US Financial Crisis Sparks Harsh Criticism of Regulatory Efforts

Corporate Law

US Financial Crisis Sparks Harsh Criticism of Regulatory Efforts

Posted Sep 25, 2008, 04:00 pm CST
By Martha Neil

As officials in the Bush administration put on a full-court press this week to persuade Congress to enact emergency financial rescue legislation at a price tag that reportedly exceeds the cost of the Iraq war, the situation has sparked a firestorm of criticism concerning regulatory efforts, past and present.

A sampling of the coverage:

American Lawyer (reg. req.): "Bailout Boneheads: Congress Doing More Harm Than Good, Says NY Securities Practice Boss"

CNN (commentary): "Bailouts will lead to rough economic ride"

Garrison Keillor: "Casanova's campaign for chastity"

Los Angeles Times: "Keating 5 ring a bell?"

London Times (editorial): "Save the world? Hank just didn't have a clue"

Miami Herald: "Latin leaders criticize U.S. bailout"

Meanwhile, satirists are putting a humorous spin on the situation:

Economists' Voice (reg. req.): "Dr. StrangeLoan: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Financial Collapse"

Oregonian: "For a bailout, press 'One' "

Raw Story: "Viral e-mail forward mocks Wall Street bailout"

Updated at 5:30 p.m., central time, to include link to Miami Herald article.

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Posted by CJT - 2 months, 5 days, 19 hours, 8 minutes ago

Our congressional democrats are out of their minds. Now they want to spend an additional $25-35 million on Detroit? Also this talk about “keeping people in their homes” is foolish. While the bailout will likely allow more people to stay in their homes who are in trouble because their house values are lower than their mortgages, it will not (nor should it) help those who stupidly or otherwise bought more “home” than they could afford. No amount of time is going to change that. The government will hopefully get these mortgage backed securites at a fair rate and hold them until the housing market recovers (and it will). Then when housing values rise people can refinance and everything’s ok. However, if your problem is that you make $40,000 and bought a $300,000 home sorry you should never have had that house in the first place.

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