Thomas Sowell And The Financial Crisis

Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas....
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has stated that the blame for the current economic crisis can be laid at the feet of Chris Dodd and Barney Frank.

Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years-- including the present year-- denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis.

Please excuse Dr. Sowell for his misuse of the word "liberal".
Those of us who favor minimal government interference in the public and private sector are liberals. I am a liberal. Ron Paul is a liberal. Dr. Sowell is a liberal.
(Liberty, Liberal, Liberate, Libertarian - all from the same root word.)
Dodd and Frank are impostors, and technically should be called "statists".
Dr. Sowell has probably grown tired of having to make the proper distinction.

It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial crisis.
Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago.
Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration "right-wing ideology" of "de-regulation" that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter?
We also hear that it is the free market that is to blame. But the facts show that it was the government that pressured financial institutions in general to lend to subprime borrowers, with such things as the Community Reinvestment Act and, later, threats of legal action by then Attorney General Janet Reno if the feds did not like the statistics on who was getting loans and who wasn't.
Is that the free market? Or do facts not matter?

Therefore, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank should be sentenced to twenty years of involuntary servitude, driving potential home buyers from place to place and trying to sell them distressed "properties". All sales commissions would be contributed to our national debt payments.
Dr. Sowell has spoken.
Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
You may be seated.

For those wanting further devotional readings, copies of the following are available in the narthex of The Sepulchre:

"Frank's Fingerprints Are All Over The Financial Fiasco", by Jeff Jacoby of The Boston Globe. The Globe is Congressman Frank's hometown newspaper. Jeff Jacoby is a libertarian demigod. This piece is highly recommended to those wishing to affirm their faith, or to assist in the spiritual formation of the young.

"The Devil's Kitchen" has written that "Yes, It's Still Largely The Fault Of The State". I recommend this post to the congregation here at The Sepulchre with a few misgivings....The Devil's Kitchen is a British blog, and is therefore far removed from our economic concerns in the U.S. However, Mr. Kitchen is usually entertaining and always accurate. And the language used by his commenters makes you people look like a Masterpiece Theatre presentation.