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The Public Policy
The Brass Standard
Once again, Bill Clinton displayed it with unchallenged brazenness.
Politics takes a lot of brass. And Bill Clinton is a master politician. His rousing speech at the Democrats’ convention told the delegates that Republicans “want to go back to the same old policies that got us into trouble in the first place.”
That is world class brass. Bill Clinton’s own administration, more than any other, promoted an unsustainable housing boom, which eventually and inevitably led to a housing bust that brought down the whole American economy.
Behind all the complex financial processes that reached to Wall Street and beyond, there is one fundamental fact: many people stopped making their mortgage payments.
Why did that happen? Because mortgage loans were made to people who did not meet the long-established qualification standards for getting a mortgage loan. And why did that happen? Because the Clinton administration threatened lawsuits against lenders who did not approve mortgage loans to minority applicants as often as to white applicants.
In other words, racial quotas replaced credit qualifications. A failure to have racial statistics on mortgage approvals that fit the government’s preconceptions was equated with discrimination.
Attorney General Reno said that lenders who “closely examine their lending practices and make necessary changes to eliminate discrimination” would “fare better in this department’s stepped-up enforcement effort than those who do not.” She said: “Do not wait for the Justice Department to come knocking.”
Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had similar racial quota policies, and began taking legal actions against banks that turned down more minority applicants than HUD thought they should.
HUD said that it was breaking down “racial and ethnic barriers” so as to create more “access” to home ownership. It established “goals” — political Newspeak for quotas — for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy mortgages that the original lenders had made to “the underserved population.” In other words, the original lenders could pass on the increasingly risky mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — and, ultimately, to the taxpayers.
Other federal agencies warned mortgage lenders against having credit standards that these agencies considered too high. And these agencies had many powers to use against banks and other lenders who did not heed their warnings.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, for example, issued guidelines for “non-discriminatory” lending which warned lenders against “unreasonable measures of creditworthiness.” Lenders should have standards “appropriate to the economic culture of urban lower-income and nontraditional consumers” and consider “extenuating circumstances.” In other words, when some people don’t come up to the lending standards, then the lending standards should be brought down to them.
What was the evidence for all the lending discrimination that the government was supposedly trying to prevent? Statistics.
In the year 2000, for example, black applicants for conventional mortgage loans were turned down at twice the rate for white applicants. Case closed, as far as the media and the government were concerned. Had they bothered to look a little deeper, they would have found that whites were turned down at nearly twice the rate for Asian Americans.
Had they bothered to check out average credit scores, they would have discovered that whites had higher average credit scores than blacks, and Asian Americans had higher average credit scores than whites.
Such inconvenient facts would have undermined the whole moral melodrama, reducing it to a case of plain economics, with lenders more likely to lend to those who were more likely to pay them back. Once lending standards were lowered, in order to meet racial quotas, they were lowered for everybody. Deadbeats of any race could get mortgage loans, and most were probably not minorities.
Democrats like to blame the “greed” of business, rather than the policies of government, for problems. But lenders don’t make money by lending to individuals who don’t pay them back. That is what government forced lenders to do, beginning under the Clinton administration. And the eventual collapse took down the economy.
It takes brass to defy the facts. And Bill Clinton has brass.
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (46) | Leave a comment
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benny havens| 9.11.12 @ 6:53AM
Capitalism is not the problem. The problem is the government circumventing the free market system with idiotic rules and regulations based on what they perceive as evil wrongdoing. Government intervention based not on fact but what they think is fact.
Capitalism didn’t create $16 trillion in debt, the Federal Government did.
Aristocat| 9.11.12 @ 7:05AM
Who is the bigger fraud: Clinton or Obammy ?
Clinton: Rapist, perjurer, registered sex offender,
hero to Dimocrats.
Obammy: Anti-Christ...
Not enough has been made of the fact that Clinton was responsible for 9/11 by letting those Muslim terrorists into the country due to his open-borders campaign to increase Democrat voters....That's why Sandy Burglar stole the documents from the archive...to cover up Clinton's role in 9/11.
TLP| 9.11.12 @ 7:11AM
Dr. Sowell , you give him far more credit than he deserves. I see nothing about him, about his 'ways' that differentiates him from any of his Peers.
