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Excellent NYT editorial: "Reagan did it"

by John Henderson
11 replies
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Just stumbled upon this fairly brief editorial in the New York Times which made a very useful contribution to my understanding of the current financial mess: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/op...01krugman.html

Thought others might like to check it out...
  • Profile picture of the author KimW
    Good article,and so very true.
    One of the things America needs to do to get back on track is to tighten up the reigns on the financial institutions again.
    The government allows usury now.They protect the institutions that basically rape the average citizen.
    Obama's credit reform bill is nice talk, but it really has no bite.
    I'd love to see a group of politicians actually band together and try to bring this country back to where it should be valuewise.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Motley
    Actually, i think if you do a little more backtracking, it was really Carter that undid the legislature that kept the banks in check by not letting them be anything other than banks. But it wasn't until Regans admin that anyone actually took advantage of the opening.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimPhelan
    Yeh, that tells it like it is. Krugman is a smart dude. The old "Goverment isn't the solution, it's the problem" sounds good, but hurt us in the long run.

    Originally Posted by John Henderson View Post

    Just stumbled upon this fairly brief editorial in the New York Times which made a very useful contribution to my understanding of the current financial mess: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/op...01krugman.html

    Thought others might like to check it out...
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    • Profile picture of the author TSDMike
      That is a very pointed piece and very disturbing as well. Thanks for sharing.
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      • Profile picture of the author John Henderson
        Originally Posted by TimPhelan View Post

        The old "Goverment isn't the solution, it's the problem" sounds good, but hurt us in the long run.
        I agree Tim. It's a pity that our politicians couldn't repeat that "Government isn't the solution" mantra when those de-regulated banks came to ask for a bail-out. :rolleyes:

        Originally Posted by TSDMike View Post

        That is a very pointed piece and very disturbing as well. Thanks for sharing.
        You're welcome Mike. Glad you liked it.
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        • Profile picture of the author pcalvert
          Interesting editorial. He doesn't quite succeed in convincing me, though. Maybe he'll write a book about this...

          I read that the banking industry made a lot of bad loans because they were basically forced to. Supposedly, some knuckleheads in the gov't said "What, you're not loaning people money to buy a house because they're a bad risk? That's discrimination!" (not an exact quote, of course). If that's true, I'd say that sounds a lot more like government meddling than a lack of regulation. Also, I suspect that their real motivation was probably greed rather than altruism.

          BTW, don't jump on me for not posting links to any references. You can be sure that I will post them as soon as I have time to look them up.

          Phil

          P.S. You do realize that this is awfully close to being a forbidden topic, right?
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  • Profile picture of the author webpromotions
    So its Reagan's fault that people can't live within their means...and can't keep from taking out loans or using credit they can't afford and pay back?

    Yah, that makes sense, especially when posted on a marketing forum.

    How many people here have sold 'make money online' programs to people that couldn't afford it or didn't make a profit? Most probably can't answer that because they don't care. Its all about making the sale, right?

    The banks made the sale...thats all they did. How in the world can you blame THEM for the deadbeats that actually bought the products?

    So now its the governments job to tell you what you can and can't afford?

    Unreal. Can't beleive people could actually sit here and blame the financial institutions for this. Mind boggling.
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    I still blame it on the institution of the FED in 1917. We've been bank owned since then.
    Thanks Teddy. Anything that we do isn't going to make a difference until we abolish the Central Bank's control of our economy. Reagan didn't help but he wasn't the first cog in the wheel of the runaway wagon.

    People idiotic enough to buy homes on baloon mortgages during a 15 year run of stagflation are a result, not a cause.
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    • Profile picture of the author Wakunahum
      Reagan did it... AND other presidents, various congresses' choices and policies, business decisions, an unchecked FED, and people personally not saving their money and spending it wildly while driving themselves in debt.

      I've never understood pinning all economic good or bad on the president.
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Motley
      Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

      I still blame it on the institution of the FED in 1917. We've been bank owned since then.
      Thanks Teddy. Anything that we do isn't going to make a difference until we abolish the Central Bank's control of our economy. Reagan didn't help but he wasn't the first cog in the wheel of the runaway wagon.

      People idiotic enough to buy homes on baloon mortgages during a 15 year run of stagflation are a result, not a cause.
      no..its part of the cause. The other part of the cause are banks that rush to lend them

      Doug is partly right i think. Part of it is the borrower. You know damn good and well if you make 30k a year, you cant afford a 300k house, but by the same token, the bank knows this too.

      People shouldnt have been borrowing that kind of money, but banks shouldn't have been giving that kind of money to people that dont have the means to pay it back. I think a LOT of people got caught up in the 'flipping houses' craze and many were caught with their pants down when the market bottomed out. And also a lot of people got into houses with no money down, and usually thats not a bad thing, but there's a reason they ask for a certain percentage down, its not just because they want money.

      I watch the local county auctions around here and you can see there is one LLC that owns a LOT of property. They are up in jupiter beach. Probably a good 90% of the properties up for auction on any given month are from that company. You can tell they went on a buying spree when money was being lended freely and then were caught with a whole bunch of stock when the market started going into a freefall
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    It's still FED ownership that is the trip wire, Micheal. Without that funny money system there would be no means for such flagrant lending, which benefits NOBODY in the long run. I agree that our population has gotten greedy beyond all sensibility, but with solid money, there would not be a way for institutions to set up systems of usury the way they have - debt is a different animal when money is gold backed. This is totally a FED initiated system of money at all levels - Gov didn't help, Consumers didn't help - but the FED is what made the whole situation possible from the Get -- and Roosevelt and everyone involved in the initiation of the FED KNEW the ponzi effect that it would have.
    If we DO NOT get rid of that system, we can't fix our economic condition - we can't erase a debt that is created by a system that works only to create more debt - there is NO money BEYOND debt without metal backed funds. It's all just balloon juice.
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