing to act back in 2004, but in my view this crisis is far too large to simply blame the Republicans.
I think this article from FactCheck.org is much more fair laying the blame:
Who Caused the Economic Crisis? (FactCheck.org)
Some of the deregulation of the banking industry goes back to the Clinton administration yet the crisis was further enabled by the Bush administration's failure to regulate the mortgage-backed securities market. Of course it wasn't just deregulation that caused the crisis, it was Americans buying houses they couldn't afford and irresponsibility and greed on the part of Wall street that has caused the economy to tank for the last two or three years.
It is frustrating that it seems that hard-working american families have to pay the price for Wall Street's greed and there has been no bailout for the middle class, just billions of dollars of the taxpayer's money going to line the pockets of the rich bankers and investors that got us into this mess.
In my opinion this crisis should show us that Government intervention into the economy is necessary, without oversight, checks and balances, and regulation, basic human greed will outweigh personal ethics and companies will do anything in their power to make money. It's time for the American people to stand up and take back the government from lobbyists and greedy corporations! Vote with your hearts and don't buy into this two party system where both sides of the fence are equally corrupt, doing whatever it takes to be re-elected. Electing President Obama was a start, but we need to get involved like we did in the 2008 election, come together as one country instead of bickering between Republicrats and Democrans to solve the important problems that face our generation such as Wars, Healthcare, Poverty and Global Warming.