About the current crisis. Been studying pretty hard...

While the mortgage crisis can be viewed as the root problem, that is a mask. Our Dem and Rep Party leaders don't want us to know the truth.

The root is simple: greed. The Clinton years saw credit loosened tremendously even going after studetns with no income. What started with credit cards and car loans, later drifted into the mortgage market. Banks became all about assets and size to boost the investor's share price and market power. The can be traced to the greedy expectations of investors. Banks would take debt from anyone to boost the asset side of the balance sheet and was another set-up for this fall. Our leaders wanted to help these companies grow even bigger.

enter the repeal of the law that was set up to protect us and developed in direct response to the Great Depression: The Glass-Steagall Act. Actually two acts and introduced by the Dems in majority power at the time....circa 1933...

While Clinton signed the repeal... it had BIPARTISAN support and was modified by a bipartisan committee conference. The provisions that prohibited any bank holding company from owning other financial companies was repealed in November 1999 after Clinton signed.

What is interesting is that the very thing that most blamed for the bank failings in the Depression is where we are today. The mortgage industry accelerated something that would eventually come home to roost anyway.

"Congressional Research Service Summary:

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, bankers and brokers were sometimes indistinguishable. Then, in the Great Depression after 1929, Congress examined the mixing of the “commercial” and “investment” banking industries that occurred in the 1920s. Hearings revealed conflicts of interest and fraud in some banking institutions’ securities activities. A formidable barrier to the mixing of these activities was then set up by the Glass Steagall Act."

Notice this: the probles started in the 20's and within one decade...Depression.

Now, the laws that protected the financial system were repealed minimally in 1980, but the major protections were repealed in 1999....and less than a decade later, here we are.

"Nov 4, 1999: After passing both the Senate and House the bill was moved to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions. The final bipartisan bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90-8-1 and in the House: 362-57-15. Without forcing a veto vote, this bipartisan, veto proof legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 12, 1999."

As you can see...PASSED BY BOTH PARTIES WHO ARE BOTH TO BLAME.

I understand that everyone wants to blame one party or the other. The mortgage system was created by Dems decades and decades ago, but both sides are responsible for turning their heads there. The repeal let many more players into the mortgage market. Both sides deregulated during the Clinton years. The last time anyone tried to do something was Bush and Barney Frank on two separate occasions....both sides of the aisle tried to address it. Everyone ignored them and neither pushed the issue. Clinton also tried to address the mortgage issues. Anyone who inisists that one side or the other is to blame is giving one group a pass they do not deserve. THEY ARE BOTH TO BLAME! IT IS ALL ABOUT GREED.

The people spoke this week and said they don't want the bailout. Jsut as both sides of the aisle set up this disaster, both sides of the aisle ignored us. Both candidates ignored us and now they sit there and try to tell us that tehy have our interests at heart. Bull. It is is supposed to be "we the People" and clearly whoever gets in is not worried about that. Both of these parties are a disgrace. There really is little difference betweeen the two. They put on their show for us on tv and during the elections, but the reality is they are all friends in the game together. They probably are all laughing at us this year. So long as they have us fighting for them both, they can survive. Those of you who want to use this as fodder for Obama - go right ahead...I don't think he is anything knew...my studies indicate he is more of the same. As a big city boy very aware of machine politics, I don't see anything new. They both scare me.

Fight now I don't think I even want to vote this year but if I do, I will probably will vote safe and go with experience not someone who changes like a chameleon.

I am thinking of returning to Independent status. We need something new. It is time for "We the People" to demand something more from these bullies. They all make me sick.