You are, of course, correct. There is plenty of blame to go around. HOWEVER, Chuck Schumer has to shoulder his part of the blame–well, he and Barney Frank. To not take responsibility and to blame the president from the Senate floor when his contributions to the current crisis have been to consistently make it worse, is annoying.

From top to bottom, this crisis reveals pure greed.

Come on. Let’s stop being disingenuous and silly. The root cause is greed. Capitalism, after all, runs on greed. Greed caused banks and insurance companies to make bad loans so they could write a bigger figure in their receivables column. Greed caused Wall Street to invest in dubious mortgage-backed securities so that brokers could make astonishing returns on their mutual funds. Greed caused realtors to continually adjust sellers’ and buyers’ expectations upward unreasonably with respect to the value of real estate. Greed caused corporations to shift jobs offshore in search of cheaper labor and higher profits. Greed caused American consumers to buy larger homes and more junk that they could not afford.

And the reason the credit markets are frozen is because too many hands are stuffed in the cookie jar and no one will let go of the last cookie. Because of greed.

Some will say that greed is good. Perhaps it’s a good driver for an economy. But in order for a greed-based system to work, there has to be a corrective that forces people to check their greed, to properly value assets, evaluate risks, and cut losses.

That corrective is failure. Bankruptcy. Financial embarrassment. Loss of EVERYTHING. That’s what keeps greed in check.

But we don’t allow financial failure in America anymore. It’s politically incorrect. We allow greed without risk, and government bailouts for those who overextend themselves. Used to be that Republicans frowned on that kind of thing as “socialism.” But in the current mess, as one columnist mentioned, http://blog.mlive.com/capitolchronicles/2008/09/were_all_sociaists_now.html, “We are all socialists now.”

My question is, who is going to bail out the government?

While FMNA/FHLMC started the ball rolling, it was the irrational “feedback” mechanisms that failed to rein in Wall St. excesses.

Congress delegates authority to SEC, which delegates to PCAOB/FASB, who in turn let auditors get paid by management to snitch on management, so that maybe shareholders can, through the board, restrain management…

Meanwhile, starting with ERISA, Congress tries to define “prudent” investing, and ends up saying “All right, if the rating agencies say it’s OK.” But rating agencies get paid by borrowers, to snitch on borrowers to lenders. And the business model is no debt, no payment.

Rube Goldberg contraptions.

Imagine if my thermostat was built by Congress. Instead of turning on the furnace when it gets cold, the Congressional thermostat would open the blinds, turn on music and start mixing drinks. The theory? Neighbors, thinking there was a party, come over and their body heat warms the house.