-- Posted by Anonymous at 2:45 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 A little late for this but how did our economy get so fucked up in the first place? -- Posted by ijustdontknow at 2:46 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 Cause we dumb -- Posted by akallen at 2:46 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 Bush was born and caused a major disturbance in the economic well-being. -- Posted by joker678 at 2:46 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 The Banks gave out loans to people who could not afford them! -- Posted by Monroe at 2:47 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 George Bush. -- Posted by Lally at 2:47 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 Quote: from akallen at 5:46 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 Bush was born and caused a major disturbance in the economic well-being. this -- Posted by joker678 at 2:48 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 Quote: from lally at 2:47 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 Quote: from akallen at 5:46 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 Bush was born and caused a major disturbance in the economic well-being.   this no -- Posted by joker678 at 2:50 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 also,   we buy way to much "things" from China, and having them built there,  because it is cheap labor -- Posted by byebyebeautyful at 2:50 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 its all with the government imposing on the banks to give out loans that were risky and now look what happened. businesses closing down, almost impossible to find a job... its not JUST bush's fault -- Posted by lovelyshadows19 at 2:51 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 Lots of bad, risky decisions by people surrounded in wealth not thinking how it could affect the country and everyone in it. ...That and Bush and his oil tycoon buddies probably had something to do with it too. XD -- Posted by jessicries at 2:52 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 Quote: from crimeinstereo at 2:47 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 George Bush. I suppose George Bush is also the reason I couldn't find my keys this morning?? It must be a sad life hating someone enough to blame them for stuff they clearly had nothing to do with. I know you're smarter than to believe what the liberal media and other lefties spoon feed you. At least I hope you are. -- Posted by roryboy at 2:54 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 Anyone that ever cared to read the Constitution, knows that it is congress that has the power over the economy. Blame them for forcing the banks, to make the bad loans in the first place. -- Posted by yankeefan at 8:11 am on Jan. 3, 2009 consumption > income housing bubble people buying homes when they have no business owning homes -- Posted by obvious child at 1:15 pm on Jan. 3, 2009 Quote: from Anonymous at 12:45 pm on Jan. 2, 2009 A little late for this but how did our economy get so fucked up in the first place? Simple answer? Leveraged sub prime mortgages. Keyword: Leveraged. If investment banking firms had not purchased the securities with debt, they'd simply be taking large write offs and be done with it. Sure it's hurt like a mother but there wouldn't be the additional debt to be repaid. Think of it like buying a car with cash and then it gets totalled. Ouch. Now think of buying a car with debt and getting it totalled. Ouch and you still owe. (Ignore insurance) One instance no asset and no debt. The other no asset and debt. Debt credit swaps made it worse, but that's like getting kicked when you're down. -- Posted by Savren at 4:49 pm on Jan. 3, 2009 Its not just Bush's fault? Its not at ALL Bush's fault. The fault goes to the loony liberals who pushed for loans to be given out to anyone, even those who couldn't buy it, thus causing the major housing bubble, thus making the banks go belly up and causing a chain reaction throughout our crumbling economy. -- Posted by Savren at 4:50 pm on Jan. 3, 2009 ^^ mainly banks though. -- Posted by obvious child at 5:08 pm on Jan. 3, 2009 Quote: from Savren at 2:49 pm on Jan. 3, 2009 Its not just Bush's fault? Its not at ALL Bush's fault. Aside from him and the GOP producing legislation to remove the greatest obstacle to home ownership: the down payment. Forgot that eh? Or are you being deliberately ignorant? The fault goes to the loony liberals who pushed for loans to be given out to anyone, even those who couldn't buy it, thus causing the major housing bubble, thus making the banks go belly up and causing a chain reaction throughout our crumbling economy. This doesn't make much sense. First of all CRA loans were profitable and they have been going on for decades. Many of these loans offered rates that went down after a few years. That's the exact opposite of the sub-prime. CRA loans never even approached $20 billion, which by the way is small potatoes now. They cannot possibly be at fault due to their minuscule size. IndyMac could have taken a complete write off it had held ALL of the CRA loans and still survive. -- Posted by yankeefan at 5:22 pm on Jan. 3, 2009 Quote: from obvious child at 8:08 pm on Jan. 3, 2009 Aside from him and the GOP producing legislation to remove the greatest obstacle to home ownership: the down payment. Forgot that eh? Or are you being deliberately ignorant? no