Bush didnt ignore it …he was among the first to warn congress of fanny/freddy problems that would in turn create the ‘mortgage meltdown mess’…

So to blame bush for this instead of Franks, is foolish and is against the facts of Franks continued refusal to allow reforms back in 2004/2005 to go ahead whcih would have kept the meltdown from happening.

Unfortunately too many tend to believe what they want to believe no matter what the facts are.
And even vote in the very people who cased the current problems by blocking reform efforts.

This will be my last post as I cannot afford to waste any more time here.

By late 2006 subprime lenders were already starting to drop like flies. See http://ml-implode.com and check their time line. So, by the time Ritholtz figured out which way was up the crisis was already underway and it was far too late to start fixing lax lending standards. It is simply hypocritical of him to pontificate about what should have been done when he was equally clueless until it was too late. There were people who did warn about this crisis years ago and they are the ones who have earned the right to say I-told-you-so.

But check out this week’s Barrons where Ritholtz brags “I’ve been the biggest bear on housing on the Street for four years now”. Late 2006 is two years ago not four years ago. In 2005 Ritholtz was mocking the doomsayers. In 2008 Ritholtz wants us to believe that he *was* one of the doomsayers. B.R. is full of B.S. I’d take handgun safety advice from Plaxico Burress before I’d take economic advice from Barry Ritholtz.

Good Luck to You

I provided sufficient information for anyone to find the article in question in about thirty seconds using Google. I’m sorry if that was a hardship for you.

Are you honestly contending that we haven’t experienced a bubble because house prices have not fallen by the magic number of eighty percent? Countrywide, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, TARP, AIG, hundreds of billions in writedowns, an avalanche of layoffs and we still can’t call it the housing bubble? Look at the title of the blog entry that created this thread, “Bush WH Ignored Mortgage Meltdown Warnings”. What exactly is the difference between a bubble and a meltdown? If 2000-2002 was a bubble in collapse what would you call the situation today? I would call it a great deal worse that a bubble.

And that was my point. Ritholtz said that house prices *might* fall by up to 35% but didn’t think that was as serious a situation as the bursting of the Internet bubble. He didn’t forsee that a decline in home prices would trigger a massive crisis. He didn’t call for more regulation to rein in the financial cowboys who were running amuck in the mortgage market. In that regard he was no more prescient than the administration that he now so bitterly condemns. Instead he poked a little fun at the doomsayers who in retrospect understood the danger far better than he did. So please forgive me, but with that article Ritholtz forfeited his right to act holier-than-thou.

Fairness Doctrine SUPPRESSES FREE SPEECH! Air America has proven no one wants to listen to Rachel Maddow and others…

(sorry a about the many posts I am having some kind of filter problem)