culpability

Jane, who commented on my last post, brings up an interesting and complex point: "Who is responsible for the mess that many people, the economy and our country is in?

Clearly, there is more than enough blame to go around two or three times.  In the early 2000s government lowered interest rates, especially for home mortgages.  That encouraged everyone to refinance and take money out of their homes.  Many people did this and used the money to spend on stuff they wanted but didn't really need.  I had lots and lots of clients who did this. Added to this, many mortgage companies intentionally sold mortgages to people whom they knew could not afford to keep paying them Some of those people were foolish, some were just lied to

But many people knew what they were doing. They wanted to turn the rising value of their home into cash.  They were encouraged to do so by many ads, from mortgage companies, and by other consumable type products, especially bigger homes and SUV, and all the stuff that went into them.   But I didn't do that, and I don't think Jane did either.

Meanwhile the government was waging two wars costing trillions of dollars.  The real goals of those wars are still not very clear. This still continues.

Then, since so many people were buying and selling mortgages, and it was somehow assumed by all of the country's brilliant financial minds that home prices cold only go up, banks invented mortgage default swaps, so they could increase their profits and leverage all of their bets.  The government at the time, led by Alan Greenspan, decided that these kind of business did not need to be regulated. The :free markets" would regulate themselves.

So then, in 2008, housing prices began to drop and the economy feel completely apart.

Should the government have done nothing and let it all go completely to hell?  They decided they needed to help or the world economy would collapse.  So they helped out the banks, who were some of the biggest crooks of all.  They felt they had to, which they probably did. But people got angry at the government, and the banks, for needing and taking tax payer money, while most tax payers who had financial problems were not given too much --- although unemployment benefits were allowed to keep going for a long time.

Then nobody had as much money, and no place to get it, so they stopped buying.  So business stopped selling, so they laid people off.  So things go worse.

 Then the government tried to get things going by pouring money into some places.  But it isn't enough, nothing is happening fast enough, the deficit is growing to frightening level.  Everyone is angry, except for the bankers, and other people who are very rich and are paying for ads and lobbyists to keep them rich.

Again, I think that in order to get things right a lot of people who seem to have major disagreements about what to do will have to decide to work together, make compromises, look at the whole picture, and decide to make the country whole again, and to pull people together.  I think Obama was a bit naive for almost two years, thinking he could do that.  There are some powerful people who just want to see him fail, just for their own benefit.

Now, I would rather put my faith, and I agree I have very little of it, in a government that I elect, than let my economy be run by insurance companies, banks, oil companies, Rupert Murdock and the Koch brothers,  who have already shown how willing they are to screw us out of our last dollar, which they will do if the government steps aside and calls that a "free market."

Unfortunately, I don't see much hope of getting enough people in business, banking and government to work together.  The "freedom" some people are screaming about seems to be mostly about tearing everything and everyone apart.  I hear very little about people offering to sacrifice and to work together to make things better for all.

Yes, I hope everyone out there took care of themselves.  If you didn't it is partly you own fault for getting sucked in, and partly because the rules are stacked against you, and those who are doing the stacking want to run the government too.

I know a lot of my clients are suffering during this time of economic distress.  I do not see many places for long-lasting job growth.  We had one great twenty-year growth spurt due to new technologies.  We followed that with money from a housing bubble and debt spending, from both the government and citizens. Now what?  Green Energy?  America's Got Talent?

Today was primary election day.  I went to vote early.  I voted for some incumbants and some new people.  I tried to vote for people who made sense, and weren't just angry.  I was there for ten minutes.  Two other people came in to vote.

Is this the freedom we are sending people across the globe to protect?