The Blame Show

Last week I saw Mr. Greenspan presentation before Congress. He admitted that his views were not correct regarding the housing market, and the financial models he followed had a big mistake: not enough historical information to come to the right conclusion. During the last weeks, Congress has been very busy putting a show for America. Who can we blame today for this mess? They are questioning everybody in Wall Street to show the World that they are worry about this problem, and that they are taking the necessary steps to protect the American Taxpayer from “all these corrupt people in Wall Street”. I am sorry, but these are just plain excuses. What about their responsibility? What about their participation in 1999 in the decision that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac should not be as rigorous in lending money to potential homebuyers? When is the American people going to call Congress and ask them why they allowed those irresponsible measures that helped in a big way to create all this mess that now everybody, except for them is paying for? I am sorry, but it is just too easy to blame everybody for a problem while at the same time hiding behind a big desk and title in order not to be accountable for their participation in the problem.

I am not saying that some of the people or companies that are being questioned are innocent. I am just saying we should be very clear why this happened and put everything in the right spectrum in order to avoid happening again. It is very important to understand the political and financial mistakes made by the United States Congress specially now that the US Government is putting money in our biggest financial institutions. The financial system in the United States has a serious danger of becoming a toy tool for politicians in the future. If taxpayers money is in the balance sheets of big financial institutions it will only be a matter of time until some irresponsible member of Congress proposes a law to require those financial institutions to lend money more freely to homeowners, small business and everybody else. They can do that because when things explode it is never their fault; they are only responsible for putting a big show, the “Blame Game Show” for everybody to see.

Until next time,

JCM