I cannot think of one single Democrat with an Ounce of Dignity, let alone any Honour or Self Respect. From their President, to their most Junior Representative.
Obama? His list of Lies would require three times the number of characters that one is allowed on this Establishment Republican Site. (They don't like it when there's too much Free Speech, around here. It's messy.) His list of Illegal, and Unconstitutional Activities, is just as long.
From his Promises to Take Public Financing, to put all Healthcare Debate on CSpan, live. From "He was just a guy in the Neighborhood" (Bill Ayers) to "I never heard Reverand Wright make those kinds of comments."
His interior and Energy Secretaries have Forged Documents, and sent them on to a Federal Judge. His Angel of Death HHS Secretary - Frau Sebelius - had to be Brow Beaten before she would finally admit that She, and her beloved Furher, were Double Counting the Billion$ in Medicare Funds, that Her Master had pilfered for his Soviet Style Government Control of everybody's lives, from their Murder in the Womb, to their Government Sanctioned Equivilent of Putting our Old in a Canoe, and pushing them out to Sea. (The Pain Pill)
Biden? He's pathological, in a sad, Turrets kind of way. Kinda like the Big Guy from Mice and Men, only with no redeeming qualities.
TLP| 9.11.12 @ 7:49AM
Harry Ried, and all of that Mob Money in his pockets. All those Grateful Constituents, showering him with Monetary Gratitude for Changing this Law, and building that Highway near the Land that they own. So many Million$ on a Salary of $170k a year. It's almost Hillaryesque.
He bears False Witness against Mitt Romney. Lies through his teeth, everytime he opens his mouth. I heard that he's out there attacking Romney for being a Mormon. (And, yes, I know that Ried's a Mormon as well)
Pelosi, and her NON UNION Restaurants and Vineyards. Feinstein, and the Million$ she steered to her Husband's Companies, from her perch atop a Senate Appropriations Committee.
I could go on and on.
Geithner, Panetta, Plouffe, the Iranian Slumlord - Valerie Jarrett.
Every Crook from Fannie and Freddie - Jones, Raines and Holder works for The Muslim. JOHN CORZINE, and his "Missing" $1.6 BILLION of his Customer's Money, works for The Muslim.
Honestly, compared to this bunch, The Rapist seems penny ante.
"So, he Raped some Mexican Broad? So, he Let his Biggest Donour sell the Technology that allows the Communist Chinese to Target their ICBMs at us? So what, if his continued Failures to respond to repeated Al Qaeda attacks on our Facilities, emboldened Bin Laden to hit us on 911, killing 3,000 Americans? People made Money back then."
"You cannot serve two Masters. You cannot serve God and the Democrat Party." Jesus Christ.
At least, that's what HE would say, if he were here, now.
MK48| 9.11.12 @ 10:52AM
OBL/911 just an excuse....want to know the real truth.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/vi.....heard.html
Von Mises Jr| 9.11.12 @ 7:49AM
The government short-circuited the banking system by buying Sub-prime mortgages off the balance sheets of the banks. The banks were forced to make the bad loans, paid commissions and immediately sold them to the taxpayers via Fannie and Freddie. They were incentivized to make bad loans with no consequences. This was done by government.
This recently happened at GM where they built Volts that no one will buy with losses of almost $50K per car. No worries that the stock is only half of the $40 ranges allegedly needed to payback the taxpayers, although the TARP Inspector thinks it is closer to $135 per share for a ROI.
Student loans are next. The federal government now can lend endless amounts of tuition money to minorities and others that are not educationally qualified or for stupid studies. The taxpayers will pay for that bubble also.
Clinton also repealed Glass-Steagall in 1999 that allowed Corzine to steal customer deposits. Your retirement funds are now at the whim of Wall Street crooks thanks to BJ Clinton. A Federal Judge just ruled people such as Corzine's victims are SOL.
So when your taxes are unsustainable and your retirement savings are gone, will you feel vindicated that you voted for the likeable black guy?
John Navratil| 9.11.12 @ 8:30AM
Von Mises, Jr
It's interesting that student loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy, yet the rate it 8%. The students and their parents are paying premium rates for a product they are all but forced to buy from a single bank and cannot get out of the racket if they can't pay it back.
We will see how it plays out.
Von Mises Jr| 9.11.12 @ 8:50AM
It is a mob loan six for five by the end of the week. You will pay it back one way or another, perhaps with your life.
If you cannot pay back your student loans, you cannot buy a house. Then they can put you in an Agenda21 "Smart Growth, Sustainable Development" where you can work indirectly for the regime through one of Immelt or Buffet's crony capitalist companies. I think they used to just call it fascism.
Jobe| 9.11.12 @ 9:46AM
Re: Student loans. Isn't the interest called "the vigorish", and isn't it true that one never gets to the principle, but rather, pays for life the vigorish?
lost| 9.11.12 @ 9:51AM
Here is an interesting thing about student loans. If it is presumed that you are in default unlike other creditors they can garnish administratively(with out going thru the courts) your wages along with your spouses. The Federal law pertaining to this(20 U.S.C. 1095a; 34 C.F.R. 682.410(b) (9)) also preempts states laws
Von Mises Jr| 9.11.12 @ 12:12PM
That's how Marxist maneuver. It probably cites “As the Secretary Shall Determine” throughout.
Kwan| 9.11.12 @ 8:06AM
What's that you say you would like to own a four bedroom home with a white picket fence, but your only source of income is begging on downtown streets. Not to worry friend Willie da Slickster thinks everyone should own a home even if they're a professional beggar. Not sure you can make the mortgage payment, don't sweat it Janet Reno will throw any evil banker behind bars who attempts to collect a mortgage payment. Anyone with more than four functioning brain cells should of been able to see that this insanity ( the Community Reinvestment Act) would lead to disaster. It was more of the "social justice" nonsense that the Democrat Party keeps trying to sell to the American people, and which will ultimately destroy the country.
In the final analysis the survival of the United States is in direct relationship to the non-survival of the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party has devolved into a Marxist Revolutionary Party and must be regarded as an enemy of the nation.
Pecos Pete| 9.11.12 @ 8:30AM
Kwan: Your last paragraph is a perfect statement. Ditto!
Kwan| 9.11.12 @ 10:28AM
Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world, but if you strap 250 pounds of weight to his body he would be the slowest man in the world. Essentially that is what the Democrat Party is doing to our nation weighing us down with policies that have the country going in reverse, and converting us from a world super-power into a third world nation.
Anthony| 9.11.12 @ 9:21AM
Kwan, Apparently the Obozo administration have similar concerns, which is perhaps why Homeland Security purchased millions of rounds of hollow point bullets for various agencies.
Has a valid explaination ever been offered on this?
Kwan| 9.11.12 @ 11:21AM
With this radical administration anything is possible. It should be noted that during the Iraq War the U.S. military used 70 million rounds of ammunition per year. Compare that with the 750 million rounds of hollow point bullets that the Department of Homeland Security ordered in March. And then it further ordered another 750 million rounds of various types of ammunition, some of which can penetrate walls. Question is how many times in the last twenty years have agents of these various agencies been involved in gunfights that can best be compared to WWII? And has Janet Napolitano's fear of "Patriotic Citizens" caused her to lose her sanity and begin to stockpile ammo in an attempt to thwart some imagined uprising. Who knows.
Mike G| 9.11.12 @ 11:43AM
I wonder if, after Obama is gone, all that ammo will make it into the government auctions of excess property. If the Repubs that get elected really believe in smaller government, it should. If it doesn't, we all should be very nervous.
Kwan| 9.11.12 @ 2:05PM
Yes we have to wonder if Obama has secretly assembled his "Civilian National Security Force" around the country, and is preparing for the worse of all possible national calamities: His defeat in the November Presidential Election.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fO-usAlqak
The Avenger| 9.11.12 @ 8:27AM
The democratic party takes common sense and turns it on its ear. They take the earnings of those who work and squander it on those who don't. They take God out of the public square and replace him with Marx. If this is progress, I'll pass.
Anthony| 9.11.12 @ 8:54AM
It isn't brass Dr. Sowell, the man called Slick Willie is a sociopath, pure and simple. There's a difference.
This pathology has taken over the entire Democrat Party, and perhaps half the nation. There's a reason why it is said liberalism is a mental disorder. We saw it, in all its splendor, at the Democrat Convention.
