Let's do more of what caused problems originally!

[el Gusano]

Bernanke calls for more lending to troubled areas

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. (I think it can also be defined as Norte Americanos being glued to the TV set to watch 14 hours of coverage of the royal wedding, but that's not germane to this discussion.)

What does this administration do in the face of failed programs? Do more of them!

Why not?

[printemps]

How about you identify the "insanity":

"Lending to creditworthy people and small businesses in troubled communities can stimulate economic activity that can generate local tax revenues."

[el Gusano]

The same doublespeak... I mean New speak they used to create the original mess. "Credit worthy" means any minority who was turned down for not being credit worthy.

[printemps]

And if they were truly creditworthy, the first thing they would do is get the hell out of the poor neighborhoods, right?

Only the congenitally clueless think that poor people caused the financial collapse.

[Justin Thyme]

Only the congenitally clueless think that poor people caused the financial collapse.

Irresponsible lending to poor people had nothing to do with it?

[printemps]

I never suggested that. But is "irresponsible lending" what Bernanke's proposing?

How about capping interest rates on payday loans -- you consider that overkill?

The subprime lending industry exploded in the past decade and now stretches from Wall Street banks to strip-mall stores in working-class neighborhoods across the country.

The predatory subprime mortgages sliced and diced into securities by the financial sector could NOT have slipped down the memory hole. Along with unregulated short-term loans against car titles, rent-to-own shops, personal finance companies, rapid-refund tax preparers and the ubiquitous payday lenders.

I don't believe Bernanke is saying "let's do more" of that.

[el Gusano]

Government forcing companies to loan to high risk candidates does not equal voluntary contracts between individuals and car title places, etc. If they don't want to pay the high interest rates, they shouldn't sign the contract. How difficult is that to comprehend?

[printemps]

Bernanke isn't pushing irresponsible lending.

Lenders pimping Option-ARM mortgages and sub-prime crap, the banks making garbage products and marketing them as AAA investments, and AIG selling credit default swaps like they were going out of style took a big problem (people borrowing to buy houses they couldn't afford) and made it INFINITELY WORSE.

The network of looters who sit at the nexus of American political and economic power are unrepentant.

To think the short-term mentality was confined to the poor is laughable. America's middle and upper middle-classes were JUST as anxious to swear off our grandparents' Holy Grail: