Who do you blame for the economic crisis?

world leaders and greed

I think a lot of people did realize they couldn’t afford such loans or take out huge lines of credit they didn’t have the ability to pay off, but they wanted to keep up with the Jones, Jolie-Pitts and Trumps so they chose to go after the loans dangled in front of them. And then there’s the greedy people at the banks who thought they were too clever to be snared by real economies, which doesn’t enable a person or institution to shuffle around non-existent money. The piper will be paid.

Well, folks, you can’t do that stuff. Thanks a fuckin’ lot. Thanks to you, I lost my job. :P

Ronald Regan.

@Judi OMG!!! That was out of left field. I love it.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Who I blame most is the individual consumers, but they are only guilty of being stupid and greedy. Bankers, not the mortgage brokers, but executives and politicians know better. They are, or should be, more educated and knowledgable and knew full well that these mortgages were a bad idea for the average guy. Now, I exclude the mortgage brokers, because they get their license in a week or a month, depending on the state, take a test and boom they are brokers. They themselves, many times took these mortgages themselves.

I worked as a realtor and we used to say that, “the banks hope people foreclose, because the house is worth so much more they make money on the foreclosure.” I felt like the banks were using home buyers as scouts, buying up homes for the banks.

None of the people I worked with thought it could last forever, that eventually the housing market would have to pop. I guess the banks wanted to believe it could not end, and many consumers also.

I think Americans have to learn that slow and steady is better than big ups and downs and saving money for a rainy day is a prudent idea.

I think getting rid of (or maybe they were just changed?) the usury laws in 1978 was a big problem. Banks could legally be loan sharks now, and people were too stupid to know they were getting ripped off. Living on credit became a way of life for many, and why the hell not, the government seems to be fine living on credit, it just trickles down.

Everyone buying what they cannot afford is a big problem, because it artificially inflates prices, because our prices are for the most part market driven.

So, I said a lot above without saying much or drawing specific conclusions I guess. The whole system has some problems, the biggest of which is a lack of integrity I think.

AstroChuck

Andrew Shannigan. He was a friend I had in eighth grade, and he swore that if he ever got enough power, he’d create an economic crisis.

I lost track of him over the years, but the current situation has his name written all over it!

Who, indeed!

@daloon GA.

I would blame Reagan/Bush and Thatcher for deregulating the markets during the 70s through the 90s.

I think that the current situation is less of a blame thing than a perfect storm of little fuck-ups all over the place.

There is an element of mathematical and financial ineptitude amongst populace. For instance, my mother-in-law is honestly confused when she charges something on her Visa, pays it down over a couple of months and then winds up paying more than the total amount of the purchase; she has no clue about interest! I wish stuff like that was atypical, but it seems pretty close to the norm.

The banks seemed to enjoy making their money from the poorer people. That left less money to go towards buying stuff; stagnation and slowdown. Less demand for certain products means less corporate revenue, possible down-sizing… you see where that is heading.

Then you have those that couldn’t care less about the price future generations will pay so long as they get their profit now. Sacrificing sustainability for a quick buck leads to problems such as… well, now! That attitude is at all levels.

You can also blame anybody that supports the discredited theory behind Supply-side Economics.

However, I don’t think you can blame any one person/group since it took a lot of diverse workers to dig a hole this deep.

The descendants of the Rothschild banking empire. Isn’t it obvious?

The American consumer. There wouldn’t be any crisis if we weren’t buying the nonsense they were selling.

Deregulate corps. We will be goos, cross our hearts.

Sure you can buy a house with a mortgage payment equal to 75% of your take home pay.

Go ahead and mortgage your house to the rafters and invest that cash in internet stocks Wheeee

Greed. And Bush, I blame him for everything bad that has happened in the last decade.

@JLeslie ; He was the one who started all the “government regulation is bad” talk and convinced the average working stiff that if we would just be nicer to the big corporations and banks, stop stifling them with regulations and let free enterprise run wild we would all be happy little clams. 30 years later and look where that got us.

@Judi Good point. And he slashed taxes like crazy on the wealthy, and now everyone is resistant to getting them back up. Well, not everyone. Seems like a compromise would make sense, but no one wants to compromise.

Probably the banks for claim of funds they never had, ramifications perceived as voided by the fact that life itself is a cooperation and you can’t be happy unless you own two cars, one cat and a son that fucks the dog.

But hey we got Goths and Gays in society too.

greed