10-05-2008, 06:55 AM
DUST-UP
How bad is our economy?<i>
Robert Kuttner says the failed bailout bill would have helped the wrong people. J.D. Foster says the U.S. faces a fiscal crisis far greater than Wall Street's current malaise.
September 29, 2008</i>
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew...,0,412930.story
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The federal government also deserves blame. Years ago, it created a program that fostered a culture of imprudent mortgage lending to individuals who posed a high likelihood of foreclosure. It created and nurtured financial behemoths in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have now become wards of the state. It maintained a regulatory system fit for an age of typewriters and slide rules. And regulators worldwide were caught flat-footed as the threats built up.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Paulson plan's sticker price of $700 billion is shocking, but in context, the consequences for the federal debt and deficit are relatively minor. The real fiscal crisis, which is just around the corner, is more than 100 times greater. That crisis involves the promises made through Medicare and Social Security. Compared with the excess costs in these central federal entitlement programs, the Paulson plan's size is just a warm-up. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
How bad is our economy?<i>
Robert Kuttner says the failed bailout bill would have helped the wrong people. J.D. Foster says the U.S. faces a fiscal crisis far greater than Wall Street's current malaise.
September 29, 2008</i>
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew...,0,412930.story
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The federal government also deserves blame. Years ago, it created a program that fostered a culture of imprudent mortgage lending to individuals who posed a high likelihood of foreclosure. It created and nurtured financial behemoths in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have now become wards of the state. It maintained a regulatory system fit for an age of typewriters and slide rules. And regulators worldwide were caught flat-footed as the threats built up.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Paulson plan's sticker price of $700 billion is shocking, but in context, the consequences for the federal debt and deficit are relatively minor. The real fiscal crisis, which is just around the corner, is more than 100 times greater. That crisis involves the promises made through Medicare and Social Security. Compared with the excess costs in these central federal entitlement programs, the Paulson plan's size is just a warm-up. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->