Some of you have asked what makes the financial crisis a "crisis" and why is it so important to react to it RIGHTNOW, and those really are very good questions. The crisis has been brewing for some time and will go on for some time longer, so picking any particular point as the time when all the old-white-guy bankers are dusted out and brought to enunciate on the seriousness of the situation is intriguing.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is the real reason for the crisis: Only few weeks are left for the market to benefit from the realm of the current president, George Bush, and there is still money in the government coffers (or at least unfilled IOU slips). So it's urgent to get in if you want to scavenge on this corpse of the United States of America.
That may be tinfoilery or it may just be the truth.
I've been listening to mainstream news organizations on the financial crisis today (while gouging out rot from a post on my porch; suggestions for fixing the post without replacing it most welcome), and the other side has my full admiration: They are all organized, with people sent to every single studio to tell us how this is not the time to feel envious of the golden parachutes or to worry about ethics because while we do that the SKYISFALLING!
Thank goddess for Paul Krugman, because without him our side would not get much of a hearing. Too bad we can't clone him.
P.S. For those who are being told that the crisis was the fault of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, read this.
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P.P.S. This is fun, too:
One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain's campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.
The disclosure undercuts a statement by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years.
*whistles nonchalantly*