Monday, September 14, 2009

A year ago today the world imploded

By Rick Morris

This crappy decade got the only bookend that it seemingly could have one year ago today. With 9/11 having defined "the oughts" at the outset, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing completion of the global financial crisis that was in progress came seven years and three days to that horrible moment in September.

Who caused the crisis? You name it ... greedy aholes in the mortgage business pushing "Ninja loans" on unsuspecting marks, the marks themselves, financial "wizards" who invented off-the-books forms of derivatives that lit a time bomb, politicians who had no clue about what was going on ... the list is endless.

To this day, we believe that our financial crisis FAQ provides the best, most easily understood guide to how we came to be in this mess.

We continue to believe that the TARP bailout was a necessary evil given the abyss that faced us all last fall. But that is a position that we never should have been in in the first place. Our politicians and financial regulators should take this occasion to vow that, no matter what, we will never again be in a position where the government will have to step in and assume so many unconstitutional duties. That way lies fascism.

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