Friday, August 26, 2005

A brief question

Bill Maher will deliver a funny "new rules" segment tonight; this morning, the L.A. Times published his closing riff on the housing bubble. And I got to thinking...

When the bubble bursts, how will the right manage to blame Clinton? Maybe I should offer a prize to the person who proposes the most creative scapegoating rationale.

(By the way, I'm sorry for the spotty posting this week. Things should be back to normal soon.)

8 comments:

lawnorder said...

Blaming Clinton for the housing bubble:

- Greenspan was a "Clinton man" and conspired to make Bush's economy look bad
- As Whitewater proves, the Clintons love to get money via shady real state deals.
- They are using the housing bubble money to fund Hillary's bid in 2008
- Sandi Berger hid the proof Clinton caused the bubble in his socks
- All of the above

Anonymous said...

What you've lacked in quantity, you've more than made-up for in quality.

Anonymous said...

Poster lawnorder already covered almost all the things I had thought of--and I am positive that slagging on Greenspan as a "Clinton-era 'operative'" will be the first criticism the right throws out.

Here's one they might also try--a frequent Clinton insult I hear the righties in my area spewing is the idea that Reagan's "trickle down" idea worked, but we didn't see the economic benefit until the Clinton years. Clinton got credit for Ronnie's brilliant economic revitalization! Not fair! When the housing bubble bursts, I predict rightists will claim that if Clinton had only known how to manage the boon seen during his terms more effectively, the burst wouldn't have been so catastrophic.

Anonymous said...

Didn't you know that Clinton's penchant for blow-jobs has put intolerable strain on the carpets of America?

Righteous Christian home buyers, noting this general degradation in American floor covering, and the occasional semen stain, recoil in horror and run from their real estate agents.

So insidious is the Clinton influence that even virtuous households can't keep their carpets pure.

Better sell the ranch now, George....

progprog said...

The housing bubble was in direct response to the collapse of the dot-com bubble, which was Clinton's bubble, so it's all his fault. Why?

Had so much technological innovation not resulted in so much financial speculation, there clearly would not have been such a push to shove all of the Nation's money into their homes. But after Clinton destroyed the Stock Market, people had to put their money somewhere. Homes are a stable, long-term investment that almost always reward the patient investor. So, clearly, Clinton caused the housing bubble by causing the rise and collapse of the dot-com bubble. He was personally responsible.

Unlike President Bush, who is not personally responsible for anything that has ever gone awry anywhere on this planet. He has never made a mistake, and even if he has, he can't recall the specifics.

No, the housing bubble had nothing whatsoever to do with a nation living off of refinanced mortgages fed by bad-debt-accepting lenders bent on refinancing everyone in the country, a mountain of crooked appraisers teamed with acres of fresh-faced mortgage brokers, artificially lowered interest rates, and the need to convert unsecured debt(credit cards, where they can't take your stuff) into secured debt(mortages, where they can take your house). After all, the only reasonable interest rates out there are on home loans.

"Hell, while we're refinancing, why not take out an extra 20k, or just get an interest-only loan, so we can live high on the hog for the 5 years we expect to live in this house". Why would you suspect something might go bad with that plan?

And of course it had nothing to do with a jobless "recovery", one held back by mindless monetary, fiscal, and tax policies intended to do nothing to stimulate the economy except retry theories Reagan and Bush Jr proved moronic a decade prior while stuffing endless amounts of cash back into the vaults of the wealthy, who don't spend shit, instead of the poor, who spend every dime.

And, the coup de grace of Clinton's menace, was, of course, that the credit card companies, who don't like those mortgage lenders to be the only ones that can take your house, so they got congress to pass bankruptcy reform, so they can just take your paycheck for the rest of your life. This happened 4+ Years after Clinton left office, so this too is, of course, his fault.

progprog

Joy-PE said...

I enjoyed reading your blog. In fact, I've bookmarked yours!
Visit my credit card debt loan site.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the info on credit repair scams! You can visit my Credit Repair site for a free credit report!

Anonymous said...

So many blogs and only 10 numbers to rate them. I'll have to give you a 9 because you have a quailty topic.

Free Access To More Information Abouttravel vancouver