One of my political theories is that people are more likely to vote for you when you improve their material conditions and that this can supplant other deeply-held cultural/ideological beliefs that would make them otherwise likely to vote against you. I’m basing that on nothing other than limited experience and anecdata, but I’m hopeful that the Biden administration continues to put forward legislation that focuses on the poor and middle class because I think that’s what’s going to save the Democrats in 2022.
But what about the 1% , how will they survive? :P
CraigM
1601
With heads attached to shoulders. A historical lesson that the older class of oligarch reluctantly learned.
Because one thing these modern oligarchs need to remember, there is a point at which all the money does not guarantee security. And it is in everyone’s best interests not to reach that point.
New Democratic administration quickly passes sweeping legislation to ease the pain of ordinary Americans after the previous GOP administration bolloxed things.
I feel like I’ve seen this story before. If memory serves, it’s smooth sailing for the Dems after that, right?
Timex
1604
Did Bush’s administration screw up the handling of the financial crisis in 2008? I don’t recall that happening.
Obama handled it well, but it wasn’t anything like Trump’s total incompetency in handling Covid. Some of the stuff that Obama ended up implementing got their start prior to his administration.
ShivaX
1605
It happened so, sort of?
I think this should be easily agreed upon.
Timex
1606
Eh, I’m real skeptical of an argument that tries to pin the blame for the 2008 financial crisis on Bush. I mean, I’d entertain reading such a thing, but I kind of feel like that problem was large and systemic to the degree that there’s no way Bush caused it.
ShivaX
1607
Presidents always get credit or blame for shit that happens on their watch.
And one could easily argue that Republican deregulation bonanzas are why it happened.
With their necks.
The goal of the rich these days is to find a way they can steal all they want, and not have to worry about their necks. I worry they’re getting close to that point.
Timex
1609
Possibly, but this wasn’t Bush’s administration.
And honestly, no, it wasn’t really any singular thing in government that “caused” the financial crisis. The financial system itself did it, to itself. Some of the deregulation helped enable it, but the financial markets were pretty good at working around regulation. You had a ton of super rich, greedy guys who were gambling.
Hell, it was a cultural phenomenon… half of reality TV at that point was based on assholes buying houses and selling them for inexplicable profit. In retrospect, that should have tipped everyone off.
Thrag
1610
The Bush administration took direct action to prevent states from reigning in predatory lending. Bush used the OCC to literally block state AGs’ efforts to curb predatory lending. The admin killed GSE reform when Bush’s treasury department backed away from it. The Bush administration’s regulators were at best sleeping at the wheel if not encouraging the bonanza. So yes, you can easily pin quite a bit of blame for the mess on the Bush admin.
I thought GOP deregulation in prior years contributed to the '08 crisis.
However, it was just a quip, so I’m not planning to die on a hill over it.
Timex
1612
While that may be true, i do not believe that the predatory lending you are talking about had anything to do with the financial crisis.
A lot of that predatory lending was more focused on things like payday loans and crap, which are essentially loan sharks who charge insanely high interest rates.
The financial crisis was ultimately caused by bundling subprime mortgages, and then insuring them against losses, with one company trading on far more exposure than they had capital to cover.
I mean Glass Steagall saw its vital elements repealed during Clinton’s time in office, and while the initial, worst variant of the repeal law was basically forced through the Senate along party lines by a republican majority, the House version got substantial Democratic support, and the final aligned law passed both houses with huge margins. Perhaps more than any other single thing, this lead to the subprime mortgage crisis.
In the end, both sides do love to let bankers fuck over the little guy. The Democrats just think he should get healthcare after he’s homeless ;-)
Thrag
1614
Um, what? Subprime mortgages didn’t fuel the subprime mortgage crisis? People weren’t intentionally steered to subprime mortgages because of perverse incentives on the mortgage broker side?
I mean payday loans are a thing and their own problem but not at all what I was talking about.
Let me make the statement more clear
The Bush administration took direct action to prevent states from reigning in predatory lending. Bush used the OCC to literally block state AGs’ efforts to curb predatory lending in the subprime mortgage market.
Timex
1615
Yes, the repeal of glass steagall is probably the biggest single law change that contributed to the crisis, although even that wasn’t the only cause. It just made it worse when it happened.
Honestly, the biggest single thing was the fact that AIG was allowed to insure assets that were like a million times their capital in value… And the structure of those insured assets was such that the claims were basically all set to come sure at the same time.
It was like they had insured car drivers, and all the cars they insured were auntie linked so that is one crashed, they all exploded. And also they had no money to pay the claims.
But if you ignore that aspect of the financial markets, all the OTHER decisions being made actually appear reasonably rational… Because everyone thought they had their bases covered. It just turns out that the banks got screwed by the insurance companies refusing to pay, like so many Americans get screwed routinely.
But honestly, someone should have said, “hey… How is AIG going to pay us? Do they have…uh… Infinite money? No? Isn’t that a problem?” But saying that would have meant not riding the gravy train, and greed makes people dumb.
This is what political capital looks like:
