Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for April 18, 2009
April 11, 2009
April 25, 2009
Transcript:
second in a series depicting the horrors of the recession... the toxic asset! it rose from the swampy waters of wall street, a festering sludgy byproduct of capitalism gone berserk! it destroyed the banks that created it and rampaged on, threatening america's heartland, and indeed the world! asset: urr! as the population fled in panic, one man saw the way to save humanity! tim: don't you see? it's not bad -- it's misunderstood! timothy geithner, a u.s. treasury official, knew only he had the answer! tim: hold your fire! this monstrosity doesn't need bullets and bombs! it needs... love! the u.s. government believes in you! asset: urr? and so, with geithner's guidance, the toxic asset was accepted into civilized society, and the crisis ended! tim: pass the sugar? asset: urr! crack! tim: oops! don't worry! we'll pay for that!
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“toxic assets and the current economy is the result of government intervention not capitalism.”
This is a conservative talking point that has no basis in fact.
More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions, according to Federal Reserve Board data. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53802.html
What’s more, the government had nothing to do with the scam artists who packaged up subprime mortgages into A rated securities, or the banks who failed because they did not keep enough cash on hand.
The toxic assets are the result of greed, plain and simple. Lenders were making mad cash on points whenever they issued a mortgage, and then would pass the risk on to greater fools. It worked for a while.
The only solution is more regulation of the financial markets. And yeah, I do think the government should try to buy the toxic assets (we’ll end up paying for the damage one way or another), but I think we should be getting a much better price for them than we are.
Great, great cartoon.