Don't just blame greedy capitalists

As I said in a previous post, I don't fully understand what's going on economically right now.

However, I'm starting to get an education on it. Turns out it's not all the fault of the market, or greedy Wall Streeters. Some of the blame has to be laid at the feet of one of the worst presidents we ever had: Bill Clinton.

Just go read this post by "The Other McCain". A few quotes, this one from Investors Business Daily:

As soon as Clinton crony Franklin Delano Raines took the helm in 1999 at Fannie Mae, for example, he used it as his personal piggy bank, looting it for a total of almost $100 million in compensation by the time he left in early 2005 under an ethical cloud.
Other Clinton cronies, including Janet Reno aide Jamie Gorelick, padded their pockets to the tune of another $75 million.

Raines was accused of overstating earnings and shifting losses so he and other senior executives could earn big bonuses.

Raines, of course, happens to be an advisor to Obama.

Some of the blame also goes to those infamous "community organizers", who apparently not only go around signing up fake voters, but (thanks to Clinton) turned into financial thugs who helped bring down banks and the mortgage industry.

More from the same post, this time a quote from the City Journal:

The Clinton administration has turned the Community Reinvestment Act . . . into one of the most powerful mandates shaping American cities -- and, as Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm memorably put it, a vast extortion scheme against the nation's banks. Under its provisions, U.S. banks have committed nearly $1 trillion for inner-city and low-income mortgages and real estate development projects, most of it funneled through a nationwide network of left-wing community groups, intent, in some cases, on teaching their low-income clients that the financial system is their enemy and, implicitly, that government. (Emphasis added [by "The Other McCain"].)

Right now, I'm listening to McCain's speech in Green Bay; he's mostly blaming greed on Wall Street.

But wait... no, not just greed: He's addressing corruption in the home mortgage system. Yes, I think he's indirectly talking about the Community Reinvestment Act, talking about "forcing" mortgages on those unable to pay them. That's a good way to put it.

And yes, now he's talking about Obama's connections to this mess. He's saying that Obama profited from it; he's talking about the money Obama got from Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac, talking about Raines and Jim Johnson (another Obama advisor, former Fannie Mae chief).

Good. Now, will Obama's connections to all this be in the Chicago Tribune? No, of course not. But just imagine the media frenzy if it had been McCain all tangled up in this.