Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Fanny Mea and Fredy Mac pushed down the cost of housing (the where allowed to directly lend from the fed, that had low intresst rates) and set false insentives to build houses. That (among some other small things) was the big thing that led to the crash.

The deregulations allowed banks to be more agressiv, that is only bad if you give them a strong insentiv to be agressiv. Maybe it mad some of them more unstable but it would not have changed the fundamentals of the crash and it is in such a situation only more importent that YOU DONT BAILE THEM OUT.

Prof. Selgin is btw a well regard specialist on banking and money, he does not earn his money from the Cato Institute and they dont direct his research. Its nice that only attack where somebody is working not what they say.kj

Since all you did was paste the first counter argumetn you fund on wikipedia I highly doute that you even no any ecnomics, and only posted it because of your 'deregulation = bad' bias.

I was only mentioning the Free Banking School because of the comment "suitably sized and regulated" is not the only way of looking at things. Infact I think pretty much every economist agrees that the banking regulation pre 1933 where very bad and made the great depression worse. Passing rules to make banks smaller does not really help in itself.

If you have read the article by Stigliz that is refrenced after your comment on wikipedia, you will see that stigliz agrees that the bubble was caused by inflation ("Greenspan presided over not one but two financial bubbles. After the high-tech bubble popped, in 2000-2001, he helped inflate the housing bubble.") and he says:

"The most important consequence of the repeal of Glass-Steagall was indirect - it lay in the way repeal changed an entire culture. Commercial banks are not supposed to be high-risk ventures; they are supposed to manage other people's money very conservatively. It is with this understanding that the government agrees to pick up the tab should they fail."

What you will notice that he is pro bailing out bank! The banks that failed in the crash where not acctually banks that where "Commerical banks" but the government bailed them out anyways! Its funny that the free-market guys are the ones that are "pro-buissness" acctually its the other way arount people like him are the reason taxpayer are paying for failed banks.

Free Market guys dont go deregulate and then bailout, if a bank investment or not goes done thats what they deserve!



comments or just downvotes?


I don't tend to respond to ungrounded accusations of bias (and to pre-empt a claim, it does not follow that it's inappropriate to choose not to devote much time listening to members of the Cato Institute on the grounds they are members of the Cato Institute). Good day.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: