tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6616959642391988608.post106871290714879922..comments2024-03-28T00:18:25.641-07:00Comments on Calafia Beach Pundit: Origins of the current crisis (3)Scott Grannishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14028519647946868684noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6616959642391988608.post-66001358213071310612008-11-04T09:54:00.000-08:002008-11-04T09:54:00.000-08:00Possible Hope or Grasping at Straws?:Just ran accr...Possible Hope or Grasping at Straws?:<BR/><BR/>Just ran accross this on Wired.com. <BR/><BR/>It's a computer-and-media story, but the possible parallels to this year's election struck me as interesting.<BR/><BR/>http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/11/dayintech_1104<BR/><BR/>----------------------------<BR/><BR/>"....Pre-election polls had predicted anything from a Democratic chaimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03230670461015145477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6616959642391988608.post-51761835767985799682008-11-04T09:16:00.000-08:002008-11-04T09:16:00.000-08:00Thanks for your reply Scott. I agree that neither...Thanks for your reply Scott. I agree that neither derivatives nor leverage were the protaganists in this drama. That key role does indeed go to Fannie and Freddie and all the politicans that enabled F&F, which were by and large Democrats.<BR/><BR/>You make an excellent point that was not clear in my comment above: Without F&F, far fewer subprime mortgages would have been funded. Mark Gerberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07980096984624964261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6616959642391988608.post-53018898311541620402008-11-04T08:21:00.000-08:002008-11-04T08:21:00.000-08:00Chaim: we can only hope that President O will use ...Chaim: we can only hope that President O will use his great intelligence and avoid doing that which the market is terrified of.Scott Grannishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14028519647946868684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6616959642391988608.post-22373192426734777422008-11-04T08:20:00.000-08:002008-11-04T08:20:00.000-08:00Mark: it's hard to dispute your point, but I d...Mark: it's hard to dispute your point, but I don't think that derivative securities or leverage were the protagonists in this drama. Leverage per se is not necessarily a bad thing. If housing prices had not collapsed, nothing would have happened. Subprime mortgage derivatives blew up, to be sure, but only because home prices collapsed to an extent no one envisioned. The role of F&F Scott Grannishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14028519647946868684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6616959642391988608.post-55943555958624048962008-11-04T08:10:00.000-08:002008-11-04T08:10:00.000-08:00The painful irony is that the very Party that pred...The painful irony is that the very Party that predominantly caused and perpetuated this horrible crisis has succeeded in deflecting the blame on the other Party and thereby will probably win a mind-blowing victory in 2 of the three branches of government,... and, in the next 4-8 years, unchecked by the right, will get to select 4-6 radical left of center activist individuals for the third branch,chaimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03230670461015145477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6616959642391988608.post-59052384262173399572008-11-04T06:39:00.000-08:002008-11-04T06:39:00.000-08:00Thanks for another great blog entry. No doubt, Fa...Thanks for another great blog entry. No doubt, Fannie and Freddie have been a disaster waiting to happen, and the Democrats contributed the most to this disaster. Had Fannie and Freddie risk been properly constrained, as John McCain warned in his letter years ago, we would not have had such a large housing bubble. If it were up to me, I would have shut down the GSEs a long time ago.<BR/><BR/>Mark Gerberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07980096984624964261noreply@blogger.com