Louis Jenkins| 9.11.12 @ 9:11AM
There will always be a man who will rise to the occassion, stand before the populace and lie thru his teeth, who can be the greatest horn-dog ever, and then ask "it all depends on what your definition of is is?" And Caravel says to drag a $20.00 dollar bill thru a trailer park and you'll find women. Our sexual president, unafraid of getting AIDS, who can and will rape at will, has brass. In fact, you should call it morning wood instead. Regardless, he is the epidomy of a lier. I guess the two go hand in hand.
ata777| 9.11.12 @ 10:04AM
Mr. Sowell, I respectfully disagree with your premise. It takes no brass whatsoever to defy the facts, when one is confident that a complicit mainstream media will either distort them, or completely ignore them.
JD| 9.11.12 @ 1:14PM
Indeed. Obama has had such brass for years, making exactly the same claims.
Louisa| 9.11.12 @ 11:13AM
Bill and Hillary will stop at nothing. And their ambition is as big as the universe.
Mark my word: Hillary will run in 2016, and she will win!
When it comes to politicians, none can compare with the stellar Clintons! They are super stars, and how they shine! Their light is blinding.
JCanneli| 9.11.12 @ 12:30PM
Sowell is so glib it's almost amusing...except that it seems apparent he has a large and loyal following of zombies.
Okay people, so you think it's all about Clinton and the liberals; right? What do you think of an on-going government loan guarantee program that allows, specially entitled individuals to receive government-backed bank loans, with absolutely no money down? Because the loan is 100% backed by the government, all these people have to prove is that they can make the loan payment. Not all banks participate, but many do. Sure, they sell their loans back to the government and so everyone makes gobs of money. Incidentally, this isn't some liberal's fantasy; this program has been strongly defended, funded and supported by every administration and every political party since WWII.
Sound familiar? I'm sure many of you brainiacs will recognize it, but because it's a benefit for our barely-scraping-by-Veterans, and not for some barely-scraping-by-minority, nobody has a problem with it; right? What do you think the government's hit (debt) on that program is these days? Would it matter?
It's all so simple when you can make it about "them;" isn't it? lol Get your blinders off and use your brain.
JD| 9.11.12 @ 1:16PM
What word-game are you playing? Spit it out, instead of speaking in deliberately vague word games. Either you're falsely accusing us of supporting something we don't support, or distorting the nature of something, but I can't tell which because you haven't explained yourself.
Warrior| 9.11.12 @ 1:51PM
It's obvious. Mr. Sowell and all like minded people on this site are racists. What JCanelli is unsucessfully equating is VA loans for vets with the CRA. Unfortunately, benefits earned by veterans were promises the government made for service. Allowing minorities a loan because they are breathing and want a house is in no way similar. Just a liberals half-witted (redundant?) attempt to gain credibility.
JCanneli| 9.11.12 @ 2:36PM
Warrior: Your chosen pen-name, your feisty spirit and your superficial knowledge of Veterans benefits would lead me to deduce that you are 1) a Veteran (thank you for your service; and 2) an enlisted man (thank you again); and 3) fairly superficial in your understanding of Veterans benefits.
As such, it is my guess that you are equally superficial in your understanding of comparative reasoning. The VA loan guarantee is not a "promise the government made for service." It is an entitlement program invented by congress, for the benefit of a minority group (Veterans). The query that I initiated, as an exercise in comparative reasoning, is completely analogous to the government programs you seem so incensed about. That said, your insinuation that minorities are given loans simply because they are "breathing," speaks volumes about where your "heart" and brain are in the discussion.
Suffice to say, I don't think you're up for a real brain-bender. It seems you don’t have time to learn, you are only interested in ranting the spew you’ve learned from others. That passes for something, but not intelligence. Incidentally, I am a Veteran; service disabled; bought my first home on a VA loan with $100 down (it would have been sub-prime); and was fortunate enough to stay employed (sometimes barely), over the course of the next 30 years. God willing, I'll see another 40 or more. Good day, sir. Thanks again for your service.
