Siber - Both Obama and Raines have stated they have no relationship. It was a Washington Post report that has been discounted.

Consensus among virtually all with credibility is the current financial crisiswas hatchedbythe surge insub prime lending, which was fueled by the widespread securitization of mortgage loan portfolios - something that occured in force from 2001 forward. Today's crisis has nothing to do with 1977 or 1997. It is the job of an administration to manage what happens while they are in charge.

 

This was gotten from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis

I am not blaming it on either Carter or Clinton, but you in turn are blaming Bush, all I said was it started in those years. Also Fannie and Freddie did not have to answer to anyone, and they did cook the books to show a profit. You can blame Bush for the Financial crisis and I will blame Clinton for High Gas prices, since he vetoed the bill for drilling offshore and in ANWR while he was in office

 

Fannie Mae is quasi government, created to help people buy homes, Iagree they were pushed in the wrong direction (as you say), in addition to crooked Raines dirty work. But, if it was just Fannie Mae, we would not have a crisis. The fact isalmost ALL THE PLAYERS in the financial markets were complicitin too much being lent to the wrong people. That's why Merrill, Lehman Brothers, IndyMac, Washington Mutual and the like are gone orin trouble.They should have been reigned in - that's a role governmentmust play -but nothing was done. And now it seems we're all gonna pay.

FYI, I do assign blame to Clinton for a number of things. I don't think he was a great Prez. But better than GWB.

 

i like the way that you think. i was a democrat until this election year, but i am leaning more conservative now. people don't realize that everything is big business now, and if you tax them, you are going to foot the bill on that. this election will, unfortunately, bring the largest group of voters to the polls, which means that there will be a lot of people voting without an education of why they are voting that way. just listening to Obama speak, you realize how many times that he can really contradict himself in one sentence. i don't care about race, i care about the fact that i am not even a politician and i think i would make a better president than Obama.

thats my $ .02.

 

I was going to vote, but since it's just the Obamanation and McCain, I won't be part of the further corruption of this Country. The only person I was going to vote for was Huckabee. He, to me, seemed like the only person with any common sense. I know that this somewhat contradicts what I previously said, but IF I was going to vote, I would probably pick McCain, simply because he is the most qualified out of the two. Obama hasn't really had any experience as a politicianwhatsoever.

 

Wow,anybody who believes its bad totax business, because itautomatically, directlymeans higher consumer prices - if you haveever taken an economics course in your life, you should go back and ask for a refund, because you obviously didn't learn anything. That, or the brainwashing of America by big business is 99% complete.

The price of anything= as much as the consumer is willing to pay. There is not a set relationship betweencost and your price.

Give you an example. Let's say a good portable electricheater sells for $50 in your city, and lots of people buy them all the time. Your a businessman who wants to maximize his profit. You discover a little factory in Mexico that can build a good one, andthey are willing to sell them to you for $5 each. It will cost $2to ship them from Mexico to you,meaning your total cost is $7.You'd buy them, and sell them for $50, right? Because that's the price consumers are willing to pay, and you'd make $43 on every unit you sell.You wouldn't say, "oh, 10% profit is enough, I'll sell them for $7.70."You wouldn't leave more than $40 of profit on the table. The preceding is exactly how businesses price what they sell.

 

well, i don't know if you know anything beyond the absolute basic supply/demand curve or if you are just such an avid democrat that you believe that taxes don't result in retail mark-up. basically, a business is not going to take a cut (just as you just said there) when they get taxed, (such as gas taxes on the oil industry, tobacco taxes on the tobacco industry, or import tariffs on imported items) they don't just cut their losses and call it quits. they get screwed and pass the expense on to the consumer. that, combined with an already weak dollar, makes for the exchange rate to get even worse. example is when the oil industry gets taxed, which it does a lot, it adds the tax into the price tag. a gallon of gas is about 3/4 tax and 1/4 cost and profit.

now, i do agree that a lot of things have a lot of mark-up. the average luxury item has about 100% retail mark-up and i know that because i have worked in the luxury industry before. the average small item (such as jewelry, small toys, etc.) has about 1000% mark-up. i know that because i know small business owners. the difference is that when the cost of living and operation goes up, they will not just take a loss. they have to live too and they are not going to sell more portable heaters just because the government taxes them more for them. they are going to raise their costs to pass it on to the consumer. if YOU don't think that is true, you should go and get your parent's money back for the college in which you just graduated (you show your age with your comments.)

i was a government and economics major.

the belief of taxing big business is to bring up government spending to create more jobs and put more money back into the economy. i honestly don't think that obama has it in him to figure out where the government spending is needed.

 

Not a push for Obama or against McCain, this is just a general comment/reply:

And that's a bad thing? It's the experienced politicians, the "good ole" boys Washington network,"that have largely helped to get us into this mess... and that's on BOTH sides of the aisle, Folks.

 

Here you go UB....this started way before W came into office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oHo

I'm with you Siber.....McCain/Palin 08

I don't listen to a thing any of these guys say during the election year. I go based off of their historical voting record and past character.

 

The problem with McCain is that, should he die, Palin would succeed the presidency...scary thought, she doesn't belong in Washington.