It also implies that GWBush was not as stupid as he appeared to be.
This certainly has the appearance of malice aforethought

I don’t think it was Bush’s idea, more like Addington or Yoo or that Viet Dinh who was mastermind of the Patriot Act.

I never thought I could laugh about the bail-out, but I’m sitting here
gasping for breath. Scroll down until you find the Paulson story.

You can say households weren’t strong enough to withstand the impact of the crisis, but I don’t think you can say household debt started the crisis.

Of course, household debt and general weakness has been brought on by 30+ years of Republicans utilizing bad economic theory and stupid ideology.

Hmmmm… I should put up an Oxdown asking for great econ reads…
My top two: “Bad Money” by Kevin Phillips and Nomi Prins’ “Other People’s Money”.

(scuffling off now…)

One of them mentioned that his favorite graph showed Household Debt as a % of Gross National Product, IIRC. He said that it reached 100% in 2007– and that the only previous time it hit that high: 1929.

They were talking at the beginning about the segment about Debt, which turned quickly to Household debt as critically.

So, remember what President Bush told us to do right after 9/11 in 2001?
Didn’t he suggest that we just “go shopping”?
And wow, did we ever respond: Six years later, Household Debt hits record levels.
Ah, another way in which the path to economic ruin was paved by George W. Bush.

Bob in HI

Take a look at what the analysts are not talking about on TV. The most recent audited financial statement for WF covers up to Dec 31st in the 2008 year end report: https://www.wellsfargo.com/pdf/press/4q08pr.pdf On page 23 of this report, the bank outlines the loan exposure carried on its books, including $18.25 billion in CDO’s and over $51.7 billion in mortgage backed securities. There is also more than $100 billion in commercial real estate exposure, and a whopping $227.35 billion in consumer mortgages and credit card debt. Less than 2.5% has beenm reserved for loan losses to cover these liabilities (otherwise known as ‘assets’ on the balance sheet).

Now to put all of that into context, economists know that consumer debt levels are currently at all time highs. They also know that bankruptcy levels are rapidly climbing, both at the corporate and consumer level. They know that a record number of home mortgages are underwater, meaning that they are worth less than the value that is still owed. We know that unemployment continues to escalate month after month, ie. The bottom is NOT in. Lets put it all together…

People who lose their jobs lose their ability to repay loans. This is underlined by the data reported in the Biz section of USA Today on Monday, April 6th, where a record 4.2% of consumer loans are now at least 30 days delinquent and an ADDITIONAL 4% were already in default. These people often turn to credit cards as a source of cash to make ends meet. So the fact that unemployment has risen sharply since the last financial statement was issued by WF would suggest that the situation is in fact worse than it was just 4 months ago. And recall that loss provisions of less than 2.5% have been reserved against loan writeoffs, well below the average for the country of at least 8% in trouble, and probably this number will get worse since job losses continue to accelerate. Yet WF manages to pre-announce earnings of more than $3 billion… How can this be?