thank god this guy's out of the job in a year...

"...if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country. The more ownership there is in America, the more vitality there is in America, and the more people have a vital stake in the future of this country." - President George W. Bush, June 17, 2004

he continues to redefine the "lame" in lame duck.

Without even mentioning Alan Greenspan's pimping for creative financing and pooh-poohing how pricey fixed rate mortgages were versus his preferred adjustables just months before he started to raise rates from the unrealistic FFR of 1%, remember that the linchpin for the Rovean strategy of making everyone a homeowner, a cog in the "Ownership Society" and thus a likely Republican, depended on low mortgage rates.

As for financial literacy, anyone who thinks that tax cuts pay for themselves, as does Mr. B., is ipso facto illiterate (and a moron).

You're thinking this is the usual Bush pandering to the religious zealots among us, but that's the wrong "faith world".

He's talking about the world that has faith in his policies how ever ignorant and ill considered they might be.

He's talking about the world that continues to sell sub-prime mortgages on the faith that somehow the people will find the money to pay them back.

He's talking about the world, the real global economic world, that has enough faith in our economy to keep pumping in investment money on faith that our government and businesses will pay them back real money and not degraded low value dollars.

THAT faith world. If we can get THEM back all our troubles will be over.

If they get bamboozled. Seven years ago it seemed common sense that you couldn't rationalize investing in an internet stock for a company that sold nothing, produced nothing. And yet when the mortgage broker tells you you can buy a $700,000 home, for 20x your earnings, nothing down we're lead to believe it's someone's fault but the buyer for being duped. Didn't the ancient Romans have an expression......? Ah yes Caveat Emptor. That was it.

Enron, Sub-Prime Mortgages and other recent financial problems we have had all seem to have a common denominator:

Companies (and people) are no longer focused on making a profit from simply providing a good or service, instead the real money is to be made by packaging the products together as an investment and then selling pieces of the packages to others.

Along the way brokers and others pile on making commissions from the purchase and sale of all of these commodities. They have a profit motive to expand the market for the product, the consumer and the purchaser, all in chase of the dollar, while ignoring fundamental economic principals underlying the basic transactions.

This story will just keep repeating itself, only the victims will change.

Iamgine if Social Security was ever privatized.

... who are they gonna get to teach this course? I'd think the best teachers would be people who saw this mess coming, but there seems to be shortage of such people among our alleged leaders.

Not everyone in this mess was a complete idiot or a complete loser.

Mortgage brokers who got paid and didn't invest in sub-prime's future did ok. Real estate brokers cashed fat checks for a good long time. Buyers who bought and sold before the realestate market flattened out also did pretty well.

If we insist on action then I have a question: Why should all the joy of the winners stay private and only the pain be sociallized? That seems like a raw deal for those who stayed wisely on the sidelines.

We should find all the sellers and brokers and others who profited and force them to disgorge. That is how we can fund some of these ridiculous bailout schemes. Obviously we will find that most of that money got squandered, still we should at least demand that our gov't officials talk about bleeding the winners. Such talk could hardly be emptier than the talk about helping the losers.

Educating people is a mistake. If sharp operators aren't kept occupied preying on the really ignorant, then they will just invent schemes to trap informed people. Then we will all be in danger.

Those people, like Bush, who tsk-tsk "ignorant" home buyers for buying over their heads ignore the basic fact that selling mortgages and enticing home buyers is an ultra-sophisticated game in which the vulnerable are targeted and seduced in the expectation they would fail because THAT'S WHERE THE MONEY IS.

Every one made a buck on the homeowners who fell victim to the hard sell: the mortgage brokers. the Wall Street packagers of the Mortgage Backed Securities, the hedge fund jockeys who bet on defaults and especially the mortgage servicers who specialize in default mortgage servicing.

Against this array of sophisticated con men, to expect that the average home buyer would have a prayer is to underestimate the power of modern marketing and consumer targeting.

I am sick and tired of seven figure heroes on Wall Street and in the media bemoaning the irresponsibility of fleeced consumers. The Bush proposal is a placebo to create the appearance of a solution. The only answer to this problem of mass marketing failure may be the sound of cell doors clanging shut.

As to the investors, anyone who invest in a Cayman Island hedge fund gets what he deserves - to be plucked like a chicken.

The victims of this scam are the people who brought the snake oil, not the ones who sold it.

"We should find all the sellers and brokers and others who profited and force them to disgorge."

While we're at it, let's also get some money back from financial institution CEO's who pocketed fat bonuses for short-term profits made by foolish means that had awful longer-term consequences.

Blame everyone equally? Hogwash. You should blame the people that are, in fact, supposed to know better.

Hint: it isn't the consumers.

You forgot Bush himself who can't get the simple economics of taxes, spending, and budgets right. That's a biggie after all.