Russell Roberts: What You Need to Know about the Bailout

[Syncopator]

Communism: the idea that government might ever want to do anything. Well, he does have some good ideas here, but as others have mentioned, Glass-Steagal was glaring in it's omission, and the "government is always bad so we should trash it," knee-jerk is dangerous religious dogma

[emzyk]

While I agree with several of his points he is remiss in not even mentioning the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and the massive deregulation that encouraged the massive fraud on Wall Street between the rating agencies and the brokerage firms.

[Wormtail81]

"That's not even a deck chair on the Titanic."

[flaccidpackage]

Listen to Russ' podcast at EconTalk.org !!!!

Mike Munger is a good guest to start with

Take care, people!

[iggsta3o5]

basically milton friedman wasnt wrong but rite that more regulation and government intervention has essentially caused our problems. Why is it when I research, speak and watch an economist on online, and in person they all say the the same thing. I mean if all economists from several different universities and societies saying to regulate less then where the hell is the government getting there economic advisors from.

[owhsht310]

Isn't he also the author of The Invisible Heart? He seems so much like Sam in the book

[HenryBlankett]

"...along with some innovation in securitization".

Roberts labels the Wall St.'s trillion-dollar side-bets that sunk the financial system as "innovation in securitazation." Then he motor-mouths his way past several words which indicate his belief that Wall Street was "put into this position".

Yeah, that's right Brainiac -- Wall St. was just an unwitting victim.

Holy crap, where do they find these people?

[thebagmanmiidaj]

Sorry you couldn't understand what Dr. Roberts was saying. It's really quite simple, but minds who don't want to understand it just simply won't, I suppose.

[Zakdayak]

Well Katrina was based on the fact that the people in power were more concerned with Photo-ops and appearances than with public infrastructure or well-being. They also happen to be people who espouse that gov't can't help you (how convenient) while they provide a free lunch to Corps (read the book " Free Lunch" or a summary).

I suggest you all check out "VP Candidate For Libertarian Party Joins TYT" here on youtube for a debate on this

[jigglesnap]

Thank God these lying Republicans are finally out of office. Next thing you know they'll try to blame the bailout on the Democrats!

[jigglesnap]

Corporate greed is the cause of most of our society's problems, as evidenced by the situation you are witnessing with your own eyes, yet you refuse to give up on your ideals even when they've been proven wrong.

Typical mindless idealist drone. Think with your mind, not with your hormones.

[jigglesnap]

I can tell that you think you're an expert on the world because you read a book or two written by short-sighted anarcho-capitalists.

Corporate greed is destroying our world, and these evil companies are taking away our rights and reducing our lifespan, with no concern at all as long as it makes money for those at the top. Of course corporate greed sounds like a great idea when you're the one benefiting from it.

The rich get richer and the poor stay poor.

[ganlohun]

My God your right!

Thank God there are so many honest Democratic politicians in Washington. (I personally think it's naive to put so much faith into the Democratic "saints of government".)Democrats won't be blamed for the bailout, but they will be blamed for all the money they're trying to steal from the american public.

[tajlee1]

Excellent summary of the various causes of the housing bubble and subsequent bust!

[Zakdayak]

Yes, it's called reality.

[dogcow666]

WTF is this guy smoking. "get people to buy alot of houses with other people's money". No the cause of the current situation was an abject failure by investment banks, hedge funds, etc.. to properly do their due diligence on exactly what the hell they were investing in. It was also an abject failure by moodys, s&p, to do their job in properly rating these securities.

[Finnbar01]

So when it boils down to it, what we're seeing playing out was caused by Political Correctness. The Democrats putting pressure on F/F to give money they wouldn't usually give because otherwise it wouldn't be PC?

[Zakdayak]

"...helped me make more sense of a confusing situation." You mean cognitive dissonance.

[Aurini]

What a great summation. I loved that Roberts also included rebuttals to the simplistic socialist argument "We just need more rules/power for government." I'm far from unaware of my environment, but this video nonetheless helped me make more sense of a confusing situation.

Well done.

[Zakdayak]

Google "David Amkraut" and "Optima." Then scroll down "Optima Funding aka Mortage services" to find some of their offers.

[Zakdayak]

I worked for an attorney back in 2004, who was suing salesman, based in places like Laguna Niguel, CA. This lawyer was Conservative, but he told me these mortage ops were seriously corrupt and Orange County was "pro-business" which meant that he didn't want to sue there because the judges would shield these businesses offering 0% no money down with balloon payments.They literally sent out millions of faxes with this crap. Sophisticated marketeers told even themiddle class they could refi later.

[pwthcim]

Liberal Democrats are Socialists! They need to be run out of the country!

[runsweetlew]

A well spoken, concise, and coherent explanation.

[Zakdayak]

This is simply silly. I suppose that mortage salesman, who lied to ignorant people, the repeal of Glass-Steagall, etc...had NOTHING to do with it. "Innovation" is code for what happened: As a matter of fact crap was turned into AAA securities. Surely ignorant poor and irresponsible minorities had nothing to do with that "innovation." As a matter of reason, can we look at this rationally, hum? Did these poor blacks innovate that?