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February 21, 2009

It’s Like Nuclear Physics, Brain Surgery, and Quantum Mechanics Combined

If there’s one thing we know about our current home mortgage and banking crisis, it is that it’s complex.

We know this because they keep telling us.

“The causes of this crisis are many and complex,” said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

"It is a very complex problem,” added chief White House adviser David Axelrod.

“These are phenomenally complex issues,” warned Rob Nichols, president of the Financial Services Forum, nearly a year ago.

Don’t believe it's complex? Take a look at this detailed summary we prepared, the result of weeks of painstaking research and study:

People borrowed too much money to purchase homes they couldn’t afford.

You can’t possibly be expected to understand that. Who could? In fact, some people have become so confused that they actually question trying to solve a problem caused by excessive levels of debt and too-high home prices by taking on additional debt and keeping home prices too high.

This complexity is causing problems in garnering public support. So to help you better understand the problem, and in so doing stop you from questioning it, we have prepared the following Q&A:

Q: Don’t we already have in place programs and institutions, such as the FDIC, existing bankruptcy laws, and other mechanisms to deal with banks that lent too much money and people who borrowed too much money?
A: Yes, but it’s far too complex for that.

Q: Really? Because it sure sounds like that instead of letting insolvent banks fail, firing the management,
protecting depositors, and letting the bankruptcy courts deal with the rest, you’re using the money from people who were cautious to reward those who weren’t.

A: You obviously didn't read the President’s plan.

Q:
Of course we read the plan.
A: Yeah, right.  It’s like, four pages long! And complex.

Q:
It just seems reasonable that if home prices fall, those who have been careful with their finances should have the opportunity to purchase houses rather than being forced to pay for those who weren’t so careful.
A: You don’t know what you’re talking about

Q:
We’re just wondering whether you are providing a disincentive to people to save and be prudent with their finances.
A: No, not at all, we’ll help “only those who have acted responsibly.”

Q: What does that even mean?

A: It’s very complex

Q: And how will you even be able to determine that?
A: It’s very very very complex.

We look forward to your future enthusiastic support.

J.

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February 21, 2009 at 11:59 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink

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Comments

Sure is funny how many news stories pretend all the bad mortgage debt was either a) forced on unwilling borrowers by greedy Wall St. types, and so regulation and intervention is the answer or b) not much of a factor here, instead of the right answer, c) forced on an unwilling mortgage industry by threat of government lawsuits and fines.

Yeah, funny, that's what it is. Funny.

Gotta laugh to keep from cryin', that's what I always say.

Good stuff, as always, J. :)

Posted by: Jeff Brokaw | Feb 23, 2009 11:05:34 AM

I tried to reply to this, but this system is too complex for me. I had to get my liberal friend who truly understands The Messiah's plan, but he started trying to explain to me how HTML works. I ended up pressing post. I hope this works.

Posted by: James | Feb 23, 2009 10:41:08 AM

Timothy Geithner is to the financial system as I am to plumbing.

I'm only going to make it worse.

Posted by: Planet Moron | Feb 22, 2009 2:50:40 PM

A friend of mine has picked up American's wanting to invest in Canadian companies to the point where they are now a large segment of his clientele. While the same things happening in the US are also in play here in Canada, it seems our politico's aren't as busy compounding the problem. While Mr Geithner might be overwhelmed with the data at hand, the American investor it seems is underwhelmed with him.

Posted by: poeg | Feb 22, 2009 1:54:37 PM

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