Posted by
Always To The Right on Monday, October 20, 2008 2:18:41 PM
The editorial board of the Washington Post
corrects the record today at the expense of Democrats in Congress
desperately spinning the financial crisis as a failure of
deregulation. Practically alone among the national media, the Post
firmly affixes blame to the social engineering of Congress that allowed
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to create a Ponzi scheme with subprime loans
for political gain
It should be the end of social engineering by Congress by distorting
private lending markets. That won’t happen until people hold the
architects of this failure to account. That starts with honest and
high-profile reporting of the causes of the collapse, and the Post
takes an important step with its lead editorial today.
Next, perhaps the Post can report on the distortions Democratic
politicians are making in hiding this truth from the voters. Perhaps
they can publicly scold Barack Obama for blaming the collapse of Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac on “deregulation” and the policies of an
administration that tried on numerous occasions to get Congress to act
responsibly in regulating business practices at the GSEs. Maybe other
newspapers can finally mention how Barney Frank and Chris Dodd kept
insisting that all was well at Fannie and Freddie, the latter while
taking sweetheart loans from a Fannie Mae-linked lender and taking over
$160,000 in Fannie/Freddie contributions — while chairing the committee
that oversaw the industry.
At least this is a start.