Reply #24: manufactured and intentional? [View All]

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i'm more than willing to believe that the extreme right is that evil, but i'm simply not going to give you that they're that smart.

the credit crunch was a result a quick downturn after an extented period of over-extending, which was facilitated by consistently low interest rates, low capital requirements, and more than a little of the euphoria that comes from financial bubbles. you can certainly argue that greenspan kept rates too low too long, but i can't accept that it was all a plot to sucker banks into lending too much so that they could later screw them into consolidating with larger banks.

it's too clever by much more than a half. if consolidation was the aim, they could have accomplished in a far more straightforward fashion.


now it certainly is true that the right wingers are great at taking full advantage of any catastrophe that comes along. shock doctrine and all. 9/11, katrina, etc., all used as excuses to funnel government money to preferred corporations headed by donors. and yes, the credit crunch is another such opportunity, and it galls that jpmorgan gets a bonanza for very little risk and bear shareholders get anything at all, and worst, taxpayers get almost no upside potential (it IS possible, but only if the bad debt performs remarkably well).

they're opportunists, not engineers.



btw, as part of the deal that upped the sale price to $10/share, jpmorgan agreed to accept the first $1 billion of losses, thus reducing the fed's exposure to a "mere" $29 billion.