[shotgunslade]

Lee:

I believe I originally made that comment when you or someone else suggested that the root cause of the financial crisis was the original regulations of Fannie and Freddie designed to outlaw redlining.

I cannot argue one way or another why Barney Frank resisted further regulation of Fannie and Freddie during the years that you mentioned. It is interesting that this one example of a Democrat resisting the regulation of the "free market" takes on such stature in your argument. The whole opposition fo market regulation is a Reagan thing. There were lots of dergulatory and non-regulatory decisions that contributed to this debacle.

There is a lot of blame to go around in the financial meltdown. It is very complicated, and any number of legislative, executive, and judicial actions can be pointed at as contributary.

But, the fact of the matter is that the public has lost confidence in unbridled free-markets. It sees too many CEO's of Lehmans Bros, who destroy the lifetime wealth of common people and then walk away with bags of money. People cannot bring themselves to give these guys a tax cut.

So, in the future, markets will be more regulated, and rich people will be taxed more to pay for fixing bridges, and funding renewable energy research, and other such activities that contribute to the health of our country. If that is socialism, bring it on.