there are still down payments today Bush only removed the REQUIREMENT for down payment, he didn't eliminate them entirely, a key distinction. -- Posted by obvious child at 5:34 pm on Jan. 3, 2009 http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20040120_zerodown.htm try again. bad bush! Bad republicans! Liberal lending polices are BAD!!!! -- Posted by yankeefan at 6:33 am on Jan. 4, 2009 Quote: from obvious child at 8:34 pm on Jan. 3, 2009 http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20040120_zerodown.htm try again. bad bush! Bad republicans! Liberal lending polices are BAD!!!! how is allowing 0 down payment for 150,000 people the same as eliminating them entirely? -- Posted by Savren at 2:20 pm on Jan. 5, 2009 Its not Bush's fault. The economic crisis was brought on by the mortgage crisis. Fannie Mae & Freddy Mac weren't really to blame. Liberal President Jimmy Carter approved a law to make it so FM would have to lower the credit requirement and make it so low income people could get loans for homes. This was furthered and became more and more strict on FM/fm. Congress and the government brought on the housing crisis not Bush. It was well before Bush. -- Posted by Savren at 2:28 pm on Jan. 5, 2009 Although Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were led by the government to believe that they could lend sub prime mortgages without many consequences. Liberals such as Barney Frank made it clear in 03 that there was NO issue w/Fannie and Freddy, nothing could happen: ''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.'' dumbass -- Posted by Latin Muscle at 11:13 pm on Jan. 5, 2009 It was my fault. Sorry guys. I'll pay back the trillions of dollars next week...i promise. -- Posted by obvious child at 12:26 pm on Jan. 6, 2009 stupid latin muscle. Why you go and doom economy. I shake my fist at you. -- Posted by anonomouse at 4:52 pm on Jan. 7, 2009 The economy was just growing at too fast of a rate. People bought stuff recently (like houses) that they simply didn't have enough money to buy. It was bought on CREDIT. Now, the economy is slowing down because people have to pay off their debt and don't have as much money to spend in the economy. When you buy something on credit, you get something now and forgo the other possibilities in the future. So, when the economy was growing too fast a year or two ago, it was taking away from the current economic growth. But, since the economy is slowing down (we've experienced DEFLATION), people with money also don't want to spend it because they want to wait for prices to go down. This causes even less money in the economy. You can see how this gets in to a vicious cycle. The government is trying to save us from a great depression (like the 1930s) by stimulating the economy and bailing out businesses. (The bailing out, though, is highly contested among economists. They say that since we are bailing out businesses, we are promoting unresponsible business practices. Why should we bail out Ford, even though they are an important part of our economy, when they made bad business practices--they built SUVs instead of gas-saving cars that people wanted. Is the US government encouraging being wasteful and saying "We'll bail you out if you mess up." ?) -- Posted by undercoverchic at 6:29 pm on Jan. 7, 2009 Yes the banks were giving out too many loans to people who couldn't afford them, but the government also took off regulations on the stock market that had been there since the depression. Hmm... I thought we were supposed to learn history so that it will not repeat itself. The American public could also be to blame for wanting low quality chinese cheap goods that they don't need by spending a lot of money that they didn't have on credit cards and running those cards through the roof. It's back to basics people. You save for what you want. -- Posted by Savren at 7:35 pm on Jan. 7, 2009 Quote: from anonomouse at 4:52 pm on Jan. 7, 2009 The economy was just growing at too fast of a rate. People bought stuff recently (like houses) that they simply didn't have enough money to buy. It was bought on CREDIT. Now, the economy is slowing down because people have to pay off their debt and don't have as much money to spend in the economy. When you buy something on credit, you get something now and forgo the other possibilities in the future. So, when the economy was growing too fast a year or two ago, it was taking away from the current economic growth. But, since the economy is slowing down (we've experienced DEFLATION), people with money also don't want to spend it because they want to wait for prices to go down. This causes even less money in the economy. You can see how this gets in to a vicious cycle. The government is trying to save us from a great depression (like the 1930s) by stimulating the economy and bailing out businesses. (The bailing out, though, is highly contested among economists. They say that since we are bailing out businesses, we are promoting unresponsible business practices. Why should we bail out Ford, even though they are an important part of our economy, when they made bad business practices--they built SUVs instead of gas-saving cars that people wanted. Is the US government encouraging being wasteful and saying "We'll bail you out if you mess up." ?) Totally agree with the part about the bailout. Although Ford denied the bail out money. Still its a very unfair economy when we bail companies like GM out.