Allow me to add: mortage issuance was not a core commercial banking function at all back when I had hair. It only recently became a big business for them, and my guess as to why is a combination of the S&L industry going bye-bye and companies funding themselves increasingly through issuing bonds rather than through commercial loans. Regardless, mortgages are known to have all kinds of crazy risks. They all stem from this: you're issuing, in effect, in the US, a 30 year bond that is callable at any time. If you want to see how hard it is to make money from such craziness, try it some time.
I certainly hope Obama runs on that platform. Most voters out in the real world understand that when you're in charge, you take responsibility. Only a very weak leader like Obama tries to blame his predecessor three years on. I suspect Obama lives in a state of more or less permanent delusion. His obvious narcissism inflates him with a sense of grandiose omnipotence and accomplishment. For him, it is impossible to accept responsibility for any shortcomings. Voters may not be so kind.
Excellent point. Going forward the next benchmark will be who beats the Messiah. If it turns out to be an old white guy in a suit, doesn't mean much but if Obama got beat by a one armed albino lesbian octopus, well he could gracioulsy concede defeat by a much better opponent.
Then there's Hoover. And Nixon. Bush the first was just sorta pathetic ("Read my lips! No new saxes!", so we elected Clinton the sax player...), except on the first Iraq war, which he prosecuted flawlessly. That leaves you with Eisenhower and Reagan since the Twenties. This isn't really a record anyone sane would be proud of.
" democrats pushed all these crazy policies that culminated in the housing finance crisis. It had zero to do with Gramm-Rudman and nothing to do with trading derivatives,etc. Mortgage lending was and is a core banking function. Democrats however intruded into the credit evaluation process and forced risky procedure on banks in the name of preventing discrimination, etc, whihc is code speak for paying off democrat constituencies." This is the statement of your average deluded Fox-News-watching righty. That is to say it is wrong and has been proven to be by multiple non-partisan and bipartisan studies. Virtually every responsible look at the crash contradicts this meme. And yet the righties just keep repeating it, thinking if it's said enough it will become true.