UnitedIssues U.S. Political Debates - Debate

"Thank you Democrats for destroying the economy?"

Original Opinion by ispep (39)

I think it is fair to say that the liberal, left winged, democratic view points have destroyed out economy. Our failed bailouts that were so needed didn't help the mess you created.

Thanks for creating the housing bubble, your party members like Barney Frank or Chris Dodd who pushed for loosing lending rules. Bill Clinton for the beginning of the hosing bubble.

We get Barack Obama in as president, and we lose out AAA rating and now we are in more of a deficit than ever before. Great policies democratic leaders.

Responses

"I've heard differently" by Bogie93 (6)

Hi ispep. First, I would like to agree with you on your point of how during Bill Clinton’s administration regulations were lifted on the financial system that not only made lending less strict but also lifted other restrictions.

However, I disagree with you on your point that Barney Frank and/or Chris Dodd were the key players in lifting the major of the regulation on the financial system.

In the two, critically acclaimed and highly regarded, documentaries I listed below the primary people responsible for lifting regulation were Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (1987-2006), Larry Summers, Secretary of Treasury (1999-2001), Henry Paulson, Secretary of Treasury (2006-2009), and a few others. But none have ties to either party.

Additionally it wasn’t just loose lending rules that lead to the collapse, but deregulation on a variety of financial issues such as, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which banned the regulation of derivatives. A derivative is extremely difficult to explain in just a few sentences but just basically think of it a riskier gamble in banking.

Henry Paulson was the chief lobbyist that convinced the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission to relax and allow major investment banks to drastically increase their borrowing of money in 2004, NOT Barney Frank or Chris Dodd.

Now you may be wondering why these supposedly really intelligent people who have been a part of BOTH Republicans’ and Democrats’ administrations would want to deregulate the financial industry, and the answer to that is simply greed and corruption.

Larry Summers made 20 million dollars as a consultant to a hedge fund that relied heavily on derivatives.

Henry Paulson was previously the CEO of Goldman Sachs, the investment banking institution, and lobbied in their interests before and after he became the Secretary of Treasury.

Frederic Mishkin, Governor of the Federal Reserve (2006-2008), authored a study that said regulation was not needed in the financial sector, he forgot to mention in that paper that he was paid 124,000 dollars by the financial sector to write it.

In conclusion the recession we find ourselves in today cannot be blamed on either party. Because they both had little to do with it. It was fundamentally a caused by corruption generated from Wall Street greed.

P.S. I very highly recommend that you watch the documentary “Inside Job” by Charles Ferguson. His documentary has interviews from very highly regarded people in the financial industry, and in my opinion is unbiased as a fair documentary can be. Sorry for making this so long but there’s quite a lot to explain and I actually left out a whole bunch of info.

Sincerely,
Mr.Bogard

Source(s):

“Inside the Meltdown” Frontline PBS

“Inside Job” by director Charles Ferguson, (the film won the 2011 Academy Award for “Best Documentary”)

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Inside_Job/70139555?trkid=2361637#height1680

"Great response, however I must agree with ispep..." by Vultren (126)

While you have greatly shown one of the best, most mature arguments this site has seen, I do give some credit to ispep as he does have a point with Frank and Dodd.

Chris Dodd was the Senate Banking Committee Chairman and Barney Frank was the House Finance Chief. While many were to blame for this mess, ultimately these two had a lot of power in their positions.

Source(s):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfmE4KW2rWQ

"Barney Frank Also Lies..." by Vultren (126)

One more thing to add, Frank is a flat out liar. Why would he want to be responsible for the greatest finical collapse in US History? He said in his own words in 2005 that his committee will do their best to push the purchasing of homes... getting people to purchase a home knowing they can't make a payment. Crazy.

Source(s):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UZ9l_AxKjA&feature=related

"Tiny truth" by Teddyroosevelt (45)

If you ask me I'd say both side are equally guilty because while they debate wallstreet gets rich and on what is Argument and most recessions started on was the housing bubble but let's talk about this bubbles in general there gave Ben hundreds through out history and the product changes but the story is the same so why does it keep happening the answer pure and simple greed every one wants in on a big thing that will make it rich so much so they begin to ignore the simpiliest law of capitalism which is get what you Pay for in Other words don't spend more money then what is worth. they continue to buy into something even when there's nothing solid behind them ( a fault of
The regulatory commission ) but nobody cares what there investing in as long as they get rich they don't care the sad thing we wind up bailing out the very institutions that bought into it

"Neither Obama or Democrats are fully at fault." by zes808 (12)

How were the bailouts a fail? Without them millions of Americans working in the auto industry would have lost their jobs. Some of America's largest companies would have gone bankrupt. As soon as the bailouts were released the auto industry started reporting profits.

Also Obama did not make the economy worse, he was just given a bad economy by Bush. Bush added 6.1 trillion dollars to our deficit, while Obama only added 2.4 trillion. Obama increased spending and because of that the American economy is increasing 3% a year. European countries cut spending and the EU's economy is declining 0.8% a year. Obama also decreased the unemployment rate and added millions of jobs in the private sector.

But putting my political views aside I think we should stop blaming our president and start blaming who really is at fault. The members of congress who are unwilling to compromise and just vote down anything their party leader tells them to. Because of them nothing happens and our economy is coming out of this recession very very slowly.