Chip Bok by Chip Bok
- October 07, 2008
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About Chip Bok
"Chip" Bok has been the staff editorial cartoonist for the Akron Beacon Journal since 1987. Through Creators Syndicate, his cartoons appear in over 100 publications, including the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Time, and Newsweek. He is also a regular contributing cartoonist for Reason magazine and serves as a member of the steering committee for The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Virginia.
© 2009 Creators Syndicate - All Rights Reserved.
Comments (9) Jump to Comments Form
Dale Hopson
said,
8 months ago
… beyond Bush’s fault! Recall Reaganomics? Ronnie tried to do what Thatcher did, but the UK economy is a lot different from the one in the USA!
HUMPHRIES
said,
8 months ago
DH, even so the UK is in recession, some banks have been nationalized and the PM’s numbers are on par With W’s. Looks like there’s enough bad news for everyone to go around.
DHLEAKY
said,
8 months ago
DALE H.
the UK economy is a lot different from the one in the USA!
Not anymore .
motivemagus said, 8 months ago
No, Stewie, wrong, wrong, wrong. Read some of the notes and links posted. The law you are referring to only applied to 25% of the lenders who did the subprimes, and you’re overstating it in any case. The other 75% just thought they would make a buck. And as I’ve noted elsewhere, repeatedly, this ignores the derivatives market, which really accounted for a lot of the serious damage. The 75% who did bad loans without any government push (as well as the 25% who did) did so because they thought they could manage down the risk through derivatives sales. There were recommendations to regulate this, but they were shot down by Senator Phil Gramm, McCain’s “former” economic advisor and potential Secretary of the Treasury if McCain pulls out of his death spiral. That was unquestionably deregulation, and this is what made a lot of the mess possible.
lalas said, 8 months ago
CRA was not the problem, it was regular banks loaning to low income people.
http://www.traigerlaw.com/publications/traigerhinckleyllpcraforeclosurestudy1-7-08.pdf
These 2 episodes of This American Life explain everything quite clearly:
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365
motivemagus said, 8 months ago
It’s a question of emphasis. Too many people are blaming the borrowers, when the lenders should be up for most of the smacking down. And most of those borrowers are losing their homes, so the ones really getting off scot-free are the big-name financiers.
paullkellysr said, 8 months ago
I don’t blame the borrowers - the lenders SOLD the loans. The real villains are Freddie and Fanny who repackaged the risky loans as being unrisky. Of course, one cannot overlook the fact that McCain tried to reel in Freddie and Fanny, but Frank and Dodd stopped that from happening!
lalas said, 8 months ago
Stew CRA is 1/4 of the 3% of mortgages that are bad. The way those mortgages were sold, bundled, resold, hedged against,re-hedged, un-hedged, re-un-hedged, netted etc. w/o anyone being able to control it is the largest issue.
Listen to those stories.
bell3rose1a said, 8 months ago
Little Nell, It’s the railroad tracks you’ll be tied to if you don’t pay up the deed.