On Sat, 24 Apr 2010, socialismorbarbarism wrote:
> Well, sure, it's utter nonsense that Fannie and Freddie can be the
> *cause* of the collapse, and there's little doubt that they are the
> target for ideological reasons. But... they *were* part of the problem.
> They were wallowing with the rest of the pigs. Maybe they didn't get the
> nice deep squishy mud in the middle, but that was real dirt on their
> backs.
Sure. But (a) it didn't come from the government forcing them to lend to poor people (any more than they forced private banks) -- they were volunteering, and (b) the obvious cause of F&F problems was that they were half private, and the obvious solution is that they should be entirely nationalized. In that case this wouldn't have happened.
Michael