The more the government gets involved in anything the more convoluted everything becomes because they need to be "fair" to everyone. That means they have extraordinarily complex rules to take care of the one in a million cases. When someone finds a loophole, they make an amendment and crack down on "fraud" which only creates much more work for those that are just trying to do business. Anyone ever try to fill out paperwork to bill medicare for services rendered to a patient??? How many times are services written off because the correct paperwork cannot be done on time to receive payment??? Service was provided, but the paperwork is missing a dotted "i" no payment will be issued.

Any time the government steps in to "fix" an industry that is "out of control" they just muck it all up. Really the cry of "deregulation caused the problem" is the result of convoluted and conflicting rules that not even congress really understands. So when they pass a new rule to the market, they end up with unintended or unforeseen consequences. The housing market is a great example of how congress can really screw things up. But every liberal I have talked to so far, completely ignores all I say and cry "deregulation."

The problems with the housing market started back in the mid 90s. Yes there was a bubble, but congress' actions exasperated the problem. They cried it was unfair that the poor people couldn't live the American dream because the banks were discriminating against them. (pulled out the race card at that time) Banks relaxed their lending policies to qualify those people but put them in a higher risk as they should. (ie: higher interest rates) Congress cried a few years later that the banks were engaged in predatory lending. Against who? The same people they demanded should be able to own a home. Why? Because they had to pay higher interest rates. Not surprisingly, the foreclosure rates went up. Congress decided it was the banks fault and they were doing something wrong. So they decided to regulate the lending policies for these same people. The banks responded by raising credit card interest rates and fees. Congress called foul again. Foreclosures increased. Congress decided the foreclosures were the banks fault again because they were allowing loans that took too much of a persons take home pay. So, they put a cap on it. Now the crash was ensured. If you place a cap on a market that is below the current prices going, there is only one way the market can respond. Prices must drop. And they will drop precipitously and much farther than the cap limit. What do people do when they see a stock crashing? do they run out and buy or hold out until they think it has reached bottom? That is what happened in the housing industry.

Now I will hear all kinds of reasons why this wasn't congress' fault but actually the banks because congress deregulated them... They will say it was the banks fault because of questionable investment policies they had. Sorry, but the banks investment policies has nothing to do with the housing market. The banks failures was a result of BOTH the housing market crash and their investment policies. (note: two different markets. Related but distinct)

The government SHOULD NOT have bailed out any banks. The banks that acted irresponsibly would end up much weakened or out of business. That is the correcting cycle of free market enterprise. If you gamble big and loose, you loose big. Now the government has essentially told the banks they can do whatever they like. If they take stupid risks, don't worry, we will bail you out again. You are too important to let the normal corrective business market play out. When the government says that, then they need to regulate the business because the usual risk is gone.

By the way - if congress would have taken that Trillion Dollar effed up deal and given it to all citizens, the banks would have been doing very well. People would have paid off debts. That is what happened with the last couple stimulus packages. Paying off the home loan instead of letting it go to foreclosure... Hmmm, that may have prevented this whole economic collapse in the first place. But, the government decided to spend the money on infrastructure, which they screwed up anyway, and the economy crashed, a lot of people lost their homes and jobs and their credit rating tanked and banks and businesses were failing. Now, we have a depressed economy with a lot of people struggling to recover from the hammer blow and on top of it. We get to pay off this Trillion dollar debt! yeah!!! The government did a Great Job here!

Question: Has anyone's life personally improved because of the Trillion dollar stimulus package??? It was supposed to stimulate the economy right???

No it hasn't, I'm broke as hell and if you don't believe me I'll bend over and show you where I'm cracked!

I wouldn't do that on here, some people might take that as an invitation..................

True