Thoughts

To some degree it is right, some on Wall Street acted irresponsibly. But they did not act alone. I find it condescending to presume that when a banker over-leverages himself he is being greedy and reckless, but when the average person buys a house they can not afford, they were misled and are the victim. Should we assign all the blame to whoever offered these hapless individuals credit? In that case we should really blame all the foreign countries that poured money into the US, causing the global savings glut. This empowered America to spend its way out of the last recession. It made credit easy and available and the last recession quick and relatively painless. When they wanted to invest in American assets should we have said thanks, but no thanks?

We seem to have developed an expectation that the world offers all upside and no downside. Credit should come easily even when we are not entitled to it. Perhaps taxpayers are paying a disproportionate price for this. But they are not merely saving the reckless fat cats; they're saving themselves. That $700 billion may be a bargain compared to the cost of inaction. A deep and prolonged recession would hurt much more.

Unfortunately, every one broke it and we all still own it

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