Kwan| 9.11.12 @ 3:43PM
Quit the crap Cannoli. A veteran of what the Weathermen Underground? Trying to compare the disaster of the "Community Reinvestment Act" to the post-WWII GI home loan program is intellectually dishonest. If you are an actual homeowner then you like every other homeowner has seen the value of your property decline, and the destruction of the home construction industry. To be a cheerleader for such insanity raises the question of your sanity. When home loans are made based solely on the color of someone's skin (this is what the "Community Reinvestment Act" was all about) then expect bad things to happen.
JD| 9.11.12 @ 5:22PM
I'm afraid he's right to make the comparison. They ARE the same, except that GIs in general are responsible enough to keep us from getting burned by the program. In both cases, though, instead of giving people the money they deserve directly (or NOT taxing it away), government thought it best to "pay" us through "benefits" that it designed, in its infinite wisdom, to be better for us than what we would have done with our own cash.
Pay GIs what they're worth instead of paying them little and then giving them a lifetime of perks of questionable value to them and unpredictable cost to us.
Drunken Sailor| 9.11.12 @ 4:07PM
Hey Warrior,
JC thinks he is slick and you won't realize he just called you a idiot. But hell he did cover for it by thanking you. Isn't that special?
Warrior| 9.11.12 @ 4:49PM
He's just another asshole with a keyboard and an internet connection. Although I appreciate the fact that he did not dispute the assertion that he is half-witted.
Drunken Sailor| 9.11.12 @ 4:58PM
That was generous of him wasn't it?
JCanneli| 9.11.12 @ 6:29PM
Love this. A Druken Sailor and a Warrior on the same ship....just like the good old days. lol Thank you both for your service and try to be more enlightened in your thinking, reading and commentary. Trust me, spewing words from entertainers and provacateers, will only get you frustrated. S/F (if ever you were).
JCanneli| 9.11.12 @ 2:04PM
Not a word game, JD. But the fact that you think it is, tells me 1) that you are not a Veteran (which is forgivable, because I'm sure you wish you were); and 2)that you are ill-suited to parlay your limited comparative reasoning ability into a job as spokesperson for "us."
I have a sense that you will find this equally "vague," but the joke's on you. lol
JD| 9.11.12 @ 3:46PM
Ah, VA loans. Thanks for spitting it out. Oh no, wait, someone else did it for you.
No, I don't support them. Warrior is wrong - they're not benefits promised for service. They're at best deferred payment. It's difficult to pony up money for soldiers when they serve, but long-term future benefits are easy to create. The deficit goes to some future politician, and if anyone tries to undo your program, you have the politics of "Support our troops!" behind you.
Defense and law enforcement are the one valid function of government, and those who do the job should be appropriately compensated as they do it. Underpaying them, then giving them "privileged citizen" status for the rest of their lives to supposedly make up for the underpayment, is a bad idea.
In short, I oppose the loans you try to suggest that I support, and further argue that those who claim to be conservative yet support them are poor conservatives.
Warrior| 9.11.12 @ 4:58PM
JD, I disagree with your assertion, VA loans are not an entitlement. The law was designed as a benefit for those that served in the armed forces. We could reasonably discuss the history and changes throughout. However nobody is handing a veteran anything. They are only guaranteeing loans that you still have to qualify for and make payments on.
JD| 9.11.12 @ 5:18PM
FHA loans are exactly the same thing. You need to "qualify" and make payments on them. They had their own bleeding heart rationale, and the rules for them were made more and more "progressive" and less and less financially sound over time, leading to disaster. Using soldiers as your bleeding heart targets instead of "the poor" or "minorities" or "children" doesn't change the nature of the entitlement. It only makes it appeal more to weak-willed conservatives. Saying "it's a benefit for past service" aligns with liberal logic saying that the poor "deserve" social welfare.
As I said, people should be paid directly for their service, not with wishy-washy long-term benefits that serve as political footballs.
JCanneli| 9.11.12 @ 6:24PM
JD - what does that stand for, Jack Daniels? lol Maybe you've got time to sit around and sip and ponder politics all day, but I can tell you that as an intellectual pursuit, you're wasting your time. With every written word, you slip further away from the point...you own a borrowed knowledge. You spew philosophical viewpoints which are void (or self-servingly scant) on facts and you don't do enough of your own thinkinng (or learning) to improve upon your argument. I'm not saying you are dim-witted, I think maybe you're just lazy; like a lot of idealogues on both sides of the political spectrum, who "learn" their positions from zealots (Like Sowell who get paid to provoke and entertain us) and stick to their guns, because it feels comfortable to "know something." Trust me, you don't know much, and show few prospects for growth...But hey, who am I to say?
