Instead of referring to McCain's speech in Santa Ana this morning as a misdiagnosis, since it's obvious that he was simply reading the notes prepared for him by his advisers, I'll use a more critical term: misdirection. McCain, though he is an economics imbecile, wants the electorate to believe that "rampant speculation" and "complacent lenders" are solely responsible for the current housing 'crisis'. In other words it's the unregulated market that is to blame, and it's up to big government to demand accountability through increased regulation. We just can't regulate that darn economy enough, can we? It always stubbornly resists public action. The solution? More regulation. The American people have the memory of a goldfish which makes it rather convenient for opportunistic politcos to sweep the very cause under the rug. In the case of housing markets, and frankly all economic crises, the blame can be placed squarely on the shoulders of government. It was affirmative action policies that led mortgage lenders to make ill-fated loans, and government subsidies will again rescue them from the wrath of the market to make yet more bad decisions ad infinitum. Mortgage lenders would not be in the business for very long if they acted against the will of their borrowers; it is always the case that having to make economic decisions for non-economic reasons (government-enforced affirmative action) will lead to counterproductive allocation of capital. The Community Reinvestment Act is one such example; its revitalization in 1995 was accompanied by increased affirmative action mandates which included the extension of subprime mortgages.
"I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis," said McCain. Yet he does just that within the same speech, resolving to "not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren't," going on to distinguish homeowners as those who weren't irresponsible. That is precisely election-year politics: pinning the blame on those profit-hungry lenders and speculators and deflecting it from borrowers. The borrowers of course constitute a much larger voting bloc. So much for straight talk. And of course not so much as a wink at any government wrongdoing.
Do me a favor. Go to wikipedia and in the search tool type "Keating Five" to see how John McCain truly feels about transparency and accountability.
"I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis," said McCain. Yet he does just that within the same speech, resolving to "not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren't," going on to distinguish homeowners as those who weren't irresponsible. That is precisely election-year politics: pinning the blame on those profit-hungry lenders and speculators and deflecting it from borrowers. The borrowers of course constitute a much larger voting bloc. So much for straight talk. And of course not so much as a wink at any government wrongdoing.
Do me a favor. Go to wikipedia and in the search tool type "Keating Five" to see how John McCain truly feels about transparency and accountability.
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