My Zen Arcade

(I apologize…I’ve been trying to avoid any more McCain posts, the feeling being that I’ve really said all there is to say. But the man keeps opening his mouth…)

I will be the very first to admit that the housing/credit crisis is complicated and probably doesn’t have any kind of simple solution, and is even less likely to have a solution everyone likes.
However…
1. I don’t think that lumping individual borrowers with massive banks is reasonable. I do understand that some people were stupid and irresponsible. And some people certainly should have known better. And some people were intentionally blind. But I am a smart guy and mortgages and such are complicated things that make my head spin. Further, some of these people were very much taken advantage of (there’s an investigation pending here in Baltimore).

2. While I don’t think that the US banking system is going to collapse tomorrow, when Bear-Sterns goes from $169 a share to $2 (I guess $10 now) a share in 12 months, the situation has gotten beyond simply a problem.

3. People losing their homes is EXACTLY what government should be helping to prevent. If not, then why have much government at all? Oh, right. Republicans don’t like having government do much. Unless its keeping you form having sex. And, of course, the rich aren’t losing their homes. Not their primary homes, at least.

Newsvine – McCain to Address Housing Crisis Options

“I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers,” McCain said. “Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy.”
…
McCain has acknowledged in the past that he knows less about economics than he does about national security and foreign policy…