Would anyone explain the current financial crisis in plain E

I agree with a cnn analyst on this one. Why give $B's to bail out the people who's greed and mismanagement has caused the whole crisis in the first place. Let them all collapse.

I can't imagine DEregulation being a good thing. All things need checks and balances and accountability, and without regulations, there aren't any. You just get to do what you want until the market implodes, and what recourse do the people you screw have? There was a school of thought that postulated that the free market was a self-limiting system -- the consumers would act as the brakes on any excesses or bad policies simply by voting with their checkbooks. I think that school of thought was out to recess the last few years. I want regulations in health care, I want regulations in food handling, in my government and in the market. I consider that quality control.

I got lucky with my mortgage; I put absolutely nothing down on it. It was a cheap house and an FHA loan (first time home-buyer, so the gov't hands out easy terms), and the "down payment" amount just became a second mortgage. I've never missed a payment and my rates and interest are fixed for the full 30 years -- no balloon payments, no variable interest rates, no shady deals. And I bought it to live in, not to flip for a quick profit, so I don't have to worry about its current market value -- no plans to sell.

"I agree with you that the whole thing got started in 1999, when Clinton signed the Republican-backed bill deregulating the whole industry."

Jasper, if you don't mind me adding: Does anyone remember Phil Gramm? The man who brought us the "Enron Loophole?" Well, he slapped the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (which repealed a previous act that regulated the financial industry back in the New Deal -Depression days) onto an appropriations bill knowing it would pass a Republican controlled Congress. If Clinton vetoed it, Congress could just overrule with a 2/3 majority.

I just have to add how frustrating this whole situation is. FDR put controls into place to protect the American people, but sheer greed has caused us to toss those policies aside. Now look where it got us.

Was that before the prez had the line-item veto? I thought Clinton was the first beneficiary of that legal change, but maybe it happened in the middle of his term.

Simple. The banks never gave a toss about customers and only cared for lining the pockets of their shareholders. The banks got greedy. The banks banks messed up, and now they want customers and customers' taxes to bail them out. The shareholders are nowhere to be seen. End.

[Jasper, if you don't mind me adding: Does anyone remember Phil Gramm? The man who brought us the "Enron Loophole?" Well, he slapped the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (which repealed a previous act that regulated the financial industry back in the New Deal -Depression days) onto an appropriations bill knowing it would pass a Republican controlled Congress. If Clinton vetoed it, Congress could just overrule with a 2/3 majority.
I just have to add how frustrating this whole situation is. FDR put controls into place to protect the American people, but sheer greed has caused us to toss those policies aside. Now look where it got us.]

That's exactly right, Kimberly. While the Democrats aren't innocent (Barney Frank had a role in it also), 90% of this mess was started by Phil Gramm and the Republicans.

The mere mention of Phil Gramm's name makes me turn crimson with rage. Recently, he said,"The American people are a bunch of whiners." Can you imagine? Here we are at a precipice of a possible Depression, and he calls us "whiners"! If I could get my hands on him, I'd take him to the back of the barn and flay him with a horse-whip.

Folks, the only thing this discussion has to do with languages is that it's written in one. I'm going to have to lock this topic. Sorry!