I’m not surprised that homeowners and workers are blamed for the financial crisis; too quick to sign a mortgage, too overpaid and pensioned, but I am ashamed that leaders and pundits are not sufficiently named and taken to the woodshed.
Here’s an example of short-sightedness, when Bernanke went to work for Bush, that reveals profound foolishness populates the leadership culture of our nation.
As chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Bernanke was expected to act as a public spokesman on economic matters.
In August, 2005, after briefing President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, he met with the White House press corps. “Did the housing bubble come up at your meeting?” a reporter asked. “And how concerned are you about it?”
Bernanke affirmed that it had and said, “I think it is important to point out that house prices are being supported in very large part by very strong fundamentals… We have lots of jobs, employment, high incomes, very low mortgage rates, growing population, and shortages of land and housing in many areas. And those supply-and-demand factors are a big reason why house prices have risen as much as they have.”
How far from reality will we let this class of leaders stay? Remember that Wall Street is still ready to take Social Security and keep Health Care.
There is a slippery Republican Plank that has made us mere crops in an agriculture of numbers.