JD| 9.11.12 @ 11:47PM
You arrogant fool. Thomas Sowell has lived a long life, starting at the bottom and learning more about this world than you ever will. He writes from a position of wisdom, and surely doesn't need the money.
I myself take positions from no one. My ideas are mine. Even here you see me disagreeing with others who too-reflexively opposed you, standing against every word you wrote instead of only what you wrote which was wrong. Fortunately for all of us, the more you write, the less there is to thin out.
It is time you stood on something, instead of writing vaguely, so as to leave yourself room to criticize responses from either side. You disparaged VA loans, and I have agreed that they too nearly resemble federal intervention in real-estate lending. Now take a stand of meaning, and tell us your opinion of the real-estate intervention! Will you be consistent in condemning these types of loans and risk condemning the liberal politicians who authored them, or will you play party politics and defend them?
Choose!
JCanneli| 9.12.12 @ 9:08AM
JD…To the chase; my problem with the rhetoric I see on this page, and throughout similar pages, is that it's all rah-rah for the team. It's far too myopic, so it only serves as opium for the believers. It’s pabulum.
For the record, I didn't "disparage VA loans," I invited the "Clinton-screwed-us" crowd to be less superficial in their rhetoric. I challenged the notion that you can pick-and-choose your favored policies, based on who they benefit. At least you were consistent. Why are we even talking about whose fault it is? It's everyone's fault. Can we have an honest discussion about the failings of gvmt home loan programs, without taking into account all the red-blooded American's who made gobs of money at every turn of the door key? But no, this is all about the blame game...your side or mine; right?
Ideologues (whether politicians, commentators [Sowell/Olbermann], etc) are only useful for the sake of prompting discussion. Whatever they were when they started, they have gotten lazy (or greedy) and become unilateral in their communications. They stick to their routines, and play to the crowd. The weak among us, flock to their show. And we are becoming more divided every day, while they are becoming…nothing. They’re not evolving; they are just marking time on the gravy train.
I love the phrase, "United We Stand"....but too many American's seem to have forgotten the rest of that sentence is, "...and divided we fall."
Drunken Sailor| 9.11.12 @ 4:09PM
"What do you think the government's hit (debt) on that program is these days? Would it matter"?
Less VA loans go into default than the ones you are comparing them to.
VA Foreclosure Rates
In fact, VA loans have the lowest rate of foreclosure of any major loan product available, according to recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Here’s a snapshot of foreclosure rates as of fourth quarter 2009:
•Subprime loan foreclosures: 15.58%
•FHA loan foreclosures: 3.57%
•Prime loan foreclosures: 3.31%
•VA loan foreclosures: 2.46%
JCanneli| 9.11.12 @ 6:32PM
You are right in your assertion but wrong on the numbers. They're old. Default on VA loan G's are at 5%+, but they're also up in other areas. Gotta run, the rest of my night belongs to my family!
Bill8472| 9.11.12 @ 1:50PM
Thank you, Mr. Sowell. Once again, you have cut through the wall of obfuscation.
I thought perhaps I was the only one who sees that the number of defaults on mortgage payments caused the current financial flap. It was made pretty clear a few years ago, in 2008 and 2009, but it's now hidden (and unmentioned) behind and within a foggy wall of murky explanations that have nothing to do with what really happened.
So thank you for helping to bring us back to basics. The explanation for this recession is fairly simple and it can be found in the actions of the state under Bill Clinton (and to be fair, I think the fault is bipartisan) in their housing policies.
This mess was not caused by a multitude of financial problems, as the Great Depression was.
JD| 9.11.12 @ 3:18PM
Read Sowell's "The Housing Boom and Bust", if you haven't already. It's a short book, yet in stark contrast to Jeffrey Lord, Sowell manages to cram the entire truth of the Great Depression and its modern parallel into it. I have a new favorite single book to give to anyone who's in need of serious education.
Dave Williams| 9.11.12 @ 8:19PM
There is more decency, intelligence, and overall worth in Thomas Sowell's pinky fingernail than in both Clintons put together.