Jump You F**kers !!!: Who or what is most culpable for the economic mess......

[marmar]

I lay it all at Friedman's feet.

[njlib]

1. Other

Or should I say "All of the above".

[Kip Humphrey]

2. OTHER: all of the above.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Other--

The entire robber-baron capitalistic system.

This is just a result of the path we've been on for a long time.

[Jamastiene]

4. A combination of All Of The Above and

the fact that we've allowed a little name calling ("Class Warfare! Class Warfare!") to beat us down and stop us from standing up for ourselves.

[Justpat]

5. All of the above. n/t

[4dsc]

6. You didn't mention Dodd or Frank

Right now, conservatives are blaming Dodd and Frank for this mess the subprime mess that got us where we are today.. But smart people know who's to really blame for all this..

[patrice]

7. Media Corporations! INFORMED People are FREE People. We the People could have handled ALL of the

rest of the above if we had not been BETRAYED by the people we allow into our very homes, round the clock in some cases, every day of the week.

Corporate media thinks we are dumb-shits, ergo, they treat us like dumb-shits and, guess what, we

ARE

dumb-shit

SLAVES

[FreakinDJ]

8. it was Ronald Reagan's Baby

yes yes - I know. Only AFTER his death they admitted he was suffering the onset of Alzheimer's when he entered office, but he was in charge (or at least assumed the acting roll of being in charge) when all this "Trickle Down / Con Job started

[iamjoy]

9. Every Administration For the Past 25 Years

Almost every one who has been President or exerted influence on fiscal policy over the past twenty-five or so years deserves blame. That includes Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, both Bushes and the economic advisers to these four presidents. It includes Alan Greenspan.

It includes the greedy CEOs who bought influence in Washington and the Congressional leaders too stupid or weak to stand up for what was right.

They all share blame.

And yes, some American consumers drank the Kool-Aid by running up too much credit card debt on things they didn't need and/or buying big houses they couldn't afford. In the interest of living better and getting things for less, we have been voting with our dollars - rewarding outsourcing and exploitative labor and environmental policies. We've rewarded, and keep rewarding, the same practices we condemn because we feel we have no alternatives. Some of us realize the game is rigged, but feel we have no choice other than to keep playing.

[notesdev]

10. This can be one very long list

Where to begin? Borrowers, buyers, sellers, brokers, loan originators, banks, brokers, the Fed, the media, elected officials of both parties, credit rating agencies, Fannie and Freddie, investors... pretty much everyone involved in the sordid business, each acting in his own independent personal short-term interest, conspiring to create an environment where everyone involved would happily lie to each other, as long as the money was flowing.

And that's just housing. Then there are student and auto loans and credit cards, each of which can claim its own failed institutions.

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. You can leave out "the borrowers" you actually began your list with, if you are referring to

the so-called, "subprime" borrowers. You've got some nerve. Looking at your avatar I'm reminded of the old salemen's adage: "Never trust a man who smokes a pipe, looks you straight in the eyes and shakes you firmly by the hand."

They were the spiritually superior, but unworldly and financially challenged, general public, who were gulled into thinking money was growing on trees.

It happened in the UK under Thatcher - though you wouldn't think so, with the Daily Mail intoning, as ever, mendaciously, that Thatcher taught that one should never live beyond ones means! So, then the banks refused unsecured overdrafts, pointing customers, instead, in the direction of the even more usurious credit-card companies, which for decades then bombarded the public with invitations to take out credit-cards with them. Sometimes even when they'd already turned you down. But then for them, money really did grow on trees, since the public was always going to pick up the tab for the bursting of the massive "bubble", when it came to pass. So what's a few thousand misaddressed mail-shots, nation-wide.

[acmavm]

11. They all had a very special part in what's happended to our country.

They fed off each other.

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. My first thought was that it had to be Friedman. However, to transform

the rabid excogitations of such a farcically simple dimwit as Friedman into even remotely acceptable pabulum for the public (never mind the wholeseale distortion of Adam Smith's insights) requires, not just a corrupt, hegemonic media, but the political power of a prime mover or near prime mover: a politician or politicians.

So, I thought, well, that means Gramm bears the primary, fundamental responsibility, and in a practical sense, he does. But still, the fact remains that even politicians such as Gramm were the monkeys, and billionaire arch-malefactors in the shadows, would have been the organ-grinders.

[AndyA]

14. All of the above.

They all worked in concert to create this mess. It would not have been possible were it not for the acts of individuals, but they all must take blame for the current mess.

[Joe Chi Minh]

15. Here is an interesting article on the subject:

http://www.wealthdaily.com/report/the-architects-of-destruction/391

[varelse]

16. Other: Greed + Ignorance = disaster

on all scales.

[JitterbugPerfume]

17. It startes with Friedman

so he is responsible

[leftofthedial]

18. Pretty much all of the above

but this kind of end is an inevitable consequence of capitalism.

Even if the current crop of thieves manages to patch up the balloon and pump it full once again with imaginary "wealth" for the elite class, it will just delay (and worsen) the inevitable collapse. Capitalism is unsustainable now that cheap resources are no longer.