2008-09-18

CRAs

From CNBC, for Beamer:



And here.

Disclaimer - I don't know much about it but the "CRA meme" seems to have been discredited as being a cause of the subprime crisis.

6 comments:

BLBeamer said...

I haven't had a chance to watch the video yet, but I went to the second link and read. I don't see anything that refutes my comment that the CRA changes had a "small but key" role. I also said its effects were unintentional.

What in my comment about CRA has been refuted?

Just like on all blogs, some of the comments sound informed and some sound like content-free partisan snark.

I'll watch the video tonight.

Do you dispute my comment about CEO pay, too?

BLBeamer said...

Have you attempted to discredit the "nobody's fault but Bush & Co." meme?

Neil Cameron (One Salient Oversight) said...

As I made clear in the "Socialism for the rich" article, the blame for this financial mess is shared between government and the market.

As far as individuals are concerned, I can only point at Bush, Greenspan and Bernanke. To list the names of company CEOs would be too time consuming.

Since 2001 Bush and the Republican congress have cut taxes during an economic expansion and increased public debt. This was a major contributing factor to the creation of the housing bubble.

BLBeamer said...

So just where are our substantive differences, then?

Why the feeble attempt to bait me?

Neil Cameron (One Salient Oversight) said...

As far as I can tell, the "CRA meme" has been looked at debunked. As I said in the post I don't really know much about it, but it does seem that it is being used by some to "prove" that the current crisis has some of its roots in the Clinton administration.

I'm not trying to bait. I just put the links up for your benefit if you want to look at them.

BLBeamer said...

"Debunked"? Well as the sole cause, certainly, but there is anecdotal evidence that it had a bearing. But as I said, a small one and the meltdown likely would have occurred without CRA.

For the record, I didn't mention it to try to prove the fault of the Clinton administration only to show how culpability was more complex than just the Unholy Trinity you mentioned. I have read other leftists claim that the sub-prime mess was wholly the fault of the market and there was no government fault at all. I know you don't hold to that, but that opinion is out there nevertheless.

I generally thought the Clinton administration was a relatively good time for responsible spending, particularly compared to GW Bush's. The GOP Congress gets some credit for that just as they deserve much blame for the latest batch of irresponsible spending.

If I was going to fault the Clinton administration in this crisis I would have gone further back to the peso crisis in the early 90's. That's when Rubin convinced the Clintonistas to bail out his Wall Street cronies at taxpayer expense.