I blame the deregulation of banking and commodity/derivatives and Clinton as well as both Dems and Repubs are to blame
I've never solely blamed Bush or the Repubs for this mess
I don't think Bush has much, if anything to do with it
I definitely think Greenspan is to blame for keeping rates so low and I'd like to blame him for lack of oversight though I'm not sure what authority he had to do anything regarding the swaps and unregulated derative market
I've said that many many times
Straw - I saw a show the other night about Madoff. Some lady said she thought things were a little off with him and she said she called the SEC three seperate times to make sure he was legitimate.
The lady said the SEC told her each time everything was fine and that he has been vetted etc.
Madoff himself said he was shocked that the SEC did not catch his scam, even after they went through the books.
Harry Markoplis said the same thing that we went to the SEC in 2000 about Madoff and they did nothing.
The issue is institutional incompetence, lax oversight, not enfrocing existing rules, and just piss poor people staffing these agencies not doing their job.
I blame Bush for Cox at the SEC. That was a disaster and he was a patsie.