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The issue from a pensions perspective is that the accounting rules for pension funding were relaxed to take 'expected growth' into consideration. Which, in a constant growth economy, was considered 'good and normal'. But when growth stopped and was replaced by recession, the theory collapsed and already undervalued pension funds went to critically undervalued and/or broke.
Empirically, pension fund valuation was handled and reacted the same as real estate valuation.
Or Tulips. Or Beanie Babies...
Strengthening the pension fund accounting rules and slowly adding a requirement for less risky investments would make our country a 'saver' country instead of a 'risk taking debtor' nation.
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Said mortgage lenders and banks will be called before Congress and many Congresspeople will state indignantly on C-SPAN how shocked that such bad, bad behavior was being perpetrated by these folks.
Behind the scenes, Congresspeople will be telling the lobbyists for the mortgage lenders and banks that everything is a-ok and will not change as long as they are in Washington and need their campaign contributions (secretly, of course).
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the_poochies wrote:
Said mortgage lenders and banks will be called before Congress and many Congresspeople will state indignantly on C-SPAN how shocked that such bad, bad behavior was being perpetrated by these folks.
Behind the scenes, Congresspeople will be telling the lobbyists for the mortgage lenders and banks that everything is a-ok and will not change as long as they are in Washington and need their campaign contributions (secretly, of course).
We've got a winnah!
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Unfortunately, I think poochies is right. That's why we need a new way of doing business (ironically, by going back to the 50s).
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Hmmmm I like the idea of Doc Brown setting things straight!
More jiggawatts!!!
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This is Groundhog Day. Two years and trillions of dollars later we are back to where we started. Obama had just one task. Solve country's housing crisis. If he had done that he would have guaranteed himself 8 years. WIth all the Yale-educated people around him, he still failed miserably. Utter incompetence on display. In any other business he would have been long gone.
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So what should he have done, Einstein?
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Dakota wrote:
In any other business he would have been long gone.
Oh that is not so true! The big guys who've gotten the bailout are still around and racking in. US Treasury is the bottomless pit and we are all in it.
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It was about MORE than just mortgages and homes. If you had anything beyond an eighth grade education you might be able grasp the concept.
