Who Caused The Financial Crisis?

John Armstrong:

Who caused the financial panic of the last few weeks? Republicans blame Fannie and Freddie. Bill O'Reilly nightly gets angry at the greedy Wall Street CEOs and corrupt congressmen. Democrats blame President Bush and the run-away free market. Republicans blame the Cintonites for creating massive entitlements and starting this mess. Democrats believe "trickle down" economics has finally failed and Republicans believe "pork spending" is the culprit. There is blame everywhere. And there is truth in some of all of it.

But no one seems willing to tell us the whole truth. We have met the enemy and it is "us." "They" did a lot of harm for sure. But it is "we" who borrowed and spent like crazy and then expected our homes to be worth three times their market value. It is "we" who got greedy and wanted more and more. We maxed out our cards and "deserved a vacation." We wanted to retire early, a concept we think we own, and someone then took it all away from us.

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