Friday, June 19, 2009

West Wing Endnotes

Sometimes you're better off dead
There's a gun in your hand and it's pointed at your head
You think you're mad, too unstable
Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables

--Pet Shop Boys

A government-written White Paper proposes causes and effects of the financial crisis. Naturally, no root causes related to government agencies or regulation were noted.

Mr P is not so generous. He correctly notes the centrality of the Fed and GSEs to our problems.

The administration seeks to levy more autonomy on the Fed. Like Mr P, I believe we'll surely rue the day we do this if/when.

2 comments:

OSR said...

The Fed and Fannie/Freddie were certainly major contributors to this crisis, but I still argue that they are symptoms of a greater malady: public ignorance. Our democratic system wasn't stolen from us, we gave it away willingly.

fordmw said...

No doubt we're either willing or asleep at the switich. The way I like to think about it is that one side (gov't control) feeds the other (public ignorance et al) in a snowball like dynamic. Also keep in mind that our founders established a republic not a democracy (the d word does not appear in Declaration, Constitution, or any original state constitution).